i've been going back and forth about whether to blog ellie's birth story. there are lots of details that i will keep private (just because, honestly, no one needs to know some of that stuff!), but several people have asked me about it, and i would like to keep it for my own memory's sake, so here goes!
my due date was saturday, october 18th. i had a doctor's appointment that week, where she confirmed that we were making some progress toward labor. she reminded me that all of the measurements and things that she took at my appointments were pretty arbitrary. some people can appear very progressed, then stay the same for weeks, and some people can go from 0 to baby in a matter of hours, so i tried to take it all with a grain of salt. since my due date was about to pass, we did discuss the possibility of induction and threw a few dates around, but didn't set anything in stone just yet.
my parents were in town the weekend of the 18th just in case i went into labor, and we spent the day of my due date with them, my brother, and his fiance tooling around town. i went to bed that night feeling no different than i did the day before, so i tried to make peace with the fact that little ellie baby was going to be late, and i'd just have to be patient and wait on her to be ready!
my parents decided to leave our house and go up to the mountains for a few days since "a watched pot never boils". we had another doctor's appointment on monday the 20th, where we discussed induction again. it was then when our doctor told us that our hospital really didn't allow inductions before 41 weeks unless medically necessary, but she would try to get us worked in for later that week anyway. i was reallllly ready to meet ellie, so i was jumping at the chance to get something scheduled. at that point in pregnancy, it helps so much to have an end date to look forward to!
anyway, i was still progressing (rather slowly) at that appointment, so things were looking good, but not looking like we'd have a baby at any moment like i'd hoped. i was working from home that week, so i spent monday afternoon at home waiting! later that day i got a phone call from my doctor, saying that the hospital had allowed her to schedule an induction for me on thursday. i was pretty relieved about that, so after calling michael to make sure that was okay with him, i agreed to the induction date.
we pretty much set our minds to the fact that were going to be having this baby on thursday, october 23rd, and prepared accordingly. the families were updated and we made plans as best we could, without really knowing what to expect.
the next day, tuesday the 21st, i decided to go to the mall to walk around a bit, my last-ditch effort to get ellie to come into the world on her own. i started feeling some fairly mild and somewhat-regular contractions during that time, so i went home and anxiously waited on michael to get there. the contractions got consistently stronger throughout the early evening, to the point that we realized this was the beginning of actual labor. we ordered chili's takeout (which we have never done before, so weird) and ate burgers at home while talking about what was about to happen. what a surreal night that was for us!
after dinner, things started to speed up, and by 10:00 my contractions were 5 minutes apart and starting to be fairly painful. we called the doctor and decided to make our way to the hospital. this is one of the parts i remember the most-michael walking around the house gathering our stuff saying "wow, this is really happening" over and over. he packed the car, talked to our neighbor about dropping the dogs off at the kennel, and called our families. once we got the hospital, we had to go in through the emergency room since it was late at night. they got me checked into triage, where they found that i was, in fact, in early labor, but not quite ready to have a baby just yet. they sent us home at about midnight, which was pretty disappointing, but i'm very thankful for it now! i wanted to labor at home for as long as possible, so those extra hours at home, while sort of miserable, were really a blessing.
my parents left their house when michael called them, so they got to our house sometime that early morning. they were still driving when we left the hospital to go back home.
we got home at about 12:30 and i slept for maybe an hour before waking up with really intense contractions. each one was more painful than the last, and i ended up on the floor with a mountain of pillows trying to breathe through them as long as i could. michael held my hand through each one, and we stayed that way for a few hours. yall...talk about rough. it was a different kind of pain than i've ever felt in my life! when i didn't think i could take it anymore, we decided to go back to the hospital. i woke up my parents to let them know what was up, then headed back to the emergency room. [by the way, having contractions while seated in a car buckled in with a seat belt is quite possibly the worst thing ever.] this time, the triage nurse found that i was definitely ready to be checked in! i think it was around 5 am wednesday morning when we were taken to a labor & delivery room.
[side note: i absolutely loved our hospital (cmc main in uptown charlotte)! the room i delivered in was huge and really comfortable. our nurses were awesome and kept us entertained the whole time.]
once we were in our room, we ordered the epidural, which took a little while to get to us. that was actually way less scary than i thought it would be. it didn't hurt at all; i just felt some pressure. i was in some intense pain before i got the epidural, but as soon as it was administered i felt like a new person! i went into the whole experience open-minded about medicated vs. unmedicated, and i'm very proud of myself that i made it as long as i did, but in the end the epidural was the right choice for me. i was happy as a clam and kept telling michael that he should "get some of this, baby!"
we watched tv for awhile, and my family came in to keep us company. that time passed really quickly, and before i knew it the doctor told me i was ready to push. she had several patients delivering babies at the same time that day, so i would push for awhile, then she would leave to check on someone else, and it kind of continued on that way for awhile.
we had some issues with the epidural during the initial pushing phase. i was feeling some pretty bad pain on one side, so the nurses called the anesthesiologist back in to give me a different type of medication. it wasn't 20 minutes later that the doctor came in to have me push, when we realized i couldn't really feel much of anything due to that last dose of medication. apparently the doctor and nurses hadn't communicated very well on that, so there was a little confusion. the medication was slowing my contractions down, so they got me started on pitocin to get those going again. it all worked out in the end, but i know now to make sure my doctor and nurses are on the same page regarding medication next time!
pushing was hard and tiring, but it went by really fast! i think i pushed for about an hour and 20 minutes total, but it didn't feel that long at all. that also included a few breaks when my doctor went to check on her other patients. ellie was a decent-sized baby, so she took a bit of convincing to come out. :)
michael was the best coach ever and was right there with me the whole time. he was the only person in the room with me, other than the hospital staff, and i tried to keep my attention on him as much as i could. it was a crazy experience, but we had so much fun that day!
ellie charlotte was born at 2:15 pm on wednesday, october 22nd, 2014. they put her on my chest immediately, and i was so overwhelmed with relief and happiness and a million other emotions that i can't even begin to describe. i was also really shocked at her full head of black hair! her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck once, but thankfully that didn't cause any issues. they let her stay with me for a few minutes before cleaning her up and taking all of her measurements. she was 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 21 inches long-my healthy girl! michael cut the cord, which was a hilarious experience, and our families came in shortly after.
i nursed her within the first few minutes of her birth, which luckily was very easy and went really well. i could tell she was going to be a big eater right off the bat!
we were transferred to a recovery room an hour or 2 later, which was a lot smaller than the l&d room, but still very comfortable. ellie was in a bassinet by my bed the whole time we were in the hospital. they did all of her measurements, blood drawings, etc. in our room so we weren't ever separated, which i really appreciated.
we spent the next day and a half or so visiting with friends and family, walking laps to start my recovery process, and looking at our sweet baby. our nurses were wonderful and taught us so much about how to care for our new addition. we loved them all so much!
we left the hospital right after lunchtime on friday, october 24th. putting ellie in her car seat and driving her home was such a nerve-wrecking experience. i'm glad michael was in the driver's seat and not me! we got her all buckled in, said a prayer, and took off for home. introducing her to the dogs was a really sweet moment, and they did so well sniffing and nuzzling their new baby sister.
i have to say, the physical recovery was a lot more difficult than i imagined it would be. i wasn't really prepared for that part of it. it was certainly manageable, and i had a lot of help from michael and my mom, but it was pretty hard to make sure i took care of myself while also figuring out how to take care of a newborn.
now that ellie is here and is almost 3 months old, it's sort of hard to remember what my expectations of giving birth were. whatever they were, i can guarantee you that thinking about it and actually doing it are 2 very different things. it's something that you can't really imagine until you go through it yourself. i am so thankful for the world's best husband, supportive family, thoughtful friends, capable doctors and nurses, and the fact that God saw fit to bless michael and me with the most perfect daughter i could have ever dreamed of.
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