My Baby Turned One! Ellie's Birth Story
9:55 PM
Today my baby turned one! I can't believe Ellie has been in our lives for a year now. This has been one of the fasted years of my life. I feel like I blinked and time sped by! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was getting to meet my sweet Ellie for the first time!
A year ago today my husband and I woke up early to head to the hospital. I was 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant and had scheduled an induction for that day. We were up and out of the house before the boys were awake and made it to the hospital by 7:00am. We were taken back to a triage room where they made me change into a gown, hooked me up to a monitor only to tell me that they were not going to be able to accommodate my elective induction because some of the nurses had called out sick. They told me they would try to call me in later, but gave me no definite plan. To say I was upset when I left the hospital would be an understatement.
A quick side note as to why I was so upset: my husband is in the military and we do not live family. But my mom had been in town for a week already and my dad had been in town for a day or two. They were planning to leave on October 30th (the original date my doctor had scheduled me for an induction) and I was hoping that they would be in town to watch Will and James while I was in the hospital having Ellie. I had friends lined up to help with the boys before my mom arrived but a lot of my friends were out of town or unavailable to help. So When I went to a doctor appointment on Monday October 23 I told my doctor I needed him to induce me earlier than Monday October 30. He reluctantly agreed to induce me on Thursday October 26. I was excited that my parents would be in town to help me! So when I was sent home all I could think was now I wouldn't have anyone to watch Will and James and that stressed me out!
Ok back to my story! Chris and I left the hospital disappointed but hopeful that they would call us in later that day. I went home and spent time hugging on Will and James trying to make myself feel better. My parents went out and ran errands and brought me back a bouquet of "You're not having a baby" flowers. I took the boys to our neighborhood park and then while they napped I called my doctors office. I was concerned because I knew my doctor was the doctor on call for the hospital that day and night and he wouldn't be in the office on Friday so if I wasn't able to get a hold of him Thursday chances were that I wouldn't hear from him until Monday. So after chatting with the nice ladies in my doctors office I got a call back from them assuring me I would hear from someone at the hospital by 3:30 or 4:00 to let me know whether they would be calling me in that night or schedule me for the next morning. I felt much better and was able to relax some. Around 3:30 I got a call from the head nurse saying they would be able to have me come in that evening between 5:00-5:30 if I wanted, which I definitely did! I immediately called Chris at work, it took a few tries to get a hold of him at work but eventually I did and told him he needed to be home by 5:00 so we could head into the hospital.
When Chris got home from work we headed back to the hospital for the second time that day hopeful that this time we would be having a baby! This time when we arrived around 5:30 we were taking straight back to a room, they had me change into a gown, hooked me up to monitors and got my iv going. The nurse asked me if I was having any contractions because the monitor was picking some up, but I told her I really didn't feel any except braxton hicks contractions. I asked if the monitor could pick those up which she said it could but they usually weren't as regular as the contractions the monitor was showing.
After being there for at least 30 minutes to an hour my doctor came in to check on me and decide what the plan was going to be. He decided to check me and see if I had made any progress from my appointment on Monday. (At that appointment I had been 3 cm dilated). He told me that if I was still a 3 he was going to use a foley bulb to try and dilate me more, but if I had progressed he would break my water and we would go from there. Thankfully I had progressed and was now at a 4 so he broke my water decided to wait an hour or so before deciding on whether or not they would start pitocin. Well as soon as he broke my water I started having contractions every 2-3 minutes and these contractions I could feel. I had decided I wanted to try and labor naturally without an epidural and in the beginning the contractions were annoying but not too painful. The contractions continued to increase in strength and intensity but I was still fine in-between contractions.
At about 8:45 I had two really painful contractions and told my husband I was done I wanted the epidural. Chris called for the nurse who came in and Chris told her I had decided on getting an epidural. I asked her to check me first because I thought if I was really close I could hold out, but when she told me I was a 7 I said yes give me the epidural. She called the anesthesiologist and hung a bag of fluids telling me I had to receive the whole bag of fluids before the epidural could be placed and that would take 20 minutes. In my mind all I could think was 10 contractions, I have to make it through 10 more contractions. But a few minutes after hanging the bag my moaning made my nurse curious and she checked me again and I was now at a 9. At this point a lot more nurses came into the room and eventually my doctor, who told me I needed to move my leg to the side, to which I replied I can't and to move it himself (I was in too much pain to move my leg). Things happened very quickly and at this point I believe Ellie's head had already emerged because I remember my doctor saying push a little for her shoulders. (I hadn't even realized that was why I was in so much pain it happened so quickly). Once I heard that I pushed knowing that once she was out the pain would decrease! At 8:52 Ellie was born! weighing 7lbs 5 oz and measuring 20in long. I couldn't believe that I gone from 7cm dilated to having Ellie in about 10 minutes. It was the craziest 10 minutes of my life!!
They immediately placed her up on my chest and one of the first things I said to my husband was how she looked completely different from her brothers when they were born. We spent over an hour doing skin to skin before Ellie was weighed and measured. That night will forever be one of the best nights of my life!
Happy Birthday to my sweet Ellie! I couldn't love you more! What a blessing you are to our family. I am so grateful that I get to be your mommy!
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