Let's start with the birth story.
We went in for my induction at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning, April 19th. My parents came over to our house at 4:00 that morning to stay with Preston until he woke up.
Once we arrived at the hospital we were ushered to my room and got settled. After the initial q & a paperwork from the nurse, she checked me and I was still 3 cm dilated (same as my appt. the week before).
I was already having irregular contractions but that was old news. They were the same ones I had been having for weeks.
The doctor came in to break my water around 6:30 and they gave me Pitocin to start my labor right afterward. My nurse told me that since I was already at 3 cm I could have my epidural at any point. I decided to hold off as long as I could for fear that my epidural would wear off by the time I needed to push (like it did with Preston).
But by 7:30 contractions were very intense and painful so we put in the order for the epidural ASAP.
They checked me at 8:00 and I was 5 cm and then I got my epidural. It helped for a while...I felt numb but still had feeling in my legs, sort of like they were just asleep. I didn't worry about it since I couldn't feel my contractions and that was obviously the most important. Around 8:30 they checked me again and I was 6 cm dilated.
About an hour after I received my epidural I started feeling my contractions and they got really intense. I could not believe it. I started crying...partly for the pain I was in and partly for fear of the pain I knew I would be in when it came time to push and deliver the baby.
The nurse called the anesthesiologist in to give me a boost and then checked me again. I was 10 cm! The nurse thinks since I progressed so quickly that my epidural simply could not keep up and that's why I was in so much pain. Who knows?
But anyway, the doc gave me the highest boost and things quickly started going numb. And I mean numb. They started prepping everything for me to push and in the meantime things went from numb to dead. I literally could not feel a thing from the waist down. I couldn't move my legs at all. It was bliss.
Now during all of this I had a terrible pain in one of my ribs. It felt bruised or broken and I had no idea why. The doctor had me lay on my left side to see if that would take some pressure off from the baby.
So when it was time to push I was still on my left side and had to have help moving to my back since I was basically paralyzed at this point. They rolled me over and my stomach stayed to the left. It was a bit shocking to look at. The baby had apparently wedged herself up under a rib on the left side and was causing all that pain. When I started to push I literally was shoving (gently) her back towards the middle of my belly to get her on the right path.
And 9 pushes and 14 minutes later our girl arrived!
She weighed in at 8 lbs 14 oz and measured 21.25 inches long. She was beautiful, healthy and perfect and had a head full of black hair.
It's amazing how quickly you can fall in love with your baby and how you instantly get those protective instincts. I absolutely love being a mother and I'm so thankful to be entrusted to take care of these precious babies.
Preston immediately took to his baby sister. He was so excited to see her at the hospital. He stayed with my parents while we were in the hospital and that first night he kept asking for Mama/Daddy/Baby Sister. Mom said he was already including her with us. It's like he knew she was part of the family now.
Our sweet girl is almost a month old now so I will be posting soon about how she has changed since her birthday and how we are adjusting to life as a family of four.
Here are a few pictures from our Ella's big day!
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