She is here!

Welcome to the world, baby Ellorie!

September 1, 2012 at 1:36am

6 pounds 4 ounces, 19 inches

Birth Story-the short version:

At my appointment on Thursday, it was decided that there was "no time like the present" and that we would be inducing that evening. We went home, packed our bags and went to the hospital. We got started on the induction at 6:30pm on Thursday, August 30. By 9am on Friday the 31st, we were in a labor and delivery suite. Ellie was not tolerating the use of pitocin well, and gave us a couple scares with her heart rate dropping, so the doctor made the suggestion to go for a c-section at 12:30am on Saturday, September 1, after 30 hours of labor. Ellie was born at 1:36am that morning. 

Birth Story-the full version (warning...this one has ALL the gory details!):

So, on Thursday the 30th, I went happily off to my 1:20pm doctor's appointment, very nervous, but excited that we would be scheduling my induction. I got hooked up for the NST, and they took my vitals. My blood pressure was up slightly. We got the NST started and I could tell that she was doing well. Same accelerations that she's always had. The doctor came in after 10 minutes, looked at the NST and commented that she was doing great, but that he didn't like my blood pressure being up. So I asked about the induction, since it was always the plan that I wouldn't really go past 39 weeks, and I was 39 weeks that day. He looked at me and said, "how about tonight?" I think my eyes just about bugged out of my head. "Um, what???" NO WAY was I prepared for him to say that. Sure, maybe Friday. Or Saturday, but TONIGHT??? He told me that "there's no time like the present!" checked my cervix (same) and sent me off to await a call from the hospital regarding what time to be there. 

I am completely certain that I should NOT have been driving at that point in time. Like NOT AT ALL. I was a panicky mess. I texted Ryan to call me, and he did a couple minutes later.I said "Well, you ready to have a baby?" He replied with "sure, when?" thinking exactly what I was when I went to the doctor that day. "Tonight." He kind of freaked just like I did. Oh, my goodness. I called Lori, and freaked out to her, then Janel (who didn't answer her phone and therefore got the freaked text message) all while driving to Papa Murphy's to grab a pizza for dinner before we headed in. This was all happening so fast, and I did not feel ready in the least.

The doctor told me to go home and rest, both because my blood pressure wasn't great, and because I would need all the rest I could get for that evening when we got things started. So I made lists of what else needed to go in the hospital bag, and laid down on the bed curled up with Truff. I know he knew something was going on, because he was extra snuggly, which was JUST what I needed. Ryan finally came home, we got things together, had dinner, dropped Truff off to his puppy sitters and headed to the hospital.

The last belly shot before I had something to put in this crib.

We got to the hospital around 6:30 and were taken back to an antepartum room where we would be hanging out until the induction started the next day. I was hooked up to monitors, and got to listen to E and relax. They drew some blood and put an IV port in, but I luckily didn't have to be hooked up to an IV yet. At about 8:00 I had an internal check my one of the residents (OUCH...she did not have the "magic touch with these) who confirmed my dilation, and got ready to give me the cytotec. They explained that I needed to stay "down" and not use the bathroom for 2 hours., preferably. No pressure on the pregnant lady here, right? 

About 2am, they came in again to check me and give me my second cytotec dose. I was a good 2cm at that time, and was starting to have much more noticeable contractions. After they inserted the second one, the contractions picked up to the point where they were uncomfortable enough that I couldn't sleep through them. So while I was resting, Ryan and I were pretty much up from that point on. 

Around 6:30am the nurse came to get me up, and told me that I could shower, have some breakfast, and then I would go over to the labor and delivery suite. There was some discussion on whether I could have a full breakfast or just clear liquids, but luckily, they let me eat whatever I wanted. Oh man, the raisin bran I had NEVER tasted that good. And finally, a blueberry muffin. Yum. By this point the contractions were pretty darn bad to the point where I couldn't walk or talk through them, and I had to really concentrate. So taking that shower was absolutely amazing! Between the warm water and standing up, the contractions felt so much better. I decided to sit in the lazy boy because that felt so much better to be upright than lying back at all when the contractions were really going. 

A little after 8am we got settled into our new room. The birthing suites there are amazing. They started the IV to pump me with liquids, and then started pitocin. After only about 10 minutes on pitocin, it because clear that the little one did NOT like it, regardless of what we did. I tried laying on both sides (with those icky contractions...ugh) and her heartrate just kept dropping with every contraction. So I was quickly taken off the pitocin and pumped with fluid to get that stuff out of my system ASAP. 

We were pretty freaked by this point, and I was sure we were heading straight to a c-section. After all, if she wouldn't tolerate pitocin, what other options did we have? And the contractions were getting much worse, to the point where I could not take it anymore and asked for pain meds. Instead, the witchy nurse poo-hooed them, and told me no on the meds. 

I realized how concerned the doctors really were when the brought an ultrasound machine in to do a biophysical profile. They played it off by saying that they wanted to see if they could determine why her heartrate was decelerating.The rest of the story is that they needed to know exactly how much distress E was in. When a good heartrate and a wiggly baby popped up on the ultrasound, we breathed a sigh of relief. But then they sat there waiting for about 15 extra minutes after they finished measurements. Yup, knew what this was too...she wasn't doing her "practice breathing" which is one of the criteria on the BPP. So instead of getting the normal 8/8, she got 6/8. Not great, but nothing to immediately worry about either. 

After the BPP, around 2pm, the doctor checked me and I was excited that I was dilated to a 3, but still only 80 percent effaced. I was at least making some progress on my own. Dr. Nevel decided that since she wasn't tolerating pitocin, we'd try breaking my water and see where that got us. In a strange way I think that helped me mentally, as we were "committed." The contractions got a little closer together from there (about 5 minutes apart) but were lasting 2 minutes or more per contraction, so there wasn't a lot of rest. I got a lot of relief from sitting as upright as possible, indian style. I would have loved to walk or use the birthing ball, but the nurse wouldn't let me as she was worried about E's heartrate. Staying in bed was definitely challenging as those contractions rolled through. 

At that point, though, three lovely things happened: they gave me IV drugs, lemon ice, and orange jello. I was so happy about this, I could've cried. The IV drugs didn't do a ton for the pain, but they did make me so loopy that I didn't care I was in pain. I think Ryan appreciated that! And the lemon ice and jello at that point were the best things I've ever tasted! Well, until I started getting sick. Orange jello coming back up was not as good. So I tried to stick to water and diet sprite. Which, after awhile both started coming up too.

The doctor came back in around 5pm to check my progress, and I was SO excited to see that I had made it to 5cm! Yay! Something was finally happening! They decided that I could get my epidural at this point (woooohoooo!) and called in the anesthesiology. Sitting still for that was HARD. It somewhat ticked and I SOOOO wanted to arch my back. So I was holding onto Ryan's waist and all of a sudden, Ryan gets REALLY heavy. I ask him if he's okay and he slinks to the floor. The room is like a blur here, people screaming at him to lay down, me to keep still, and Becky, the awesome nurse, running around to the front to keep me upright. After all was said and done, he was fine, and I was happy I had my epidural. We were all hopeful that now I was past 5 and in "active labor" that it would go quickly.

At around 7pm they checked me again, and no change at all...still at 5cm. How terribly disappointing. I was getting frustrated again, and extra frustrated because the epidural didn't seem to be working in my right hip at all. I could feel every single contraction, like lovely ice picks being jammed in my side. Ouch. 

Around 9pm, we decided to try pitocin again. This time, to monitor the strength of contractions, they were going to use an internal monitor since the external monitor kept getting messed up by me switching positions. So we put in the internal monitor. I, of course was also hooked up to the fetal heart rate monitor, bp monitor since my bp was going nutty, IV, and epidural. Talk about feeling like bionic woman! The internal monitor showed really strong contractions, though, so I was hopeful that things would start moving.

This is the point where things got BAD. I had an epidural that was only somewhat working. I was hooked up to so many wires I couldn't move in bed without major help, and then E's heartrate started decelerating again once the pitocin kicked in. For the two hours we tried our darndest to get me to progress. But we also had to keep moving me into different positions to try to stabilize E's heartrate. It was a mess. Then my bp started going even more haywire (into the 160s/100s) so we added blood pressure meds and EKG monitors to me.

Just before midnight, the doctor came in and checked me again. After all that drama, I was still at 5cm. No progress what so ever. She was very gentle in suggesting that it was time to move forward with a c-section, but I was on board 100 percent. Quite honestly, even if I was fully dilated at that point, I was in no condition to push. I was throwing up ice chips even, shaking uncontrollably, and just overall in bad shape. And, I had been at this about 28 hours at that point. 

The next hour or so was a blur. I got prepped for surgery. The anesthesiologist came in to talk to us, and we filled out the necessary paperwork. About 1am I was rolled back into surgery. Of course my big concern now became that my epidural was only kind of working and I certainly didn't want it to be only partially working if they were going to slice me open. The anesthesiologist put the meds in and then checked me with a pin and I freaked out because I could feel it. He did it again, and I freaked out again. He asked if I could feel PAIN (not normal) or PRESSURE (normal). I told him both. Then he called me a liar, because the doctor had just pinched me HARD and I didn't feel it. Um okay then. I'm feeling sheepish. Proceed. They brought Ryan in, and he stroked my hair and just sat there reassuring me that everything was going great and that we'd be done soon. The anesthesiologist was giving us more of a play-by-play of what was happening over the curtain. After 15 minutes or so he said that they were getting ready to get her out and that I'd feel a lot of pressure. A minute or so later, I felt that pressure and then heard some very squeaky cries. 

Ryan peeked over the curtain to see her as they took her over to the bassinet to check her out. And, of course, then I see the absolute panic in my poor husband's face as I know he can't decide what to do. So of course I tell him to grab that camera and get over there with her. They cleaned her off, and announced that she was 6 pounds 4 ounces. Ugh, where is the rest of her? The ultrasound from monday was off by over a pound! Maybe I controlled my diabetes a little TOO well. 

Ryan came back over to me as they were stitching me up, and we both just started crying. He could barely choke out "She is so beautiful. You did good." More tears. Everywhere. They brought her over while I was still being stitched up and did some skin on skin time with me. The problem was that I was still shaking so uncontrollably that I was seriously afraid I was going to drop her. So I handed her off to Ryan, who did skin on skin time with her. 

We were wheeled into a recovery area about 2am and Ellie was checked out even more by the staff. Luckily, everything was perfect, even her blood sugar. I started feeling better, little by little, and was able to hold Ellie and even try to nurse (although it wasn't very successful). 

It wasn't until almost 5am that we made it to our postpartum room. All three of us were absolutely exhausted, but there was no way I could sleep. All I wanted to do was just stare at my pretty girl. I just couldn't get over (and still can't!!!) that after everything, she is HERE and she is OURS.