Monday, February 17, 2014

ellie's birth story.


ellie was born on november 25, 2013 at 3:30 pm.  i was induced.  a decision that i agonized over.  her birth was quick, easy, and really sweet.  i was shocked that she was a she.  the experience was everything i wanted from a birth experience (except for maybe avoiding that epidural) and it was a thousand times better than avery's birth story.  


the month leading up to her delivery was a bit dramatic.  around 33 weeks she flipped from head down to a transverse position.  it happened overnight.  i woke up in the morning and immediately knew that she had flipped.  she stayed mostly in that position with her head digging into my ribs until 39 weeks.  i used to ice my ribs at night.  both to encourage her to flip around and also because they were so sore from her ramming her head into them all day long.  she was never a true breech baby and actually flipped back and forth for a while until settling head down at 39 weeks.  because she wasn't head down i had a version scheduled twice throughout those last few weeks to flip her.  the first got cancelled because i had eaten breakfast that morning and the second was cancelled because she flipped around just in time.  we went ahead with the induction because my mom was in town and was able to watch avery.  


we went into the hospital monday morning.  we kissed avery goodbye, told her we were going to the doctor to have a baby, and drove to the hospital.  i was very thankful my mom was in town and was staying with avery, which meant that charlie could be with me.  avery's induction was horrible.  and with that experience in my head i cried on the way to the hospital.  when we got there my midwife was already there.  i got into a gown and freaked out a bit when the nurse wanted to start an iv.  during avery's labor and delivery i was given over 7 bags of iv fluids and was so, so swollen from it all.  it was not good.  thankfully this time they just placed the line for access, gave me 300 mL of fluids, and then capped it off.  i felt much better.  i was about 3 cm dilated when we went in (yay!), they gave me cervidil, which i was actually comfortable with because i had it with avery and i knew my body would respond well to it.  i had to stay in bed for two hours and i started having irregular contractions almost immediately after i got the cervidil.  2 hours later, around 9:30 i got out of bed and started walking around.  this was something i never got to do with avery and it was so nice to be up and walking.  my contractions got more regular and by 1 pm i was 6 cm dilated and they were getting much stronger.  at this point i had charlie rub my back during contractions, which seemed to help a lot.  my midwife offered to leave me alone or break my water to speed things up and i took her up on that since i wanted everything over as quickly as possible.  as soon as my water was broken the contractions got much more intense and i asked for the epidural.  this part sucked as the contractions were much stronger, i had to stay in bed, and they had to place the epidural twice since the first one got messed up.  it actually took an hour (between 1 pm and 2 pm) for the whole thing to be done and that whole hour was pretty much a blur for me.  i believe i may have used a few curse words at this point.  one thing that was awesome was that my midwife stayed with me the entire time.  i loved having a midwife instead of an ob this time.  she was wonderful.  


after the epidural, which was a much better one than the one i had with avery, i progressed pretty quickly.  by a little after 3 pm i was completely dilated and ellie was ready to come out.  the nurse had me start pushing and called my midwife.  i pushed maybe 5 times and in less than 5 minutes she was out.  i saw that she was a girl before they announced it and honestly i was really expecting a boy.  i remember saying, "oh it's a girl.  i wanted a girl" and my midwife said, "really?".  they laid her on my chest and she nursed pretty immediately.  about an hour later they weighed and measured her right next to me and then gave her back to me.  she was 7 pounds 8.8 ounces and surprised everyone with her size.  most of the predictions were around 6.5 pounds for her weight.   charlie and i weren't 100% decided on her name.  we actually had a few others picked out for her but didn't officially decided until after she was born.  but ellie alex seemed right once we met her.  although i must admit that i call her elle at least 50% of the time and avery calls her that just about all the time.  we actually went into the hospital not having decided on whether to circumsize if it was a boy or knowing what we would name a girl and so all of her hospital paperwork said "baby girl" on it.  


my mom and avery came to visit that evening.  avery was interested in meeting her little sister but was a little weary of me being in a hospital bed.  we went home 24 hours after she was born.  both charlie and i wanted to get home, sleep in our own bed, and see avery.  the hospital staff was great there, but being in the hospital is exhausting.  i know some people really love it but i am not one of them.   


i'm so happy that she's here, that avery has a sister to grow up with, and that everything went smoothly with her arrival.  after avery was born i always thought that i wanted three kids, but somehow after ellie got here things just seemed complete.  we'll see if that changes at any point in the near future but for now i think that our little family of four is more than enough to keep us busy.  love you baby e.  life is better with you in it.    

1 comment:

Emily @ imperfect said...

I am so, so glad you had a much better birth experience this time around! And I'm pretty sure you delivered where I delivered Nell and will deliver #3, and I just think they're nurses are so wonderful.

Fun to hear about her arrival - and also refreshing to know you didn't have a name for her immediately. We'll be in that boat, I do believe - boy or girl!