Ellie's birth story revisted

I decided to re-write Ellie's birth story, because the other one isn't very good, and I want it for our family history.

On my due date I went to the doctor, and I was only 1 cm dilated and 40% effaced.  Ellie hadn't even dropped yet, so it was looking like she was going to be staying in there for a while longer.  We scheduled an induction for August 27th, 6 days past my due date.  I tried everything durning the next week to try and kick start labor, and nothing was working.  The good thing about Ellie taking her time was that it gave my parents a chance to get to Idaho, and it also coincided with my sister Kathryn being in the area as well.

Friday night we checked into the hospital and they gave me a pill that would help me efface more and be ready to be to be induced the next morning.  We had to watch a few videos about baby CPR, and how you shouldn't shake your baby if your mad, which I thought was common sense, but I guess not.  Saturday morning at 7:45 they started me on pictocin and the real fun got started.  When the first couple of contractions came, I was thinking that labor was going to be a breeze.  Why was everyone complaining about how bad contractions hurt, and then about an hour later real contractions started coming and I realized that there was no way I was going to be feeling this whole time.  The bad thing about the contractions, besides the pain, was that Ellie's heart rate dropped every time I had one and I had to stay on my right side because that was when she did the best.  Around 9:30 I asked for an epidural and it was heaven!  I instantly felt so much better, and I even took a nap for about an hour.  Andy was so amazing during all of this!  He was right by side the entire time, and wanted to do anything for me to make me more comfortable.

Andy waiting

At 1:00 the nurse came to check on me and I was dilated to a 10!  I couldn't believe it was almost time to push and meet our little girl!  She called the doctor and at I started to push.  While I pushing Ellie's heart rate would plummet, and the doctor thought that the cord might be around her neck and so he decided to use forceps to help get her out a little faster.  So after only 6 hours of labor, and 10 minutes of pushing, we had our beautiful Ellie!  She weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces and was 19 inches long.  The cord wasn't wrapped around her neck but it was basically falling apart which accounts for the low heart beat.  The doctor said he had never personally seen this before and had only read about it.  Thank goodness we didn't wait any longer to be induced because it could have turned out really bad!  As it was Ellie had to spend about 20 minutes in the NICU to help regulate her breathing and it was so hard to wait to hold her again.  They let me hold her while a while and then decided to take her there.  We are so blessed that it was all the time she had to be there, and she was perfectly fine after that.

Holding Ellie for the first time

Warming up in the NICU

Perfection 

It was pretty smooth sailing after the delivery and we spent one more night in the hospital before we were cleared to go home.  Madison Memorial does a fun thing were before you leave the hospital they give you a special dinner for you and your husband.  It was fun to have the mini sparkling ciders and be pampered a bit before we went home and reality hit.

We are so happy to have our sweet Ellie and I really can't believe that she'll be 2 in just few months, and I really can't believe that she'll have a little brother in just one more month!