The Story

So...I typed this a very long time ago, but never posted it. I want to post it mostly for my records, so I don't forget anything. Don't feel like you have to read it or anything, just wanted to make sure I can remember it. I have always said that when I had a baby, that I didn't want my blog posts to be completely about the baby all the time, but this blog tells all about whats going on in our lives and right now....a baby is whats going on:) So, this is probably going to be a really long post all about our cute little girl, with lots of pictures. Coming into the World On June 7th, I woke up as usual around 4am to go potty, 4:05am to be exact. The difference this time was that I was feeling a little cramping(not sure what to actually call it) but it was something I hadn't ever felt before. I laid there for about 9 minutes and then felt it again. I woke Patrick up because I wondered if that was a contraction. I really hadn't had any contractions up to this point and wasn't sure what to expect. Patrick started keeping track of time and we tried to go back to sleep, but were way to excited to even think about doing that. The contractions were really light that I just kept thinking, "There is no way this could be what a contraction is." At 7am, I called my mom because they were now about 3-5 minutes apart. My mom had kids pretty quick and I didn't want to not make it to the hospital, but on the other hand I just couldn't imagine that this was labor because it didn't really hurt, at all. My mom suggested we go to the hospital, so I got all ready and we were on our way at 8am. I text my work to let them know I would be a little late(at this point I didn't think we would actually be having a baby that day, I figured they would just send us home) We got all checked in at the hospital and hooked up to the monitors. I was indeed having contractions, but then, all of the sudden, they stopped:( The nurse told us that was normal just because of the stress/emotions of everything happening in my body. Sure enough, after a half hour they started up again. I was dilated to a 4, and 80% effaced at this time. My last doctors appt I was at a 4 and 70%, so not much progress. I talked to the nurse and told her we wanted to deliver with no epidural. She called my doctor, Dr McCulloch said that she would break my water right now, or we could go home and wait a while for the contractions to be more intense. Because I wanted to go with no epidural, we opted to head home for a while and wait it out there instead of at the hospital, where I couldn't really move around a lot or eat anything. We came home at 11:30am and I was dilated to a 6 and 80% effaced. We had some lunch and took a nap while watching Monsters Inc on the computer. When I woke up they were still about 4 minutes apart, so we went to do some errands. I needed to take a book back to the library. Well, evidently the drive over was a little too bumpy or something, because all of the sudden my contractions were much more intense. I called my mom again and we decided to head back to the hospital. It was 3:30pm at this time. After getting all checked in and hooked up again, they checked me and I was still at a 6 but fully effaced. Dr McCulloch came in at 4pm and asked if we wanted my water broken. We decided to go for it. I knew the contractions would get more intense once they did that, but I was pretty far along, plus Dr McCulloch doesn't work on Tuesday's, and since it was Monday night, she said she would come back if we had her before Tuesday:) Having my water broken was such a strange feeling. It is hard to explain it or compare it to anything. It just felt like I had wet my pants, really quickly and a lot of water. One thing I didn't know about having your water broken is that your body keeps producing more fluid, so every time I had a contractions, more water would come out. It was really crazy to me. Well, just as I thought, my contractions became a lot more intense. Patrick was so great with helping me to stay calm and keep breathing. We talked about before that I really needed him to help me if I wasn't going to get an epidural. I did really well for a while, but it seemed like every 4th contraction I just couldn't do it anymore. He kept telling me I was doing so well and that he knew I could do it. For all of you who thought I could do it without an epidural....Thanks for your support, but I broke down. I had Patrick call a friend about the anesthesiologist she had, because I had heard so many horror stories about him and wanted to be sure it wasn't the one that was on call that day. Patrick even talked to our nurse about it and she described the guy who was on call, Dr Williams. When we were sure it wasn't the same one, I told him I needed to have one. He kept helping me to think I didn't, when I finally said, "Seriously, I can't do it without. I really, really need one:) Because so many other girls were delivering(I thought there were 6, but Patrick said there were 3, he is probably more accurate than me considering my state of mind:), and I had said I didn't want an epidural, I was last in line. I took an hour and a half for him to get to me. By this point I really thought I might die. Another thing I didn't realize was that some women shake when they are having contractions. I was shaking tons. My whole body. It was really strange because I wasn't cold, but could stop the shaking. The nurse did keep bringing warm blankets though, that was nice. When Dr Williams walked in to do the epidural, I felt so peaceful about it. He just seemed so familiar and I knew that I would be fine.(I was more nervous for an epidural than anything else) Our nurse asked if I wanted to be checked before they gave me the epidural, I said no, mostly because I just wanted to stop feeling the pain. By this point my contractions were back to back, so they had to help me roll over on my side and scrunch all up to open my spine. Since I was shaking so bad, Patrick had to hold me still while he did it. He just kept saying to hold still. Patrick did so well with it all. I know he was probably freaking out on the inside, but he never showed it. He is so amazing. I am so glad that our nurse gave me the option of not being checked, because right when he was done, she checked me and I was fully effaced and dilated to a 10. I am pretty sure she thought I was and that's why she gave me the option. The nurses were also so wonderful. Our first nurse was Marie, but there were a lot of girls having babies, so at 5pm I got another nurse. I can't remember her name, but she was great too. She helped me to keep breathing and started the pushing. Had they checked, they wouldn't have given me the epidural and I would have had a really hard time with the rest of delivery. It only took about 15 minutes for the epidural to work and can I just say that it was like night and day. I felt so much better and it was a much better experience for me. For some reason I had to wait for about an hour to push. I don't remember why, but that was so hard to not push when I felt like I really needed to. I loved that I could still feel my legs and move them. It made it much easier. At 6:45pm they had me start pushing. My nurse was switched again. This nurse was also so great. Her name was Landri and she happened to be from Star Valley and knows Patrick's family. Small world. She helped to continue pushing and was so supportive. After pushing for a little while, maybe an hour, my contractions slowed way down. She was pretty far down by now and we could see that she had lots of dark hair. I had 3 that were 9 minutes apart. They were thinking of putting me on pitocin, but they picked back up and we didn't need to. At this point Landri also told me that my epidural would be wearing off soon and if I wanted it to last a little longer I had to push the button. I think it is weird that they have you control the button. I could see some people pushing it way too much, but I wanted to be able to feel my legs, so I only pushed it once. Dr McCulloch got there around 8:30pm and Ellie came into the world at 8:44pm. She was perfect and they put her directly onto my lap. It was so cool the feeling of her being there. I can't say how much love I immediately felt for her. Everyone told me that, but it is really so true. Patrick did opt to cut the cord at this point-he had been on the edge about this, but is really glad he decided to. I also forgot to mention that I had a mirror to watch the whole thing. I would recommend this to everyone. It is so cool to see a birth and know what is going on. She came pretty quickly that they had to wait for the NICU nurse to come in and do all of the tests/cleaning/weight etc. Ellie was 7lbs 3 oz and 20 inches long. She had quite the lungs too. We could hear other babies screaming for the first time from other rooms, but it seems like when she screamed, it was so much louder. Patrick did so great with getting pictures and a video of everything-not delivery though, I didn't want that:) They let you do skin to skin with the baby after it's all cleaned off. This was so cool to be so close to Ellie and have nothing else matter in the whole world at that moment. She also latched on really good the first time and ate for a while. After about 45 minutes, we had our moms come in and see her. They were both so excited. They moved us up to Mother Baby floor at 10:15pm. Once we were in the room and all settled, our dad's came in to see Ellie. They were also both grinning from ear to ear. The nurse gave Ellie a bath and Patrick got to wash her hair. She loved the water running over her head. She was just so calm. I think it is so great that they give the first bath on the foot on my bed let the dad wash the hair. It made me more comfortable to do it at home the first time. Our parents left to go home shortly after and we were left alone with our baby. We were both on such an emotional high that sleeping was out of the question. Looking at the pictures now, I can see that I was extremely worn out. We did manage to sleep pretty good, considering the nurse coming in all the time to "massage" my stomach and help with everything. That night was extremely stressful too for feeding. Ellie was so tired and since I really didn't know what I was doing, she didn't latch really well and I was so emotional. I remember the nurse helping me the first time. They next time Ellie woke to eat, I tried for almost 30 minutes and couldn't do it. I finally pushed the nurse call button and had her help me again. The next few feedings were the same way. I was feeling so bad that couldn't do it very well, and then all of the sudden around noon the next day, she just latched on. Ever since then, she has been a very good eater. No problems at all in that area, except falling asleep. I have to keep bugging her to stay awake to eat:) Patrick changed almost all of the diapers in the hospital. The first night, he was changing Ellie and she peed all over his bed. I knew that little boys did that, but little girls also do that. It just doesn't spray all over:) It was so funny. Our pediatrician, Dr Horkley, came in the next day to check her all out and make sure everything looked good. Ellie is so healthy and doing great.