Birthday

 

Saturday night before my last time to be at church pregnant. Wasn't sure how to cover the belly- this WAS a maternity shirt!

 

I can't believe it's taken almost a whole week to get Elyse's birth story written. I guess that's just life with three littles, right? Sunday night the kids spent the night with Mom and Dad, since we had to be at the hospital at 5 in the morning. Jacob and I watched the Cowboy game, and I went to bed when it was over at 10:30. I'm still surprised at how well I slept. Such a difference from the night before I got induced with Evan. I wasn't nervous or anxious at all.

The alarm went off at 3:45, which actually surprised me. I couldn't believe it was already time. I showered, fixed my hair, did the last little things around the house, and we were out the door at 4:50. We went straight up to L&D where I got settled into my room.

 Last belly picture ever- Elyse, your time has come!

The IV (which I DREAD) wasn't terrible, it was the first time it didn't burn at all after a couple of minutes. The nurse asked me the million of questions you have to answer, and by a little after 6 we were just waiting for the dr to show up to break my water. I didn't want pictocine until after it was broken, I really wanted to see what would happen. The dr came in at 7:45 to break it, and the labor count down had begun. At that point I was still only about a 3 1/2 and eighty percent effaced. We hung out for a couple of hours, and at 10 the nurse checked me again. I was only a 4 at that point, but the contractions were FINALLY becoming more regular. I asked to have the pictocine held off a little bit longer to see what would happen. In that time Mom came up with the kids to visit, Ashley was there, and Jacob's mom and stepdad had made it over from Ft. Worth.

 

 

Not much longer after that I finally consented to the Pitocin, and they started me at the lowest level. It didn't' take long for contractions to pick up and LITERALLY in 5 minutes they got painful. I got my epidural at 1, after which I took a nap. When they checked me at 1:50 I was only at a 6. I was SO bummed that in all those hours I'd only progressed 2 cm. I immediately sent out a text to my girlfriends and told them how discouraged I was. I was so sure that it would have moved faster than that. I also sent Jacob to go eat at that point, he was starved but was refusing to leave. I told him it was silly for both of us to be starved and forced him into the waiting room to eat a sandwich.

 

While he was gone, the nurse came in to move me and I made a comment that I could tell the contractions were fairly close and I could even feel the pressure down in my bottom. She looked at me and said that usually meant I was complete. She checked me, told me to not. do. a. thing. and ran to call the dr. I texted Jacob that he needed to come back asap, and the nurse came in to break down the bed and get the room ready for delivery. The dr finally arrived, and told the nurse to have me push a couple of times while she was in the hall taking care of something. Half way through the first push the nurse told me to stop! and ran out to the hall. The dr came in, put on her gloves and gown, and with a breath and a push my girl came into this world at 2:23. Yep. After 7 hours of labor, a push and a half was all it took to get her here.

 

 

 

No NICU was needed, no cords around necks, no tearing, no puking, no complications whatsoever. My perfect baby girl #2 was 7 lbs and 20 inches. They wanted me to do an hour of skin to skin with her before anything, but after about 10 minutes I couldn't stand that Jacob hadn't held her yet, and I knew our families were dying. I let her continue to nurse and be on my chest for about another 10 minutes before I insisted that he be able to hold her, and a little while after that we texted the family that they could come back.

 

Highlights of the day from Dad's camera:

 

apparently Evan was quite the entertainer

 Autie, Nana, and Sister with the newest member of the family

 It was so sweet, the first thing that Luke said was "I want to hold the baby!" (the second was "Why is your tummy still big?) Evan just said "Give me!" Needless to say, it was love at first sight for their sister.

 Even if we aren't together, I'm so thankful for the support this guy showed that day.

Elyse "brought" Luke and Evan presents, and they each picked out something for her. Luke picked out her first baby and Evan picked out a headband.

Mom brought a birthday cake for Elyse and they all sang her happy birthday. Mom got as far as "Happy birthday to you...." before Elyse started screaming. I whispered that no girl likes getting older, but the trick is to be graceful about it. It was all pretty funny.

 

And that was her very first day of life!