Elsie Ann: The Birth Story

**Disclaimer** This information is mainly for our records so if talk of labor and delivery makes you at all uncomfortable, feel free to scroll down to the adorable pictures below.

I had my induction date set since I was 14 weeks along in my pregnancy. I feared having another large baby (Janen was 9 lbs 8oz...and she was not overdue) so I asked if it would be at all possible to be induced a week early. My doctor was fine with that and scheduled me for exactly one week early; July 5th. I've had people directly and indirectly disagree with my decision to do this, but I do not regret it one bit. I did not do this so I didn't have to be pregnant a week or two longer, I did it because I had a difficult recovery with my first and feared experiencing that again especially with a toddler now in the mix. Now for the actual day in time line style.

7/5/2012

5:35 AM:  Received a call from the hospital saying that they were full (we were supposed to check in at 6:30 AM) and to call back at 7:30 AM to see where they were at and what my doctor wanted to do. I didn't mind catching a couple of extra hours of sleep since we didn't get home until after 11 pm from all the Fourth of July fun.

7:30 AM: Called the hospital and Dr. Twelves (my OBGYN) got them to squeeze us in. Our new time to check in was pushed to 10:00 AM

10:00 AM: Arrived at the Women's Center of Jordan Valley and got checked in. Went up to the second floor and met my labor and delivery nurse Chris. Got situated in our room and dressed into the hideous hospital gown.

10:30ish AM: The pitocin drip is started and we begin the waiting game.

11:00 AM: I am already feeling mild contractions. I do not recall feeling contractions this noticeable with Janen at this point. "Gives me hope that this will go much faster." My labor with Janen was just under 15 hours. Not bad but the faster the better right? At this point James and I are making our predictions of just how long labor will be and approximately when she'll be born. I guessed approximately 8 hours and James guessed 6 hours from the start of pitocin drip.

12:27 PM: I've been cranked up on the pitocin 3 times at this point. My nurse Chris has informed me that another Doctor on staff at the hospital will be in to break my water after he finishes up with a C-section. This makes me happy that I won't have to wait as long as I did with Janen for my water to be broken.

At this point my contractions are getting more intense (water has not been broken yet) and with it my nerves are increasing at the thought of having two children to take care of very soon. I am very hungry at this point not having eaten for the past 12 hours other than a piece of bread early in the morning. I am afraid that my empty stomach will make me nauseous and will vomit while I am pushing. (luckily, I never felt nauseous once!)

12:41 PM: Pitocin is kicked up to 16.

1:20 ish PM: The doctor on staff came in to break my water. Apparently my cervix was curved up in a weird position making it a lot hard to break my water. It took lots of maneuvering which was awkward. With Janen it was super quick. The nurse and doctor kept telling me what a trooper I was because most women freak out/tense up especially the longer it takes to find the right spot in the sac and break the water, but I didn't complain or wince once and they say they don't see that much. The nurse made a comment that I must have a high tolerance for pain. James made a comment that I might be able to do this without the epidural. We'll see about that. At this point I am 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced and baby is at -2 station.

2:30 PM: Contractions are getting more intense. They are not unbearable and I can talk through them just fine, but I felt I should request the epidural just in case. The nurse informs me that the anesthesiologist is in the OR for a C-section, but that I'm next on the list. I think it will be an hour at the most before I get it. My feet are starting to swell. This did not happen with Janen.

3:42 PM: "Where is my epidural?" The contractions are more intense and I ask James if he will grab my feet and use his finger and thumb to put pressure in various spots that I tell him to whenever I have a contraction. This helps me to focus my mind on my feet rather than my uterus contracting and the painful back labor. I use this along with deep breaths and it helps me get through the contractions. I really believe that I could've gone through the labor and delivery without an epidural, but was afraid of the pain that I might feel an hour after delivering and was having haunting flash backs of the post-partum recovery with Janen. 

4:30 PM: The nurse comes in to tell me that a woman laboring in the other room was bumped up before me to get the epidural, but that I should be getting mine in the next 5 mins. The other woman was dilated at the same rate as me and had her water broken just after me. But apparently she was screaming and crying in spanish so they took pity on her. I figured if all I'd done up to this point is take deep breaths and let out a little, "yeah, that hurt" I could let it slide. That's when I really thought to myself, "I'm stronger than I think I am, but I still don't want to feel that post-partum pain. Thank goodness the epidural is coming soon!"

4:55 PM: The epidural is in! The numbing shot hurt a little more than I remember it hurting last time.  I had no complaints with my epidural the first time (with Janen) and I had no complaints with this one, but yet the experiences were slightly different. With Janen, I could still feel a good deal of pressure. I could tell that the contractions were more intense and towards the last stretch (while pushing) I could feel a little bit of pain in my uterus, but nothing down in the nether regions. I couldn't feel her descend or come out of the birth canal. But with Elsie the pressure in the last phase of labor was almost non-existent. I almost thought birth was still 4-5 hours away. More on the differences later.

5:05 PM: Dilated to a 4

6:35 PM: Dr Twelves came into check on me because the nurse made a comment that she thought there might be another section of the sac that didn't break. I was dilated to 8 cm and 100% effaced. She predicted I would be ready to push within half an hour.

7:02 PM: Dr Twelves came back in with the nurse and had me do one good push to see how far down the baby was. I gave the push, she told me to stop and they called nursery to come down cause Elsie was really close! I started to cry (something I didn't do with Janen) because it was really happening. I was going to be a mother of two children and it terrified me for a moment. And I also really missed Janen. I had never been away from her for this long before. Isn't that pathetic?! LOL!

7:06 PM: Started pushing for real. Almost got her out with just one contraction. If it had lasted another 15 seconds longer, that's all it would've taken. So we had to wait another 2 minutes for another one. While we waited Dr. Twelves told me Elsie has long dark hair. I was so excited to see her! Pushed two more times with the second contraction and....

7:11 PM: Elsie Ann was born weighing in at 7lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long. A little over 8 1/2 hours after I started on the pitocin drip. I was pretty close on my prediction!

Like I mentioned earlier, I couldn't feel Janen descend or being born at all. But with Elsie I did (but it didn't hurt). I knew when she was born. It was an amazing feeling. It made me think that I will definitely attempt going natural with my next (and last) child.

The post-partum has been significantly better this time around. I was able to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom with very little assistance as soon as the epidural wore off and even then I only needed it because I had to get used to the feeling returning to my leg. I could get myself out of bed whereas last time I needed lots and lots of help the first 48 hours. Thank goodness for a better recovery this time around!

So without further adieu, here she is. My beautiful Elsie!

Our first family picture. While Janen is eating her candy necklace we gave her as part of her big sister gift.

Janen looking at Elsie's tiny hands

I forgot just how tiny they are compared to their carseats. Here she is ready to go home from the hospital. We decided to only stay for one day. I was anxious to get home.

Janen loves to hold her sister. She talks to her and gives her kisses. It's really sweet.

I love this girl. And I grow to love her more and more everyday. Her newborn disposition is exactly what I needed in a second child. She is seriously the perfect newborn. She's a nursing champ, a sleeping champ, her schedule is super predictable. She herself is super predictable (so far) I can read her easily. She is a hard one to change however. Doesn't like being changed very much and curls her little skinny legs ups. Whereas Janen was always super relaxed on the changing table.

There have been a few little hiccups over the past two days, but nothing too serious. She had to see the cardiologist and get tested because they discovered a heart murmur. We go in tomorrow for the results, but we've been assured this can happen in newborns and that a few days later the problem rectifies itself. I feel peace about it so I'm sure everything will be fine. She also came close to having to go under the bililights. She probably would've had we stayed the extra day in the hospital, but instead they let us go home and recommended we go to the clinic the next morning to get her re-tested. She tested better than the day before and was out of the danger zone, but not quite in the clear. She will be tested again tomorrow and I think the tests will come back lower. Elsie also failed her hearing test on her right ear, but this could just be on account of extra fluid from birth. She will be retested in a couple of weeks. Again, I am not worried because this is pretty common and most babies end up passing their second test.

Whew! I think I wrote everything I wanted to remember about the past couple of days. Now I'm going to go and enjoy my new baby girl some more.