Ellie's Birth Story

For those of you who love reading birth stories, like I do, here is how our little Ellie made her debut into this world....

Tuesday 3/9/10

I had a Dr's appointment where I was still dilated to a 3 and 80% or so effaced. I decided to let the Dr. strip my membranes. I was a little nervous about him doing this since I had heard that it was super painful but for me it wasn't at all.. I was pleasantly surprised! Dr. Huish said that if anything was to happen it would happen in the next 24 to 48 hours. I went home and power walked on the treadmill and applied some peppermint oil on my ankles. I really didn't feel any different though and didn't expect anything to come out of it.

Wednesday 3/10/10

I woke up that morning feeling little contractions here and there but they weren't anything consistent or painful so Justin left for work and I had one of my friends over to help me make some curtains for our family room. At about 11:00am the contractions started to become a lot more painful and so I started timing them which they were 5-7 min apart. About 30 min later they were consistently 3-5 min apart and so I decided to leave with Ethan and drive to my in-laws house about 20 min away from us but only like 2 min away from the hospital. I called Justin and let him know what was going on and he decided to leave work and meet me at his parents house. By the time I got there the contractions were 1-2 min apart and I was in a lot of pain. We quickly left for the hospital and they were super busy and didn't have a bed for me in triage. I'm sure I was quite the sight pacing up and down the hallway in the packed waiting room trying to breath through the contractions. Luckily they let me skip in front of all the induction people and got me into triage. They checked me and I was 100% effaced and dilated to a 5-6 with the baby sitting really low, so they admitted me. I really think I would have cried if they would have sent me back home... I was in a lot of pain! So they got me into the room at about 2pm and shortly thereafter my favorite person in the hospital paid me a visit- the epidural man :) My epidural at first only worked on one side of my body but they fixed it and it worked perfectly after that. I loved it because I wasn't completely numb- I could still move my legs around and feel them but it just took away the sharp pain in that area and all I could feel was the pressure- pure bliss!
My water broke at around 5pm while the nurse was checking me and then it was go time. The doctor came in at around 5:30 (the nurses said I was making it too easy on him having the baby right after office hours and before dinner time)and after a few minutes of pushing our little Ellie Marie made her grand entrance into the world at 5:59pm. I decided to use the mirror and I couldn't believe that something so big could come through something so small! It was really cool to see. Her head was a bit bigger than Ethan's so it took a few pushes more to get her out but luckily I had very minimal tearing. She was 7lbs 11oz and 20 in long. They put her right up on my chest and it was a tender moment to finally meet our little girl who we have waited so long to meet.
We were allowed to go home the next day since both baby and I were doing great. Ellie had a Dr's appt the next day and had lost 9oz from her birth weight and had med-high levels of jaundice but not bad enough for the bili-blanket. The doctor wanted to see us in 2 days to check on her levels and to our surprise Ellie had gained back 6oz in only 2 days! That's what mother's milk will do for ya I suppose :) She still had higher levels of bilirubin so she gets to bask in the sunlight a little bit each day to try to help get rid of it. We will go back this week and have her levels checked out again.
She is such a sweet little baby and she eats like a champ! She came out rooting and had no problem latching on- whew! She sleeps good and will occasionally give me a 5 hour stretch of sleep at night. We just love this little girl so much and feel so blessed to have her as part of our little family.

Ethan is adjusting as well as any 2 year old can I suppose. He is sweet with her and wants to "pet" her head and give her lots of kisses. He had regressed a little bit with the whole potty issue but I think he is back on track as of now. I try to spend quality time with him to let him know that he is still my little boy and always will be. That has been the hardest part for me- realizing that it's not just us two anymore and I cant devote 100% of my time to just him. There is just something special about that first child. We spent a lot of time together of just the two of us but I think this is harder for me to adjust than for him. If I talk about it too much, I cry so Im going to stop there. Maybe its just those post pregnancy hormones :) I sure love our children though and am so grateful to have them.

Here are some more recent pictures of our little lady and the whole process....

Getting ready to push her out...

A few minutes old. Just meeting our little miracle

First bath- she was not a fan of it!

Not long after she was born.. don't worry Justin wasn't really squishing me

I forgot how much newborns sleep! She loves just hanging out in our arms..


2 days old... She is an exact replica of Ethan at this age...we still can't believe how much they look alike!

Love that double chin :)


Brother and sister! Ethan is so cute with her...

He loves to give her lots of kisses

Hopefully I'll be good at keeping this blog updated with 2 kids now!

We love being a family of four!