She's Here!!

At 40 weeks 5 days, Elise finally decided to join us!

Late Sunday night, I started to feel contraction pains & knew the time had finally arrived. I called my mom who raced over from Tampa to help support me & stay as long as we needed help.

By Monday morning the contractions were more intense, but I still wasn't ready to head to the hospital. I cleaned a little, ate some food, watched TV, and waited for the signs! By mid-afternoon I called my doctor's office who asked me to come in to check & find out when I should head to the hospital.

The midwife said I was almost ready & could head to the hospital within the hour to check-in for early labor. Woohoo! I felt like the Elise show was finally getting somewhere!

After gathering everything we thought we would need for the hospital, we headed out in anticipation of  Elise's arrival. Unless you are completely oblivious to your labor signs, the frantic yelling & racing into the hospital like in the movies is just not likely. Nor is your water breaking in a public place, let's just be real. Reality is that you know what's happening with your body, you head to the hospital in plenty of time, and if you're one of the few 10% whose water actually breaks super early, you may experience that.

Once we checked into the hospital around 2pm, we were led to a labor room where I was given the ever fashionable hospital gown and told to walk around as I felt like it, sit in the jacuzzi (which was in my room!), and hang out until the contractions picked up.

As afternoon turned to evening, I was progressing VERY slowly. My contractions had slowed to a painfully slow pace, and I was already exhausted & going on at least 20 hours of labor. At this point, my resolve to stay away from pain medication dwindled, and I had an epidural as well as pitocin (which speeds up/intensifies contractions) to diminish the pain & hopefully help Elise to make her grand entrance!

By early morning Tuesday, I was finally inching towards being ready to deliver, and we knew Elise would make her arrival by afternoon. My mom needed to go home & shower after a long night driving over & then spending the following night sleeping in a chair, so she headed out around 7:00am and planned to return between 8-8:30am.

By 7:30am, I felt the epidural had worn off and felt very painful contractions again. At this point, I was told I could start pushing because the pain from here on out was mine to own. I braced myself, told David to call my mom to let her know, and began the 1 1/2 hour process of "active labor".

By a little after 8:00am I was still working and my mom had finally made it back in a panic. From there, 30 long minutes of pushing & breathing led to a long awaited baby's cries and a very large infant.

Estimated to be 7.5 pounds, Elise was 9 pounds 2 ounces and 23 inches long! I had more than one nurse say they had never seen a baby that long and that most of the large babies they had seen were boys. No wonder it took 35 hours of labor to get her out!

I don't think you quite understand the sheer beauty of that little infant until you have one. There aren't words enough to explain the love David and I already feel for this little one! To us, she is perfect.

After delivering we stayed in the hospital overnight & began the process of learning how to care for a newborn. David stayed at the hospital with me, and we figured out through trial and error how exactly to change that diaper, how to feed her, and not to freak out over every little peep.

With sporadic sleep, we made it through that first night together in the hospital.

The following morning the pediatrician came in to check on her & find out when we could go home. Unfortunately, she was concerned with her breathing & took her to NICU to monitor her. Last night she stayed down there while we stayed overnight in the hospital, making trips every few hours to see her.

At this point, I have been discharged while my little one is stuck in NICU because she's still breathing too fast. All her other vitals are great & perfect, but the pediatrician wants to monitor her just in case to rule out anything serious like an infection or heart defect.

As much as I want my little girl home already, I'm thankful for the great staff at Martin Memorial which is still allowing me to stay at the hospital, for free, so that I can visit and breastfeed Elise as much as possible while she's stuck here.

It's been a long week and hopefully by the weekend our little one will FINALLY make it home!!