Our Birth Story | Elsie

I'll be honest...it wasn't until a couple weeks before Elsie's birth that I had even considered the possibility that this little one could come before her due date. I know, I know... weird. But for some reason I had just expected that she'd come on her due date...not earlier...not later. It's probably just because that's how my brain operates I guess - on a calendar.

That is until a number of people mentioned that oftentimes 2nd (3rd, 4th...) babies come early. WHAT?!! Let's just say when I was faced with the reality of this possibility this mama kicked her "gotta-get-stuff-done" self into high gear. :)

Thankfully come last Wednesday night (5 days pre-due date) I was pretty much completely done with my to-do list and "ready" to have this little girl.

So here's her birth story (and all of the fun details)...

I had a OB appointment Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 pm. I had asked if there was anyway he'd be able to strip my membranes. Although there was no promise that would start labor, he agreed that if I was far enough along (3+ cm) that he'd do just that. Well thankfully I was 3 cm and 70% effaced. So strip the membranes he did!

Come 6:00 pm I was starting to have mild contractions - like the kind where you don't know if you're just having a menstrual cramp sort of thing or if you're actually having a contraction. They were at this time about 30 min apart so Alan and I were going back and forth about moving forward with our evening plans of meeting with our church small group. Thankfully we decided to stay home.

From 6:00 pm - 11:00 pm (when we went to the hospital) we did a variety of hilarious things. And by that I mean things that only I would probably do while in the middle of labor. Like for example...because I knew I needed to be on my feet to encourage labor along I decided that it would be the perfect time to make a couple sets of the DIY Monthly Development Onesies for some of my friends who are expecting later in the summer. I know... I know... I was totally ironing away in the middle of contractions. And I'm proud to say I completed two sets during this time!

And Alan was under our sink fixing a leaking faucet. Yes.. you read that right. It was probably about 9 pm and I noticed some water on the ground. I called Alan into the kitchen and asked him where it was coming from. The first thing he said... I kid you not was "Did your water break?" Hehe. And what's even funnier is that I actually checked my pants to see if it had broken. As if I wouldn't notice if my water had broken. ;)

Anyway... where was I? Ok - by 9:30 we called my sweet friend Laura to ask her to come over (as she was going to stay with Nora while we were in the hospital) and at 11:00 pm we were headed for the hospital as my contractions had gotten closer and closer together and were at that point roughly 5 min apart.

Upon check-in the triage nurse checked me and I was 4 cm. So progress...but not a lot. She suggested we walk the halls for an hour and see if things would progress. (sounds a lot like Nora's birth story, huh? Just in case you're interested you can read Our Birth Story | Nora here.) After an hour my contractions were roughly 1 min in duration and 2 minutes a part and I had progressed and was 5 cm! They were going to admit me and I could get my IV and epidural - yippee!

After getting the epidural (thank you Lordy) we rested for a couple hours. Rested = slept. It was WONDERFUL. Come 4 am the nurse checked me and I was 10 cm and ready to have little Elsie!

Dr. Dado arrived at 4:15 and got things set up. I pushed 2x and out she came - at 4:25 am - Thursday, May 19th, 2011 - all 7 lbs, 1 oz of her.

The only additional side note to this whole ordeal is that poor Alan was a little sleepy and hungry and decided that the minute Elsie was born would be a good time to pass out. Really... no joke. Thankfully he had sat down before he blacked out but the first few minutes of lil' Elsie's life are a blur to poor Alan (love you honey - you're the best daddy in the whole world).

And that's it! All 4 of us are doing well and loving our newest addition.

Here's our first family picture...

And lastly - a HUGE thank you to all of our friends and family who visited us in the hospital and have since stopped by to meet Elsie (or have sent well wishes through the phone, text, FB, mail, etc). We're all feeling very loved by the incredible people in our lives.

Here's just a little treat we had for the visitors who came to meet Elsie at the hospital.