| -Lisa- |
Ella Angelina is here! After a whopping 45 hours of labor! (and worth every minute!!)
I woke up Thursday night/Friday morning feeling some contractions. I started timing them around 4:30am and found them to be coming regularly every 10 minutes.
I had an appointment scheduled with my midwife, Melanie, for that morning already. So at 9am, I called her to see if I should come to the appt or plan to meet her at the hospital later that day. She said to come in, so off we went.
At the office, they did a NST, and the contractions stopped the whole time I was hooked up. They resumed just in time for the internal. I was 3-4 cm, but my cervix position was still a little high. She said go home, get plenty of rest, eat light, and we'll see you at the hospital later today. "You're having this baby today" (or not...).
So Friday comes at goes with me laboring at home. Contractions progress to 6-7 minutes apart with increasing intensity, but never really get to the 3-4 minutes we're waiting for. Another sleepless night on Friday, since I could only sleep in between the contractions, for 5 minutes at a time.
Saturday morning, same thing. Constant contractions at regular intervals but not getting close enough. At 4pm, we chat again with Melanie (she's been checking in every few hours) and we make the call to head to the hospital to be evaluated. She's concerned that I'm getting too exhausted and doesn't want this to go on for another night.
We meet her there at 5pm, and she checks me. I'm 5cm and 100% effaced - yay! She admits me, and suggests breaking my water to get things moving along a bit faster. Sounds good to me! Again, she says, "you're having this baby today", and I laugh saying "you said that yesterday"!
Breaking my water intensified the contractions, but didn't bring them any closer. She suggests stadol to let me sleep for an hour, thinking the relaxation will help me progress. At this point, its been over 36 hours and I'm wiped, so a nap sounds great. Hynobirthing had gotten me this far, but between the exhaustion, the length of time and the stress of not progressing, I just couldn't relax any more. Loved the stadol at first, but when the contractions started getting really bad, I didn't like the foggy feeling. Luckily, she only gave me enough to last an hour.
But little miss Ella STILL didn't want to come out. Next step, Pitocin...I feared the pitocin. I knew it would increase the pain level considerably, and I knew I couldn't tolerate any more, so I opted for an epi and it was fabulous. Ella was no match for the pitocin!
She was FINALLY born at 12:59am on Sunday (proving Melanie wrong once again). Pushing wasn't so bad - it was less than an hour. I couldn't feel the pain of the contractions but I could feel my legs, and the pressure and everything else.
What a miraculous moment when she was acutally here. Big surprise that she was a girl! And so tiny (6lbs7oz) for being 10 days LATE! My parents, 2 sisters and Al's parents were in the waiting room. They got to see her just minutes after she was born.
We came home yesterday afternoon, and she's been a total doll. Al's in love, and we can't stop staring at her. She's been so good! BFing like a champ, and she actually let me get some sleep last night for the first time in 4 days!
Ella Angelina! - our princess:
her fancy going home outfit:
minutes old:
our family:
adoring grandparents:
Message edited 2/21/2008 9:57:44 PM.
Posted 6/27/06 5:51 PM
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