Elizabeth 'Ellie' Grace has arrived!!

Well our sweet girl has finally made her debut into the world - on Thursday, April 3rd to be exact.  The funny thing is, I was scheduled to be induced on her due date (Friday, April 4th) and had finally realized that I was ok with knowing that we would be induced and we were making plans for that. 

I actually wasn't feeling very well on the Wednesday before - started having a bad head cold, and stayed home from work that day to try to rest and get better - knowing she would be here soon.  SO glad I did that - b/c it seemed to work!  Anyway, late in the night that night, or early Thursday morning - at about 2:30am I started having contractions (I had had some the week prior, that didn't turn into anything) so, I waited until several had come and gone until I started tracking the contractions on my app I had loaded on my phone.  Well - those puppies were coming pretty hard, and at about 4-5 minutes apart.  In between these, I went to the bathroom, and lost my mucus plug (sorry if it's TMI, but hey - it's my birth/labor story and I'll tell it like it is :))  So, anyway, at that point, I got a little excited thinking maybe this was really going to happen.  I went back and laid in bed, after waking Patrick up - and was already feeling like I needed to breathe through the contractions.  I waited an hour, and then called the Dr. on call that night (which just happened to be Dr. Wittek!) and she said - alright, I'll call the hospital and tell them you are coming in!  Oh my gosh!!!!  Here we go!!!!!!  So, Patrick called Bill - who got up and came down at 3:30am to stay with Will (thanks again Bill!)  I proceeded to take a shower, wash my hair, dry it and straighten it (for those of you who know me, this takes quite a bit, but knew I would feel better going in with clean hair that wasn't all frizzy and gross looking)  Anyway, so we left for the hosptial at about 4:30 and went right to triage. I have an old co-worker who is now working nights at Shawnee Mission - so I sent her a message saying we were coming in and while I wanted to catch up with her, I didn't really want her doing my 'exams' :)  So, I got checked and was at a 2-3cm - so they basically make you wait in that room for an hour to make sure you really are in labor.  Ugh - what?? Last time I walked in and was able to get epidural right away.  So, I'm thinking, ok, I can do this - but really, I didn't remember the contractions hurting as bad when I had Will.  After some major "ow ow ow ow ow's" and "I just feel like i have to poop!" comments through contractions - they said, ok you seem to really be in labor, we'll get the IV started and get you into a room (Thank you Jesus -- please get that epidural in my ASAP!)

We got settled into room around 6am - and I got the epidural around 7am - the anticipation of that huge needle (not like i look or have ever seen that needle - I can't even think about it!) is worse than the actual stick.  Now it does burn for a bit, but I was very ready for the burn and the contraction pain to be done, I didn't care at all.  Luckily that kicked in pretty quick and by 7:30 was sitting pretty comfortable and we even tried to close our eyes for a bit.  Dr. Wittek came in and broke my water around 8am, where I was a 5-6cm  when she checked, and said that since I was at that point when the nurse last checked, that I may need some pitocin in a bit.  So, I figured we were going to be there for a bit, and Patrick and I turned on a movie and the nurses were joking that it's funny you have to go into labor to have a little date night/alone time together! ha!  Well, next time I got checked, I was at a 9cm!  Whoa- what happend to 7-8?!! Guess breaking my water made things happen fast.  They called Dr. Wittek to tell her to come back and told me that I would start pushing soon.  Once they go through instructions again on how to push, and told me I was ready, I still laugh to myself b/c when they said we are ready to push, Patrick takes off his NorthFace jacket and puts it on the couch, like he was all ready to do this!! :)  Haha--still have that visual in my head and found it so funny.  Anyway, after pushing once, I had that feeling again that her head was basically out - and when I asked if it was, they all said, yes it was.  One more push and she would be out!  It really is such a surreal experience and thought, that I would push one more time and this little human being would be in our lives forever.  Well, that was all it took - and out come our Ellie!  This time I was more aware of how she would look coming out - and they cleaned her off quickly and then had us do skin to skin for awhile.  I just kept staring at her, but couldn't figure out who she looked like, and was just trying to soak her all in.  Then, they let me try nursing her - and as the nurse took her stats, she noticed that she was shaking and they checked her blood sugars, which ended up being pretty low.  So, they had us do more skin to skin time, and really once all said and done, it was about 1 1/2 hours that I was holding her, and I realized Patrick hadn't even gotten to yet!  We were almost ready to be moved to our new room - and luckily he got to hold her for a bit before Bill, Marilee and Will all came in to visit. 

Will was a VERY tired boy - as he woke up at 4:30am when Grandpa Bill came down - so he didn't know what to make of everything . He is pretty apprehensive of new situations/places anyway, and he was very clingy to Patrick.  He liked looking at his sister - and luckily went to me right away and I got some snuggle time with him too.  They didn't stay long - as he was very tired - and had a great time staying with Mimi and Grandpa - although Patrick and I both said that it just didn't feel 'right' in the hosptial without having Will there with us.   We had lots of visitors including: Grandma Bobbie and Grandpa Don, Aunt Amy, Brett & Angie, Brady and Emma, Uncle Joe, Grandpa D, Breane Lucas, Michael, Debra, and Ben.  Thanks for all the sweet thoughts and wishes. 

During our short stay Ellies blood sugars were going a little up and down- which they say is pretty normal the first day or so and then should start regulating.  Anyway -they had to poke her lirrle, tiny foot every time before AND after feedings to check her count and had to have three in a row over 45.  After having two in a row, she would dip again and we would start over.  By about 6pm on Friday we were finally done with that and she passed that test!

The other little challenge was that she wasnt latching on as easily as it was with Will (guess thats more rare and I shouldn't have taken for granted how easy it was for us to get started.  Well, after two days of very sore, blistered nipples (she has a VERY strong, tight-lipped suck), and workign with the nurses and lactation consultant on some suggestions - our new pediatrician that we started seeing said she could possibly need her tongue clipped.  What?!  I had never heard of that - Dr. Slaymaker said that basically it's kind of a lost art, and they don't really even teach it anymore, - so it's not a procedure that he does, but another doctor that would be in that morning could look to see if it's something she would recommend for Ellie.  Basically, they reassured that's a very painless process, there are no nerve endings in that lower tissue of your tongue - and they could do it that morning if we wanted.  Well, after consulting with this next doctor, we thought we should go ahead and see if it would help - and they took her to nursery (we didn't really want to watch/see it )  - although we were told she did great and hardly cried at all.  Phew. So, they brought her right back in to nurse and it was AMAZING!! It made a huge difference and so glad we did that. Turns out being tongue-tied is very herditary and come to find out - Grandpa Bill also is tongue tied. 

So, we got to go home then after that procedure, at around 10am on Saturday morning (after taking some adorable pictures of Will (in a good mood this time) checking out his new sister :)