We're so excited we can hardly stand it. Our sweet girl has arrived. Yes, I said girl! It's strange to say it, but we have a daughter. In the beginning, I though it was a girl, then once we had a consistently low heart rate I was convinced it was a boy. However, I will say the night before she was born while we were laboring at home, I was able to get four small increments of sleep and woke up from dreams that the baby was a girl each time (Max can verify). The kicked came when the EKG tech came in at about hour 22 of labor and her names was Elise! We both wondered if it was a sign. It was. (We've had weird name things here at Spectrum: My nurses name was Kirstyn Michelle (mys sisters name an my given middle name), another nurse had the name Mayfield (our old street) and a few other strange coincidences.
As I type, Elise is fast asleep beside me. She's recovering from her long journey to us...
Labor began Sunday at 1:15 pm. I contend it had been slowly growing in the previous days. Thurs was our anniversary and false labor took hold for several hours but stalled out at 4:30 am. Once the contractions got strong on Sunday afternoon, I knew it was time. We started the day by buying Ryan his big brother bike (blue with orange stripes) and watching with joy as he quickly mastered speeding up and down the sidewalk. We sat in disbelief as he sped past us and called over his should "Thank you mommy and daddy for my new bike." About an hour later he took a huge crash into a sign, only to brush himself off and say "Thank goodness I had my helmet on." Once contractions began, we just hung out at home, monitoring the duration and space between via our phones...Yes there's an app for that. My parents came over and Max grilled us a great dinner. We kept the secret from Ryan since trying to explain "when" the baby would arrive was virtually impossible. I will say though that as I kissed him goodbye and told him to have a fun several days at Nami and Papa's he said "Am I going there because the baby is going to come?" Nothing gets past him.
Later Sunday we took a long walk around the neighborhood, then spent time in the hot tub since my water had not broken. However, by 10pm my contractions had moved from about 7.5 minutes apart to 30 minutes. Our doula, Sue Bailey, (birth coach) suggested we go to sleep and get as much rest as possible. we took full advantage. Once I was down, the contractions started to speed up and the dreams of Elise began...My 2:15 I was waking Max with contractions that were 5 minutes apart and very strong. We called Sue and were pulling into the ER by 3:15am.
The next few hours get confusing as the contractions grew and grew....and grew. We did a lot of walking since we were in triage for 2+ hours. The reactions to a laboring woman in the halls of Spectrum were pretty funny. I wasn't loud, but would take time to stretch through contractions while holding onto hand rails...At 4:30 am on the surgical floor, everyone around is staff...and most of them were trying to get me a wheelchair! Once we were ready to be transferred I was 80% effaced and about a 4 with about 2-3 minutes between contractions. I was grateful to hop in the shower once in our room. It eased a lot of the pain, but also accelerated things.
Things got incredibly intense. Way beyond what I had made it past with Ryan on a pain threshold. But let's put it this way. The words "primal scream" were used by our nurse in explaining what I was doing. Ironically as we recounted the days event, we realized I once again made it to hour 19 like I did with Ryan before getting an epidural. I think Max knew it was serious when I started begging both Jesus and anyone to HELP ME. This last plea was answered by the drug man who entered on que and allowed me to dance with his nurse though contractions while he placed the needle. Let me say, all 5'4" of nurse Denise was compressed by my legs and arms as she held me through the contractions during needle placement. I am terrified of epidurals and truly I had a hard time wrestling with my decision. I so strongly believe in natural child birth and the transformation nature of experiencing the full event...but it was just too long for my pain tolerance. Sue and Max so lovingly held my decision and supported me through both the decision and my personal disappointment once the pain started to ease. I will say, though I hated every second of not being able to feel my torso (it was a perfect epi..I could move my legs and wiggle my toes and still had some general pressure/minor pain with contractions), I was grateful to enjoy every second of Elise being born. An hour into the epidural my water broke on its own. I was able to avoid Pitosin too which was my major hang up about hospital-led interventions. (I am tearing up as I write this sine I am still wrestling with my decision a bit.)
By hour 23.5 we were pushing. The sweet child practically delivered herself. 25 minutes of pushing and 5 minutes of waiting for the neo-natal team to arrive and she was here. (Once she crowned and I was told to wait for the team to arrive, she started to just push herself out...I never pushed again!) Unlike Ryan's birth I was unable to hold her right away. She had swallowed a huge amount of Meconium and had to be suctioned extensively...though we watched her come into the world and Max got to announce to me we had a baby girl. Because she was spitting up so much in response to the suction, we were not able to nurse for about 45 minutes, but we did have skin time within 20 minutes. Regardless, once we were allowed, she latched immediately and the rest has been history. She's had all her testing done and hearing, bilirubins (marker for jaundice which was the issue Ryan had) and everything else has been perfect.
Today she's been super sleepy but eating well. I feel like I was hit by a truck or ran an ironman! We've had lots of good friends and family stop by today and are headed home tomorrow by noon.
You can check out video of her first moments and Ryan meeting her for the first time at our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/maxandcourt
Thanks to everyone who has texted, called and prayed for us. Well feel immensely blessed.
Courtney, Max, Ryan + Elise
BEFORE (About 30 minutes before labor started. 1:00pm July 22)
AFTER (1:45 pm July 23)
Our first meeting.
Dr. Robyn Hubbard came in special just to deliver Elise!
Our doula, Sue Bailey.
Max"s first time holding Elise (and a friend, Carey, from high school who was working the same day.)
The famous chicken fingers.
Ryan meeting Elise for the first time.
Papa.
Nami.
First bath!
Auntie K.
Our good friend Shannon.
Aunt Staci.
