Baby Elsie

A birth story:

I've been wanting to write about Elsie's birth.. but I haven't found the time to do so, until now. It's hard adjusting to having a baby. You're completely on their schedule! If she wants to sleep, you better be sleeping too! If you have an appointment at 10 you better believe she is going to decide she needs to eat right when you're about to head out the door. The list goes on! I personally have been struggling with "sleeping when the baby is sleeping". It's hard because Elsie has her night & day mixed up so she is up all night, allowing me 2.. maybe 3 hours of sleep at night. Then during the day she will sleep from 11ish-3:30ish that's when I am supposed to sleep. But I usually don't. No matter how much I tell myself "you're going to sleep when Elsie sleeps tomorrow" I don't. I just feel like I have so much to get done while she is sleeping.. like cleaning the house! If she isn't sleeping I'm holding her.. how can I get anything done if I'm holding her? That's why I feel it's necessary to get stuff done when she is sleeping.. & then I end up hating myself at night because I only get a total of maybe 3-4 hours of sleep. I have to choose between living in a messy house (not that it's that messy or anything.. I just mean when dishes don't get done or the floor doesn't get swept).. or sleeping. I like sleeping.. & I like a clean house. How can I choose?? I can't think straight when the house is a mess! I get anxiety when the house is a mess & I become cranky when the house is a mess! So what do I do? I decided today that I will clean for one hour while Elsie is asleep & then no matter what (even if the whole apartment is not clean) I sleep the rest of the time Elsie is asleep. I hope that will work for now! Anyway enough about that, I want to share Elsie's birth story before I forget it!! She is already a week & 2 days old!! It's going too fast! ):

On February 25 I had my cousin Lindsey, my sister Megan, & my cousin's wife, Ashlan, over for a craft day! I was so fed up that Saturday/Sunday before the 25th because I had expected our baby to be here already! So I set up every day that week to hangout with people to keep my mind off of everything! It's weird because I had the weirdest feeling on Sunday evening/Monday all day! I could only explain the feeling as "not being prepared" it felt like I just had a week of from school & then I had to go back the next day & I forgot to do my homework.. I couldn't get rid of the feeling until I had cleaned my whole apartment & a few other things. After I did that the feeling just went away.
It's funny because when we were hanging out we talked about how I was probably going to go over my due date because I was STILL dilated 1cm. So we just talked as if she wouldn't be here for a few more days. After they left Dee & I went & ran some errands. We went on a long walk, just doing everything we normally did. Then as we were relaxing I all of a sudden felt like I needed to clean everything. It was super weird. Dee was like "Michelle just relax you can do it tomorrow" & I kept trying to tell myself that but I couldn't stop. Then we got ready for bed, read the scriptures, & laid in bed reading our books like we do every night.

Dee went to sleep before I did (he usually does, because it was starting to get uncomfortable for me to sleep) & then at almost 1am I got a little back pain. I didn't really think anything of it, because I had experienced some "back labor" pains like the ones I was having before & they never turned into anything.. so I decided to go to sleep. then after sleeping for maybe 10/15 minutes I woke up to some really uncomfortable pain. I realized they had to be contractions. I tried to go back to sleep but the back pain was so intense!! Then my abdomen started aching like "period cramps" but a little worse.. I was experiencing everything I had read about. I asked myself, do I dare start timing them to see how far apart they are? I didn't want to get my hopes up because I finally convinced myself she was coming AFTER her due date.

I decided to time them. It was 1:15 when this started. So for a hour I timed them. (I did not wake up Dee because I was afraid they were "false contractions") they were about 5/4 minutes apart. I told myself I had to be making it up! They couldn't be real. I just couldn't believe it!! I felt like maybe I counted wrong! how could some of them be 4 minutes apart? The doctor said to go in when they were 4 to 3 minutes apart. But I waited because I couldn't believe it. I tried to go back to sleep.. Then they got worse! The back pain was so intense! I almost couldn't handle it! So I got into the shower. They still didn't go away.

Then Dee got up around 2:30.. He came in & asked if I was okay? I told him I thought I was having contractions. So he said lets time them. This time they were 3 to 2.5 minutes apart. I still couldn't believe it. How could they be that far apart? I thought we had to of been counting wrong. But they kept getting more & more intense so after the hour was up I was ready to head to the hospital! I could barely handle them any longer!

When we got there it was 4am. They checked how far I was dilated.. I was only 2cm!! The nurse said since my contractions were so close together & they stayed consistent, she would give me an hour & if things progressed, they would admit me.. but if I stayed the same I would be sent home. I wanted to cry! I didn't think I would progress at all since it seemed like I was dilating so slowly! Luckily when the hour was up & she checked me again I was barely 3cm. So they admitted me. The contractions were so painful!! I couldn't wait to get the epidural! After they put the IV in me & got everything set up, they checked me again at 6am, I was still 3cm. Then I got the epidural! It was the weirdest feeling ever not being able to feel my legs.. Well actually only one was completely numb, the other leg I could still move.

Then Dee & I got to sleep for a little bit. They came in around 9am & checked me again I was 5cm. I thought great I dilate so slowly! After they checked me the nurse said they would have the lady that breaks the water come & break my water so they could speed the process up. The nurse left the room so Dee & I went back to sleep. When I woke up it felt like I was peeing.. even though I was numb I could feel the wetness on me.. I thought that was weird because they put a tube up you so you don't pee everywhere since you are numb from the waist down. The nurse came in & said the doctor might get here before the lady comes to break your water. So when the nurse went to check me again she said "You're water broke!" Then I realized what the wetness was! After she said that she said "there is some green in it" I was like "Is that bad?" she said "It just means the baby pooped, so now we will have to have the respiratory team be here during the delivery just incase the baby swallows the meconium". I told myself not to worry.

At 10:30am the nurse came in to check me again. I was expecting to only dilate maybe to 7cm.. So when she was like "you're dilated all the way" I was like "seriously?" she said "yes! you can kind of see the head!" I will give you 30 more minutes for the head to drop & then you can start pushing.

(Last pictures before we officially became parents).

As the 30 minutes went by I started feeling more & more pressure. Finally at 11sh the doctor came in & said she is ready to start pushing, so I pushed for less than a hour because Elsie was born at 11:51am on February 26, 2014 3 days before her due date!

When she finally arrived they placed her on my belly while they cleaned things up & the doctor delivered my placenta! I started crying! She was beautiful & I loved her more than I ever thought I could love someone! I was so happy & I felt incredibly blessed! Then the respiratory team took her away & started giving her oxygen. Everything happened so fast I didn't know what to think!

One thing for sure is I'm so glad my doctor was the same doctor that did my D&C because after he delivered the placenta & it looked like nothing was missing from it, he decided to check to see if anything was missing anyways. & there was! 2 big pieces were still instead of my uterus! Can you imagine if he had not checked?? ahh!

I was in labor for 10.5 hours. Not too bad for the first time (:

Before they took Elsie to the NICU they let me hold her for 2 seconds! I started crying again! It was one of the best days of my life! Then they wheeled her out of the room with Dee following them. I still didn't know what to think.. It felt like I was dreaming or something! After an hour went by they took me up to the mommy & baby floor. It didn't hit me that I just gave birth & my baby was in the nicu until we got up to our room. After all the nurses left the room I started to cry. They took my baby! I didn't even get to do skin to skin. I didn't get any of the pictures I wanted. I didn't get to breastfeed right away! I was devastated. Finally I had to convince myself that things don't go as planned, & I need to accept that.

After the numbness on my legs wore off & Dee & I had lunch (which btw the hospital food was actually really delicious!!) we got to go down to the nicu & see our baby. She was hooked up to a million wires. It made me sad, but I was happy to find out that she was doing  a lot better & that she might not be admitted to the nicu if she kept it up. They were going to take her off the oxygen at 4:30 to see how she did. Dee convinced me to take a nap & he would go down at 4:30 to see if she would be coming to room with us, or stay in the nicu. We found out she had to stay in the nicu, she was just below the oxygen line so they decided to be safe rather than sorry & admit her to the nicu. Luckily since she wasn't on a high dose of oxygen I was still able to breastfeed her. We went down every time they called & said she was hungry. Breastfeeding while Elsie was in the nicu was both frustrating & discouraging. I thought about giving up multiple times. It was hard because all the nurses were pushing me to let them used formula & feed her a bottle or pasturized breast milk since Elsie got so frustrated when I tried to breastfeed. I wish we never listened to what the nurses suggested.. because for almost a week Elsie would fight me when I tried to breast feed her! She would have a freakout & that's what discouraged me. Luckily my milk finally came in on Sunday & things have gotten easier & easier!

Anyway, while she was in the nicu they thought she might also have an infection & if she did they were going to keep her for a week!! She got off the oxygen Thursday evening though, but we had to wait until midnight to find out if she had the infection. Dee & one of the male LDS nurses gave Elsie a blessing. & family & friends were praying long with us that she would be okay & be able to go home Friday! That evening we found out Elsie didn't have an infection! She was doing really good!

So Friday at 2:30 we got to take our sweet little Elsie home!

 

We came up with Elsie's name from family history work. I have a great great great great(?) grandma.. (or maybe she was an aunt? :/) Elsie Elizabeth Gervais. I did her work during the summer & came across her name & jokingly told Dee that we should name her that. We sort of forgot about it until we started getting more serious about finding a name. I came across her name again. So I asked Dee if he liked it. He did. So I told him I think that's going to be her name. We came up with a few other names.. but when she was born Elsie Elizabeth just felt right! So welcome our newest member of the Earl family:

Elsie Elizabeth Earl



That's all for now!