One Year Ago Today

It is unbelievable that it has been a year since Ella was born. Ella is obviously not aware that today is a special day, but Kyle and I are pretty excited about it. Today Ella has her one year check up, then tonight we are having a party for her with our wonderful bible study friends. Then on Saturday we are having a party with our families. I am kind of sad that we aren't having a big party with all of our extended family, but that would be over 100 people, and that is just a little out of control for Ella. I thought in honor of her first birthday I would tell her birth story. Most of you probably know it already, but today is a day for reminiscing, so bear with me!

The night before Ella was born Kyle and I went for a really long walk. My stomach was hard as a rock the whole time, it felt like a prolonged Braxton Hicks Contraction. About an hour after we got home I started having contractions, but they didn't hurt and were somewhat sporadic, so I didn't think anything of it. We went to bed around midnight (bad idea so close to due date!) and at 1 am I woke up. I was thirsty so I reached for my water next to the bed and I felt a little trickle. Did I pee my pants? Nope, now it is gushing and my water has definitely broken! All I had to do was say Kyle's name in a somewhat panicked tone and he was awake and jumping into action! He ran to the bathroom and got me a towel, although I had already made quite a mess of our bed. I didn't think my water would break on its own, so I didn't even ask my doctor what to do if it broke. That usually happens after the woman is already at the hospital. So I called the hospital and asked what I should do. They told me to keep track of my contractions for an hour and call back. My contractions were consistently 5 minutes apart, so they told me to come in. We got there at about 3 am and I was already 3 centimeters. They hooked me up to monitors and let us rest for a few hours.

I actually dozed decently until about 7:30. The nurse checked me and thought I was at 9 centimeters. All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity as they started preparing the room for the birth. Kyle called our families and told them it was time and they could come and wait if they wanted. Then the doctor came in and checked me and said I was only at 8 centimeters. So they unhooked me from the monitors and had me get up and move around. The contractions were pretty manageable at this point and we actually slowing down. I took a bath, sat on the big ball and walked the halls for hours and hours. I was stuck. They kept checking me and I was not dilated anymore. So we tried Pitocin to speed up the contractions. It sure made them hurt more, but I still wasn't dilated. Up until then I was doing fine managing the pain without any medication. But man that dang Pitocin kicked my butt! I was basically yelling through the contractions at this point (although I was still breathing very well, thank you very much!) Since I already had an IV in they gave me an IV pain med called Nubain. That helped the pain, but it made me incredibly groggy. About the time the Nubain was wearing off they were checking me for dilation constantly and several different people we doing it. Needless to say, I was in a lot of pain!

At that point my doctor called in a consult from an obstetrician and they came to the conclusion that Ella's head was wedged in the wrong way and would no longer descend into my birth canal. So we decided to do a C-section. The anesthesiologist came in and prepped me, and they made Kyle read all these papers to me. It was kind of ridiculous. I could barely keep my eyes open and I was in tons of pain. Who cares, just get this kid out of me! Then they wheeled me off the the OR, gave me the spinal, Kyle came in and sat with me, and Ella was born at 8:31 PM, 6 pounds 11 ounces, 19 3/4 inches long! We got some really cool pictures of her coming out that the anesthesiologist took. He was a frequent customer at Legacy where I worked, and he was great!

There is no way to know if Ella's head was descending incorrectly because of my bone structure or if it was a fluke. So I will have to go through labor all over again and possibly still have to have a C-section. I would rather not choose to have a C-section because the recovery was very painful and the medication they gave me made me really tired and seemed to affect Ella. She would not wake up to eat in the hospital. She screamed really hard every time we tried and maybe only ate twice a day in the hospital. Then we got home, I stopped taking the meds and she woke up hungry and wanting to eat! It would obviously be less work for me if I just did another c-section, but I can't imagine being in that much pain and that groggy when I have a newborn and a toddler at a home to take care of. I won't have 2 weeks to just sit and try not to use my ab muscles at all.

I think posts without pictures are kind of boring, so here are some of her birth and shortly after. I hope you don't have a week stomach!

Ella's head coming out

The rest of her coming out (Notice she is holding onto the tube!)

The first picture of the 3 of us

All cleaned up and beautiful beyond words!

Its funny because I didn't cry when I found out I was pregnant, or when Ella was born, but right now as I write this and look at the pictures, I am struggling to hold back tears!