Giving birth

So, I went back and read about what I wrote about Mim's birth and I really wish I had put down more of the details.  It reads as a very dutiful time log, not much about how I felt about anything.  I'll try and do this one a little better.

Dr. Jones suggested, back at week 34 or so, that I make a back up induction date.  I wanted to go into labor on my own, but agreed that it would be a good idea to have an end date to keep me from being too far overdue.  So he reserved me a spot on Friday the 26th.  On Tuesday the 23rd, after a bunch of false labor, I finally accepted that nothing was going to happen until I went in Friday morning.  Sigh.  I know that it's convenient and a lot of women prefer planning births that way (and I can see why), but I still just wanted to go into labor on my own.

Early Wednesday afternoon I began to suspect that I was finally in labor for real, but I didn't want to say anything for fear of jinxing it.  Mike, when he heard that's why I didn't want to say anything, just shook his head and said he had no idea how superstitious I was (I also made up my own old wives tale about why babies have/don't have hair).

By the time we got Mim to bed that night (~7:30), contractions were pretty intense.  Matt came over to babysit and Mike and I went to walk around Target and then go to the hospital.  I knew that I was probably nowhere near where they'd keep me, but I just kind of wanted to check- I was still hoping that this labor would be a lot easier/shorter than Mim's.  As I suspected, I wasn't an automatic keeper at the hospital, although they did give us the option of staying another hour, walking around and then being checked again.  We opted instead to labor at home, and so we headed back (stopping for burritos on the way).  We asked Matt to stay the night, since I was betting we'd be leaving pretty early in the morning.  And indeed, after only about two hours of sleep and then a long bath, I was almost in tears for every contraction.  I woke Mike up, then had to wait for him to shower and get ready before he would take me to the hospital.  I wasn't feeling very patient. 

We got back to the hospital at about 5:30 or so.  They checked me, sent me to one of the L&;D rooms, and told me the epidural guy would be there soon.  A note here- our L&D nurse, Annette, was totally awesome.  She'd been working at AF for a long time, and when she found out that both Mike and I were born there, commented on how it was too bad she didn't have a way to find out if she had helped with either of our births.  We later found out that she definitely did for Mike (she grew up in Lehi and knew Mike's dad and sister) and was probably around for mine.  We also found out that she was Matt's institute teacher and some of her kids are in Mike's parents' ward.  Oh, and that she had known Monnie (Mike's grandma who was also a nurse for a long time) really well.  Neat.

I got my epidural at around 6:30 or so and then got to sleep.  It was lovely.  Mike and I made our official time of birth and birth weight guesses, too.  He won for the time (I was still being very optimistic about how long labor would take), but I was closer on the weight.  I guessed she would be 8 lbs 9 oz, I think.  I was pretty sure she was bigger than Mim, but didn't expect over a pound bigger.

My doctor, who is awesome, wasn't the doctor on call that day, but when he heard that I was in labor and close, told the nurse that he would come over from his office to deliver the baby.  I was grateful for that- he didn't deliver Mim and even though the doctor who did was nice and everything, it was a little impersonal.  Dr. Jones knew that Mike wanted to cut the cord, so he invited him over to do that when he was ready.

Anyway, I finally felt like pushing at about 10 to noon or so, so I called the nurse and she had me do a practice push.  I was supposed to push for 3 counts, but Annette said, "Whoa, whoa, stop!" after getting to 2.  She 911 paged Dr. Jones and used the word "stat" when requesting the respiratory team (Eleanor had pooped in the womb and it's standard for them to be there when that happens).  From our window, Mike could see Dr. Jones run across the parking lot from his practice to the hospital.  He got there, there was a bunch of activity, and they finally told me I could push again.  (I really need to remember to tell my nurse next time that I kind of have a trend of really long labors and really short deliveries.  With Mim I only pushed 40 minutes or so- they had to have me stop so they could get the doctor then, too.)  A few pushes later and she was here.  Everyone exclaimed about her size and they all agreed that she had to be about 9.5 pounds.  She cried a bit at first, and after she stopped the respiratory team was trying to get her to start again and she wouldn't.  Not because there was any problem, she just didn't want to cry anymore.  Her color improved quickly and they didn't have to take her away after just a few minutes like they did for Mim.  It was great.  We got to hang out as a little partial family and Eleanor got to try nursing right away.

That's pretty much it.  We started getting visitors right away.  Mim came and really wanted to see her baby (3 weeks later, she still says "My baby!") and give her a hug.

So, that's how Eleanor came around.  We sure like her.  She's been a good baby so far- mild and not too much of a crier.  Not a sleeper like Mim was; which is too bad, but my dad said it best- "You can't expect lightning to strike twice."  Mim was already sleeping through the night at 3 weeks and little miss Ellie Belly has a much more typical newborn sleeping pattern.  Still, I can't really complain since it's not like she's colicky and up all night.

And now, some more recent pictures of our newest daughter: