She's here!

Sorry for the delay in posting this!  As you can imagine life has been pretty hectic lately!

 
So happy to announce that Elizabeth (Ellie) Claire was born on Thanksgiving day at 4:39 pm.  She weighed 5lbs 5 oz and was 18 inches long. 

I was induced on Tuesday morning because I had IUGR (Intrauterine growth restriction) and they felt Ellie would grow better on the outside - I was 39 weeks 2 days at this point.  The induction took some time - we started cytotec on Tuesday morning at 10 am to thin my cervix out and I was still 1 cm dilated as of 4pm on Wednesday afternoon so they started me on another cervix thinning medicine (cervadil) at that point.

 I started to have painful back labor at this point, but the contractions I was feeling on my back were not showing up on the monitor.  They checked me again at 3:30 am on Thursday morning and I was still 1 cm dilated with a "rock hard" cervix.  I am in serious pain at this point (throwing up, etc) and they said I could get the epidural, even though I wasn't dilated much and my contractions weren't showing up on the monitor as being very big.  

I am starting to get pretty discouraged at this point because I feel like this could go on forever (after the cervadil the plan was to go to pitocin to bring on contractions).  I am able to get some sleep in from 4 am Thursday until 8 am Thursday morning, but shortly after I wake up I notice the epidural has started to wear off on half of my body and I can now feel shooting contraction like pain down my leg (but no contraction pain in my uterus and the monitor is still not picking up major contractions). I ask the nurse if they can check me again to see how far along I am and do something so that the epidural works again and they finally check me again at 3:45 pm. 

The doctor said "you are fully dilated" and I was beyond shocked, but I was extremely relieved!  I was afraid they would say "you are only 2 cm now" and start pitocin and this would continue for another 12 hours.  For some reason the monitors weren't picking up my contractions, but I went to a full 10 cm without anyone noticing.  The doctor said "we are going to start pushing soon" and the anesthesiologist came back to make the epidural work on both sides of my body. 

After 20 minutes of pushing, out she came!  As she was coming out the doctor told me to "look down" and I watched as they pulled her out and she cried right away - the most beautiful sound I have ever heard! She got an 8 at her 1 min apgar and 9 at her 5 min apgar.  When I look back on the it - at one point I started to feel like I had to make a bowel movement, this was probably my body starting to tell me to push! She is strong and healthy even though she is on the smaller side.  After we were back in the recovery room my mom brought us Thanksgiving dinner and we enjoyed our first Thanksgiving as a family!

We took her home on Saturday and she has been doing great. She is wearing preemie clothing because she is small, but today we had her first pediatrician appointment and she has already gained back 4 oz since coming home, so I don't think she will be in preemie clothing for long. 

I will try to do another post about life now that she is home with us soon!

Thank you to all my blog friends who have supported me throughout this whole process, you guys are amazing and I am constantly thinking of you no matter where you are in your journey.  

Here are some more pictures:

Daddy and baby are both very tired!

 

She is so tiny in her car seat!

 Winnie Meeting her little sister for the first time

 

Sleepy girl