Elleigh Kate's Birthday

Wow, here we are a week later and I still can't believe the curve ball that our sweet Elleigh threw at us!

It all started Monday night. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I would only feel Elleigh move at night. So Monday night came and I waited, waited, and waited some more. I never felt her move. To say I was worried would be an understatement. I went to bed and every time I got up to use the bathroom, which was often, I noticed how hard my stomach was.

I woke up around 6 due to some severe pain in my back. It would come on strong, then completely go away. I texted Shannon to see if she had experienced anything like this. She didn't so I figured I was just over thinking things. But then I started timing and they were consistently 6 to 7 minutes apart. I woke Brad up around 7 and told him I thought I was in labor. From there it was a whirlwind. I called the doctor and they told me to come in. 

Thankfully our bags had been packed so we just threw last minute things in. We got ourselves ready and then Zoey. Meanwhile I'm doubled over in pain every 6 minutes. We dropped Zoey off with my mom and headed to the hospital. We got all checked in and the nurse checked me. I was dilated to a "good 3 almost 4". The nurse said "you're going to have a baby today!" Wow, I had wanted to go into labor on my own, but never really expected to. I was to be induced on Saturday! I had a million things still to do...but Elleigh didn't care!

Shortly after arriving and being admitted, I got my epidural and started the wait. While I waiting I got the heart breaking news that my doctor was out of the country and he would not be delivering my baby! I cried...a lot! I had never heard of the doctor that would be doing the delivery, much less met her. Turns out she was very sweet and very likable. When Zoey got there she didn't know what to think. Whenever she was brought back to my room, she went straight to Brad and would have to be coaxed to even glance in my direction.

When they broke my water I was already at a 7. They saw when my water broke that there was machonium ( I have no idea how to spell that word) in it. Basically Elleigh had a bowl movement while in the womb. I panicked because in instances where I had heard of this happening, it meant the baby stayed in the NICU for a few days. The nurse and doctor assured me every thing would be ok.

After only 9 hours of labor our sweet Elleigh Kate entered the world at 3:39pm. 

She was all tangled up in the cord. so the doctor had to cut it to get her untangled and then put her up on me with her back to me. Then the nurses whisked her away to the bed off to the side. I hadn't even seen my baby's face. 

I started crying and asking if she was going to be OK. Everyone was saying yes but I wasn't convinced. I could see them working on her and although she was crying, the nurses seemed to be frantically working. They were working to get her lungs cleaned out. They decided they needed to take her to the nursery.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, they let me hold her for about 5min before they took her to the nursery.

They took her from me and assured me she would only be gone for maybe an hour. But after only holding her for 5min, that was far too long! 

The nurses finally brought Elleigh back to me, once they were sure everything was good. Her breathing was normal again and her lungs were clear.

I was so relieved to have her back in my arms and to know that she was going to be OK. 

I will end this portion of the story with pictures of Elleigh and her grandparents.