On September 3, 2014, our family welcomed Elizabeth into the world. She was born at 4:01pm, weighing 8 lbs. 6 oz. and was 20 inches long. We are thrilled!
The Birth Story:
Labor Day (9/1) had come and gone, and no baby yet. I had begun teaching for the first week of Professional Development and the first two weeks with middle school students. I had planned to begin my leave on Labor Day and the baby was going to arrive then. Tuesday (9/2), I went to see the doc and while I was dilated some, she wasn't coming yet. I was hoping to have a VBAC again, and my doctor was on board, as long as all was going okay.
The doctor offered me two options- wait it out and see when baby girl decided to arrive (however, he was going out of town and wouldn't be able to deliver past Wednesday) or induce delivery on Wednesday morning (40 weeks) and have a plan in place with all of the big players present (my doc, Tom, nanny for kids, granparents on deck). I was ready to meet this little girl!
So, Tuesday night we loaded up Zeke, Ezra, and Zadie and brought them over to Nana and Papa's house. After the dropoff, we headed out for a "last supper" before being parents of 4. Zaxby's buffalo chicken salad was my choice. Yum!
In the early, dark, hours of the morning on September 3, we headed off to the hospital. I got checked in and the hooked me up to the IV and Pitocin. The nurses had induced thousands of women, so they told me early on that based on what they'd seen, I would probably labor with contractions from about 9am-3:30pm, and then the baby would be born sometime between 3:30 and 4:00pm.
Experience with the twins had taught me that an epidural was my friend. As soon as the contractions began to be too uncomfortable, I had an epidural put in. We then proceeded to watch 8 or 9 episodes of HGTV's best- Real estate brothers, house filpping, and even a few food shows. Just after 3:30 the nurse came in and told me that I was fully dilated, and the doc would be in soon. It was time to push and meet this baby girl!
I was eager to meet our baby girl, and I pushed like crazy. After 3 totally incredible pushes on my part, she was almost out. One final push and our baby girl was born! 4:01 pm on on September 3. She cried right away and we could see that she was big and healthy!
In those first hours, Elizabeth quickly latched on and began breastfeeding. She was so sweet and we all loved her immediately. We had visits from the big kids and Nana and Papa. We watched some more HGTV, Elizabeth slept and we were in new baby blissland.
On day 2, the doctors suggested that Elizabeth would benefit from spending some time under the lamps, as she was a bit jaundiced. It was tough to see our little baby girl under the big lights, but after an extra night in the hospital under the light, she was finally ready to go home.
And that's the story of our sweet baby Elizabeth's birth!
