Eleanor's Birth Story

It has been 3 weeks since the greatest day of my life. The day I became a Mama.

woah nelly! This Mama was clearly ready to pop.

The doctor scheduled to induce me on Friday, March 13th which was one week and one day past my due date.  She noted that my cervix was 'favorable' and if we wanted to, induction was an option.  Judge me if you must, but I was ready to meet my daughter. Sure, I could have lived another week being pregnant, but we were dying to finally meet our sweet Eleanor. I had no labor signs leading up to that Friday and I had tried every 'natural inducer' in the book. I just had a feeling that little Miss wasn't going to come on her own so we made the decision to evict :)

I didn't sleep at all Thursday night as you can imagine. I was up at 12:30am even though we didn't have to be to the hospital until 5am. Once Nick finally woke up, we packed the car and headed to McDonalds. Looking back, I don't know why we did this - haha! I think we both wanted one final indulgence and simply didn't feel like cooking breakfast.  I remember sitting in the parking lot of the hospital (extremely early of course), nervously laughing together. We were both just so excited that the day was finally here. Unfortunately though, as soon as we walked in the doors of the ER, L&D called to tell me to head back home until 7am as there were too many Mama's on the floor. We were frustrated, to say the least, but glad that we were still allowed to come back a few hours later.

Nick dressed up as my nurse, naturally.

Once we finally arrived and got checked in, pitocin was started around 8am and Nick and I walked the halls between monitoring for about 2 hours until family arrived. This is was such a sweet time to me.  It was our final moments of just the two of us, laughing, walking, and wondering what our sweet girl would be like. I wasn't in any pain and I was happy as could be knowing that my daughter was on her way and my husband was by my side.

My parents and sister finally arrived almost as soon as the pain really started kicking in. Over the next few hours, contractions went from 0 to 10 very quickly and only about 90 seconds apart. My family and Nick did their best to keep me distracted, and I'm so glad I had them there to keep me going.  Unfortunately, the doctor didn't show up until about noon and when she checked me, I was only 2 - 3cm. She said that I could get the epidural whenever I wanted to so I asked for it right away! It took about 45 minutes for them to set up for it and those 45 minutes were painful! Nick rubbed my back as I silently tried to push through the pain. I could tell he was nervous at this point but he was still my strong rock through it all. He kept telling me how proud he was of me, letting me squeeze his hand as hard as I needed to.

I'm so glad my Dad took this picture. I couldn't have asked for a better partner

Honestly, once I got that epidural, it was pretty smooth sailing. Within an hour, I was 7cm and another hour later was 10cm and ready to go! The nurse had me push about 3 times while she waited for the doctor, but quickly called for help and declared that she may have to deliver the baby herself! (I was totally okay with this. She was an amazing nurse and knew exactly what she was doing).  Thankfully the doctor came in and the first thing she said was "whoa, light hair!" I couldn't believe she could already see my daughter and that my daughter had hair! I pushed once, but baby girl's heart rate started to drop a bit.  We took a small break for me to get some oxygen through the mask..but then 3 more pushes and she was out. It was insanely easy and painless.

I remember hearing Nick say "oh my gosh" which is when I opened my eyes and saw my beautiful daughter. Tears overwhelmed me. I still remember how perfect she looked. I remember thinking "thats her. Thats my baby". I couldn't believe it. I still can't. My beautiful daughter is absolutely perfect. 10 fingers, 10 toes, a strong heart and the most precious little face. God has handcrafted a miracle and given her to me.

Everyone tells you that you'll never know a love like a love for your child… and as cliche as it all sounds, its absolutely true.  3 weeks later and Nick and I are still overwhelmed.  We talk all day long about how perfect she is, how beautiful she is, and how deeply we love her.  I am so grateful to God for a healthy, easy delivery. I loved the whole experience from beginning to end. Yes, healing and getting used to taking care of a newborn over the following 48 hours was difficult. I was in quite a bit of pain and felt like I had no idea what to do with her..but it was heaven. I'd do it all over again a thousand times.