This Saturday Ella turns one! I can't believe a year has already passed. Mamas aren't kidding when they say how fast it goes. I am really excited about her birthday even if I am a little sad at how big she is getting. I just love birthdays and Kirk just rolls his eyes at me;)! To kick off her birthday week I thought I'd tell you her birth story.
My due date was September 14
th and for 3 weeks I was dilated 3cm and my Dr. was telling me I could go anytime. I was born 4 weeks early so I after hearing this I was sure I was going early. Well, I think my Dr. was trying to get me to agree to induction since she was going to be on vacation right before my due date. She kept mentioning it but was also telling me I was measuring 2 weeks behind and the baby was small. I kept thinking if she's small then leave her in there don't induce me. I was really ready for this baby to come for lots of reasons but one was that for about 4 weeks before delivery I developed
carpel tunnel in both hands. It got so bad that my right hand was always numb which made it hard to do things and forced me to stop cutting hair sooner than I wanted to. My Dr. said that it would go away after delivery but it took about 6 weeks later.
So on September 12 I woke up at 2:30 am with contractions. I got up and went to the bathroom and then decided to walk around a bit and time them before I woke Kirk up. I was kind of confused because they were 5 minutes apart but not really painful or hard. I thought that labor would start much slower than this so I wasn't sure if it was real labor or not. I decided that I probably was in labor and even if I wasn't that since I was dilated to 3 before that I should go in and get checked out. About 15 minutes later Kirk came barreling out of the bedroom. He was all concerned when he woke up and I wasn't there. He wanted to know why I didn't wake him but I was actually just going to get him. Here we were both thinking that we'd have some time to shower or whatever before we went in but things were happening fast so we grabbed our stuff and hit the road.
My contractions were staying 5 minutes apart and gaining intensity. By the time I reached the hospital at 4:00 they were 4 minutes apart and pretty intense. They checked me and I was at a 4. Not as far as I hoped. My Dr. came in and broke my water. She had returned from vacation just the day before. With in an hour or so my contractions were less than 30 seconds apart and super intense. I couldn't really distinguish between the end of one and the start of another. During this I had thrown up 4 times which the nurses kept saying meant I was dilating more. But when they checked again I was still at a 4. I had hoped for no meds or epidural but when I heard I was at a 4 I knew that if I was going to be like this for who knows how long till I reached 10 I couldn't do it. So I got an epidural about 8:30ish.
Within 10 mintues I felt great! Kirk was just going to eat a snack. We were chatting with the nurses. Well, that epidural made me relax enough that with in 45 minutes I was at a 10! Kirk didn't get his snack. :) With the epidural I couldn't tell really when to push so I pushed for a long time. Finally, the nurse called the Dr. in and Dr. W said it was taking so long because Ella's head was turned a little. So she turned her head and after a few pushes she was out. She was born at 11:39am. She was 6lbs 10 oz and 18 in long. And of course had a head full of long black hair.
I must have been pretty excited to see Ella because the nurses said they could "hear my joy" down the hall! Kirk was so cute. He was just the proudest daddy you ever saw. As soon as Ella was born he said "she's almost as beautiful as her Mommy" which scored big points with me and the Dr and nurses too. When he cut the cord blood sprayed all over his shirt which the Dr assured him would wash out. He loved it though and proudly wore that shirt all day long.
