Elise's Birth Story

Starting on Catherine's birthday (the 18th), I noticed contractions coming about every 30 minutes. Nothing painful, but not going away. I figured baby would be appearing soon, but was hoping for a little more time between her birthday and Catherine's.

I managed to sleep all through the night, but woke up with the contractions still going. We did the preschool/grocery run in the morning. By the time we got home, contractions were every 2-3 minutes, lasting about 45 seconds. Still not really painful, but noticeable even while moving.

Since baby was overdue (due date was the 17th), I was scheduled for a non-stress test that afternoon at 3:30 pm. Instead, I called the OB and was told to check into labor & delivery. They were so sure that with my fourth kid I would be ready to have the baby right after I arrived.

We left the kids with my mom and headed to the hospital. They got me all hooked up, saw that I was definitely having contractions, but that I was only dilated to 1-2 cm. I wasn't terribly surprised--the contractions weren't getting painful yet, and my body does not dilate quickly.

We got to walk for an hour to see if thing progressed. About 45 minutes into it, I had to start slowing down when contractions hit. I was really hoping for a big improvement, but I was still barely at 2 cm after walking. The doctor offered to hook me up and get things started, but we opted to go home, eat dinner, and let things happen as they would. It was really nice to spend the evening at home and to be able to put the kids to bed.

Definitely ready to head to the hospital

By 8:30 pm Jon insisted that I call back. And so we headed back in, got checked again. Lucky me, still at only 2-3 cm. But my OB said he was not sending me home, so they gave me the IV and moved me to a room. Baby was on her way!

From there it was, unfortunately, a rough night. Aaron's delivery was so nice--the epidural worked, labor was short (for me--only 7 hours), it was great. I went in expecting something similar. After all, shouldn't it get faster/easier with each delivery?

That was my problem--I was not mentally prepared. Not prepared for the epidural to fail (just like with Catherine, it worked on only my right half). Not prepared for the long, long labor (almost as long as Seth's). The poor anesthesiologist was in there three times trying to make it work for me (and he was the head of anesthesia, so it really bothered him that it wasn't working. Apparently I have a very interesting spine--the one comment I remember is "I would love to see an X-ray of this").

It was a long, long night. Every time the doctor would check me, I would pray to be at a 10. Nope. We went through every centimeter, slowly. And with back labor, of course. My OB tried stripping membranes (ouch) and breaking my water (more ouch). That really got the contractions going.

At around 4 am, my nurse got the anesthesiologist in there again. He was going to try to redo the epidural to see if a different position would work. I sat up and leaned over the pillow while he stabbed me in the spine. Repeatedly.

About halfway through, I needed to push. NEEDED. But he was still stabbing my back. Finally, he gave up and they called in the OB. One push later and she was here! This was the first time I've gotten the full, non-epidural experience of delivery. They are not kidding about the ring of fire--gratefully she arrived quickly!

Other than her initial cry after birth and while getting her lungs suctioned clean, she was just a mellow, alert girl. She shocked the nurses by actually enjoying her first bath rather than screaming at them. She was also a champion nurser right from the start.

Our first look at her confirmed that she was 100% our child. She was also Catherine's doppelganger, with a bit more hair, a narrower face and a not-squished nose. Maybe we should have stuck with the name "Catherine Again."

Jon held her for a while before deciding that she was going to be Elise Lori. Our alternate name was Amelia, but she was definitely an Elise. We knew her middle name would be Lori, after my aunt, as soon as we found out she was a girl.

She was a very calm, easy baby the entire hospital stay. She only cried when they gave her a shot or pricked her heel, and even then only for a moment. My mom stayed with us the second night, and I think we all managed to get a decent amount of sleep. Probably because the nurses let me keep Elise with me in bed instead of insisting she sleep in the bassinet (my kids don't like the bassinet).

We definitely wanted to be going home the next day. 24 hours in the hospital was more than enough. But, as usual, the hospital dragged their feet. We were hoping to be out by 10 am. When it was noon and we were still hanging around, Jon brought all the big kids with him to the hospital and started pestering people. Between the pestering and the room full of kids, we managed to get ourselves discharged pretty quickly.

It was so nice to be home. Elise is adored by her siblings (even Aaron came to love her after an awful first day--we think now he was getting sick). Now to see how we survive the newborn stage!