Eliza's arrival

Here's the story of Eliza's arrival for those who care to read it.....

I mentioned in our camping post that I started having contractions on Saturday but they stopped. Well this pattern continued every day that week. I would start having contractions in the evening but they would eventually stop despite me walking/cleaning like a crazy woman to try and keep them going. On Thursday I went to my doctor's appointment and was dilated to 4cm. My doctor asked if I wanted her to strip my membranes saying that if my body was ready this would help labor start. I was all for it so she went ahead. I had also already arranged to meet with a friend that night for her to give me a "labor inducing foot treatment." She did a foot soak and massage plus some accu-pressure points (who knows how much this helped but it sure felt great!)

That night I started having contractions about 10pm so I started walking:) About 1am my contractions were getting closer together and I had some bleeding so we called a friend to come stay with Hazel at the house. When I got to the hospital I was still only dilated to 4cm but my contractions were regular so they sent me to walk around for an hour. In my hour of walking I dilated to 5cm so they admitted me (this was about 5am).

I continued to have regular contractions for the next hour but they weren't picking up at all and I wasn't making any more progress (my pain was still pretty mild at this point too). After more walking didn't speed things up, my doctor decided to start me on some Pitocin. (I had a similar "stall" in my labor with Hazel but it happened further in to the labor). My contractions picked up a bit but I still wasn't progressing. Instead of giving me more Pitocin, my doctor came in and broke my water at 8am. At this point I was expecting a fairly long, drawn out labor. Boy was I wrong....

About 5 minutes after the doctor left the room I started having extremely intense contractions. I went from maybe a 3 on the pain scale to a 9 or a 10 just like that. Needless to say after about 3 contractions like that I called my nurse to request my epidural. Sadly, the anesthesiologist had just gone back for a C-section. Because the pain had come on so abruptly I wasn't handling it as well as I had with Hazel so I agreed to let them give me an IV pain medicine while I waited for my epidural. To be honest it didn't help much at all and made me feel kinda dizzy. Thankfully, my sister (who is a nurse) arrived about this time and helped me through the next 45 minutes. Sitting still for the epidural was a nightmare, but then I felt so much better (still the best medical invention of all time).

They put in the epidural about 9am and by 9:20 I was nearly pain free (and around 6cm dilated). I was so tired by this point that I was literally having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I was beginning to doze off but then about 9:45 I started to feel some pain/pressure again. I called in the nurse to let her know the epidural didn't seem to be working. She informed the anesthesiologist and decided to check me again just in case. We were both shocked because it turned out I had fully dilated in 20 minutes! She quickly called the doctor and I started pushing about 10am. It had been a whirlwind two hours for me and I was still feeling off from the IV medication. But as I started pushing everything became very peaceful. The doctor asked if I remembered how to push and I said I thought I did so she had the nurse not coach me at all. (I love my doctor for things like that) Within 15 minutes I was holding my beautiful girl!
Like I said, it was a whirlwind of a labor for me those last two hours, but oh so worth it to meet Eliza!

Shortly afterwards my parent brought Hazel in to meet her sister. She seemed confused at first that baby Eliza was now out of my tummy. Her face in this picture says it all...

But by the time they came back later that afternoon she seemed okay with the idea....

She has been a great big sister so far!