Of course, as is the norm in our lives.. things didn't go as planned. I was in a ton of pain and was incredibly uncomfortable at the beginning of my last week of work. I knew I had a ton to prepare and get ready, so I got up and went in on Monday. Monday evening things just felt off. I could barely move without being in major pain. I ended up going into labor overnight. By 5:30 am my contractions were four minutes apart and I hadn't felt E move for a few hours. I called the on-call doctor and they had me go to L&D for monitoring. I dropped Hudson off with the babysitter and went into school to put a few things together for the day since I literally had very little ready. Around 8:30 am we headed to the hospital.
As soon as I got there they hooked me up to monitors. No hospital gown or anything since I hadn't felt any movement. We were settled in and about five minutes later alarms started going off and seven people - including doctors - swarmed the room. E's heart rate had dropped to double digits. I was immediately given an IV and had all of my blood cultures down. They removed my shirts and started moving me from side to side to try and get her heart rate back to normal. After about 5 minutes, her rate was back into normal range, but the doctor on duty at the time said they were not chancing anything and I was going into surgery as soon as a room was available.
There was an emergency section that needed done and they needed the anesthesiologist in the room the entire time. As soon as that was done, I was prepped and taken in.
I have to say, this experience was so much better. The doctor I had this time was nothing short of amazing. At first she thought she was going to have to go in at a different location and I would need a second incision, but she figured out how to make it work with the scar I had from my section with Hudson. I was not exhausted this time and was able to be alert and talk to Matt. I walked into the room and sat on the table myself. I got the spinal - which feels just as bizarre as an epidural. I laid down, the put up the curtain, and it all began. I ended up having a ton of scar tissue to get through and it took them about 45 minutes to actually reach E. And then the doctor took her time stitching things up in hopes that my scar would look much better than it did last time. (She did a great job - it's 100 times better.)
Elizabeth Ruth was born at 3:43 pm on October 27th. She weighed in at a whopping 8 pounds 9 ounces (at 38 weeks!) and 18 inches long. My short, chubby princess.
Once I was in recovery, we called our parents and siblings. They all arrived within the hour. My mom brought Hudson as he was the first person we wanted to meet her. He was having a rough time at first because he was scared of the elevator ride - go figure. But after some McDonald's chicken nuggets, he was good to go! Hugs and kisses were given and he was so intrigued by her! Everyone stayed to visit for a little bit and then cleared out.
That first night was a bit rough. Ellie slept other than when we had to wake her for feedings. I, on the other hand, could not sleep. I have no idea why, but I literally woke up every 10-15 minutes all night long.
We agreed to spend the rest of the week at the hospital so I could recover as much as possible before going home to tackle the stairs. We were discharged Friday morning and have been home since. We had an adjustment period, but things are currently great. I couldn't imagine my life without these two precious babes.
I had a short stay in the emergency room the night after discharge for a UTI, but other than that, my recovery has been much better this time. I was doing my normal activity within two weeks.
Ellie's name was the only girl name we could agree on. We decided to give her a formal name - Elizabeth, but agreed we wanted to call her Ellie from the beginning. Ruth was my late Grandma's name and I couldn't think of a better way to honor her. Elizabeth Ruth, we love you more than words.
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