Birth Story

A Birth Story with Pictures

(somewhat detailed....be warned)

Also: 9 voted girl and 5 voted boy on my poll!

So Monday morning we arrived at the hospital at 6:30am for Dr. Schafer to break my water and get the ball rolling. The doctor came in around 8am and I was dialated to almost 5 cm.  The doctor didn't arrive again until around 10:30am so for the first several hours I was just laying around with no pain but a few contractions here and there(kind of like I had been having for the past 2 weeks).  At 10:36 (yes it took 6 minutes for the doctor to finally break my very tough sack as he called it). The doctor said "we will watch you for the next 2 hours and if things don't get moving along we will start pitocin. (in my mind I though yeah right...2 hours and pitocin haahaa). At around 11:15 I was starting to think that this birth was going to be longer than my longest which was 1 hour and 15 minutes.  I even told nick, looks like I could be here awhile because the contractions are NOT picking up in intensity.  To which nick replied "sandra, you usally all of a sudden just have to push so it could happen with this one too".  Not more than 5 minutes later I had my first stronger contraction.  I actually was a bit in pain.  On the third contraction the nurses thankfully came in and asked how I was doing and I quickly responded with "I am ready to push I think".  They checked me and I was dialated to 6cm.  So they quickly called Dr. Schafer (who had returned to his office), and when he arrived he was out of breath from running the flight of stairs(its in my records that I have babies fast and he likes to be the one to deliver the babies so I guess he booked it).  The nurses commented on how fast he got to the hospital and even gave him an A++ for his quick feet. I had 2 more contractions and on each contraction I moved in cm.  At the next contraction I was dialated to 8cm.  And the next contraction I was at 9 cm and that is when the doctor told me to turn to my back(I was on my side the entire time before) and on the next contraction I was allowed to push.  The next contraction came and so did the head.  Thats when he quickly said to stop pushing and nick told me to look down and watch.  All I saw was the doctor holding the baby very close to his body and moving rapidly.  Finding out after birth, that Ellie had the umbilical cord wrapped 2 times around her neck and so that is why I had to stop pushing.  However Dr. Schafer worked fast and on the next contraction the baby was born. (picture below)  Sadly though, I did (like all other births) have to have an episiotomy which really stinks, but I'll do whatever I have to to have a healthy baby born!!  So I had a total of 5 strong contractions and all that happened in 30 minutes or so.  Total amount of time after water broke was 1 hr and 13 minutes(to which only 30 minutes was painful).  Guess she wanted to beat 2 of her brothers out:)

Now mind you, I was watching and I saw the little baby come out and yes I saw the girl parts, but it did not even dawn on me!!  It did NOT register whatsoever!!!  UNTIL nick said "Its a girl!!".  I then looked back down and was in total shock.  Nick said "NO WAY", and I just started crying saying "I can't believe it" over and over again.  Oh how we were in disbelief for basically the next 24 hours.  In fact, to this day I am correcting myself often because I say "he" alot!!  I was totally and perfectly content with having another boy and thought maybe it was the best thing for us, but now that I have my little girl....I wouldn't change it for the world.  I love the pink, purple, butterflies, hearts, ruffles, I love all the cute clothes(which she has a nice new wardrobe thanks to the many gifts).

A very very proud daddy who absolutely adores his daughter already!!!  There are times I have to tell him to put her down so she will wake up to feed. 

The big brothers were excited for a girl.  I have to document this for myself(so I don't forget this ever) but Caden never ever missed a night of praying for a healthy baby sister.  Even after we had an ultrasound and we thought we saw boy parts on the baby(technician didn't tell us it was a boy or a girl) and we told the boys we thought this was going to be a brother and that they should not get their hopes up to high for a sister.  Now Elijah was praying for a sister at that time too, but after we had told them we thought we saw boy parts Elijah's prayer changed to praying for a brother but Caden never waivered.  I think it shows how Faith Like A Child is how we should all be.  Elijah is older and he was pursuaded by his parents to pray differently and his faith waivered, where as Caden who is a child and has a strong faith knowing that God can do anything, how his prayer never changed!!  Really made it neat to see and it sure made me think how I need to pray and have faith like a child and not on what is seen but to TRUST that God can do anything!! 
So we told my mom to not tell them what the baby's sex was so that when they walked into the room we could see their shocked expression.  Much to our surprise (however it shouldn't have been a surprise) that the kids weren't shocked!!  Especially Caden.  He walked in, and said"its a girl, I knew it"...followed by a happy little "yes"(with a pump of his fist).

Had to get a family photo of course:)

I was holding sweet Ellie and my camera phone when all of a sudden I captured her very first smile!!!  Its blurry sadly because of my quality of the phone, but at least I got it.

It is time to go home.....