Quick Delivery

This pregnancy had been very similar to my first, but I find it strange how similar my labor and deliveries were, too.

Thursday 

I  was "tricked" on Halloween with some false labor pains.

Sunday

I had more pains that turned out to be nothing. I was annoyed because I thought the second time around I would and should be a pro at distinguishing between false and real labor. Ironically, this Sunday was Stake Conference just like the Sunday before we had Olivia.

Monday

If you remember, I mentioned with Olivia's Birth Story that we went and bought a freezer on the Monday before we had her and how I highly recommended NOT doing that. Well, we didn't buy a freezer this time but we did have our piano tuned. Not quite the same thing but still! How much more irony can this story take?

Wednesday  

6:00 am I started having stronger contractions and I was fairly certain that this was finally the real thing. I labored at home all day and then the three of us headed to Logan for what I hoped would be my last check up (38 weeks). We even brought our packed bags along, just in case. 

4:30 pm My doctor told me I was dilated to 4 cm and that if my water broke or my contractions became any more regular, I would have this baby in no time. But because I wasn't 39 weeks yet, he couldn't induce labor. We scheduled my induction for early the next week and went home. On the drive home Richard and I half jokingly, half seriously, talked about how we were pretty sure that we would just be turning right back around as soon as we got home. And sure enough, that's what we did! Olivia had been down for the night all of an hour and a half.

11:00 pm After dropping Olivia off with our sis-in-law, we got checked in at the hospital. When they checked me I had only progressed to 4.5 cm and I thought we still had a long way to go. My contractions were coming hard and fast with little to no breaks between and open minded or not, it didn't take long to remember how nice my last epidural was and I decided to get one. 

And besides, this sucker wasn't cutting it anymore :) Richard and I joked between contractions about the power of a Dum Dum. Olivia actually overcame her fear of doctors because of "Sutters" and here I was trying to do the same thing. That and my mouth was dry from all the Lamaze breathing.

 But no, seriously, I am in labor! Check out that monitor!

Thursday

12:30 am During the next half hour I started feeling like I needed to push. I told the nurse and she said that if I wanted an epidural we had better do it now. They worked on me as fast as they could but it wasn't fast enough. As they laid me on my back to let the epidural begin to spread, my water broke. That put too much pressure on the baby's head and her heart rate kept drastically dropping with each contraction. The doctor came immediately and said we needed to get her out now. Ironically again, the same thing happened with Olivia and I was again put on oxygen with instructions to breathe. But this time I was told to breathe and push. While the epidural takes 20 minutes to kick in, I had pushed and was holding my baby in 12! It finally kicked in about the time the doctor stitched me up, so I guess it wasn't a complete waste. 2 hours laboring at the hospital with 12 minutes of pushing, I'll take it! Going natural was not as bad as I expected. In fact, the recovery was much easier and I will most likely go this route again.

1:11 am The moment they placed sweet Eloise in my arms I had the very distinct thought that no matter how many similarities there were/are between her and Olivia, that Eloise is special! She is one of God's beautiful, unique daughters that we helped to create. There will never be another person quite like her on this earth. And I feel privileged to be her Mom!

Bonding with Eloise!

Me and my girls!

Sisters!

First Family Picture

 Ready to roll

Welcome home Eloise and welcome to our family!