So in Love

Our baby girl is finally here and she was SO worth the wait.

Eloise Anne Daniels

Born Sunday March 11, 2012 at 5:33 am

7 lbs 11 oz, 20 inches long

I wanted to write down our birth story before I forget all the details. I've never felt closer to heaven than that first moment that I saw her, what a miracle.

This is going to probably be long because I'm going to go ahead and include all the details. :) Feel free to skip to the pictures at the bottom.

So my due date was Tuesday March 6th and at my appointment on Wednesday my Doctor mention that he'd be out of town until late Saturday night and then he'd be leaving again the following Monday for a whole week. He's the only Doctor at his office that will do a VBAC so I either would have to be induced or have a c-section (or just go into labor) while he was there or go into labor naturally while he was away and use a doctor that was out of network. My Doctor scheduled an induction for Saturday night which was the most random time EVER, I fought and fought it, but he was extremely stubborn saying that he had to leave Monday and didn't know how long labor would take, I was happy to later tell him "I told you so." I was starting to really just hate him with all my heart and was SO angry and I knew that was not a good attitude to go into the labor room with towards the person who could potentially be required to save the life of me or my baby. So I decided that I was just going to have a positive attitude about it and be okay with getting induced. Zac gave me a blessing Saturday morning and I felt so much peace with everything after that. I knew everything would be okay and it didn't matter so much when she came. I started focusing on the end result of holding that sweet Eloise in my arms and the details didn't bother me so much anymore. (I will say that I will be using a different Doctor next time, he's a great guy and an excellent doctor, but I need to go to an office where there is more than one Doctor available who is willing to do a VBAC so I don't get put in a hard situation again).

I really really really wanted to go into labor naturally before Saturday night. I tried lots of things did tons of walking and thought laborish thoughts, but nothing seemed to put me in labor. So we went in at 10pm Saturday night. By 11 pm they started the pitosin (sp?) on a low dose. That was one of my requirements for going in that late was that we were going to go as slow as needed and not rush the meds. Contractions started slowly around 11:30 and slowly got more intense and closer together for the first couple hours. I'd sort of sleep in between until they started hurting. I got checked around 1:30 (actually 2:30...day light savings) and was at a 4 and 100% effaced which seemed good. I figured that at that rate she'd be born around 10 or 11 in the morning.

The nurse was coming back in at 3:45 to check me again so as I laid there and the contractions started bothering me more. Around 3, I just figured I'd wait until she came back to ask for the epidural. About 3:30 I woke Zac up (I was pretending to sleep so that he wouldn't worry and could get some sleep) and told him I was ready for the epidural.

Bad news, the anesthesiologist was just starting someone else's epidural so I'd have to wait 20 minutes or so. The nurse came in and checked me and I was at a 6. The next 20 minutes felt like about 4000 years. All of the sudden my body decided to have a baby and each contraction got MUCH harder and the distance between became suddenly nonexistent. All I could think was "if I'm only at a 6 those women who do this all natural are TOTALLY NUTS!!!!!!!!!" I didn't behave very well for those 2o LONG minutes, I'm very happy that there is no recording of me crying for my epidural very 10 seconds and begging Zac to drag the dang guy in. I finally started chanting to myself "you can do this, you can do this" during the contractions. It surprisingly helped a lot, lol. I bet it was quite a sight. I tried biting my fingers for comfort and one time accidentally got Zac, sorry!!! Honestly, my hat goes off to any woman who does birth naturally, or maybe I just think you're totally insane because that was ridiculous!

Finally he came in (it was about 30 minutes later) and while he was prepping me the nurse checked again. She said "oh your at a 10 and ready to push, I'll go get Dr. Beckett." No DUH, I could have told you that!

All the while this older anesthesiologist gentleman is whistling and cheerful as ever. "I'M LITERALLY GOING TO DIE RIGHT NOW IF YOU DON'T HURRY." While he's putting in the needle I started having a contraction and felt the need to push (and die), so I did thinking "maybe this will make it stop hurting," nope it did break my water though.

If you're wondering why I still got the epidural when I was that close that would be because of the chance of my uterus tearing, because of my previous c-section, while I was pushing.

We waited for the epidural to sink in and all the sudden life became very very good. It went from an awkward air of "this woman is totally nuts" mixed with "I'M GOING TO DIE!" to everyone happily joking around and talking about the miracle of modern medicine. We were quoting Brian Regan and just had fun. It took a few contractions to push her out and all the sudden she was here at 5:33.

Eloise screamed from the beginning and we were happy to know her lungs were fine. When I saw her she was so perfect. My heart melted and I got to experience those tears of joy. I was so amazed that she was here and mine and that she had been inside of me. I felt instantly attached to her and like the grinch, my heart grew 3 sizes that day. You just can't believe how much you can suddenly love someone you've never seen before so instantly.

She ripped me or "shredded" me as the doctor put it when she came out (thank you darling girl for that) so the doc spent the next 2 hours trying to put me back together. Apparently I was loosing lots of blood and they were having a hard time stopping it. I felt very grateful for my doctor at that moment, for his patience. I told him my feeling was back and the epidural had worn off and he had the anesthesiologist give me another dose of epidural love. That is when I loved those two men the most.

Finally around 8 am humpty was put back together and we got to spend some blissful time with Me, Zac, and Eloise. It was a really special time, I felt so close to heaven and to them, I wish I could have recorded those feelings and emotions.

By the end of the day I was totally spent and my voice was gone. I still haven't gotten my voice back but all the whispering is helping Teagan be a little quieter so that's been nice. :) We went home Monday night and things are going great here. I can't believe how much different this recovery is than with a c-section. I couldn't believe how fast I was able to get up and walk and bend over and all that after she was born.

Things at home are going well, I've been so blessed with help from everyone, especially Zac. He is the ultimate champ and has done all the laundry, ironing, and meal cleanup. He's been keeping Teagan distracted so that I can try to rest and is very sweet with Eloise. We've had so many people bringing food and sending love, and helping with Teagan. I feel so grateful that I have so many people close by who are willing to help. Zac's parents took Teagan for the next few days while Zac works and I'm so grateful for the chance to sleep and recover without neglecting my firstborn. I'm excited to have my sister and mom come help here in the next few weeks too. How in the world did I get blessed with the best family ever?!?!

Here are a "few" pictures. Hopefully you scrolled past the long wended story and just enjoy looking at our sweet little girl.

Proud brother. This is the first time Teagan got to hold her. He thinks she is pretty special and is already working on getting her to laugh. He is constantly asking to hold her and play with her and is always giving her the sweetest kisses. I have caught him "baby talking" to her when she's laying in the bouncer, it is THE sweetest thing. I love these two so much!

Proud mama. I cannot believe how HUGE Teagan seems now that we have a mini. I'm so grateful for my kiddos. I can't imagine life without them.

Proud Grandpa! He was a little smitten with the darling. (How did we miss a picture with Grandma Durtschi???)

Proud Grandparents! They told me thank you for having their grandbaby, I thought that was a very nice thing to say and told them you're welcome. :)

Proud Great Grandma. This is Lois, the first woman Eloise is named after (my mom and I are the second two). Eloise will have quite the name to live up to, this is a pretty special lady. :)

Teagan wanted Zac to read him a book at the hospital and insisted that Ellie listen too. Her eyes were wide open and she was taking it all in...she can probably read now.
Wherever Teagan is sitting or laying he wants Eloise right by his side. I can see a beautiful friendship in the works.

Our first family picture. We remembered to have the nurse take this picture about 30 seconds before we left the hospital. I realized we hadn't taken a picture with all four of us yet, it was a close call!

Zac working his comedy routine trying to get Ellie to smile. She stared right at him and didn't look away, but no smile yet.
He's getting better and better at holding her, pretty soon I'll have him changing diapers and rocking her to sleep.
Every morning Teagan loves to help pick out the outfit, headband, and bow. This outfit was especially exciting because we had a blue butterfly clip to match the blue butterflies on the dress...oh dear.
I'm just going to say it. This little girl has THE CUTEST face I've ever seen. I just stare at her sometimes in awe of how perfect she is.
We were worried that we had a fussy baby, but then found out she was just hungry. We gave her some formula to hold her off until my milk came in, and she cheered right up. Now that my milk has arrived we are realizing that we have one delightful little girl. She is a great eater which I'm so grateful for. She sleeps a ton, but I keep reminding myself that every baby does that the first week. I wouldn't mind if her sleeping and eating habits stuck around a while though! She only cries when she's cold or hungry so it's very easy to appease her. There is definitely an adjustment period and hopefully by the time Teagan gets back this weekend I'll have things a little bit more under control.

Hooray for Eloise being here, I would do it all again twice for her...10000000 times if I could skip that 30 minutes!