As of yesterday, our family of 3 is now a family of 4! Here's the story (before I forget any of the details) of how Elise Barnette Dennison made her way into the world.
Monday evening at dinner I started having frequent contractions, but they were painless and I didn't know if they would turn into anything, especially with all the false starts I've had this go around. There was a huge thunderstorm that night and Red Rain Warning (the next to the worst). After Nate and I got Finley to bed, we sat in the living room and watched the lightning for a little while before trying to go to bed ourselves. I was able to sleep from about 10:30pm-midnight before waking up from strengthening contractions, but Nate kept sleeping for a while. I probably woke him up around 2:30am or so and let him know that he should get up, shower, and start packing anything he would need for the hospital. I think he was a little in disbelief at first that this was the real deal!
We made our way to the hospital at about 3:30am and arrived around 4am (which was about the same time we went to the hospital with Finley). Meanwhile, Finley slept soundly and cluelessly at home with our helper Cathrina on duty. When I got to the hospital I was about 4cm dilated, 100% effaced, and of course the baby was very low. Contractions got very frequent and extremely painful right after that. By 6:50am when the midwife came in, I asked her to check me again because I needed to know that I was making progress and wasn't going to be in this kind of pain for 4 more hours! She found that I was 8-9cm! Since I was so close, I wanted to try to do it with no epidural, which was good because the midwife said there probably wasn't time for one anyway. She called my doctor to come immediately and said, "You need to come now. She's 8-9cm, her water hasn't broken, and she has no epidural." Grace showed up at 7am, broke my water, and I was fully dilated and ready to push very soon after.
Getting a baby out with no epidural is no joke. After laboring quietly and trying to breath through the pain the best I could, I threw all that out the window and screamed my head off pushing that baby out. Grace said I was a pro and did an awesome job. She commented on how determined I was to get her out quickly, but I think that's just because it hurt so much I didn't have a choice! Anyway, we'll fast forward through the gory bits and just suffice it to say that I got her out as quickly as possible and pulled her up onto my chest on Sept. 25, 2012 at 7:45am. Welcome to the world, Elise Barnette Dennison!
Other than a quick Apgar (9 at 1min, 10 at 5min), they left Elise with us for family bonding for a while, which is such a luxury. Later, we went to the nursery to get her weighed and measured and foot printed. Elise came out at 3.5 kg (7 lb, 14 oz) and 50 cm (19.7 in). Not small for being only 37 weeks 4 days gestational age! She has a nice head of medium/light brown hair (a bit lighter than mine). It looks like her eyes may have a hint of brown or hazel with the dark blue, so we wonder if she may end up with brown eyes.
After spending the morning with us, Nate went home to be with Finley. Finley got to come back and meet his new baby sister that afternoon after his nap. He was very interested in her and wanted to examine and touch her. (He also sang her songs over Skype that night before bed- so sweet!)
On to the photos...
Just getting into our "delivery spa" at Matilda. Say bye-bye to the belly!
Brand new baby Elise!
Daddy's first time holding her.
Going into the nursery for weighing, measuring, and foot printing.
Ready to go to our room, a little swollen and bruised but doing well.
3 out of 4...
Finley's turn to meet his baby sister later that day.
First photo as a family of 4!
