elsie rae

as a new mom it's always hard to know how to best utilize any "two-hands-free" time. if elsie will let me put her down for more than five minutes, i usually put her in the bouncy chair next to the running dryer which she stares at in fascination while i take a way too long shower.

right now she's sleeping happily in her bassinet, and i really should be working. but here we are.

elise rae. who knew such a little person could flip your entire life upside down. in good ways, hard ways, and the best ways.

birth story? i'll give it a whack. if reading about birth grosses you out, you can satiate yourself on these details: i was in labor for about 8 hours. everything went really great. elsie was born december 23, 2011. 8 lbs. 9 oz., 22 inches long. lots of dark brown hair. adorable. kiss kiss.

for the rest of you...

to say i labored for 8 hours is sort of a lie because i had "practice" contractions for about a month, with a few bouts of really strong ones in the two weeks before "real" labor actually kicked in. i was incredibly frustrated with all the practice contractions, especially once my due date came and went.

on decemeber 22 i went in to the midwife. i was dilated to a 3, which was good news to me--i would have been so frustrated if all of those early contractions hadn't done a thing. my midwife offered to strip my membranes, which was pretty tempting, but i declined. i was determined not to do any sort of induction (aside from all the "natural" induction stuff i'd been trying for weeks).

that night wes and i went grocery shopping. our cart looked like a 16-year-old boy had done the grocery shopping. totino's pizza, cereal, pudding, frozen burritos, etc. neither of us cared. i was so grumpy from still being pregnant we both decided we deserved to eat awful, awful food. we came home, cooked a pizza, and watched about a boy. went to bed around 11:30.

i lay there for awhile, and started to feel crampy around 12:00. i wasn't ready to believe this was the real thing because of all the false contractions i'd had before. i took a shower to see if they'd slow down. they didn't.

i went back to bed and turned on my hypno birthing affirmations. i eventually had to wake wes up to help me through each contraction. i was so uncomfortable and never in my life have i hated marie mongan's voice more. we turned off the hypnobirthing tracks and went out the family room. i turned on gilmore girls. i got on my hands and knees, leaning on the ottoman during each contraction. as they got worse, wes did counter-pressure on my lower back, which was kind of killer for him because he has a busted wrist.

anyway, as my hypnobirthing teacher often said, most of labor really is boring. there isn't really much to say about the next six hours. i'd sit on the floor and watch gilmore girls while wes tried to sleep between contractions. when a contraction came, i'd get on my hands and knees, breathe, wes would apply counter-pressure, repeat.

my contractions were coming about 4 minutes apart and 45 seconds long for a long time. i finally got tired of timing them. around 4:30-5 i started to feel really bad for wes; he was exhausted. i called my mom to come help do counter pressure so he could sleep a little. by the time my mom got there, my contractions were coming pretty close together, but i still felt like i could handle them.

our plan was to avoid going to the hospital as long as possible to avoid interventions. i wanted to labor at home until it became too much to handle. though my contractions were definitely intense, i still felt like i had a grip on things, so i wasn't really panicking. i started shaking during my contractions, and they were coming so fast that my mom said we'd better get to the hospital.

at this point, sitting in the car sounded like the worst thing in the world. luckily weston drove fast and still did counter pressure on my knees to get me through each contraction.

at the hospital i had to stop in the lobby to get through a contraction. the receptionist still made me spell my name three times.

the triage nurse was also pretty chatty. my contractions were coming really close together, and i had reached the point where i was aware of what was going on around me but i couldn't really respond. she just kept chatting and chatting taking her tiiiiime, "wow you're really in the zone aren't you?!" yes. shut up.

they had two nurses check me, and i was dilated to an 8. holla!

the rest is really a blur. i started pushing pretty quickly after they took me to my room. this is when i started to become unglued, but with the support of weston and my mom, i was able to get through the thoughts of "wow i'm never going to have this baby. they're going to have to cut it out of me. not happening." the nurses started to coach me through the pushing, making me hold my breath, and basically go against everything i'd learned in hypnobirthing. that part was rough, but i only had to push for half an hour, and because i was really starting to lose it, i'm grateful it was only that long.

elsie rae was born at 8:17 a.m. on december 23, 2011.

giving birth was an unreal experience. i am so glad that weston was the perfect birth partner who worked so hard with me throughout the whole process. he was such an active participant and support, i never would have been able to do it without him. between he and my mom, i was really able to have the birth experience i wanted and prepared for for months.

whoo. so long.

as a reward here's elsie receiving her first christmas present:

now that i have the birth story down maybe someday i'll start blogging about stuff again. elsie is the perfect baby. nursing has been a little bit of a nightmare (you name a nursing problem/illness, i've had it), but hopefully things are starting to look up in that area. 

kiss kiss.