March 15th Elise decided to make her arrival, 3 days early... and I was thankful for that!
Contractions started at 1:30AM, water broke at 3:20AM. I tried to wait it out for a while (watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall), but by 5:00 the contractions got stronger and I wanted a shower. I woke up Dan and told him that it was the day, and he made me use our code word, which Ireally thought was a joke... "Thundercats, ho!" We got ready and headed to the hospital, admitted a little before 7:00.
I was checked in, set up on monitors, the IV, all the fun stuff. The midwife came in and advised me to walk around which I didn't want to do necessarily, but I did it. The contractions got a lot stronger and I could barely stand up during them, so after 2 laps around the maternity unit I went to bed and dealt with them a while longer from there. Around 11 the nurse asked if I thought I needed something for pain since they knew I was pro-epidural... I said yes! By 11:30 the anesthesiologist had become my best friend and taken all but one little strip of pain away... it was enough to know I was having contractions, but not so bad that it bothered me. I rested a while... unfortunately things slowed down, but at least I was comfortable. Finally at 5:15PM the work began. I could feel some discomfort, but just enough to feel when I had a contraction. As the time went by I was progressing, but getting fatigued. The midwife consulted the OB on call as to whether I should continue, or if surgery would be needed... she said if I was up for it, to keep pushing. The only complication at the time was I had a fever. After a while longer the OB came back in to assist since Elise did not want to come out on her own. She had continued to progress, but I was exhausted to the point of sleeping between contractions.
So with a little help at 9:49PM Elise Michelle made her arrival, 7 pounds 7 ounces, 20.5 inches long. I got to see her for a little while before they took her to the nursery... she needed precautionary antibiotics because of my fever and infection.
The last hour of labor was a little foggy, maybe for the best... once all the excitement was over they brought me dinner around 11PM and I remember eating all of it in about 2 minutes. I was tired, but I was starving! Just as I was falling asleep we had to be moved from the birthing room to the maternity unit (1:30AM), but at least it was nice to feel settled.
