The Stork Surprised Us!

That's right - Eliza Carol arrived a week before her due date - and two weeks before I was expecting her. We are so happy that she's here early - the more time to enjoy her!

She was born at 4:11 am on Friday morning, 7 lbs 7 oz, 18 3/4 inches long. Here's her birth story....

I went into 'prelabor' Thursday night around 9:00 pm. I was feeling extra tired, achy, and uncomfortable while I was making dinner and afterwards, and I was feeling lots of Braxton Hix contrations. I went to bed and soon I realized that these B. H. contractions were getting regular... I was sure that I was in prelabor, so we took this picture of me showing what I looked like at 39 weeks. I have a photo like this of me when I was pregnant with Benjamin and it's always fun to look back on it and remember how big I was!

At 11pm I started to have painful contractions, and by 2am I woke Jed up to have him time them. Well, lo-and-behold, they were 50 seconds long and about 60 seconds apart! What??! I had been so busy concentrating and working through them that I didn't realize they were right on top of each other, and it was way past time to get to the hospital. (Normally second-time laboring women should get to the hospital when contractions are 60 seconds long and 4 minutes apart.) Thus began a crazy run-around of trying to get everything ready and the car loaded. Jed got Benny up and loaded in the car with his bag of clothes/diapers that I had already prepared. But my bag wasn't packed, and I was giving Jed instructions between HARD contractions on what to pack. Last of all, Jed helped me out of bed and into my clothes and coat. Between the time that I awoke him and the time we left I had gone from painful contractions to extra-hard contractions, and after we dropped off Benjamin I migrated to have having AGONIZING contractions. By the time we drove into the parking lot I was bearing down at the end of some of the contractions. We made our way to the front entrance and realized it was locked. Luckily a nurse saw us and after awhile got a side door opened for us. It was obvious that I was in labor because I was literally hanging on Jed for support, as I couldn't walk on my own. For me, the trip to the Labor & Delivery unit is a blur - my eyes were closed the whole time and I was just trying to hang on. They put me on a bed and when the nurse checked me she said "She's complete! She's complete! Where's her doctor?!" I was telling them that I needed to push and they all exclaimed, "No - don't push!!!" After 5 or 10 minutes my doctor arrived and I started pushing. My doctor invited Jed to 'deliver' the baby, and so they helped him into a gown and he stood next to the doctor. I think this was the hardest part of the delivery - I kept asking them, "How many more pushes? I don't think I can push any longer!" After 30 minutes, Eliza's head was out, and then after one more push, her body followed, and I had this strange empty feeling inside, and a wonderful feeling of release. (Release might seem a strange word, but that defines it perfectly - I was pushing and pushing, and the pressure was mounting, and I was feeling more and more desperate to have it over with...) Jed caught her head in the way the doctor had instructed him, and then caught her body and handed her to the nurse. My doctor showed him how to cut the cord, and then she was whisked over to the pediatrician and nurses to help her start breathing. Jed and I were both excited and relieved and happy! It was a wonderful feeling to have the delivery over with, and I was able to do a VBAC like I had hoped, as well as a natural delivery which we had been preparing for, but most exciting was our darling baby girl of course. We were so happy that she arrived safe and healthy, and she was beautiful!

The nurses and doctor had to work on Eliza for about 45 minutes as she was having difficulty breathing; they called it Transient Tachypnea (TTN) and it's not uncommon in newborns. Then I got to hold her for about 60 seconds (pictured above left) before they took her to the Nursery and put her on an IV (they were being cautious and starting her on antibiotics since they didn't know exactly when my amniotic sac had broken, as I had been slowly leaking amniotic fluid for a week.) As it turned out, I wasn't able to hold her for many hours, and then it was only for 10 minutes with her IV still attached. 13 hours after delivery, she was cleared and we got to have her in our room with us, and I was able to nurse for the first time.

When Benjamin came to visit on Friday and Saturday, he was completely disinterested in Eliza. He just wanted to eat my graham crackers and pretend to talk to "Grandma" on the phone, or watch the ambulances out of the window. On Saturday Jed and I walked around the halls with Benny and Eliza, and both our little ones got a ride. :)

Here we are on Sunday before we got discharged:

So now we're home and enjoying our 2 1/2 days-old baby girl. She is such a sweetie, and loves to be held and cuddled. Luckily Jed's mom was able to change her plans to come and is arriving tonight to help me this week, as Jed goes back to work. My mom isn't coming until the 19th, right about when I predicted I was going to be having this baby!

Her middle name, Carol, is after my mother, Janice Carol. I love that - she is named after an incredible woman that means the world to me. "Carol" is especially perfect as she was born only a week and a half after Christmas. She is our little caroling angel, arriving just after the holidays.

We are so thankful for Eliza! We feel very blessed to have this darling little baby in our family. Yay!