Elise Mae Smith

   Sunday morning my dad had to leave to get stuff done before flying out early Wednesday morning to Hawaii, life is so hard for him right. Anywho I asked mom if she would stay until Tuesday just in case baby decided to make an entrance. By this point I am 5 days over my due date. No amount of tears would persuade the doctor to induce me. To say that we were all bummed would be an understatement. The Doctor did suggest drinking red raspberry leaf tea and taking primerose daily by mouth and sticking it somewhere else.... if you know what I mean. I was ready to try anything. So back to Sunday..... My mom joined us at church again and helped in the Nursery while I was in RS. I had been having some Braxton Hicks contractions and started spotting Sunday morning. By RS the Braxton Hicks started to get a little more intense. By the time we got home I was having contractions that were pretty intense making me stop what I was doing because they were hurting. After starting a fire in the oven and finishing our dinner we all took a walk. The contractions kept coming but were never regular. We put Bronson to bed and the 3 of us played card games. Still no regular contractions but man they were still coming and I was still spotting. We said goodnight and went to bed.

     Sleep was hard that night or the lack thereof. Finally around 4:00ish my contractions were at least every 5 minutes. Ty woke up and was nice to rub my back during the contractions and also grabbed the last minute items along with the hospital bags to the car. Ty woke my mom up around 5:30ish to say we were on our way to the hospital. She came downstairs to bid farewell and gave me a nice back rub during a contraction. 

As we parked our car at the hospital another vehicle also pulled in. A very enthusiastic man asked Ty if we were here to also deliver a baby. He grabbed a little boy, maybe two years old, and helped his wife out of the car. We all made our way up to triage. While the nurse was asking me questions a frantic woman came barging into our room. Good thing the nurse wasn't checking my status on dilation. Come to find out it was the grandmother to the other couple that showed up the same time as us. I was only dilated to a 2, yep felt like a failure, however I did come in with contractions every 3-5 minutes apart for over an hour. They sent us to walk inside the hospital for 2 hours straight to see if that would help me along. As we made the too many too count laps in the hospital my contractions stopped. Yep the tears came and I couldn't stop them.Then I got this weird pain in my back that wasn't going away. I knew they were going to send us home. After 2 hours we made our way back to triage to check the status of my cervix. Surprisingly enough I was at a 4 and I was going to be admitted, YAHOO!!!!! 

Thankfully the contractions came back. I mentioned to the nurse how I was having this weird pain in my back. She informed me it was back labor, oh.... ya I felt stupid. The contractions hurt but I was able to breathe through them ok. After talking with Ty we decided to go ahead with an epidural. They came and did the needed blood work for that and left. Not too later the back contractions came back.... HO-LEE FIRE!!!! That had to be the worse pain I have ever felt. Sweet cheeks was the best for me. He held me and rubbed my back as I sobbed uncontrollably. That back contraction lasted for 10 minutes without any reprieve. So happy I got an epidural!!!!

They moved us from triage into our delivery room and the Anesthesiologist was all ready for us. She got that thing in and all pain was gone. No more back contractions hallelujah! Ty and I watched some basketball and chilled out. They started D5W drip on me for my Gestational Diabetes and that helped me stay within normal because I was starting to get low. Surprisingly my very own doctor walked in. He had the night shift for the delivery floor that night. I asked how he was doing, his response: "Terrible, thanks for asking". He was sick but still had to work. 

Ty and I both napped and was awoken by the nurse to see how I was progressing. I told her I was feeling some pressure down yonder. "OH! Your baby is right here!". I was fully dilated and the baby's head was right there. I told her to shut up and asked if she was serious. All lights were turned on and my bed was getting changed for delivery. She wanted to see if I would be able to push correctly because I was totally numb and couldn't move or feel anything from the waist down. I did one push and she stopped me. This baby was on their way! Ty and I were both so happy that we were not going to have an emergency C-Section and that I was going to push baby out. Dr. Gough came in and suited up. Ty helped hold one of my legs up and a student held my other one. After only 3 pushes baby plopped out. The doctor asked Ty to announce the gender. Up to this point I was 100% certain it was a little boy. "Pretty sure that is a girl". WHAT?! Totally shocked and then turned to pure joy, we had a little girl joining our family. Elise Mae Smith. 8lbs 9.6oz 21.34 inches long with brown hair.

I had 3rd degree tears and the doctor stitched me up while the NICU nurses checked out baby Elise. After receiving my epidural I wasn't progressing so the doctor broke my water. They discovered there was meconium, meaning the baby had pooped. The NICU nurses were there for delivery just in case baby Elise wasn't breathing very good. Thankfully She was breathing great and they could just leave. I did recognize one nurse but didn't know how. Finally made the connection that she was in the Indian School Ward. Small world.

We were also overjoyed when Elise took right to breastfeeding, HALLELUJAH! Bronson really struggled and after 3.5 weeks and losing weight we had to switch to the bottle. I pumped for 10.5 months and then fed him the bottle. I had so much milk that we froze the extra and he had breastmilk up to 13 months old. So having Elise take right from me was amazing! Good job girl!!!!

  

  

  

Things work out, they do every time. My mom was able to take care of Bronson all Monday and then brought him to the Hospital to see Elise for the first time. She hung out with us for about 2 hours and then went straight to the airport to make her flight home. So very happy she came down and helped us get things ready. Also I just love spending time with my mom. Thank you mom!!!!

We love our little Miss Elise!!!!! She is the perfect addition to our family!!!!