But first, let's start with Elle's arrival!
I went into labor on my due date, May 4th, just the same way I did with Emery! What are the odds?! Accept, with him we went to the hospital in the late evening of my due date because I had high blood pressure and they kept me there until the next day when I had him. This time, my blood pressure was fine so I just dealt with contractions off and on that whole day. At about 10 pm Patrick and I were watching tv and the contractions started up again and didn't stop. They were consistently every 8-10 minutes apart and were getting intense compared to what I had earlier in the day. At about 11 Patrick went to bed and I took a shower. I was going to try and sleep but there was no way, they just kept getting closer and stronger. By 1:00 am I was really wanting to go to the birth center but just wasn't sure if I was progressing or not and didn't want to be walking around the birth center laboring there when I could do it at home. So, I held off another hour. At about 2:15 am they were getting very close, 5-6 minutes apart. I called my mom before waking Patrick...I think I needed some reassurance that it really was time to go! She told me she thought it was time that I wake up Patrick and go. I was so happy to hear her say that!
I got off the phone and woke Patrick up. We called our friend's Casey and Dawn, and Casey came over to sleep on the couch at our house so we didn't have to wake up Emery. Patrick loaded the bags in the car, I went in to Emery's room and gave him one last "I love you," and we headed to the birth center around 2:45 am. We got admitted right away and they hooked me up to the monitors and checked me. To all of our surprise, I was already dilated to 7.5! I was shocked. I got an epidural shortly after and was able to rest for awhile. I progressed the rest of the way fairly quickly, but for some reason baby girl didn't want to drop down, so around 8:30 am Dr. Whiddon had me rotate on to my left side and wait an hour to see if she would come down. It worked! A little after 10 am I started pushing and our sweet baby girl was born at 11:07 am on May 5, 2011! Surprisingly she came out huge! Way bigger than either Patrick or I, the nurses or my doctor thought she would be! It was love at first sight!!
In the birth center before weighing, etc they let the parents spend an hour bonding with the baby. This was something we didn't get with Emery and it was awesome! We got to do skin to skin when she was just 5 minutes old. She had her eyes open and her little hand was touching my face as if she was thinking "so this is what my mommy looks like!" I was a ball of emotions and so was Patrick! You wait so long to meet your baby and then when you finally do, it's way better than ever imagined!!
After the nurse gave her a bath and weighed and measured her we made the exciting phone calls! Patrick went home a couple hours later to get Emery so he could meet his baby sister. I'll never forget introducing Emery to his sister. It was such a special and surreal moment. That evening our parents came to meet Elle too. We celebrated with some champagne and took lots of photos!
I felt great very shortly after delivery and was happy to find out we could go home 24 hours after she was born. So, the next morning after she had her last tests and checked out healthy we headed home to begin our life as a family of four!!
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