Eleanor's Story

The last 2 weeks, Tyler and I have pretty much secluded ourselves from the world, with the exception of having our moms here to help out (it's been very helpful). We're trying to get the hang of this "baby" thing, and enjoy it at the same time :). Eleanor has been such a treat to have in our home, and we love her more and more each day, if that's even possible. 

We've had so many people reach out, and offer to bring meals, or do kind things for us, and I just have to say that we are so grateful for such nice friends, family, and ward family members. We feel extremely blessed that we live where we live, and are able to be associated with such great people. A lot of people have asked about how the birth went down, and instead of giving every single detail, I thought I'd just give a little timeline of what went down May 14th (and the day before). 

On Wednesday, May 13th, I was 5 days past my due date, and my doctor had planned for me to try to be induced at 9am (he was worried about the size of the baby).

11:30 - We were finally checked in, in our room, and changed into my hospital gown (this was all very surreal feeling). Once I was ready, they used a pill called, "cytotech" to hopefully help soften my cervix (I was at 70% effaced and 1cm dilated when we checked in).

4ish hours later - After one round of cytotech, I had still not made any progress, so they did another round of it. During this time, I was able to move around some of the time. We walked around, went outside to the garden, ate lunch and dinner, etc...

 

4ish hours later - Still no progress, but my contractions were happening quite often (not strong, just enough to be too much pressure on the baby), so they weren't able to do another round of the cytotech. 

At this point, it was getting late, and it was hard to believe that we would ever see progress. However, we knew this would be a long process, being at the hospital, so we were prepared for many, many more hours. 

3am - After receiving fluids (to hopefully slow down my contractions), and LOTS of waiting, my doctor came in (he was there for another delivery) to check me. Good news, I had made a little progress...I was now at 1.5 cm dilated, and was 90% effaced (I think), so he was able to break my water! I was terrified because I had heard bad things about having your water broken, but it really wasn't bad AT ALL! It actually felt really good. As soon as it was over, though, the pain began...the pressure of her head was becoming really heavy.

After breaking my water, the nurses started me on pitocin, to hopefully speed things up.

Between 5 and 6 am, the pressure of her head, mixed with the contractions, was making it so I really wanted the epidural, so we paged the CRNA on duty. He came in, was super nice, talked to me the entire time, and made the whole experience a very pleasant one. A few minutes later, I was feeling good :)

8am - The nurse checked me, and I was almost dilated to a 3, still 90% effaced, which we were thrilled about. That meant the pitocin and epidural were working. My body was finally relaxed and able to progress. After checking me, the nurse put a peanut-shaped medicine ball in between my legs to help with dilation. 

2ish hours later (about 10:15) - The nurse came in to do her check, and was shocked to see that I was at a 9, possibly a 10. She checked me in a different position, and sure enough I was fully effaced and at a 10! The progress happened quick! 

The nurse had me do some practice pushes (where she could actually see her full head of dark hair), and then "labor down" for a little while to hopefully move the baby without putting the pressure of pushing on the baby. After this, the doc was called, and I did a few more practice pushes (where it was confirmed that I was at a +2). 

About 11:15 - Doc showed up, set up the area, I pushed (about 6 rounds of pushing... each round was 3 pushes, each 10 seconds), and Eleanor made her debut at 11:46am.

This is obviously after a lot of tears {of happiness} and hours of exhaustion.

A lot of people have asked how we chose the name Eleanor... Well, I actually had a dream, months ago, that we received a gift for our baby, and it was addressed to Eleanor. I had never even thought of the name Eleanor before, but after that it was always at the top of our list.