Eliza Crimson (the LONG story)

Last Monday I was absolutely miserable. I'd been having contractions for a while (like months) but once November hit they started to get a lot more intense. Honestly I was starting to get pretty stressed thinking about 3 more weeks of contractions like that. At my 36 week appointment the week before my Dr.checked me and said that I was at a 2, which was somewhat encouraging because something was happening, but also discouraging because I knew I could stay at a 2 for ages. I had another appointment scheduled for Tuesday and I was planning on talking to my doctor about how I should know to go to the hospital since I was having so many contractions already. I also wanted to talk to her about if I should get an epidural or not. Since I was striving for a VBAC, I wanted to do everything that would make that most likely to be a success.  It ended up that I didn't get the chance. Monday night I went visiting teaching. I was miserable the whole time, but it was a good distraction. When I got home Christian and the kids surprised me with a clean house! Because the dishes were done and everything was clean, I headed to bed early. I'm glad I did, because I had no idea what a long night I had ahead of me!

 Now, just for the record, I had never gone into labor before, so I had no idea what to expect. With Kate I was induced because I had preeclampsia and with James I had a c-section because he was breech. Also, Kate was born on her due date and James was born at 39 weeks, so I was not expecting anything to happen until close to November 28th. What a surprise when I woke up at 1:30 and my water had broken (as a side note, I was telling this story later and Kate asked, "why did your water bottle break?" I think she was so concerned because she likes to borrow my big pink water bottle to take to school sometimes. Don't worry kiddo, the water bottle is still ok). At least, I thought it broke. It took me a whole half hour to decide that it really did and I hadn't just wet my pants. Christian was a little skeptical at first, but it might have just been he was super tired! I called the doctor's office and they said to head on over to the hospital. I called my next door neighbor, and the saint of a woman gladly came over and slept on the couch. I will always be grateful for her making me feel like it was ok to leave the kids and go have a baby. So Christian and I frantically threw some last minute things in the hospital bag (I'd only packed a couple of things) and jumped in the car. There was absolutely no traffic and we flew right there. Right before our exit, the check tire pressure light came on, but we ignored it and kept going. We got there, parked and headed in. 

At Littleton Hospital, the policy is that you have to check in through the emergency room. As a mild germ-a-phob, I was kind of anxious about that. Luckily there was only one guy in the waiting room and he was called back before I was even checked into the hospital. I did make Christian use the hand sanitizer like six times though. The nurse came down, wheeled me up, and started the process of checking me in. She asked me a list of about a hundred questions and then finally checked how things were progressing. I was at a 4. That made me feel discouraged. I've heard so many stories of friends who go into labor and then have babies and hour or two later. I also knew that my 'labor clock' was ticking since my water had already broken. Throw in the fact that they could only use a low dose of pitocin if needed because I was going for a VBAC, I was starting to get nervous.

 I paced for a while, Christian and I watched some episodes of the Office on his phone, and I just anxiously waited and the contractions got worse and worse. I was holding off on the epidural because I still wasn't sure if it would increase my chances of a c-section or not. I started googling epidurals to try to make the decision. At about 5:30 in the morning I started calling friends to arrange where the kids were going to go for the day. My wonderful friend Jessica was willing, even though I called her ridiculously early, to take Kate to school and then spend the day with James playing Legos. Again, I'm really grateful for good friends who helped out. About 7:00 we started texting family letting them know what was going on. My Dr. came in and we finally had a talk about epidurals. She said, "I highly recommend it. Right now your body is fighting the contractions and with an epidural your body will be able to relax and let the contractions do their thing." Around this time my mom kept texting me to see how things were going, but I wasn't really responding...I was miserable after all. Finally she texted me, "If I get on a plane I can be there at 3:30. Do you want me to do that?" I called her back right away. I know my friends would be willing to take the kids until we were out of the hospital, but there's nothing like grandma and sleeping in your own bed when your world is being turned upside down. After that phone call the nurse came in to check me and said I was between a 5 and a 6. Right then I also decided to get an epidural, which was a great choice!

The anesthesiologist came in about 8 and got me set up. Unfortunately, the epidural really only worked on the left side. On the right side I could still feel pretty much everything. They kept having my turn onto my right side to try to get it to disperse more evenly, but every time I laid on my right side the baby's heart rate would drop. I kept saying, "I'm fine! It's doing enough to get me by." and he kept saying, "But I want you to be comfortable, not just fine." Well, we never did get it to work on the right, but like I said, it was enough to get me through. They had put me on the lowest possible dose of pitocin before the epidural, and turned it up just a tiny bit after they put the epidural in.During the whole process I had a student nurse, Conner. He looked really young, maybe 20. He was telling me that he had never seen labor before. I was really curious what he thought of the whole thing!

After a little while I started hearing harp music. At first I thought I was crazy, but then Christian said he heard it too. I sent him out to see if there was an actual harp there. He came back and confirmed that yes, there was a lady out in the hall playing the harp. It was really nice to listen to. 

After a little while, even while feeling the contractions on the right side, I fell asleep. I was exhausted. It wasn't good sleep, I kept waking up with contractions, but then falling back asleep for a couple of minutes at a time.

About 1:30 I woke up screaming. Christian called the nurse. She came to check me and said, "Oh! You're there!" All the sudden a whole bunch of people rushed in. A couple of minutes later the anesthesiologist popped his head it to see how the epidural was going and he got shewed out very quickly. Luckily for me, the delivery part of labor and delivery didn't last very long at all. Maybe 8 minutes. That being said, it was a very painful 8 minutes! I was so happy once she arrived! I couldn't believe it when they handed her to me. She was so TINY!! She weighed 5 lbs 14.6 oz, .2 oz smaller that Kate who was 5 lbs 14.8 oz. We just rounded them both to 5lbs 15oz. She was 17.5 inches. One of the first things I noticed was all the hair! There's an old wives tale that the more heartburn, the more hair. Well, I definitely had the most heartburn with her, and she definitely has the most hair! Unfortunately, if she's anything like her siblings, the hair will all be gone in a couple of months. 

My friend Andrea picked up my mom at the airport, and before Christian and I ate dinner the kids were able to come meet their sister. They fell in love instantly. We told them her name: Eliza Crimson, and they agreed. We picked Eliza because it was a name we all liked (James hear the song little Liza Jane a while ago on Pandora and had liked it ever since). Christian picked her middle name and I absolutely love it. The kids walk around the house now singing "Oh Little Eliza, little Eliza Crimson, Oh Little Eliza, little Eliza Crimson." 

Since my mom was with the kids, I didn't feel any pressure to get home so we stayed the full two nights in the hospital. A while back I had signed the kids up for a sibling class at the hospital. Then ended up going and when the class ended on the mother/baby floor, the kids proudly showed off their new sister to the other kids and parents. In the class they learned how to be 'super siblings' and they have been playing super siblings ever since. 

The second day we were in the hospital got a little crazy. My mom called to let me know that while she and the kids went out to play in the snow, they got locked out of the house. Christian went to go bring them a key, but when he got to the car, he was in for a surprise. Remember how the tire light went on? Well, the tire was completely flat. He had to go get it changed before he could take the key to the snow bunnies. In the middle of all the chaos, I got a knock on the door of my room . It was the massage therapist! I love that hospital. 

So, it's been a whole week now and we're still figuring out how to be a family of five. Kate, James, and I have all had our emotional highs and lows. That being said, we are all really happy Eliza is here. So far she has been such a mellow baby! And she is just as darling as could be, see?

She looks like both Kate and James, but I think she looks more like James. I can't believe how much she smiles in her sleep! She must have very happy dreams. 

As for the other two, they are really enjoying their baby sister. Kate said, "She like a baby doll! That moves!" She loves adorning Eliza with hats and bows. She also likes picking out new outfits, especially anything sparkly. Eliza's nails were getting long and Kate filed them for me (don't worry, I supervised).

 

 James is totally enamored with her. He's still in the process of figuring out how much love is the right amount (he would kiss her face off if he could). He loves to sit and chat with her.

 So there you have it! The story of how we became a family of 5. Eliza, we are so glad you're a part of our family!