Amelia is a big sister!

Posted In: Eloise, Amelia — May 20, 2009 @ 9:47 am — Stephanie

Introducing Eloise Charlotte!

In the wee hours of May 13th, my water broke and our new journey as a family of FOUR began. We waited around the whole day for my labor to intensify, but unfortunately, it did not. My midwives summoned me to the hospital to begin an augmentation of my non-progressing labor, so we left shortly after our friend Linda came to take care of Amelia while we were gone (a debt we can never fully repay).

Since the regular admissions desk was closed, we were diverted to the emergency room for admittance to the hospital. I thought Peter was going to cause a riot or at least an ugly scene when we were seated next to a man being tested (out in the open!) for Swine Flu. I was admitted and a Labor/Delivery nurse came to get me because my waters were uh, flowing freely… After we were settled into our labor/delivery room, I was hooked up to the fetal monitor for what felt like forever. At 11:30pm, they finally started me on Cervidil to try to get things going.

No such luck. The next afternoon, I was still not progressing, so they began the dreaded Pitocin. That worked very, very well. Within two hours, I was making my way through the contractions on a birthing ball with Peter performing splendidly as coach. He really did well! So well, in fact, that we decided we didn’t need to hire a doula this time. When things got super painful, I did end up going with an epidural. The anesthesiologist tried placing the epidural in the usual place, but I screamed as he apparently hit a nerve or something. He seemed confused, like he almost didn’t believe I was feeling the intense pain I was feeling. Suddenly, Peter turned a putrid shade of half yellow/half white and nearly fell on top of me. Peter apparently thought I was going to be paralyzed by the epidural. The nurse was able to catch him and shove him into a chair somehow, his color quickly returned to normal, and the epidural was successfully inserted in a higher place above my spinal curvature. The epidural was only working on the left side, so they had me lie on my right side to get the meds to flow that way. It worked. I was totally numb and felt none of the contractions registering on the monitor.

An hour after the epidural was given, I started feeling strange. No pain, just pressure. I was halfway there at 5cm, and the baby was just about in position. All of my fears of a super long labor were fading now. Things were moving…and quickly! Not even fifteen minutes later I reported the need to push. I was checked, and yep, we were ready to go. The midwife was off delivering another baby, so we had to wait an hour for that. Peter and I laughed and talked excitedly about whether we’d be taking a little boy or a little girl home with us and about how Amelia was going to react to being a big sister.

The midwife came in and everything went so fast it still amazes me to think about, being that Amelia’s birth was so different. As soon as she gave me the all-clear for pushing, I was focused and somehow managed to push productively despite not being able to feel a thing. After twelve minutes of pushing (Amelia was born after five HOURS of pushing), our baby entered the world. They covered the baby up, placed her on my chest, and didn’t utter a word about the sex of the baby. Peter and I were supposed to look at the same time, but Daddy got so excited he blocked my view with his big old head. He turned to me smiling and I finally saw that we had given Amelia a baby sister! We babbled incoherently at each other and at the baby for awhile, and then started vividly imagining our future as a family with two beautiful daughters. Peter imagined baseball bats for the inevitable teenage boys and I imagined Amelia with her new little sidekick. Ah, all the trouble they will get into…

Her stats: 7 lbs, 10.8 oz, 20″ and with a head circumference of 14″:

We named her Eloise Charlotte. Eloise is a form of my middle name, Louise. Charlotte is after a Cure song (Charlotte Sometimes), a favorite book of mine with a lot of meaning to me (Charlotte’s Web), and author Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre), who ironically likely died of Hyperemesis, which I had throughout this pregnancy.

Without further ado, here is our sweet Eloise:

And taken yesterday, at five days old: