The Labor Story

Here is the story of how ELAINE GRACE KNIGHT came into the world on Sunday, July 8, 2012.  For the preceding two weeks I had been feeling like the time was near, especially since I was already dilated two centimeters at my 38 week doctor's appointment.  Though I realized that she would probably come similar to her siblings on or near her due date.  This is exactly what she did.  On Saturday Jim and I had a nice day hanging out with the family.  We went to the library, checked out some new books, and enjoyed time together.  In the evening  I ran over to Target to get a few grocery items as well as see if I could find any gifts for the kids that would be from their new sister.  This was actually the last thing on my official To-Do list before having the baby.  Nothing on there was super critical, but was more of an ideal list of things that I wanted to accomplish before she came.  So while at Target, I was able to find a few great toys to give the kids.  While I was shopping I did feel some major contractions, but again wasn't totally sure as I had been feeling a variety of contractions for awhile now.  However, after putting the kids to bed, I began to feel more.  Still wasn't 100% positive this was it, but was starting to think that it probably was especially based on my other kids coming around their due dates.  So finally, I told Jim about 10:00 pm we better get ready for bed because if this is it then we want to try to get a some sleep.  At this point I also called my Mom to give her and my Dad a warning that they may want to get their items ready to head over as they were going to be watching the kids for us while we were in the hospital.  My Mom said she had thought this was probably it too as she said she had been feeling sympathy pains right before I called. :) Jim and I were ready for bed, but now contractions had started to get pretty intense and it was now 11:00 p.m.  They were not super close together, but painful and thus I wasn't really getting much sleep at this point.  

For me, I pretty much just rested between the contractions as much as I could.  However, at 2:19 a.m. I started to write all the contractions down.  The consistency from the beginning seemed to be the same anywhere from 10:00-5:00 minutes apart, but man were they all painful.  So finally at about this time we also started to really get ready to head out to the hospital.  I called labor and delivery at about 4:00ish between contractions.  Then I officially called my parents to head over pretty much after that and they arrived about 5:00 a.m.  We checked into the hospital at 6:10 a.m.   

Here I am right before we left for the hospital at 40 weeks exactly.

Here are Jim and I together with little Elaine still inside. :)

At the hospital when getting checked in I was already dilated to a 6.  The doctor thought the baby would be here soon.  At this time I was a little undecided as to get the epidural, but Jim talked me into it.  I was thankful for the decision as I really was able to good some good rest in before she came.  Always so funny to think of napping while progressing to 10 cm to give birth, but I did it.  This worked out wonderful for both Jim and I since neither of us were really able to sleep during the night.  These are pictures before the epidural, but I did have the IV all hooked up and ready to go.

Also, to back up, my main hesitation in getting the epidural this time was because when I had Evie and got the epidural she decided to come as I was still sitting up and had just gotten the epidural done.  So I thought, is it pointless to get it, will my recovery be bad if I get it for a long period???  These were questions I didn't know, because with Evan I had a super hard recovery after birth, Evie's was so much better.  I wanted to be able to have a similar recovery with Evie as I knew I would need the strength to keep up with all the kids when I returned home.  

Jim with the board and all the exciting details of the Labor and Delivery Room.

Now this is a picture of me after I had the epidural, things were going good, but I noticed that I had lost all the feeling in my right hand when the doctors came in to meet me in the morning.  I thought this was a little weird, I could go with it, but wanted them to know. :)  When I told everyone about this, they also noticed that my right eye was starting to look a little different.  Somehow the epidural had gone up way too high since I was on the shorter side.  They had to adjust it, once they did all was back to normal.  The bummer was that I did have to wear oxygen for about an hour.  Not fun, having those things in your nose.  Here I am trying to give  a thumb's up.  I had to help hold up my right thumb at this point.

Once everything was adjusted, life was good again and labor continued to progress.  Contractions were still not totally consistent, but when I had them they were good long ones and did their job to help progress the labor.  At this point it was looking like I would probably have Elaine a little after 12:00 p.m.  However, this all changed with Jim and I heard screams outside of our room.  A woman came in with her baby pretty much falling out from what the nurses and doctors said and we got bumped.  Our nurse Leslie said the doctors were seriously just headed in to check me and were getting ready to proceed with labor.  Nevertheless, all of this was okay.  During the waiting we continued to rest.  However, after 1:00 p.m. Elaine wasn't wanting to be in there much longer.  The epidural had been turned down where I wasn't feeling any numbness in the delivery area, which was I guess good because it helped me to push more effectively, but also REALLY PAINFUL!  Also, our adorable second daughter was about a whole pound heavier than both Evie and Evan, which in-addition added to the pain.  

Nonetheless, Elaine Grace, came out at 1:49 p.m. after about 15-20 minutes of pushing and I think about 4-5 pushes.  This is Jim's memory too, again, the pain was pretty intense (I mean like screaming, crying, eyes closed hurting pain), however, the nurses, doctors and Jim were super encouraging which is a huge help, as well as the amazing and breathtaking experience of seeing our new little miracle.  Once she came out though, the pain was still strong, until the placenta also exited.  At this point, I was able to finally get some relief to look, hold, and feel our newest little angel.

Daddy got to cut the cord and then I finally got to cuddle with my new little bundle of adorableness.  Thank you God for our newest little miracle!

Here is little Elaine after being measured at 7 lbs. 7 oz.

Now here she is getting her bath.

And here she is getting ready for the Pediatrician to come and check her out.

She got a clean bill of health, they did find a small dimple at the bottom of her spine, but said it was really small and they weren't too worried, but wanted to do an ultrasound after our stay at the hospital to make sure.  We had this ultrasound done on Wed., July 18, and all looked good.

Jim and I were instantly in love.  The best part is how she just looks like one of our kids.  God is so amazing!

   

We got to go home the next day, Monday, July 9.  The doctor told us that she wanted us to stay for a least 24 hours so we checked out about 2:15 p.m. give or take a little.  Here are Elaine and I in normal clothes again.  Elaine has her Little Sister shirt on. :)

Jim taking everything out to the car and then preparing to bring it closer to the hospital entrance to take his girls home.

Once he returned we buckled Elaine up to get ready to leave.  She wasn't so sure about the car seat at first, but quickly settled down.  Good thing Daddy is also a pro at getting this thing buckled now too.

Here she is ready for her first car ride and first trip home.

Bye, bye for now Kaiser.  Thanks for helping us to delivery our precious Baby Girl!  We are very thankful for the amazing experience we had with the whole medical team that helped us during our stay.