We’re shouting it from the rooftops – the most wonderful little person has finally arrived.
Elaina Maria was born at 12:38pm on October 14, 2010. She weighs 9lbs 9oz and is 21 inches long. Big baby!
Our Elaina, one minute old
She was due October 7 – waiting those last 7 days was excruciating, both physically and emotionally. I tried to be positive, but I was filled with anxiety. Though Todd tried to calm me, I was mostly inconsolable. Practitioners don’t like to see pregnancies go past 42 weeks because the placenta starts to age and be less effective (among other complications). So when the morning of October 13th arrived and Elaina had not, I knew that I would have to schedule an induction.
I am terrified of inductions. My mother was induced with my older sister and had a bad experience that nearly led to a hysterectomy (in which case I wouldn’t exist!) Furthermore, I knew that the drug they use, Pitocin, often makes contractions too strong for the mother to bear unmedicated. I wanted a natural birth, so I was afraid of the pain.
At my October 13th appointment, I reluctantly scheduled an induction for October 19th. Then I went home and cried. I walked 2 miles. I indulged in some comfort food to take the edge off of how miserable I was. She was heavy, hurting my back – every time she turned was quite painful. That night at abut 11:00, Todd and I went out to try to walk away my tears and fears – and also to get some cider. At 12:30 or so, Todd went to bed. I stayed up and stretched a little bit.
When I finally decided to lie down, about quarter to 2, I did one last stretch in bed to ease some hip pain and crack! I heard a loud popping noise that appeared to come from between my legs. I hopped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Sure enough, my water had broken!!!! I yelled for Todd to get in there. He sleepily drug himself out of bed after the third or forth solicitation.
“Todd, look! My water broke!”
“It did?”
“Yes, look at this! And it’s still coming!”
“That’s great, Ann…”
And then he slowly lumbered off and crawled back in bed. Not the reaction I was going for. Read More…
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Apr.27,2011
See you in an hour or so. I’ll sleep too. Well, I’ll try. The coffee just kicked in.
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