bringing Ella to this world

Ella was born on Tuesday, May 5th 2009, at 8:05AM.
She waited 5 days past her estimated due date, which is quite normal, but still the last few days seemed like forever! or, to put it in other words, it seemed like i was pregnant for 40 weeks and 5 years. over the weekend, it was quite common to see me poking at my belly and calling "come out! come out!"

so here's the full story.

Apr 30 - May 1: is my bag of water broken?
a few days before Ella was born, i suspected that my bag of water has broken. i called the clinic and talked to the doctor who was on call, who speculated that i'll probably start contracting over night. since that didn't happen, i was sent to the hospital the next morning, but sent back home disappointed - the doctors there concluded that i wasn't going into labor after all.

May 2-3: baby, come out!
we tried to convince Ella to come out over the weekend, when the whole family was here, by staying on my feet for as long as my feet would carry me: we toured the botanical gardens, went to museums -- but she wasn't convinced...

May 4th: it's time
on monday, May 4th, i had an appointment to see my doctor for a checkup. she decided that i probably did have my bag of waters broken, and scheduled an induction for later that evening. she sent me home with an order to get "a big meal and a fat nap" - since i probably won't be getting either once i'm at the hospital.
i followed doctor's orders - lunch at the signature room with the excited grandparents to be: Oddi, Dalia and Sandy. then, a trip to Joann to get some yarn (i needed to have something to keep me distracted at the delivery room, no? of course i didn't use it after all...)
i started feeling some contractions later that afternoon, and again in the car on the way to the hospital, and when we got to the delivery floor they started coming closer together - great timing!

the delivery room
a nurse came and got me into my own private delivery room. i was hooked up to monitors (heart beat & contractions), and they started me on a slow, low dosage of pitocin. i was asked what i was planning to do for pain, and i didn't even blink before saying "epidural!"



it was kinda hard to decide when i wanted to start the epidural, since i really don't know how to scale my pain from 1 to 10 or anything like that. eventually i reached a point where i didn't want it to be any more painful than it already was, so i asked to have it started.
hurray epidural!!
it felt like sitting on a cloud. from then on, i didn't feel the contraction pain at all... i got some sleep during the night, on and off, being woken up to switch sides every once in a while. ben stayed up most of the time to watch over me and make sure there wasn't anything i needed and didn't have. he gave me some water and ice chips, and most importantly - love :) i think he had a chance send out a couple of emails, and to nap a little too.

at 6:30 the contractions became stronger than the epidural and i started feeling them, so they gave me another dose - the nurse said that this stage of "latent" delivery can take anywhere between 12-24 hours... i fell asleep for a while again, and like 2 hours later my doctor started her shift, and came to see me. i was very sleepy and just woke up from a good nap, and surprise surprise - i was fully dialated! ready to go!

time to push!
from here on everything was very fast. my doctor changed into her work clothes, and explained how to push, and said that it can take 2-3 hours of pushing.
apparently i did so well on the first "practice" contraction that they told me to stop -- they realized it was going to be much quicker than that! nothing was set yet: the doctor and nurse hustled to change the bed configuration and spread all their tools, page the pediatrician, and within a few minutes they started telling me to push. they had to tell me when to push because as i said, i didn't feel the contractions.
ben was at my side the whole time, he followed the doctor's orders and helped with the delivery. i could see from the amazed look on his face how things were progressing :)
i pushed through like 3 contractions, and the baby's head was out! ben said it all took about 5 minutes.

it's a girl!
i could see Ella's little body come out, and she gave one big cry. ben cut the cord, and my doctor quickly handed Ella to the team of pediatricians to have her mouth and nose cleaned (a standard procedure when the baby has her first bowel movement inside... don't want her to be breathing THAT!). i remember looking at her at the baby station, just 3-4 meters away from my bed, and from where i was looking the only thing i could clearly see was that it's indeed a girl ;)
ben took the mandatory weighing pictures (8lbs, 8oz) then held her in his arms, and brought her over to me. i couldn't help being emotional, and didn't even try to stop the tears in my eyes :)

we did it, we made this little precious baby, and she's all us!



the whole experience was amazing for me. besides a couple of hours of contractions before starting the epidoral, it was all pain free. pushing the baby out was much faster and easier than i thought it would be... seems like my body knew what "pushing" means, Ella was positioned just right, and my doctor was very clear in her orders.
i guess i was lucky.