Elise's Birth Story

We were scheduled to be induced on Thursday the 23rd.  Methodist doesn't have a super big labor and delivery unit so I was the only person on the schedule for induction. Turns out every single person who could go into labor did Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  I called at 5, told to call back at 8.  Called at 8, told to call back at 10.  Called at 10, told they just weren't going to fit me in that day it was just that crazy.
So instead I went to the doctor instead and we rescheduled it for Friday...
Friday morning I woke up and called around 5- they said come in at 6! We got ready and headed out the door. We arrived at exactly 5:59 and got settled into our room.  With all the shift changing the IV medicine I needed wasn't started till 7:30 (meaning I could not deliver safely until after 11:30).
The pitocin was started at 7:40 and my first contraction was at 7:45.  I was already dilated to 3 cm so they did a super small amount of pitocin, so slow that at 11:30 they checked and I was only 5 cm. So they broke my water to get things moving along. I got so bored waiting.  Chris brought a whole bunch of paperwork with him from work so he could spend more time with us the next week, but it was a little lame watching day time tv...
Since I couldn't get up and move or do much to distract myself from the pain, I decided to get the epidural around 10:30.  It wasn't as smooth as Nathan's experience (pure heaven) but much better than with Abby (definitely not heavenly!).  The medicine took away the pain in my abdomen from the contractions but only lessened the pain elsewhere...which wasn't a problem with the contractions weren't too strong at this point.  We waited it out to see if the medicine would take effect and the anesthesiologist kept coming back and checking and rechecking everything and giving me more medicine but it never seemed to work quite right.
When my doctor came around 2:30 I was dilated to 7 cm and uncomfortable but not dying.  Right after he left the contractions became increasingly painful and intense and I couldn't take it! The anesthesiologist decided to redo my epidural and put it lower in my back to see if that would help get the medicine to where it needed to be.  I also kept getting big syringes full of more medicine pushed into the epidural to help...unfortunately they didn't.
Within a minute of finishing placing the new epidural I felt so much pain and the urge to push.  I tried to hold off because I was so adamant about the medicine working...unfortunately Elise decided she couldn't wait any longer.  While I didn't think I would be able to handle what was happening (I was entirely unprepared to do this without medication!) Chris tried his best to keep me focused and help me.  He stared into my eyes and made me focus on breathing and pushing, not on the fact I thought I was literally going to die from pain.
I pushed 6 times (3 pushes through 2 contractions) and Elise made her big debut! We had to pause in one of the contractions because the umbilical cord was around her neck, but my Doctor quickly fixed it and she was just fine. At 3:14 pm she was placed in my arms.
I can't believe the feeling that washed over me as I saw her for the first time.  While I've now done this 3 times the feelings, emotions, and experience is something I will never be able to accurately nor effectively describe- it is just magical, and spiritual, and amazing.  She was placed in my arms immediately and it was wonderful- I still can't believe that she is here! Before Elise was born Chris gave me a priesthood blessing and in it I was told that this experience would be very spiritual- and it was. 
With each kid I feel like one type of emotion was overwhelming at their birth.  With Nathan I was super emotional- I could not hold back the tears as he was placed in my arms.  When Abby was born I experienced intense and overwhelming happiness- I could not stop smiling.  With Elise it was different due to the pain and shock that the birth was not going as planned.  It was intensely spiritual as I prayed, focused on what I could do, and relied on faith (and Chris!) to get my through a situation I didn't feel ready for.  She was placed in my arms and I was once again overwhelmed with the knowledge that this sweet little girl is supposed to be in our family right now.  If we had been following my time line and what I thought was best and right for our family Elise would not be here yet; I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows more than we do.  I truly can't imagine not having her here right now. 
After holding her and Chris holding her she was weighed and cleaned off.  I could not believe when the nurse announced she was 7 lbs 14 oz- if you know our families that it such a small baby! Her legs are so small and she has hardly a roll anywhere- so different from Nathan and Abby!
I loved that Elise wasn't taken away to be bathed and officially measured for hours. She got to stay with us till we were ready for her to go- it was so nice to just be with her and have the kids meet her without any worry of how long she would be gone.
Since Elise was born during the kids nap time it was perfect timing- once we were all ready for them to join us they were up and ready to come! I thought that when they walked in they would be excited to see me, but they're smart and their eyes were focused on Elise- they made a bee line straight for her and passed right by me- it was so wonderfully amazing to see their first interactions.
They were so sweet with Elise and loved her right away- being parents is really the best thing ever. They were so excited to bring special presents for me and the baby, a balloon and some flowers, and were even more excited when they realized they got presents too!
It wasn't until after the kids left for dinner that we focused on finding a name for our sweet girl.  After a quick run through of the top 100 baby names, and then the top 200, Chris finally made me stop looking and we went through our list of names. Elise seemed to be the name that just fit- our other names, while good, just weren't right.  I love waiting to meet our kids before we name them, I feel like each time it's been so special to look at their beautiful faces and give them their name.
Chris went home to help put the kids to bed and give them a bit of normalcy and I finally ate some dinner and got to spend some one on one time with my sweet little girl.  Chris came back so I wouldn't be bored and Elise was doing so well she stayed in our room the entire time except for when the doctors needed to check her out (though they did the hearing test in our room which was interesting).
I got a little nervous when I got up to get ready for bed and realized that my left leg was in a lot of pain- it hurt to stand for more than 10 seconds.  When I looked down I saw that my one varicose vein on that leg that ran from my knee to my hip was huge and looked like a nasty bruise.  I touched it and it was painful.  I was worried and the nurse wasn't too helpful since she didn't quite know what was happening, but thankfully Chris is a smarty pants and wasn't worried at all.  So I got some sweet tights to help with the blood flow that I wore for a few days till the pain went away.
During the night we had a scare when Elise started choking and didn't breathe for about 15 seconds (but felt like eternity!) It freaked me out but it only happened a few more times and was never that bad again.
Elise did great the next day, the kids came to visit in the afternoon and brought cookies (Nathan wanted to name Elise "Cookie" so he got a kick out of making cookies for "Cookie").  Everything went well on Saturday and we were excited to come home on Sunday.
On Sunday we all got discharged early in the morning and headed home in our full car! Sometimes it still amazes me that we have 3 kids and are a family of 5! We are loving having Elise in our home and in our family.  Thankfully the transition has not been as difficult as I expected (still not easy though) and we are learning, adjusting, and so far thriving in this new phase of life!