Greetings from PostPartum!

(I wrote most of this yesterday morning but computer problems in the room kept me from getting it posted!)

Well Good Morning Friends!

How fun it was to hear from so many of you "stalkers" yesterday. Don't think I didn't know you were out there... I just didn't know who you were! 60 some votes on that whole weight guessing game. Hmmm... I can't seem to muster up 5 comments on a good post but somehow 60 people can place a vote on the weight of my kid! :) Anyway... we loved hearing from you. Eric was refreshing the website regularly and reading me your messages. I'll admit, I enjoyed them a bit more after the epidural was in!

Overall however... while some of you will disagree big time, some of you will hate me, and others will flat out not believe me... I can honestly say that labor and delivery was truly a piece of cake!!! No kidding! I feel a little guilty in admitting that I had what you would probably call the best case of birthing scenarios occur that one could ask for. You know it's good when the absolute worst part of it all were the penicillin infusions through my IV and the stupid blood pressure cuff squeezing my arm so hard I was sure it would fall off. The first 5 hours of the induction I felt hardly anything at all... much to my families dismay. Everyone got so bored they started willing the suffering to begin so they could have some action. Nice, huh? I really didn't dialate much beyond the 4cm that I was at when I arrived. We were so disappointed that my wonderful doctor was not able to be there... but she of course couldn't help getting sick, and the doctor on call was great. He finally did decide to break my water around 2pm since I hadn't progressed very much... and that was about all it took. Less than a minute later contractions started... and I think I was dilated to 7cm in less than 2 hours! I put off the epidural as long as possible but things got pretty painful really fast. My contractions were less than a minute apart so sitting still for the epidural alone about sent me over the edge. Once it was in though... life was good again... for about 15 minutes until my blood pressure started dropping lower and lower. I went from feeling wonderful to feeling nauseous, lightheaded, and very drugged out. Ella had a few dips in heart rate so on went the oxygen mask and I received a shot of Ephedrine to raise my pressures. It was pretty intense... and just so I can make the labor story a little more dramatic... I plan to always tell Ella about the moments when we all thought I might die in childbirth. :) ;) Hey! It could have happened!!!

Within moments of my resurrection... I was fully dilated and the nurse had me try pushing. I could feel contractions but no pain... so was able to push pretty effectively. A few practice runs and she immediately called the doctor to hurry up so we could have a baby. He took his sweet time... wrapping up a conversation on his cell in the hall... while we all waited patiently with Ella's head protruding. He walked in and gowned up... I asked if I should push... he said "sure!"... the nurse said, "no"! I went with the nurses recommendation since I could see Ella in the mirror pretty clearly. Finally the doc was ready and probably about 4 pushes later she was here. I actually thought the whole pushing thing was fun. It didn't seem hard and I could feel the contractions - but no pain at all.

It was all pretty cool... (except the near death experience of course)... she latched on and took to breast feeding right away like a champ. I don't know what I expected her to look like, but she doesn't look a thing like whatever it was... her eyes, nose, dimpled chin, and 6 inch long feet are all Eric... I think she maybe got my lips. Seems unfair that I have to carry and birth her... and all I get are some matching lips! Oh well... he does have way better legs than I do so I guess I'll pray she gets those too...

We got home this afternoon and I was more than ready. Ella has decided she would prefer to eat or snuggle rather than lay in her bed and sleep (big surprise)... so some babysitting by Grandpa and Grandma while I napped was in order. Max surprisingly enough seems to kind of like her. He snuggled up right next to her on the couch and is hanging out close to anyone who holds her.

Here's a few more pics to tide you all over... I'm sure there will be more to come. And I'm sure there are more fun things to share about the last few days that my tired brain can't recall at the moment... so stay tuned!