Irony, Thy Name is Elliana Michelle!

First things first...



IT'S A GIRL!
Elliana Michelle
Born Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 4:04am
6 lbs. 13oz
18.5 inches long

Now here's the long version...

After I spent the weekend having contractions about 10 minutes apart, and telling my mom to "Relax! It's going to take forEVER...the baby is not falling out of me anytime soon!" that's practically what ended up happening. Go figure!

Saturday night, my contractions were down to about 6 minutes apart when we went to bed at 11pm, but they still weren't very painful. At 12:30am Sunday, I woke up and had a few stronger ones 5 minutes apart, so I got up and debated over whether to call my sister to come over. I finally did call her, but told her, "No rush--it'll probably be hours, if it's even tonight, but you might as well get settled over here."

I let Bear sleep while my sister got here, and we chatted on the couch for about an hour before I woke up Bear and he got in the shower. When he got out, I decided to take one, too...and blow-dried my hair...and at that point, I was having to stop to breathe through the contractions, but they still weren't horrible. I did notice that a couple of them were only 3 minutes apart, but since they weren't that painful and the "real" contractions had barely started, I figured I must have just mistimed them. We left for the hospital around 3am, and I told my mom not to bother heading over because it would probably still be hours and hours of waiting. (Wrong-o.)

It's about a 30-minute drive in no traffic to the hospital, and in that time, the contractions started coming harder and some of them were still only 2-3 minutes apart. Still, I didn't think there was any way I could be TOO far along, and I was still able to chat with Bear between them, so I wasn't very worried. I did tell him, though, "Forget the whole maybe thing--I am SO getting an epidural! These are way more painful than they ever got with Keira."

We got to the hospital around 3:30am, and while we were waiting for the nurse to come in to check me, the contractions started getting really painful and only 2 minutes apart. This would be the point where I went from breathing through them, to becoming That Moaning Lady you always see/hear on TV, and I'm pretty sure the nurses still thought I was way overreacting...until one of them finally checked me and said, "She's at 8!" and some serious scurrying around started!

Bear called both sets of parents and told them to head over.

My first words were, "Can I still have an epidural?" They said yes, but that they had to start my IV first...and then they couldn't find a vein. All the while they tried, I'm having contractions (yelling through them now) and one nurse is asking me all the lame questions they have to ask you and enter into the laptop (who cares if I brought a camera, or whether I took my prenatal vitamin last night or this morning?!).

After a few really close contractions, the nurse checked me again and yelled, "She's at TEN!"

Insert panic attack here.

I was TERRIFIED. I said, "Can I still have an epidural?" and they laughed and said, "Honey, you're almost done!" And then I became That Woman You Want to Slap on "A Baby Story." I begged for an epidural, said, "I can't do this...please, somebody help me!" several times (now having contractions like crazy) and generally started to freak out. Luckily, no one had to actually smack me, because right about then, my water broke and Elliana practically came surfing out.

Our parents hadn't even left the house yet when they got the second call, about 15 minutes after the first one, saying, "It's a girl!" We had gotten to the room at 3:45am, and Elliana was born at 4:04am.

Even if she hadn't been born in an "even" minute (per our "who gets to pick the name?" deal), Bear said, "Uh, you did this with no drugs--you're naming her no matter what!" It took me a good two hours to decide that she looks more like an Elliana, and knew that almost everyone liked that name better than Raina, so that's what I chose.

This was the complete opposite of my long, calm delivery with Keira, after which I didn't feel a thing for 3 hours, thanks to an awesome epidural. I don't think I would ever go the drug-free route again by choice! On the other hand, my recovery has been great. We left the hospital Sunday night at 9:30pm, so I was there less than 18 hours total, and I feel way better than I did in the few days after Keira was born.

Elliana's doing great, and Keira is mostly oblivious to her at this point--she does give her the occasional kiss, but runs from the room whenever Ellie cries because she doesn't like it when "the baby is feeling sad."

If there is a Cubby Three in our future, I think it's safe to say that my mom will insist on my camping out at the hospital from about Month Seven on!

Some more pics: