An Early Surprise!

As you probably already know, our little girl arrived a bit early on July 31st!

I am about as surprised as could be that she decided to grace us with her presence a bit early. I was fully expecting her to be late just like her brother and sister. Boy was I off.
So here I sit with my one week old snuggled up on my chest and it's not even her due date yet. Honestly, I am a little sad that I didn't have time to prepare myself for birth. Sure I had bags packed (thank goodness!) but I was not mentally ready. I was so done being pregnant but then again I wasn't. I was tired, I hurt and I was unbelievably uncomfortable but I miss having my big belly and feeling all of the little kicks and rolls. My co-workers tell me I looked pretty done on my last day at work, which I didn't know was my last day! Anyways, Ellie has been a great baby so far and I love her to pieces. Big brother and sister are adjusting really well and they love having a little sister. Today is my first day on my own and honestly it was way harder than I thought it would be but I made it with all three kids in one piece. So, without further adiue I give you the story of what happened that day.

It was about 5:00am (ish) and I woke up and felt kind of wet. In pregnancy weird things like that happen. It's not glamorous but it's true! I ignored it and went back to sleep. About 15 minutes late I rolled over and again...wet. Now I was suspicious. I got up and put a towel under me and laid there for a little bit longer. I moved again and felt the extremely specific gush that I knew was my waters. I was now convinced and extremely excited. I woke Kenny up and told him the surprise, "my water broke!".

Of course the timing was horrible. It was Lucy's 2nd birthday and I had plans to spend the day with her, prep for her birthday party the next day and just enjoy being with my kiddo on their birthday. For the record I have now missed all of my kids birthdays, except of course the ones where they were born, for school or work or now labor reasons. It was also the last day of the month, one of the most busy and stressful days for Kenny at work. Great timing Ellie!

So, now that I knew for sure we were having a baby soon I activated the grandparents. My parents came over to watch the toddlers. Kenny went into work to get a few things squared away. I wasn't contracting so I figured he had a little bit of time. My mom drove me to the hospital and after a quick test confirming it was indeed amniotic fluid I was gushing I was admitted.

They tried one round of cytotec to get contractions going since apparently my body decided it was going to be lazy and not initiate anything. That did nothing for me so out came the Pitocin. Uhg. I hate pitocin. HATE.

By this point it is later in the day and not much progress has been made. Dr. Wiese came in and checked me out. She found I still had some intact membrane in front of baby's head so she ruptured it. After that the contractions really, really picked up. They were pretty awful and I can't believe I forgot how much they suck. I did great but it got to be a bit much and I knew even though I wanted a drug free birth...I needed some help. I got a dose of pain medication and that provided a little relief but not much.

The contractions got worse and worse and things started going pretty fast. I was a mess but thanks to my awesome support from my family and hubby I made it. I got one more dose of pain meds but it did zero to help. Not a tiny bit of relief. I used by lifeline too early and I knew it. After crushing Kenny's hand and making incredibly weird sounds for a few hours I knew it was time. Honestly I wasn't sure doc was going to make it. My nurse, who happened to be my OB clinical instructor, told me not to worry she had delivered babies before! Luckily the doc arrived and I had a new mission: get that baby the hell out of me and just make the pain stop. A few pushes later and there was a baby on my chest.

Of course I was waiting eagerly to hear if we had a girl or boy and I guess the Dr. said it was a girl but I didn't hear. Kenny told me it was a girl and I looked for myself and shrieked, "It's a girl?!?!!" Pretty sure the whole hospital knew it was a girl. I profusely apologized for all of my shouting and odd noise making. The nurses assured me it was no problem.

Kenny finally got to cut the cord for one of our kids. The other two had it around the neck so it was cut quickly by the doctor. I was thrilled this finally got to happen! It was such an awesome experience and I loved that my dad also got to be there to see his grandbaby come into the world. Miss Eleanore Irene Stutler was born at 11:50pm on her big sisters birthday by 10 minutes. She was the teeniest thing at 6lbs and 13oz and 18in long.

She did pretty well that first night and even now she's been a great baby at night. We brought her home and so far things have been going well. Kenny took a week off work to help me out at home. I needed the help too. This recovery has been hell on me but it's slowly getting better.

So that is the story of how little Ellie came to join us three weeks early and she has stolen all our hearts!