Elizabeth Lauren

We welcomed Elizabeth Lauren 4 days early, on August 4, 2013 at 7:35pm.  She weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. 

On Saturday night, August 3rd, David and I were going to bed and David said "I just need a good, full night of sleep". HA!  Around 2am I woke up from what I thought was my water breaking.  I woke up David and called the doctor.  The doctor told us to head to the hospital.  So, we gathered up a few last minute things, we both took showers, and were headed out the door.  We arrived at the hospital around 3:45am and by 5:00am they had admitted me and we were in our room.  At that point we both rested, I took another shower, and we waited for my parents and Jill to get there.  Luckily, Jill was visiting my parents that weekend, so she was able to come with them.  I walked around a lot in the morning, just because I knew once I got the epidural I would be stuck in bed.  Around noon I started to feel my contractions, but the pain wasn't so bad that I couldn't handle it.  By 1:00pm I decided I should be the epidural because I didn't want it to be too late or get to the point that I couldn't stay still.  After that, my disgusting  gourmet lunch arrived from the hospital cafeteria and my back started to hurt.  We assumed it was due to the position I was lying in, so the nurse came in to help move me up a little bit.  The pain was not getting better, so they increased my pain medicine.  My family decided to go eat dinner around 5:30 because the nurse said it would still be hours before I would start pushing.  But, as soon as they left, I started to feel the contractions again - even with the epidural- so they checked me and said I was ready to push!  I started pushing around 6:30 and Elizabeth was born at 7:35pm!  The doctor let David announce the sex of the baby, and he also got to cut the umbilical cord.  After the nurses and David weighed her, bathed her, I fed her, and all that good stuff, my family came in to meet her.  By 10:00 we were moved into our other room for the rest of the hospital stay.

 

 

We were in the hospital for two nights.  It was a great hospital, all the nurses were so friendly and helpful, and my doctor was great (of course there are 5 doctors in my practice and the one doctor I had never seen before was the one on call that night, but we really liked him).  Ellie stayed in our room with us the entire time, she could have of course gone to the nursery, but we didn't want to give her up!  I was in a lot of pain when we headed home on Tuesday, and it took me about a week to feel better, I feel like the labor was the easy part!  Now we are enjoying life (a little sleep deprived) and the blessing that God has given us!  We waited a long time for Elizabeth and she is perfect!!!

I'm not exactly looking as good as Kate Middleton did when she left the hospital...but hey, I stopped wearing my maternity clothes last week, so that has to count for something;)!