Monkey Number 3

Sorry, I have no pictures of her yet. But rest assured she is cute. There are some on my dad's blog.

Ella is doing well. The home health nurse said she has already gained 3 ounces, which is great for somebody her size. She certainly produces enough diapers to convince us that she is eating well. We wanted to do cloth diapers for her, but so far it has been quiet an adventure. We have not yet had a cloth diaper not leak on us, which is producing a tremendous amount of laundry. I am sure it is user error or a sizing problem. I'd really like to stick with it. Half of my motivation is my wallet, and the other half is the environment. The wallet is definitely the larger half though. And cloth diapers are much cuter. They have fun prints and nice colors. And they make her butt look 3 times bigger.

As for labor, this was my most exciting labor yet. Instead of starting out with contractions for a long time like the other two, it started with a cough. I coughed and I thought I peed my pants. But then it seemed like a little too much. So I woke Jeff up, read through the pregnancy book's description of water breaking, and still wasn't sure. But then I started to bleed a little, so I knew I needed to go in either way. All the way to the hospital I kept thinking about how embarrassed I would be if it really was just stress on my bladder. Turned out there was no need, I really had broken my water. So then came the horrible realization that I didn't get to go home - I had to have the baby in 12 hours or so.

I had stayed up late working on homework, and had just finished it before that fateful cough around midnight, so I was exhausted. And we had eaten a large late lunch, so I hadn't had any dinner and I was starving. I lay in the hospital bed and tried to get some rest. And I talked the nurse into bringing me some soda crackers and juice. The juice gave me heartburn. I was beginning to see that this labor might be even more unpleasant than the last...hmmm. Not a good sign.

I tried to catch some rest between contractions for hours, because they weren't very close together. We had my mom and Rachel, who were suppose to be labor coaches for me, stay home until things picked up. At about five in the morning I remember feeling like I just wanted to get up and do something. I was bored to tears, but I kept worrying about being tired. I told myself that I would just lay still for another half hour, and then I could get up. I never really got to get up again.

The nurse came in to fiddle with the monitors. She said that there had been some low heart rates registering, and that she thought because I had turned over that it might be picking up my heart rate instead. I told her I really needed to go to the bathroom. Alright, she said, just a minute to check things. I tried to relax. It was over an hour before I got to use the bathroom, and I was nearly frantic I had to go so bad. In the meantime, I knew something was horribly wrong when the nurse said "Here, I just need you to put this on for a minute," sliding an oxygen mask over my face. Jeff knew something was wrong too. He called my mom for her to come.

The doctor had been in and out since the nurse started really messing with the monitor. Finally he announced, in a voice that would have put me to sleep were I back in a math class, that there had been some "decells". The moral of the story was that the baby's heart rate was dropping precipitously during contractions, probably because the umbilical cord was getting squeezed somehow. Not good. Was I going to have to have a cesarean?

"I'd like to do a blah blah blah," the doctor announced. Apparently he was going to put a tube up into the uterus to add fluid to the amniotic sack in the hopes that it would relieve pressure on the umbilical cord. Since my water had broken, the decrease in fluids might be the cause of the problem. Oh, and while he was down there they were going to attach a monitor to the baby. No more getting up. You have got to be kidding me with how badly I had to go to the bathroom. I had been drinking water all night before this happened.

The extra water put an end to the decelerations in heart rate, so they let me continue to labor in bed. However my contractions were still far apart, and I was able to chat in between. After over an hour he came in and checked me a second time. My contractions were finally starting to really hurt. He announced that they were "ineffective" and that he wanted to start me on pitocin. If he had been standing any closer, and if I wasn't in the middle of a contraction, he might have gotten smacked. It's never a good thing to tell a woman in incredible pain that it has been useless. I guess being "stuck" at 8 cm is a crime when your baby has shown signs of distress. "No!" was all I managed to say. The doctor and nurse both looked a little stunned, but the doctor said he would come back and check in a half hour. He respectfully stayed away until I was ready to push, probably because they can see the results of the monitoring from the hallway.

I felt pretty peeved about being stuck in bed, feeling that this was the reason I wasn't progressing. Feeling that my only options were to do something or have pitocin, I got up on my knees in bed and leaned on the front of the bed while it was raised. I didn't want to ask permission because I didn't want to be told no. While they had told me I had to stay in bed, they hadn't specified laying down, so I decided to capitalize on the gap between what they had said and what I am sure they meant. Pretty soon the pain had tripled, but I was willing to do just about anything to be put on medication. I made it, and when I felt like I couldn't stand it anymore I announced to Jeff and my mom that "the baby can't come out this way". I laid back down and the doctor came in. He got yelled at for trying to check me, but in the end he said I was ready to push. I can't see how it was more painful than I remember with the other kids...I remember the head being the only hard part with them. Ella had shoulders to match her head. While I had done a good job keeping relatively calm until the end, I through in a good deal of yelling during pushing. I joked later that I realized that I was making it look too easy for Rachel, so I decided to scream some. She still says she might have kids someday. :>

My kids so far have been 6'7, 7'8, and now 8'7. So I guess it is logical after all that the pushing hurts more each time. At this rate (bigger by a pound each time), I am not sure I'd like to have anymore. We'll see.

So I was very blessed. Because of a great doctor and a lot of work on my part, I did not get wheeled into the OR. Looking back, I realized that is probably what the oxygen mask was in preparation for. But I made it. Now we are at home, trying to rest up (ha ha ha). I apparently pulled a stomach muscle lifting the older kids, so I have been having to be very careful. Ella is keeping us busy with almost constant diaper changes, three in the past half hour alone! And Ariana and Cyrus are getting used to their new baby sister. (Cyrus is not so sure about her - he doesn't dislike he, but he has certainly sensed a change in quality of life coinciding with her arrival that he is none too happy about!)

I hope to take some nice pictures of her soon, but it will have to wait until I am a little less tired. In the meantime, I can tell you she looks an awful lot like the little baby on the side of the Pampers' wipes box. Very cute. :)

Last Call for Name Suggestions

With only a week to go, I realized we have not heard any suggestions for names from anyone this time around. That's kind of surprising, so I thought I would go ahead and ask for some, just for fun. Please leave some suggestions as a comment to this post.

We are expecting a little girl, so what do you think a good name is? Serious and silly suggestions accepted! (but you should probably specify somehow which one it is, or I might mistake it for the other). You can suggest a single name or a first and middle pair, but keep in mind that our last name makes it hard not to form a bad word with the initials. :> Also, if you know what the meaning of a name is, that would be nice to add - Jeff loves names that mean nice things.

We are just waiting, for the time being. Wish me luck!