Ella's arrival

Thursday night we checked in for my induction, it only took a few minutes. By 10:10 I was hooked up and the doctor had given me medication to start the labor process. By 3 am I had progressed from 2 to 3 cm and I was fully effaced. By 5 am I had made it to 4 cm and I got my epidural. I quickly progressed to 10 cm, it took about 5 hours. All of a sudden Ella's heart rate was dropping and several doctors rushed in and determined she was probably laying on her cord. They had me turning from side to side, and roll over to my hands and knees. That was pretty amazing considering you're not supposed to feel your legs with an epidural! I still felt things, just my contractions weren't painful. The doctor's decided I could start pushing and they really encouraged me to make it quick as Ella was in some distress. I pushed for less than 10 minutes and she arrived! The last push they gave me some help via the forceps and as a result Ella was a little beat up when she came out. Ella arrived at 11:22 pm, 20 inches long and weighing 7 lbs 13 ounces.

Ella spent some time with the NICU nurses in our room (because of her distress during delivery) and they thought she was fine. We gave her the first bottle and noticed her coloring didn't look great, so they took her blood glucose levels, determined they were low and took her back to the NICU quickly. Once there they determined her blood oxygen level was not staying high enough.

We don't know a whole lot about what's wrong, they've taken many chest x-rays and we finally got the answer that there is not pneumonia in her lungs. Also her daily tests show she is not fighting an infection. Finally yesterday we got to start feeding her bottles and she has steadily increased how much she's eating. In the evening they removed a tube to her stomach that was relieving her stomach gas. Today we came in to see her at noon and were surprised to find they had taken her off the oxygen tubes, that was SO nice to see! No tubes in her face at all!

They still have her IV in and are giving her antibiotics and a very small amount of glucose. When I called a few minutes ago they told me they decreased her glucose from the IV, so she's improving even more.

It was pretty sad to leave without Ella, but getting to feed her yesterday and today and cuddle for a nice long time made me feel SO much better. I barely got to hold her at all on delivery day, maybe 5 minutes. There is hope she can come home tomorrow and it keeps me from being too bummed out about being home without her. Plus seeing Betsy and Madison made me feel a little better.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers and if you'll keep Ella in your prayers we are really happy to see her improving and hoping we can be together as a family of four (and a 'nauzer) very soon.