Elizabeth Mae

On Wednesday, May 12 at 8:11 P.M. our adorable little girl was born!!! She weighed in at 7 lbs. and 4 oz. She is such a sweet little baby!

I went in to be induced that day. I think that was a great choice for me. We were scheduled to go in at 7:00 that morning, but got a call at 6 saying to call them back later on in the morning to see if they still had room for us. We were pretty scared that we were going to have to wait to have her another day. We were already prepared to go in that day. We would have had to wait until next week if that happened. When we called them a little later, they said to come on in at 9:00. We were pretty excited about that. When we got there the nurse took us to our room and got things started! She had a hard time finding a good vein to put the IV in. She had to poke me twice. Once she did that she was able to hook me up to the pitocin. It didn't take long for that to start working. My doctor came in shortly after that and broke my water. That is a weird feeling. The nurse had to keep coming in to up the amount of pitocin because I wasn't feeling enough pain at first. My doctor said that I could start my epidural whenever I wanted to. I wanted to see how the labor contractions felt first. That didn't last too long when they really started to hurt. I was a little nervous about the epidural because I heard that the needle is really big. Getting the epidural put in was nothing compared to the contractions. It is also the best thing ever invented. After it started to work I didn't feel any pain. I actually hadn't felt that good in months. I went through that part of labor until about 7:00 P.M. when I was finally allowed to start pushing. I was determined to get my baby out and I only had to push for close to 45 minutes. The pushing part was the hardest part of labor with the epidural. It did hurt when she was almost out. Everything was better when she was completely out though. I was so happy to see her. They handed her right to me and wiped her off. She was very alert. She didn't seem to want to cry at first. I don't think she really started crying until they put her little hat on :) She still doesn't cry a lot today. Hopefully it stays that way!
Having a little baby is so wonderful, but it is both emotionally and physically draining. Ellie was very good with feeding when we were at the hospital. Everyone was so impressed. When we got home she ate twice and then she suddenly stopped. She wouldn't even open her mouth. I decided that we should at least try feeding her with a bottle. She still wasn't having it. We took her to see the pediatrician the next morning and they had a tough time figuring out what was going on. Finally the nurse put her finger in her mouth, pushed down on her tongue and Ellie started sucking. It was like she forgot how to suck. It was weird. When they weighed her she was 6 lbs and 12 oz. We have been on quite the feeding schedule since then. She had a hard time eating enough at first. We really had to work at getting her to eat 1 oz every 2 hours. The goal is 2 oz every 3-4 hours though. I got her to down 2 oz one night, but she puked that all up. She is improving though. She is even ready to be breastfed again. It was weird because she suddenly started looking for it again yesterday.

It is hard to sleep at night too. Even when she is sleeping well. I am always so nervous that something will happen to her. Hopefully I will learn to sleep a little better soon. I really need to learn to take naps during the day. It is really hard to stay awake when feeding her in the evenings.Well other than the stressful things that have happened, she has really been fun to have here. She is the prettiest and sweetest little girl ever! I am so lucky to have her as my daughter. Steven is also a great daddy! She is lucky to have him for a father.