Gabriella Dawn Macbeth

She's here!  We're so excited to introduce Gabriella Dawn Macbeth.  But we're planning on calling her "Ella" for short.  She was born at 2:45 yesterday afternoon after 7 1/2 hours of labor (so much for "each delivery gets faster."  Skyler's was 5 1/2).  She weighed in at 7 lb. 10 oz. making her our smallest baby yet!  And with her coming up on being a whole day old, she's probably cried less than 5 minutes in her entire life.  She is the most easygoing, sweet sweet baby.

Yesterday started at 4:45 AM when our alarm clock went off.  We quickly got ready and left the house so we could get to the hospital an hour later.  By the time I was admitted into the hospital I was already having contractions every 10 minutes, so the early scheduled induction was well-planned.  I was on pitocin by 7:15 and started having bigger contractions that came every 2-4 minutes.  I went from being 1-2 cm dilated to a 4 in a couple of hours because of it.  My nurse was looking at my chart and kept asking me if I was ready to get my epidural yet because they were getting big.  I had to laugh because they felt the exact same as all the other false contractions I've had in this pregnancy.  Let's just say most of my third trimester was one REALLY long false labor.  No fun. 

My doctor came in at 10 to break my water and bad contractions started immediately.  My nurse ordered my epidural, but I had to wait 45 minutes to get it, so she turned down my pitocin all the way so that I wouldn't have to deal with as much pain.  Sure enough, my pain level decreased a ton, and once I was drugged, I was one happy girl again.  Problem was that I stayed at a 4 during those 45 minutes and so my nurse was under the impression that I'd be slow at progressing during my labor. 

So a few hours went by and my nurse didn't check to see if I had dilated any more.  I tried resting and Ben left to make some phone calls and get food.  So of course, that's when I started feeling something happening.  I called my nurse back and asked her to check me.  She said I was at an 8 and only 90% effaced, so it could still be a while.  Then I had deja vu to when we had Skyler, and I promptly explained to her that I went from being an 8 to a 10 in less than a minute with him, and the doctor barely made it in time to catch him.  As sweet as this nurse was, I don't think she quite believed me, so she told me to let her know if I felt the urge to push and she left.  Less than 2 minutes later she was back in my room, scrambling around after she discovered that I was at a 10 and ready to go.  She ran out to go get the supplies and while she was gone Ben miraculously came back. 

Now here's where I tell you about my agony.  This is not to gain pity, this is just how my delivery went, and like everything else I just want it recorded accurately.  I was ready to push Ella out as soon as my nurse checked me.  But I had to wait for everything to be ready.  A table with equipment had to be set up.  My bed had to be repositioned.  My doctor had to be called, get here, and dressed up in full gear.  I ended up holding Ella in for 30 minutes.  Yep.  30 long, hard, tear-filled minutes (you should have seen me after the delivery.  Smeared mascara and eyeliner.... whew I looked hot).  But once everything was ready I got her out in about 5 minutes of pushing, thanks to my 3rd episiotomy and a small tear.  

And she was perfect!  Everything was great!

Until.... I was wheeled to my recovery room and they informed me that in order for me to cramp up correctly, I had to be put on an 8 hour bag of pitocin.  And oh man, was that evil.  So instead of having my parents and babies come to visit today, they came last night so that Ben and my dad could give me a blessing.  And thank goodness for blessings (and percocet... *ahem*) becuase I really needed them.  Luckilly I was done with all that post-labor-labor by 1 AM and after a nursing session with Ella (which she totally rocks at FYI), I was able to go to sleep at 2.  On my back!  Without the feeling of having a bowling ball on top of me!  Yay!

So here are some pics of the day:

Ben and I have completely fallen in love with her.  She is such a sweet little spirit and we're so grateful that she came to our family.  And in case you can't tell from this picture below, she has ash blonde hair, and lots of it, just like Lily and Skyler.  She definitely fits in with our family!