Community Corner

An Unexpected Arrival

Ellen Marie decided to arrive on her own time, once again showing that she's unpredictable.

Well, Thursday was to be the day I was induced - just ahead of my Sunday, March 6 due date.

But in typical fashion with how my little girl has been, she decided to make her own plans.

After having contractions all day on Sunday – and having the hospital tell me not to come in until I was uncomfortable – I thought she might come early.

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But, as the contractions subsided on Sunday night and I had hardly anything on Monday, I figured she was going to stay in there until they induced me.

On Monday I did everything I had planned on doing and even went to a meeting for work. After the meeting, my husband and I had dinner, I did some work, and then we went to bed around midnight.

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At about 3:10 a.m. on Tuesday, I woke up and went to use the bathroom, but before I could even barely get out of bed, my water broke. Some people say they aren’t sure if their water broke or not, but trust me, I was 100 percent sure that’s what had just happened.

I called the hospital and they said that because my contractions hadn’t really started, we could take our time coming in. They advised taking a shower and getting something to eat because once I got to the hospital, I wouldn’t be able to do either.

So I took a shower, we stopped and topped off the gas tank, and went to Dunkin Donuts to get some really early breakfast. The contractions started on the way there but they weren’t anything to be concerned about so we moved at a leisurely pace.

We got to the hospital at about 4:45 a.m. and got checked in and comfy for the long haul.

Because we got there not long before the 7 a.m. shift change, we had a couple different nurses. The first one, Lori, was really nice and I hoped that when the shifts changed, the new ones would be just as nice – especially because they were going to be with me for the rest of the process.

When the shifts changed, Annmarie came in and introduced herself and her assistant, Julia. Julia is a registered nurse who works in Sharon, CT and is now learning maternity. The hospital she works at doesn’t have enough births per year for her to learn adequately so she was sent to the University of Connecticut Health Center to learn.

Julia did most of the work but she and Annmarie were both awesome! They were both very friendly and personable and we even joked around, talked about sports, and had a good time.

Labor and Delivery

They gave me a little bit of Pitocin because my contractions were already there but they wanted them closer together. They didn’t really give me much, but after a while, I decided I wanted the epidural and at 10 a.m., the anesthesiologist came in and gave it to me.

Before the contractions got too intense, and then again after I got the epidural, labor was pretty much just my husband and I watching TV and joking around.

At about 4:15 p.m., they decided to see if I could try to push so at 4:34 p.m., we started that. As it turns out, I was pretty good at the pushing – so good in fact, that they made me stop.

Annmarie wasn’t in the room and neither was the doctor or the resident. Julia told my husband to push the nurse call button to call Annmarie in and when she came in, she decided that the doctors needed to come in too.

Not pushing was probably worse than pushing because at that point, the urge was there, and I couldn’t. My husband looked at me and told me not to push because there was no one else around and he wasn’t going to catch the baby. We had joked about him getting my brother’s catchers mitt before we went to the hospital, but in all seriousness, we needed to wait for the doctor.

Once I was allowed to push again, it was only a few minutes before she was there. arrived at 5:04 p.m. and weighed in at 6 pounds, 6.4 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She came out screaming – just to make sure that we knew she was there and that her lungs were just fine.

Julia said that I probably could have only pushed for 20 minutes – as opposed to the half hour with the delay – and that was the fastest delivery of a first baby that she’s seen in her experience.

After Delivery

After a couple of hours in the labor and delivery room, they moved me into my own room. Ellen was in the nursery being bathed and having tests done so she didn’t come back to us until almost 9:30 p.m.

We had a bunch of visitors that night and then we settled in for our first night with a baby.

I figured we wouldn’t get much sleep, but I had no idea. I was up every 15 or 30 minutes – because of the nurses!

If it wasn’t my nurse, it was Ellen’s nurse. They never came in to check vitals or do anything at the same time so every time I would just be getting back to sleep, someone would come in. At 2 a.m., one nurse brought in paperwork – and then told me not to look at it. Why bother bringing it in then?

The baby was the one that didn’t bother me that night. I actually had to set an alarm to wake her up and feed her. She would have slept the whole night if we had let her.

The next day, we just hung out with our new baby and the visitors that came to see her. 

Luckily, the last night, the nurses didn’t bother me much and we actually got some sleep. We still had to set an alarm to wake the baby up to feed her. Who knew?

Coming Home

We came home on Thursday afternoon and settled in – which was pretty much watching the baby sleep.

She probably won’t sleep all the time, but it sure seems like it. She’s still doing it. She’ll be awake for two or three hours maximum, and then she’ll sleep the rest of the day. When she’s awake, she’s really quiet and just looks around and watches everything.

She’s even a good sleeper at night, only getting up once during the night. We still set an alarm to get up, just in case she decides to keep sleeping. She has been getting up on her own the last couple of nights, but we’re not always convinced she’s going to get up so we set the alarm.

On Friday, she had her first doctor’s appointment. The doctor said that she’s healthy and was impressed with her alertness and how well she followed his flashlight with her eyes.

When we left the hospital, she was down to 6 pounds, 1 ounce, but was back up to 6 pounds, 4 ounces at the doctor’s office. She really hadn’t been eating much at the hospital but has been much better at home so it was good to see that she is on her way back up.

I feel really good myself. The soreness has pretty much gone away and I even went to my friend’s wedding on Saturday. My parents watched her and when we got home, they wanted to keep her so they sent us out for dinner.

She’s such a good baby so I’m not surprised they wanted to keep her longer.

Most of the time, she lets you know that she’s hungry by doing what we’ve called the “hungry mouth.” She plays with her mouth and her tongue and that tells you she wants to be fed. Even during the night, she doesn’t really cry. She just whimpers and that tells you she wants food.

If I was doing what everyone said I should do and slept when the baby sleeps, I’d be much better rested than I was before she came.

She’s already a daddy’s girl. Mommy is okay, but daddy is extra special. Every time he says something, she tries to find him. It’s so cute to see them together. 

We still can't decide who she looks like. Some people say she looks just like me, while others say she looks just like him. Others say that she looks like a combination of us and I think I agree.

She’s such a love and you can hold her and cuddle her all you want – but she’s okay if you put her down too. She’s very easy going. One of her nurses at the hospital told me that they all love her and that she’s got such a great personality and temperament.

I agree.

We really couldn’t have asked for a better baby! We’re totally in love.


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