I'm sure by now this is common knowledge, but I'm finally getting around to updating here.
Elena Jane Cunningham arrived on February 27. She weighed in at 7lbs 6oz, 2o inches (a full pound heavier than Grace, and a full 2 inches longer than Hannah!) She was three weeks early, and much to my delight, a full 9 days before Grace's birthday.
The story, if you are interested, is as follows:
I noticed that my cramping had turned into something more like contractions around 6pm on February 26. I wasn't sure if it was "real" labor or not and I was fairly convinced that it wasn't since it didn't seem to be falling into any sort of regular interval. Eric was actually out getting diapers for Grace in the snowstorm and I kept thinking what lousy timing this would be. Even though I suspected I wasn't in labor yet, and was instead suffering from Braxton Hicks contractions, I still felt relieved when Eric finally did show up.
By the time we got the girls into bed and I took my shower, it was around 9:30 and I laid down to actually time my contractions. It didn't take long for me to realize that they did seem to be falling about every 5-6 minutes. Still, it was like a blizzard outside, and I wasn't about to call friends to watch the girls and have my parents venture out in the snow for a false alarm. We called L&D to ask what we should do. We felt like total morons, but with both Hannah and Grace I was induced, so going into labor naturally was something totally new to me. And with both Hannah and Grace, I didn't suffer from "early labor" but was thrown pretty quickly into the harder, faster contractions that are impossible to confuse with false labor!
After being passed around to a few nurses and eventually the on-call doctor, they determined that even if I wasn't in labor, I'd been far enough progressed in the doctor's office that morning that I should come in and get checked out.
We called friends and also my parents and then headed off through the snow. I was really filled with dread at the thought of inconveniencing everyone only to be sent home. I was
so relieved when the nurse reassured me that my contractions were regular and that I was dilated to 5cm, so I would be staying. I was disappointed that this would be the first birth without my doctor, but I figured that it had to happen eventually. Although it wasn't deliberate on my part, it was in the back of my mind that if the baby held off until my doctor's office hours, then I'd get my doctor instead of the on-call doctor. So I didn't do anything to hurry labor along and let it progress on its own. I did get an epidural around 3am so I could sleep, though. I well remember how tired I was when Grace was born, and then the long night that followed with them bringing her to me constantly to eat! I wanted some rest before I had to do that again!
Lucky for me my doctor showed up around 7am and I was still in labor. She broke my water and put me on a bit of pitocin and 2 hours later (9:05am) out popped Elena! Although it certainly wasn't that easy, she was born in 2 or 3 pushes and Eric and I both noticed that there were scarcely anyone in the room this time around. As far as births go, I think mine was pretty uneventful.
Things have been going well. We had to be readmitted to the hospital on March 2 because Elena's jaundice levels had gone too high. They told us that we could leave her on a biliblanket for another week or put her under the lights at the hospital for one day and be done. We opted for the faster cure. So we were pretty peeved the next morning when the doctor wanted us to stay longer, and when we resisted that, we had to put her on the lights for another three days! So much for a fast cure!
So now we're at 3 weeks and the last few nights have been following a similar pattern. I'm hoping that she'll fall into a routine. I'm not foolish enough to think that newborns are ever 100% predictable, but I thrive on knowing what to expect, so the sooner she becomes somewhat predictable, the happier I will be.
The girls are adjusting well, so far. They seem to really like having a baby sister around. Even Grace, whom I was the most concerned about, loves to hold her. She will hurry to talk to her when Elena cries, and loves to identify her body parts. Hannah thrives in the big sister role, and enjoys helping with baths and diaper changing. I'm so proud of both of them.
We've also made the decision to change the spelling of her name from "Elena" to "Elaina." So from here on out, that's how it will be spelled. We discovered that the name was being mispronounced, which was not the reason we chose to change the spelling, but it was a factor. I Googled the name "Elena" and saw the other spelling and fell in love. I wish I'd realized that
before we made it official, but oh well. We're waiting to here from someone about the actual procedure, but we hope to get it straightened out soon.
Hope to update much sooner this time!
