SHE'S HERE!!!

We welcomed Elli Faith Bishop into the world October 31st, 2012 at 3:57pm.

She was 7lbs 10oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

She came out with a full head of brown hair and a wide awake/alert, sweet spirit that hasn't left yet.  (Of course I know she also came with a sinful nature, she demonstrated this by her strong will not to nurse for 8 hours after she was born, which made me so worried....).

Anyways...

The Birth-Day Story

I am going to preface this whole thing by saying, if you can hear my husband tell the story in person, that is so much better than reading this :)

Tuesday, October 30th=DUE DATE

I carried on as "normal." Went to visit the ladies at work. Did some last minute laminating for the class. Ate some of Mrs. Peggy's yummy chili. Went to Wal-Mart and Aldi's. Talked to my Aunt Jeany. Worked on a scrapbook for Jordan. Did 4 or 5 laps in Patterson with Matt. Double step up three flights of stairs then back down, 4 or 5 times...

From what we had learned in our Bradley classes and I had heard from other mom's and my family history with my mom (7 days "late" with me, 10 days "late" with BK), we were all expecting it to be another week....

Middle of the night Tuesday/Wednesday, October 30-31
Feeling "constipated." Nothing happened. Got up 3-4 times in the night. Nothing happened.

Wednesday, October 31st

7am

Tried to wake up the husband. No success.
I got up and tried to go to the bathroom again. Nothing happened, but I was in a bit of pain.
Tried to wake up husband again. Still not up.
Finally, used the bathroom a bit. Still hurting.
Decided to take a shower. All is going well.
Shaved right leg.
Ouch. Pain.
Must use bathroom. Immediately.
Used the bathroom. Pain increasing.
Husband, please wake up! Starts stirring...
I go have a bowl of Grape Nuts. Standing up. It hurts to sit down.
I start timing the pains on a contraction app Matt bought,
Husband is up! Hooray! (Looking back, I'm glad he got some extra sleep).
As he is getting dressed I say something to the effect of, "I don't know what contractions are supposed to feel like! I feel like I need to take a really big poop and I would feel all better!"
Sort of start to cry, just for a sec, then I suck it up and carry on.

9am

I call my parents.
"I think things are getting started. Contractions are continuing even when I eat and shower. Time to try going for walk and laying down."
I called our Bradley instructor, Susan.  She talked me through it. Said she thought it was the real thing.
Called the birthing center. They suggested I take a bath and call back in an hour. I wanted noting to do with the bath, but we did call back later.

9:30am

Matt suggests we go walk around Patterson a little bit more.
We bundle up and go do 2 laps.

10-11am

We get back to the house.
I try to lay down. It hurts so bad!
Contractions are getting closer and more painful.
"Babe, we need to get this car packed! It's time to go!" I say with urgency.
We start gathering things.

11am

I call my mom and tell her things are amping up and she needs to leave soon!
(Meanwhile she is voting, packing last minute things etc...)
As mentioned above, none of us thought things were going to progress this quickly!
Matt is racing back and forth from the house to the car, car to the house loading things up.
I am trying to make sure we have everything... oh contraction... I stop, find a wall, beat it, and moan for the duration of the contraction... ahh... ok back to gather all our stuff... this happens a handful of times until, hooray, everything is ready to go!

11:20am-12pm

Contractions consistently 2-3 minutes apart and extremely painful.

12pm

We leave for the birthing center.

12-12:44pm

Most intense drive of our lives.

Picture this: An exercise ball in the back seat of the car, laboring woman leaning over the ball in between contractions to rest, then hugging the back seat of the car, while beating it and moaning.
Apparently, I am a very vocal/violent laboring woman. Watch out.
Matthew did a perfect job driving through the lunch hour traffic.
He said he used his flashers sometimes.
The worse part was going over bumps on bridges during contractions... ouch!

12:44pm

Arrived at Women's Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill

Had a super intense contraction in the parking lot.
Couldn't remember where we were supposed to go when we got inside.
I'm in pain. Matt is trying to be patient and help me make a decision.
"I don't know if this is the right place or not..."
"Well, we have two options we can either call and find out or we can just knock and go in."

We chose the second option.  Thankful, they had our room ready.
The midwife, Mariah, checked me.
(We chose not to know "how far along" I was because I didn't want to be discouraged if I wasn't as far along as I thought I should be.)
I got up as soon as she was done checking me because I felt so much better on my feet than laying down, plus Susan (birth instructor) said to stay on my feet as much as possible.
Gravity helps.

Side note: For those of you who don't know me very well, I am a task oriented person.  So in my mind birthing my baby girl was a task set before me.  I was going to do what it took to accomplish it in the most efficient way possible!

Ok, so I found a counter to lean against/stand next to.
I am making very vocal noises, squeezing my husband's arm, and I keep asking, "Has my mom left yet?" "Is mom on her way?" "She better hurry!"

1pm (about 15 minutes after arrival)

The nurse, Helen, comes in and asks me if I want a tens unit on my back, because it was hurting pretty bad.  I loved that thing, not only did it feel good, but I could control it.  I could tell it what kind of feeling I wanted and how hard I wanted it.  Even though I could not control my contractions, I could control this puppy!
Helen was so sweet and encouraging.  As she was putting the tens unit on my back she says, "You're doing great honey, you're already 8 centimeters dilated..." As Mariah walks in and says, "Oh I was just coming to tell you that they didn't want to know..."

BUT that information totally helped me.  It provided me so much knowledge and motivation.
1. I had already been through transition, in the car mind you.
2. This is what the most intense part of labor feels like, ok, I can handle this. It's "down hill" from here. We just need to work through these and get to the pushing stage.
3. Shoot, my mom better hurry up! This baby is coming faster than any of us anticipated.

Ok so if you want more details about the rest you can ask in person....
basically I got in several different pushing positions.

2:45ish My water broke

3:20pm My mom got there. 

They didn't let her in right away because they had to check with me. As soon as they said, "Your mom is here..." I said, "Get her in here!"
Right when I heard my mom's voice a new motivation took over! It was time for this baby to come!
Before I had not been giving the pushes all I could because, well I wanted my mom to witness the birth of her first grandchild.  So I had been "half-heartedly" pushing.  But that was over! Time to finish the job!

3:57pm 

Our beautiful baby girl entered this world!

Matt caught her and brought her up to me.
He also cut the cord after it stopped pulsing.

It was definitely in the top 3 most amazing days of my life!

See pictures below:)

Daddy holding Elli while Mommy gets stitched up

Our Family

Proud, tired Mommy...Sorry Dawn no time for make up ;)

So happy she is finally here in our arms!

Getting weighed and measured by nurse Helen: 7lbs 10oz 19.5in long

Can't stop looking at her

Yay! You're a Grammi!

One of my favorite pictures of the night (photo credit to my sweet husband) I love you Mommy and I'm so glad you were there! I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!

Our birthing team! Nurse Helen on the left and Midwife Mariah on the right! They were awesome!

Grammi and Elli

Nana and Elli

Pa, Elli, and Daddy

First check up

Our little beauty

My amazing family!

Profile... looking like her Dad:)

Kisses for his Little Sweetie

So adorable!

Happy, tired Mama!

My coach! I couldn't have done it without you Babe! Thanks for all your support and encouragement! I LOVE YOU!!!

TEAM BISHOP!

Matt feeding me:)

Adoring my baby girl

Matthew and the proud Bishop grandparents!

The Bishops

Pa and Nana with their first grandchild!

Grammi with the Bishops:)

Elli's first diaper change by Mommy and Daddy

Ready to go home... we left about 11:30pm

At home....

....still can't believe she is here...

...looking down at her... we are parents! Wow!

Looks so much like her Daddy

My sweet girl with her eyes open

Sweet dreams Elli Faith... We are so thankful Jesus blessed our lives with you