She's Here! She's Here!

The wait has finally paid off! Ellie Ann Crane arrived on January 12, 2012 at 7:07 pm. She weighed 6 lbs, 11 oz and was 18.5 in long. What a beautiful babe she is! Everyone always posts "the birth story" on their blog, so I've decided to jump on that band wagon. Plus, it's a whole lot easier to type than it is to write in my journal...anyway, here we go.
The morning of the 12th, I had an appointment with Dr. Glenn. Debbie (Danny's mom) had flown in the night before, so she came with me. When they weighed me that morning, I had lost another 2 pounds. That was 4 pounds in 2 weeks. Dr. Glenn told me he wanted me to take a NST (non-stress test) just to make sure that everything was going ok and that there was enough amniotic fluid. They hooked me up to a monitor and did an ultrasound. It was fun to see Ellie again. I only had one other ultrasound at 20 weeks, so I hadn't seen her for awhile. The fluid was at 3.5 when it's supposed to be between a 7 and 24, so the nurse told me that Dr. Glenn would for sure want to induce me that day. WHAT?! That was super exciting, but I was worried about Ellie. They monitored her heart rate for 20 minutes and things looked good. That was a major blessing. After that, they took me straight to my room. Debbie went and picked up Danny and they grabbed our suitcase from home.
At about 1:30, they started me on the pitocin. Things went pretty quickly after that. My contractions were really intense and were coming really fast. Ellie was not putting up with it as well as we would have liked, so the nurse decided to put a monitor in my uterus to check the intensity of the contractions. Before she put it in, she measured me and said, "Actually, we're just going to have you start pushing." Woohoo! I was fully dilated. She called Dr. Glenn (who was in the middle of a haircut. He didn't think I would progress that quickly.) and told him to get down there right away. Then the fun stuff began. I started pushing at 6:15 and at 7:07, Ellie was born. That was so wonderful! Nothing prepares you for that moment when you first hear and see your little baby. All your emotions swell over and everything around you disappears except for that little one. Danny was able to cut the umbilical cord and they placed her on me. Oh, she was precious. All the worry and fear of the day melted away. They let me hold her for awhile (skin to skin time) and then Danny went with her to the nursery so she could get cleaned up.
We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights. It was wonderful being a family of three. I think that first night we just watched Ellie the entire time. We oohed and ahhed over every little thing she did. We tried to see who she looked like the most. We just couldn't get enough of her. On January 14,  we were able to come home. Those first few days were intense. You worry about every little thing and exhaustion just takes over. On the 17th, my mom finally came, along with my grandparents. I'm so grateful for Debbie and for my mom and all the help they gave us. We couldn't have done it without them.
Now Ellie is almost 1 month old. She loves to eat, sleep, chill in her bouncy seat, listen to Mama sing, and she's becoming a real conversationalist. She loves to have her head massaged and loves fleecy blankets. She loves to relax in the bath and loves when Daddy comes home from work. Ellie hates being hungry. She has no problem letting you know when it is time to eat. She hates getting out of the bath because it's just too cold. She is just like her daddy when she wakes up. It usually takes her a little while to be fully awake. It's so cute to watch her struggle to choose between sleeping and eating (so far, eating always wins).
We absolutely love our precious baby girl! She is more than we ever dreamed of and we love watching her learn and grow each day.