Dr. Penn also came to see me earlier today. Dr. Penn was the doctor who took care of me the most when I was in the womb. I was glad to finally meet him.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Professional Massage
I have some torticollis in my neck. Aunt Becky is a massage therapist and she's going to town helping to work out my problems. I have a great family. Uncle Louis stopped by to see me tonight after work so I could meet him for the first time.
Dr. Penn also came to see me earlier today. Dr. Penn was the doctor who took care of me the most when I was in the womb. I was glad to finally meet him.
Dr. Penn also came to see me earlier today. Dr. Penn was the doctor who took care of me the most when I was in the womb. I was glad to finally meet him.
My First Official Day In the World
After yesterday, I'm beat. I met so many new people on my first big day in the world. Mommy and I are beat. Here you can see me getting much needed rest. They came in and took my picture today. Mommy got a massage. Gramma and Grampa came to visit again today. Mommy got to spend a little time on the computer announcing my arrival to everyone. It was a great day of rest. I'm still working on my eating. Mommy's body is a little sore. But I'm sure I'll get the hang of it sooner or later. Have a good night, new world.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
My Birth Story
I'm gonna let Mommy tell you this story because I was busy being born.
"Sunday night, November 2nd, I went to bed with mild sharp cramps which I ignored. Monday morning, November 3rd, I awoke with blood on a panty liner. Initially it freaked me out. Ryan had a polygraph scheduled for noon. I wasn't due until Sunday, November 9th. I called my dad because I wasn't sure whether or not I should tell Ryan or not. Dad said I should and let Ryan decide what to do.
Ryan didn't want to go but he did and gave me a phone number to call if I needed him. Julia came to pick me up for a previously scheduled doctor's appointment.
I saw Doctor Penn and he told me I was one cm dilated and 50% effaced. He said it could be anytime in the next day or two. My contractions were already 2-3 minutes apart but mild. He said wait till they got 5-7 minutes or 1 minute in length. I never reached 5-7 minutes. The pain was getting so uncomfortable because I was contracting about every 2 1/2 minutes, lasting 45 seconds or so and so I felt like I was constantly in pain. The longest the contractions ever got was 4 minutes. But by that point they were lasting over a minute in length. They were never textbook contractions.
After the OB appointment, Julia took me to Annapolis Mall where I sat in the car and she went in and got me lunch. I called Deb because I didn't want to wait at home. I was so afraid I was going to get caught in labor during rush hour traffic.
So while sitting at Mom and Dad Evans' I started to get sick. Julia was timing my contractions. I had called Ryan and told him to meet me at his parents' house. When he got there we sent Julia to get Ryan's clothes and overnight things. When she got back my contractions were finally long enough to call the hospital.
They told me to come in and get checked out. Ryan remembers driving me to the hospital and me saying "Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god." They put me in a wheelchair right away and took me up to labor and delivery. I went through triage and had to use the restroom. The contractions were so close together that it was hard to stand up for any length of time, let alone walk. The nurses were fairly impatient with me but I stood my ground. I was pretty abrupt with them.
With my contractions so close I wanted her to wait till in between the pain to do anything to me. She was insistent on not waiting. I finally yelled at her "IF YOU WANTED ME TO WAIT THE LAST FIVE HOURS TO GET HERE THEN YOU CAN WAIT ONE gosh darn MINUTE FOR MY CONTRACTION TO SUBSIDE." That ended that arguement.
So she waited for contractions before hooking up monitors and asking me questions. By this point I was 3 cms dilated and 80% effaced. They decided to admit me because my labor was progressing.
I had the most wonderful delivery nurse, Nina. Doctor Kumar came in and gave me a load of crap about relaxing through my contractions. He told me to be a "wet noodle." I wanted to HIT him with a wet noodle. So I had words with him. He told me he wanted me to get a backed-off dose of epidural so I could feel my contractions at the end when pushing. I told him I know how to push and to give me the full dose. That ended that argument. He left.
Then they had nurses one after the other come in and try to start and IV. I'm a hard stick and I told them that. So after several failed attempts of them poking me with needles and then digging around, they finally called in the anesthesiologist and he gets it first try.
So next they used the IV to give me Stadol. That basically did nothing except make me loopy. The anesthesiologist then came in to do the epidural. He was fabulous. Everything went so smoothly with the epidural.
At this point it was about 8-9 p.m. and I was only measuring 4 cms. I was told to get some sleep. Yeah right. I was so wired. People who had come to the hospital decided to go home and get a good night's rest. I was a little disappointed but I realized that it would probably be a few more hours and that they needed there rest now so I could get some rest later. My mom stayed with us in the delivery room. She and Ryan fell asleep in the chairs. I finally fell asleep around 2:30 a.m.
At 3:00 a.m. the nurse came flying in the room. I had been asleep for about 30 minutes when she threw an oxygen mask on me and she said, "We need to flip you over NOW." In my state of exhaustion and confusion, I said, "Wake my husband up and he can help..." She said, "NO NOW!" and she and another girl flipped me on my side. WHAM!
Needless to say I was freaking out a little bit. She told me Elaina's heart beat was dropping rapidly. She had rolled over on her cord but it came back up. I was a little worried because Ryan had done that when Deb was in labor and she ended up having a c-section. I did NOT want to have a c-section. Elaina did this one more time within 3 minutes of the first time but then stabilized.
At this point there was no way I was going back to sleep. I was full of adrenaline. Finally around 6:00 a.m. the nurse said I was 10 cms and fully dilated it was time to push!
There was one major problem was I feeling everything below my hips in the birth canal. The epidural wasn't wearing off, it just wasn't working in that region. They said maybe I had an epidural block. Later I discovered that she had her fist up to her forehead the whole time I pushed her through the canal and so the circumference was even wider than her head! Pushing her out was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. At one point I did have to tell my poor husband "For the sake of our marriage, sit down and SHUT UP." I feel bad looking back on it but I was in agony. I was shaking so bad from lack of sleep. My muscles were just giving out on me. I was screaming and panting. It was PAINFUL.
Elaina Margaret Evans was born 7:30 am after 1 1/2 hrs of pushing. She was 7lbs even and 20 inches long. She's beautiful and I love her to death.
"Sunday night, November 2nd, I went to bed with mild sharp cramps which I ignored. Monday morning, November 3rd, I awoke with blood on a panty liner. Initially it freaked me out. Ryan had a polygraph scheduled for noon. I wasn't due until Sunday, November 9th. I called my dad because I wasn't sure whether or not I should tell Ryan or not. Dad said I should and let Ryan decide what to do.
Ryan didn't want to go but he did and gave me a phone number to call if I needed him. Julia came to pick me up for a previously scheduled doctor's appointment.
I saw Doctor Penn and he told me I was one cm dilated and 50% effaced. He said it could be anytime in the next day or two. My contractions were already 2-3 minutes apart but mild. He said wait till they got 5-7 minutes or 1 minute in length. I never reached 5-7 minutes. The pain was getting so uncomfortable because I was contracting about every 2 1/2 minutes, lasting 45 seconds or so and so I felt like I was constantly in pain. The longest the contractions ever got was 4 minutes. But by that point they were lasting over a minute in length. They were never textbook contractions.
After the OB appointment, Julia took me to Annapolis Mall where I sat in the car and she went in and got me lunch. I called Deb because I didn't want to wait at home. I was so afraid I was going to get caught in labor during rush hour traffic.
So while sitting at Mom and Dad Evans' I started to get sick. Julia was timing my contractions. I had called Ryan and told him to meet me at his parents' house. When he got there we sent Julia to get Ryan's clothes and overnight things. When she got back my contractions were finally long enough to call the hospital.
They told me to come in and get checked out. Ryan remembers driving me to the hospital and me saying "Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god." They put me in a wheelchair right away and took me up to labor and delivery. I went through triage and had to use the restroom. The contractions were so close together that it was hard to stand up for any length of time, let alone walk. The nurses were fairly impatient with me but I stood my ground. I was pretty abrupt with them.
With my contractions so close I wanted her to wait till in between the pain to do anything to me. She was insistent on not waiting. I finally yelled at her "IF YOU WANTED ME TO WAIT THE LAST FIVE HOURS TO GET HERE THEN YOU CAN WAIT ONE gosh darn MINUTE FOR MY CONTRACTION TO SUBSIDE." That ended that arguement.
So she waited for contractions before hooking up monitors and asking me questions. By this point I was 3 cms dilated and 80% effaced. They decided to admit me because my labor was progressing.
I had the most wonderful delivery nurse, Nina. Doctor Kumar came in and gave me a load of crap about relaxing through my contractions. He told me to be a "wet noodle." I wanted to HIT him with a wet noodle. So I had words with him. He told me he wanted me to get a backed-off dose of epidural so I could feel my contractions at the end when pushing. I told him I know how to push and to give me the full dose. That ended that argument. He left.
Then they had nurses one after the other come in and try to start and IV. I'm a hard stick and I told them that. So after several failed attempts of them poking me with needles and then digging around, they finally called in the anesthesiologist and he gets it first try.
So next they used the IV to give me Stadol. That basically did nothing except make me loopy. The anesthesiologist then came in to do the epidural. He was fabulous. Everything went so smoothly with the epidural.
At this point it was about 8-9 p.m. and I was only measuring 4 cms. I was told to get some sleep. Yeah right. I was so wired. People who had come to the hospital decided to go home and get a good night's rest. I was a little disappointed but I realized that it would probably be a few more hours and that they needed there rest now so I could get some rest later. My mom stayed with us in the delivery room. She and Ryan fell asleep in the chairs. I finally fell asleep around 2:30 a.m.
At 3:00 a.m. the nurse came flying in the room. I had been asleep for about 30 minutes when she threw an oxygen mask on me and she said, "We need to flip you over NOW." In my state of exhaustion and confusion, I said, "Wake my husband up and he can help..." She said, "NO NOW!" and she and another girl flipped me on my side. WHAM!
Needless to say I was freaking out a little bit. She told me Elaina's heart beat was dropping rapidly. She had rolled over on her cord but it came back up. I was a little worried because Ryan had done that when Deb was in labor and she ended up having a c-section. I did NOT want to have a c-section. Elaina did this one more time within 3 minutes of the first time but then stabilized.
At this point there was no way I was going back to sleep. I was full of adrenaline. Finally around 6:00 a.m. the nurse said I was 10 cms and fully dilated it was time to push!
There was one major problem was I feeling everything below my hips in the birth canal. The epidural wasn't wearing off, it just wasn't working in that region. They said maybe I had an epidural block. Later I discovered that she had her fist up to her forehead the whole time I pushed her through the canal and so the circumference was even wider than her head! Pushing her out was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. At one point I did have to tell my poor husband "For the sake of our marriage, sit down and SHUT UP." I feel bad looking back on it but I was in agony. I was shaking so bad from lack of sleep. My muscles were just giving out on me. I was screaming and panting. It was PAINFUL.
Elaina Margaret Evans was born 7:30 am after 1 1/2 hrs of pushing. She was 7lbs even and 20 inches long. She's beautiful and I love her to death.
Welcome!
My name is Elaina Margaret Evans and this is my blog about my daily activities. I have a mommy and daddy who love me and take great care of me. I have grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles who love to spoil me and cousins to get into lots of trouble with!
I was born on Tuesday, November 4th, Election Day, at 7:30 a.m. I weighed 7lbs at birth and was 20 inches long. I was born at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, MD.I can't wait to share all of my new experiences with you. I hope you enjoy reading about my life and sharing in my adventures with me!
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