Inspiration

Birth Stories

Ella

Leslie,

I wanted to let you know that our daughter was born on May 14th at 6:24 pm at St. Mary's. She weighed 7 lbs 15 ounces and is 21 inches tall. I was scheduled to be induced on Wednesday the 16th, as my due date was May 10th and I was 0 cm dilated. On Mothers Day evening, the 13th, my water broke (leaked) around 9:30 pm. I called the doctor on call and since it was not a significant amount he told me to stay put at home. I went to bed around 10:30 and about 11:00 I started to feel something funny in my tummy. That funny feeling starting to come about every 5 minutes and lasted about 90 seconds, I realized that they were contractions :) I called the doctor again and he told me to come into the hospital. We checked in at 1:30 am. I continued to have contractions until about 6 am and had only dilated 1 cm so the gave me Pitocin and then the fun really began. I waited about another hour and got an epidural as the Pitocin felt like it tripled the intensity of the contractions. Around 2 pm on Monday, I really started to really feel the contractions again. I had to wait about 1 hour and the doctor came in to check me and at this point I was 6 cm and feeling every bit of it, the epidural had worn off. I was given another dose and it eased the pain. At about 4:00 pm, I started to push. We continued to do so until 6:24 pm when Ella was born. It was such an amazing experience, the best I have ever had in my life so far. My husband and mother were in the delivery with me and when her little head poked out, they both broke down in tears, I knew that she was here! That is a moment that I will never forget.

Thank you for all of you encouragement and support during my pregnancy. I really utilized a lot of the breathing techniques to get through some of the rough patches. Please send my best to everyone in the class. It is such an amazing experience and truly something to look forward to.

All the best,

Deanne

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