I've been away from my blog for a few weeks and that's because sweet baby Ensley is here! She is such a precious little lady and she has Ryan, Libby, and I all wrapped around her tiny little fingers already. And Ryan is absolutely ga-ga over his little girl.
Ensley was due October 5th but I always thought she might come early since Libby was born a month early. In the middle of August my doctor did an ultrasound to see just how big Ensley was the ultrasound showed that her due date might be more towards September 18th. As we got closer to September 18th I started thinking more and more that she would actually not come until October - which is actually what I wanted. October is my favorite month of the year and I would have loved having an October baby to have an October birthday party to plan every year! But even if she came early and was born in September I wasn't too worried about it because I start celebrating Fall September 1st so as long as she was born in September that would be ok with me. September 18th came and passed and I was definitely thinking she wouldn't come until October.
On Tuesday, September 20th I woke up as usual at 5:45am to get ready for work and then get Libby up and ready for school and then head to work. Right as I work up I realized something was wrong - I had been bleeding and there was lots of it. I called Labor & Delivery and told them what was going on and they told me to come into Labor & Delivery right away to get checked out. Ryan was getting ready to come with me but I told him he needed to stay home and get Libby up and ready for school and take her to school and then he could come to the hospital. I got to the hospital at 6:00am and they put me in Triage and drew lots of blood to send off for tests and they hooked up the fetal heart monitor and as soon as I could hear Ensley's heart beating I was able to calm down. They kept me in Triage to monitor how things were going while they waited on the test results and waited on my doctor to come on to duty at 8:00am. They measured to see if I was in labor and I was 2 1/2 centimeters. Ryan got to hospital and we just sat and talked and waited and waited. My doctor finally got there at 8:00am and she looked over the test results and came in to talk to me. She said that since I was 37 weeks 6 days that Ensley was full-term since I had passed the 37 week mark and that she felt like Ensley should be born that day because the other option was to send me home but there was a pretty good possibility that I could bleed out. Ok, that's all I needed to hear so I told her to admit me and induce me.
I hadn't eaten much since lunch the previous day and I was already feeling shaky from not eating and I knew there was absolutely no way I could make it through labor and delivery with me already being shaky so they ordered me some breakfast and we waited a while for that to be sent to my room. While we were waiting on my breakfast to come I had texted three of my close friends (and my boss) to tell them that I was being admitted to the hospital and they were inducing my labor. One of the friends I texted, Debs, lives in Jacksonville so coming to the hospital wasn't something that she could do right then but Karen who lives in Gainesville headed to the hospital. There was a knock on the door of my room and I was expecting a nurse to walk in but I look over and it was Karen coming to help support me through the labor and delivery process. Ryan is very squeamish and can't handle blood, needles, hospital equipment, etc, without passing out so I was very relieved to see Karen walk through the door (even though it was still morning) just in case Ryan couldn't handle staying in the room with me. The third person I texted was Amanda and she immediately asked if she could be of help by picking up Libby from school that afternoon. That was such a wonderful thing for her to offer!
At 11:45am they started my pitocin and Ryan, Karen, and I just chatted in the room and I would pause for my contractions and then get right back to cracking jokes as soon as a contraction would finish. Amanda picked up Libby at school at 1:45pm and took her to our neighbor's house and then Amanda came up to the hospital to join the party. :-) At 4:45 they came in to check on my progress to see how much further I was along since I'd been on pitocin for five hours and I was only 3 centimeters. The doctor decided that he'd break my water so Amanda, Karen, and Ryan left the room. The doctor broke my water and hadn't even stood up from sitting on my bed with me and my "easy" contraction instantaneously changed into a "real" contraction and I was instant pain. By the time Ryan, Karen, and Amanda walked back into the room I was holding on to the siderail of the bed like I was in the middle of a hurricane and at risk of being blown away. I actually wondered if they'd charge me for the bed if I broke the handrail off. I was holding on to that thing for dear life! At 6:00pm Libby was dropped off at the hosital by our neighbors and Amanda went out and took Libby to get some dinner which I was VERY grateful for because I hadn't even thought about making arragements for Libby to get dinner. I was just at a point where I wasn't thinking very clearly! At about 7:00pm Ryan's parents arrived at the hospital. They had been out of town (Ryan's dad was on a business trip) and his plane landed in Tampa late that afternoon and Ryan's mom picked him up at the airport and they drove straight to the hosptial in Gainesville. It was right about then that they started getting the room set up for Ensley's delivery and seeing all of the tools laying on the table and watching me in pain was more than Ryan could handle so he asked Karen to take his place by my side and he went out to sit with his parents, Libby, and Amanda...and Amanda's husband Jordan who also came up to the hospital. Just before 7:45pm the doctor came up and put her hand on my shoulder (I was in so much pain I wouldn't open my eyes) but once she put her hand on my shoulder I looked at her and she said, "I'm going to put on my gloves and gown and we'll get the baby delivered" and I said, "Oh my God! I'm having a baby!" Her reaction was along the lines of, "Yep, that's what we've been working on all day!" :-) At 7:45pm I started pushing and Ensley finally made her arrival at 8:47pm. It was a VERY difficult hour (of course it was...I was delivering a child!). Even though Ryan wasn't in the room with us he was standing right outside of the door and he was able to record her first cries on his phone. They got Ensley cleaned up a little bit and finshed everything they needed to do on me and finally Ryan, Libby, Ryan's parents, and Amanda & Jordan were able to come in and meet our little lady.
Ensley is a wonderful baby but she doesn't care to sleep much at night. She still likes to be up most of the night but she's starting to settle into a schedule that allows me to sleep a few hours a night which is lovely! Other than that we are just thoroughly enjoying our new addition to the family. Ryan, Libby, and I will just sit around Ensley watching her every little move and thinking that everything that she does is adorable. :-) She couldn't be more adored by us...and Ryan's parents are head over heels in love with her too. We are so happy to have her as part of our family!
