Ellie has arrived! 7.24.10

Ellie's Birth Story

Thursday morning I woke up and went to a session at the Mesa Temple. I felt tired but I thought it was just an early morning and lots of sitting and standing. After the Temple I went to visit my friend Lauren who just had a baby 6 days earlier. Little Henry was precious and the whole time I held him Ellie was kicking my belly (I think she wanted to be the one in my arms) I called my mom and told her about the cramps I had been having all day. They didn't hurt, they just felt like menstrual cramps, low and not regular at all. She told me they were indeed contractions!! I knew something would happen soon so I needed to finish the nursery. Spencer helped me hang some picture frames and her ELLIE letters above her crib. We finished packing the hospital bag and finally went to bed at 11:30pm! Yikes! Little did I know that I should have gone to sleep sooner. At my usual midnight potty break something was different. Contractions began at 1:30am! I laid back in bed and the contractions started to get stronger so we started to time them. We wanted to wait and labor at home as long as possible. Around 7:00am I got up and showered and ready to go. Contractions were about 6 minutes apart so we headed to the hospital at 8:30am. In triage we found out that I was only dilated to a 1. We couldn't be admitted unless we were in active labor. We walked around for a little bit but didn't feel well so I laid back down. The contractions slowed way down and were now 10 minutes apart, still very painful but I still wasn't dilating. At 11:30 am we were sent back home. I cried and cried. I was hurting and really wanted something to happen. Being home was tough. I lasted only a couple more hours before I called the triage nurses again. I didn't think I could take the pain anymore. The contractions were random, sometimes 4 min and sometimes 6 min apart. We decided to go back to the hospital at 3:30pm. Much to our dismay I was only dilated to a 1.5. I was so afraid of being sent home again. They decided to give me Demerol to help calm me down. It worked! I was able to rest between contractions. I was so tired and being able to relax really felt good. After a few hours I was dilated to a 5 and was able to get admited!! Woo hoo! By 7:00pm I was a 6 and was able to get my epidural! Thank goodness for medicine!!!! I was happy and pain free. This slowed things down so I was also put on Pitocin. We were making slow progress but we could see on the monitors that the contractions were getting stronger.

At 1:00am I was finally dilated to a 10! Time to start pushing!! I told my nurse that I was terrified of pushing and that I didn't think I could handle it. She was very nice and told me exactly what to do and when. It also helped to have Spencer by my side. He was so supportive all day!


Every push was exciting, we were getting closer and closer to meeting our little girl. I couldn't help but smile each time I pushed. It was so much better than I could have imagined. After 50 minutes of pushing there was a baby! Our baby girl had arrived!! Spencer was able to cut her ambilical cord.

She was quickly cleaned off and soon let out her first cry. It was the best sound ever!

20 1/2 inches long
7 pounds 7 ounces

Daddy was the first one to hold Ellie. She quickly melted his heart!!

My first time holding my little girl

It's amazing... we're parents!

Ellie was wide awake and happy!

Don't you just love that face and those big blue eyes!!

Pure joy!

We couldn't stop smiling!

We were all tired after a 24.5 hour labor!

The happy SMITH family!