Welcome to the World, Eila!

Eila Lu McElwee was born on Wednesday, April 15th at 6:17 AM. 

She weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces and was 19 inches long. 

Having her is definitely the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. 

Here's her birth story. . . 

I went to school on Tuesday, feeling like my normal, pregnant self. I left school feeling extra tired, but what do you expect, teaching 4 year olds all day? Our evening was normal.  I went to bed around 11 and slept until about 1:45. I woke up with little contractions. They felt like braxton hicks contractions, but just a little stronger- nothing unbearable. I got out of bed, used that bathroom, and got back in bed. I couldn't fall back to sleep and was still having contractions. I still didn't think anything was unusual because I've been getting up and having a hard time falling asleep for a while now. 

Dan cut the cord and was the first to hold her :) 

After a while, I realized the contractions weren't stopping and had actually gotten a little stronger. I decided to test out a contraction timer app on my phone, kind of just for fun. I timed the contractions (which I categorized as either 'mild' or 'moderate') and they were happening anywhere between 2 and 7 minutes apart, averaging around 3.  These contractions were strong enough that I couldn't sleep and needed to move around, but not so strong that I couldn't talk. 

Around 3:30 am, I contemplated whether or not I was going to call into school because I didn't think I would be able to teach after being up all night. And the contractions were still happening. 

Around 4:00 am, they got a little stronger, but weren't horrible. Definitely uncomfortable! I told myself that if they were still happening at 4:30, I would call my doctor. I didn't want to be one of those first-time-moms that went to the hospital, only to be sent home. 

Well around 4:30 am, I started bleeding a little. I thought it was a little weird, and decided to call. Dan woke up around this point because he noticed I wasn't in bed and checked to see if I was okay. I told him I called the doctor and he said we should head to the hospital! 

First family picture! 

The contractions kept happening as we finished packing our hospital bags. Dan was kind of taking his time, he let the dogs out, and figured we had some time. 

Well, all of a sudden, I felt like I had to push!

We jumped in the car at about 5:00 and headed to the hospital. 

With each contraction, I had to fight the urge to push.

On the way to the hospital, we talked about wether or not we should call our families yet. We decided that we would wait until we got checked in and had a room- we figured we would be there for a while and didn't need to wake everyone up at 5 in the morning.

Of course, on the way there, we had to stop at the longest stop light in the world! 

We got to the hospital at 5:22 am. We parked in the valet parking area and went straight to labor and delivery. We had to stop in triage, where the nurse started asking a million questions. I was getting very uncomfortable, but still answering them/ breathing through contractions. I told the nurse I felt like I had to push and she finished asking me questions and then checked to see how dilated I was. 

Then things moved FAST!

I was completely dilated and her head was descending. 

I have never seen a group of people move SO fast! 

They pretty much threw me in a wheel chair and rushed me into a hospital bed. They moved so fast that they left Dan in the triage room while he gathered my things! There were about six nurses very quickly setting up the delivery room and my nurse was helping me breath to hold off on pushing until the doctor could get there.

The doctor came in, had me push during the next contraction and let us know that I would probably have the baby in a few contractions! 

And at 6:17, Eila was born :) 

Afterwards, the nurses joked about how I shouldn't tell anyone my birth story because things happened so smoothly and quickly. Both of them said that if we have anymore kids, we have to move across the street from the hospital- they were amazed at how fast she was born, especially because I'm a first time mom. They also said that if waited to come in much longer, she could have been born in the car- that would have made for an interesting birth story (and I'm so glad that didn't happen)! 

Welcome to the world, Eila! 

I love you, Eila!