Elisa

Alright, so here we go, the story of Elisa, For Elisa.

I suspected I was pregnant with Elisa very early on. The telling sign? I had to eat breakfast. Twice. Or else my blood sugar dropped significantly and I felt like I was going to puke if I didnt eat ONE MORE THING.

We found out I was pregnant the same day I became an avon lady. That was May 30th of so 2012. Naturally I was a little alarmed, as Sophia was just 3 months old. I kind of had a bit of a psycho time for the first 2 months of Sophia's life and I had just started feeling normal again and was dreading feeling crazy again.

We also had a landlord who made life more stressful than it needed to be.

I'm convinced there was some serious spiritual oppression there because when we left things got better in most ways.

So ya I was stressed about our living situation, robbing Sophia of her mother, robbing the baby of her mother etc etc.

When I told my mother she called Josh and I a pair of rabbits. She was trying to make me laugh. It worked.
My dad said he wasn't surprised. lol.

We told my inlaws on fathers day weekend. Again. We had just told them about the problems with our landlord ( I say this so you can understand my mother in laws reaction) My father in law calmly stated that he already knew. My mother in law said " you need to get out of here" We told aunt and uncles via skype since they were all far away. Jeremy chastized Josh about having children with such close birthdays because their birthdays are 2 days apart. How could he do this to his children?! It was funny though, not in a mean way.

So I knew very early on that this baby was going to be a girl and her name would be Elisa. Everyone else thought I was having a boy. But not me. I knew. I struggled with a lot of feelings of inadequacy. One day in the early days, before the first ultrasound, I was at the midwives waiting for my appointment. I started flipping through a book called Surprise Child. I was very surprised to find bible verses at the beginning of each chapter. I read through it a bit. Then I saw this verse : Isaiah 49 :1b and 3
The LORD called me before my birth;

from within the womb he called me by name.He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel,

and you will bring me glory.”

It was like God was yelling at me through the pages. Not in a bad way. In a "please hear me" kind of way
From that moment I no longer feared. Well, sometimes a little but I knew that my little one was here for a purpose. Created by God to fulfill some sort of plan. It just made me realize that though it would be hard for me, that wasnt what the focus should've been.  Also, I had no idea, but Elisa means dedicated to God.

The first ultrasound made me fall in love with her. She was so calm. She kept falling asleep - a huge contrast to Sophia who looked like she was dancing the entire time.

Actually she kind of looked like a little kolbassa. I was told I couldnt call her that though.

She was pretty chill and didnt really make her presence known too often until about 28 weeks. I mean I had movement and she hiccupped but she wasnt giving me too much discomfort.
Then for the next 10 weeks it was like she was waging war on my pelvis.
Then...all chill again. She actually had turned head up around 30 weeks and then went back again so I suspect thats why it was so horrifically uncomfortable.

The birth story....well. She was due on the 27th. The early morning of the 28th I was sure I was in labour. I had contractions in the middle of the night and pain. After three hours it stopped though. I spent the whole next day working on Sophia's scrapbook like mad - convinced Elisa was coming any second.

My midwife, the same one I had with Sophia who doesnt get flustered and is in no way like me - animated and dramatic - stated firmly that once labour started I needed to think about getting to the hospital because there may not be much time. I had considered a home birth but after what happened wtih Sophia, and the fact that Sophia, being just 12 months old would be in the house ( and i am not quiet. Low moans? Are you joking. Thats NOT how I roll. )I didnt want to scar her. However, the morning of the 29th I was dreaming about labour, waking briefly from painful contractions but fully woke up at 4 again, and sat up startled, realizing these were real contractions and should be timing them. So for an hour or so I timed them and then woke up Josh. I spent another hour hunched over my pillow crying for no apparent reason, and having really strong contractions. I was actually scared we wouldnt make it to the hospital...because once we got to the hospital, I stopped crying.
Anyway, it was....such a good labour. I actually had like a minute between contractions. I could rest, eat, drink, chat, laugh. My student midwife said I was the most pleasant labouring woman she had ever seen ( she was a senior student...and also pregnant though she didnt tell us until I was discharged cuz frankly she couldnt hide it anymore). My labour kept starting and stopping. I was ridiculously drowsy for no apparent reason ( maybe cuz my iron was like 6) and just wanted to have the baby. After a while I got an epidural. Boy wasnt that fun.
The anestetist insisted on educating the student on how to give an epidural. At one point he was like " No! you need to keep the alcohol away from the sterile field otherwise that can get into her cerebral spinal fluid and she will become paralyzed.
Awesome. Thats just what I want to hear.
Anyway, the same pattern of stopping and starting continued for several more hours. It got boring. especially since they wouldnt let me walk around because Elisa's heart rate kept skyrocketing.
Again, Exact opposite of her sister. Its continued.
Finally she was born at 4:15 that evening. She had to be vaccumed. Thanks to modern literature I blamed myself for having an epidural, but when the student was making sure everything had exited ( im keeping it clean), she held up the cord, made a very weird face and said " this is a really short cord" the midwife confirmed that statement was correct. The next day the student told me that 40% of births with short cords do need intervention because the baby has a hard time ....exiting...lol
The dr was a total butcher though. I was in extreme pain. And I had drugs. Sheesh.

So thats the birth story of little Elisa. She was jaundice and so we had to stay a bit. I wish I had kept her little glasses. I hated her having to wear them and be in the incubator cuz i wanted to see her face and hold her, but now, I think it would have been cute to see how much she has grown.

So there you have it, but babies birth stories. I assume that this blog will be here forever, even if i abandon it one day but the stories are now written down while they are still fairly fresh in my memory for them to read one day.

Now I believe they are both awake, therefore, I shall sign off.