Ella Kathryn's big arrival!

Well folks, Baby Dupp III (a.ka. Gummy, Coral, and/or Coral-Pie) is officially here. Presenting little miss Ella Kathryn. She made her big arrival during a scheduled induction on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 1:55 pm. She weighed 8lbs and 6oz (much to my relief she didn't take after her big sister, Alyse) and was 20 inches long.

A couple weeks prior to her delivery I discussed with my doctor about possibly setting up an induction date for 39 weeks just in case things didn't happen on their own by then. I was fully anticipating that I would go into labor naturally, given my past history of the other two girls. Well, little Ella proved me wrong, and made it the full 39 weeks tucked inside her little womb. So, off we went at 4-something in the morning to make it to Winnie Palmer by our scheduled time of 5am.

As our luck would be, we would have to sit in the super cold waiting room for like an hour. Finally, around 6:15 the nurse came and picked us up to bring us to my labor room. It was the routine medical questions along with setting up the IV and monitors. 7:30am the pitocin was started and was 4cm dialated and about 70% effaced. I was happy to hear that there had been some progress since my doctor visit the Thursday prior. I wasn't in any pain, just having the regular contractions that I've been having for weeks at home. I did request that I get my epidural placed though, before my doctor came to break my water. Not because I was hurting at the moment, but because I knew what was ahead of me.

At 9am the anesthesiologist was in the room ready to place it and Doug was out the door faster than I've seen him move in a long time. Placing it was a breeze with just a few awkward pinches. While she was working on getting the epi placed exactly as it should, my doctor came in. At 9:15 she broke my water and checked me again, and I was still at 4cm. It was funny though, because about 30 minutes after my doctor supposedly left to go to the office, she came back into my room to do another check. She was worried that I would progress super fast and would have been called to turn around halfway back to Dr. Phillips. No progress though, so she left.

At 12:15, I had moved to 5cm. Doug sent out a few texts to let some family know of the progress. Then, my nurse was called to her other patient's room because she was ready to deliver. So she sent a back up nurse into my room. This lady had me moving from one side to the other. Apparently, the baby's heart rate would drop a little bit and the monitor wasn't really picking up my contractions. This led to a conversation with the nurse that I was feeling the contractions, that they weren't painful just a bit uncomfortable. So she was like, well you have the epidural so press the button to get your extra doses. As soon as I did that that uncomfortableness went away. A few minutes later she asked if I had felt that contraction that supposedly just happened, and I totally hadn't felt anything. Now, that is truly a miracle drug. With that, she placed my left leg in a stirrup that was on the right side of the bed. This is the magic position that dialated me from 8cm to 10cm in less than 2 minutes with Alyse.

Just minutes old

Anyways, a few minutes later she came back in and told me about the lowering of the baby's heart and the monitor still not picking up all the contractions, and that she had called the doctor to let her know. Dr. Lambert made the call to have an internal monitor placed so that they could get a more accurate read of the consistency of the contractions. With that, I told the nurse that within the last couple of minutes I had started to feel some pressure and had been debating about calling her into the room. So, my nurse was back from her other patient's delivery and she did a check. She immediately told the other nurse to get a glove to double check. Sure enough, I had fully dialated from 5cm to 10cm in less than 30 minutes. They were then on the phone with the doctor. I kinda laughed about it and was told not to laugh because the baby might come out. That of course made me laugh again. Not sure if the nurse was fully serious, but then I coughed and was told no coughing either ;)

I had about a 30 minute wait from the cervical check until Dr. Lambert made her arrival. The pressure was getting much more frequent and much more intense. I just kinda breathed through them. The nurse basically stayed at my side and would frequently ask if I wanted her to call for another doctor just in case. But, I kept insisting that I would be ok. Dr. Lambert probably got to my room around 1:30. She did a quick glance and decided that she was going to change into her tennis shoes. Then, she was back, they had me do a "practice" push through my next contraction at 1:45, when she decided she needed to get all her gear on. It took longer than what I had been experiencing for the next contraction, but once it came, did the standard three pushes to the contractions. Apparently, she was really close. The next set of contractions brought her to the verge of her arrival. Then, on the first push of the next (the third) contraction, she was here. Less than 10 minutes of pushing, through only 3 contractions = the easiest delivery ever. Plus, my epidural was working perfectly, unlike it only working half way during Alyse's delivery.

Ella went straight to my chest while the nurses wiped her down. It was such a sweet moment. Then, it was off she went for her evaluation. I think I overheard them saying her Apgar scores were 8 and 9. Everyone was shocked that she wasn't heaver than what she weighed out, because she looked much bigger than her actual weight. Once I got her back in my arms, we were told that she was grunting a bit, which is actually a sign of respiratory distress and that her blood sugar was low. They asked me to nurse her to hopefully bring her levels up. They brought a pediatrician in, who explained she may have to go to the transition nursery, but after he did a good lookover he decided that she didn't need to do that, but just to keep a close eye on her. The sugar levels also leveled out after her feeding.

We then had a little bit of time to bond while we waited for the effects of the epidural to wear off. It was so nice to have a new little newborn in my arms again. There really and truly is no greater feeling in the world than just having pushed out a baby that you've been growing inside of you for the past 9 months and then having that sweet baby in your arms. It's so surreal to know that that tiny person had just been inside of you.

They are so happy to finally get to see little Ella

Around 4 o'clock, mom made it up to the labor room (we were still waiting to be moved to the mother baby unit) with Addisyn and Alyse. The look on Addisyn's face was absolutely priceless. She was literally smiling ear to ear and her mouth dropped open. She came over to me and baby Ella as fast as she could and told me that she was so excited that her new baby sister was here. Surprisingly, Alyse was pretty excited too. Then, it was time for the girls to hold their new sister. It was so awesome to watch both of them interact with little Ella. Mom was dying to know the little babe's name and asked Addisyn what her sister's name was. Of course, Addisyn stuck with Coral-Pie, but I asked her if she wanted to know the baby's real name. That's when we told her Ella Kathryn. And, Addisyn was so happy and complimented the name saying it was beautiful.

Addisyn and Alyse meeting Ella for the first time!

Next thing we knew, it was time to move up to the mother baby unit and we were being wheeled away to our new room. On the way there we dropped Ella off at the nursery for a quick bath and look over from the nurses. All in all, it was another beautiful moment. It's virtually impossible to explain the feeling of labor and delivery as well as meeting your baby for the first time. All I know, is that I am so blessed to have three amazing baby girls and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the whole world!

Me and my girls <3