I was scheduled to be induced on Friday morning (the 16th) -- we had a hard time on Thursday night deciding if we wanted to go with it or just keep waiting, (My doctor w/ Landon had recomended I be induced at 39 weeks this time around since Landon was so big, we hadn't gone for that but I was just past my due date) - we finally decided to go for the induction. So, that night we got all of our things together, talked to Jordan's parents about plans for Landon while we were gone, and got a good nights sleep!
Friday morning, we got up and ready to go -- feeling great (although a bit nervous of course!) and well prepared. We got in the car at 6:30 to head to the hospital and as soon as I sat down in the car my first contraction started! Five minutes later when another came I told Jordan and we joked 'wouldn't that be funny if I went into labor on my own on our way to the hospital?' Sure enough, by the time we got to the hospital in American Fork, I was definitely in labor and I got to be my nurses "easiest induction ever."
When Landon was born, I decided to get an epidural after several hours of some tough contractions. I was very glad that I did and remember thinking, "why would anybody choose to give birth without an epidural?" For some reason, I decided to give it a try this time around. :) (Why? Partly because I remembered the epidural being so painful. Partly probably because I figured if women have been doing this since the beginning of time, surely I could too... partly because I didn't want to feel like I had to defend why I chose to get an epidural whenever I heard other mom's talking about their natural child births and the amazing experience it was...)
And pretty much, it turned out that my labor was actually a pretty neat experience. It was really really hard but I was okay! The nurse and midwife were super positive and encouraging and in between contractions, I felt so amazed that I was doing it - when they told me I was doing such a good job, I felt like I was! :)
On the other hand, the delivery (even though it was only about 25 minutes) convinced me that I really would not choose again to give birth without an epidural! It was just too hard and too painful - more than I could put myself through again and more than I would make my sweetheart Jordan watch me go through again. Too, too hard.
But oh we were so happy to have our little Ellie here!
And, one great thing about no epidural was a super quick recovery. Grammi and Grandpa brought Landon to come see his new baby sister and I was up and about that afternoon and the next day walked laps around the mother baby unit with Jordan! :)
And that's the story of our beautiful little baby Ellie's birth-day!
