Ellie's birth story

My sweet little Eleanor, you are 24 days old today! I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to flash back a few weeks  and tell the story of how we got to meet you, four weeks early!
Let's start on September 8th. We had an ultrasound with MFM. I was nervous, mostly because every time I stop being nervous about scans something surprises us. I tell my new joke to Kate, the MFM nurse. She is the sweetest,  and even gave us her direct line if we have any questions when Ellie's growth started to slow down. Kate doesn't find my joke as funny as I do but I tell it to everyone anyway,
Me: Ask me what's up Kate: What's up? Me: My blood pressure! ZING!
It's not really a joke, but considering my pregnancy so far it's just to be expected. We hope on the table and they start the scan. BPP scans are LONG. I spend the whole time staring at the size estimates waiting for them to measure Ellie's belly so we can see if she gained any weight. Why they can't do that first I have no idea. Eventually we get there, she's gained 2 ounces, 3 lbs and 15oz. Which isn't much in a week at a time we are expecting about 8 ounces a week. The tech leaves to get the MFM, it's my least favourite one but she's okay. We talk for awhile and she decides to bring us back Monday, the 14th, for another scan. She tries to get some more measurements but girly is moving way too much and eventually I've run into the next appointment. 
Thursday, September 10th we show up for our regularly scheduled OB appointment. The nurse tells me they've moved my c-section from the 5th to the 28th. My doctor comes in and says she moved it to the 21st but wants to move it up again. We start talking about dates and where I am in my pregnancy and I point out that I'm 100% sure that I'm further along than they think by 4-5 days. My doctor brings up my 7 and 12 week ultrasounds and wonders where the hell they got my due date from cos its doesn't work with any of my scans. She says I'm 36 that day, I say 35+6 but hey, we're closer together and finally someone is listening to me about that. 
Because I'm 36 weeks she's ready to deliver the baby anytime. She mentions Sunday or Monday but wants to talk to MFM first. The doctor I don't like isn't there on Thursdays so she consults another doctor. She comes back and basically says, "yeah so tomorrow". TOMORROW?! I had just made peace with MONDAY but sure, let's do it tomorrow.... So much for my baby shower on Saturday. 
Before we can leave she takes us over to Triage and has them do an NST and run blood tests to make sure there are no signs of toxaemia or pre-eclampsia cos they won't let me leave if there is. It takes two hours to get the results back, in the mean time I'm freaking out because if I'm having a baby TOMORROW I have shit to do. We finally get to leave and by then I'm so exhausted we just get milkshakes and eat cookies.    Thursday night we go out for dinner for Vietnamese with my dad, my sister and her boyfriend and my mom and her husband. Everyone is really excited except for me and I keep telling them all to stop being excited. Not going to lie, having my baby 4 weeks early and knowing she is tiny terrifies me. My mom is just excited she is here because she came into town for my baby shower. We didn't know at the time but she'd also closed the sale on her house in BC, she'd been trying to sell it for three years and she was thrilled to be around for the baby.
After dinner we came home and did a little bit of cleaning and resting. I stayed up til midnight so I could chug as much water as possible knowing I wouldn't be allowed any til after my surgery.

  Friday morning we woke up early. I had a shower and Steve ate breakfast. We grabbed my loosely packed hospital bag and were on our way around 7:30 am for our 8:00 am check in. We were taken directly into our room and it was HUGE! Probably the size of my living room. I had my hospital bed, obviously, and there was a cot for the baby, a chair for Steve, a rocking chair, two portable tables, a built in bed for Steve and a huge bathroom, complete with a private shower. Way bigger and nicer than our triage room from our last few visits! 

The nurse showed us how to use the satellite TV and hooked me up for an NST. They did some blood work and set up my IV. We were scheduled to be the second c-section of the day at 10:00 am. 10 came and went, of course. I sent Steve to get himself a snack to make sure he wasn't going to be starving during my surgery and, really, we didn't have anything else to do! We were warned that they expected the c-section before mine to run a little late. 

Around 11 a new round of nurses came into my room. We had been waiting for my OB, the anesthesiologist and NICU to all be available and ready to go. They gave Steve his scrubs for the surgery and went over the whole thing with us. One nurse, Miranda, stayed with us to take us downstairs. Her job during my surgery was to sit by my head and make sure I was doing okay and let us know what was going on. She brought us to a small waiting area where we met the anesthesiologist. For the record, the spinal is still scarier to me than the surgery.
We lucked out, most anesthesiologists make the partner wait until the spinal is done but ours let Steve come in the room and sit with me while he did it. It was pretty freaky having someone put needles in my back but the doctor, Steve and my nurse all worked hard to keep me distracted. Once the spinal was in my OB came into the room and told everyone what was going on, why we were delivering early and all my exciting medical information. I was laid down on the table with Steve, my nurse and the anesthesiologist around my head.  They hung the drape and got to work. I remember asking the anesthesiologist how much I was supposed to feel because I could feel a lot of pressure but no pain, turns out that's how the spinal works. Weird. My doctor asked if I could feel something, I said no, and a few minutes later we could hear Ellie crying. It was SO fast. I couldn't believe how fast they had her out. Apparently she tried to karate kick my doctor in the face as she came out, butt first. 
They brought the drape down enough that we could see her and I wish I had gotten a picture of the look on Steve's face. I love my husband, I was so thrilled to make him a dad and I couldn't wait to see it but nothing I imagined even came close to the look in his face when he saw our daughter for the first time. The anesthesiologist had to remind him to take pictures, he was just in shock and there was so much love on his face. He went with Ellie so she could be assessed. 

Not long after they pulled her out I started to feel really sick, like really sick. It was awful. I told Miranda and she had the anesthesiologist put something in my IV, it didn't help. He put something else in and it didn't help either. Unfortunately my pregnancy nausea and reflux meant there wasn't much they could give me that would help. They gave me a little bucket and tried tilting me to the side but my leg started twitching and they had to sit me back up. 
Miranda went over to the NICU team to get Ellie's info and came back with an ice pack for my head. The ice totally helped the nausea and I'm proud to say I didn't throw up! My sweet baby scored an 8 on the apgar scale after 1 minute and a 9 after 5! Excellent scores for any baby but really impressive for a preemie. She weighed 1,910 grams of absolute perfection. Unfortunately, due to her size they had to take her straight to the NICU but that was really the only concern. They brought her over so I could see her for a second before they took her upstairs and I told Steve to go with her. 

After they left my doctor kept telling me how cute Ellie was and how she loves breech babies because their heads are so perfectly round. We learned I do have a small rudimentary horn on the right side of my uterus and my doctor labeled it "cute". Hey, I'll take any compliment I can get while splayed out, naked, on a table.  Once I was stitched up Miranda and the anesthesiologist took me to recovery for about an hour and a half. After some begging the recovery nurse gave me some ice and eventually a glass of water. Once they were satisfied my spinal was wearing off and I was doing well I was taken back upstairs to my room where I met up with Steve. 
The nurse brought me some water, gingerale and toast. She came back an hour or so later to ask me about something and I asked about going to see the baby. I guess in all the ruckus they hadn't realized I hadn't been to see her yet. My nurse grabbed another nurse and wheel chair and they set me up. We could only go for 45 minutes because I needed the compression things back on my legs but I finally got to meet my sweet baby girl. While I was in recovery they gave her formula because her blood sugar was low. They gave Steve the option of feeding her or giving her an IV and I think he made the right choice.

My dad and sister came by to see how we were doing and to bring Steve dinner. I ordered mac and cheese from the L&D room service menu and they brought Steve spaghetti. Afterwards Steve went to feed the cats and my dad, sister and I waited for the okay from the doc to go see the baby (high blood pressure again). I was given the option of ditching the compression things and getting up periodically throughout the night so I could have a longer visit with the baby and I jumped at that. Steve met us in the NICU and we stayed with Ellie for about five hours before we had to go back to our room to get some sleep.