Ellryn Maria enters the world....

Miss Ellryn Maria entered the world on March 15, 2009 at 7:37 AM. She weighed 8 lbs., 7 oz. and was 20 inches long. She has a full head of hair and beautiful dark blue eyes. We are ecstatic that she is finally here. She has been jaundiced this week, forcing us to visit the pediatrician 4 days in a row for checks of her bilirubin levels, which have finally started to go down today. We've been supplementing breastfeeding with formula to help with the jaundice and will hopefully be able to discontinue that soon. Other than that, she's absolutely perfect in every way.

For those that are interested, here is her birth story:

I was scheduled for an induction on Saturday, March 14th at 8 AM, someone from Labor & Delivery was to call me the night before to confirm. When I received the call, the nurse stated that they might not have a bed for me the next morning and to call at 6:30 the next morning to see. When I called, there was no bed, so I was forced to wait. After a few calls back and forth to L&D they asked if I wanted to come in at 8 PM that night to start the induction. Being completely miserable with back pain and just wanting to get the show on the road, I agreed.

Rob and I put Cole to bed and arrived at L&D at 8 PM. After a couple hours of paperwork, IVs, etc. they started the pitocin just before 10 PM. I was told I could get the epidural at any time. The OB wanted to break my water as soon as possible, but my cervix wasn't in the right position at the first check. A little before midnight I asked for the epidural. I didn't want to wait too long for the pain to get bad (which I did with Cole and the anesthesiologist had a really hard time getting my epi in). Shortly before the anesthesiologist arrived, my OB was able to break my water. Once the epidural was in place, my skin immediately began to itch, which they told me would last about an hour. It actually lasted the entire time, but to a much lesser degree.

From there, I was able to sleep off and on through the night until around 6:15 AM. I realized at that point that my contractions were getting painful, even with the epidural, so I called the nurse. They gave me a button to push on my epi machine to help with the pain. After several tries, I wasn't noticing any difference, so I called the nurse again. She paged the anesthesiologist to see if they could give me more medicine. When she arrived, she discovered that the button wasn't working at all, so they switched out machines. She also gave me a bolus of medicine so I felt much better. At about that time, the OB arrived to check my progress and found that I was complete, it was time to push. I started pushing at 7:10 PM and she was born at 7:37 PM. They laid her on my chest and I just cried, enjoying the moment. This delivery was so much more relaxed than Cole's was, and I am convinced that my epidural with him did not work at all.

Rob and I are so overjoyed that she is here, and Cole is completely in love with his little sister. He doesn't realize how rough he can be sometimes, but he loves to give her kisses and help take care of her. Seeing them together makes every month of disappointment, every needle, every test, and every tear worthwhile. That's what this was all about.