What's in a name?

I have had several people ask me how to pronounce Elodie's name. It is literally pronounced L-O-D or like Melody without the "M." I have also had several people ask me where we got the name. The name Tess has long been on my list of girl names. It got passed over for Britta, so I resurrected it again during this pregnancy. However, I have struggled to find a good middle name for Tess (without making the name Tessa) so one day Chris was Googling middle names for Tess and came across the name Tess Elodie. Then we both were like "hmm...actually Elodie itself is pretty." So basically, Google named our child. Mae was Chris' Grandma's middle name, so there is a little meaning in there I suppose.

I am a firm believer in not committing to a name until you are holding the baby in your arms--it feels like too much pressure to name them beforehand. So Chris and I go to the hospital with a short list of names we both like. Britta is my grandma's name and for that reason, I was really hesitant to commit to it when Britta was born. I wanted to make sure I was naming her Britta because it was really her name and not out of any sense of obligation. Plus, my grandma is the only other Britta I have ever known and so it felt really strange at first to call my child Britta. I fought against the name for a few days even though deep down I knew that it was her name. When I finally did commit to naming her Britta, it was like I couldn't even imagine how I ever thought her name could be anything else.

This time, as soon as Elodie was in my arms I looked at Chris and said "Is she a Tess?" and we both shook our heads. I then said "Is she an Elodie?" and we immediately felt good about it. It was kind of nice not to have the three day window of calling her "baby girl" and trying out different names on her like we did with Britta. At one point they threatened not to let us leave the hospital with Britta because we hadn't chosen a name. Gotta love New York.

We love the name, even though we have already had it mispronounced on several occasions. It is the cutest thing in the world to hear Britta say it, and every time someone comes over to see the baby she says "Her name is Elodie" like ten times.

Elodie Mae

On Monday, August 19th I went in for my 39 week check-up/ The week previous my doctor had told me I was dilated to 1.5 cm and 25% effaced. This week I was really hoping for some progress since I had been having some good Braxton Hicks contractions. The prognosis was 1.5 cm and 60% effaced--at least something was progressing. When I went to bed that night I noticed that the moon looked full so I looked up the lunar calendar and saw that the 20th was the full moon. When you are 9 months pregnant, you will grasp at any glimmer of hope that the end is near so I decided to put my faith in the old wives tale that the full moon can bring on labor.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a contraction that felt like it might be the real thing. I got super excited and was rewarded with no more contractions. So, I said a little prayer that labor would come and went back to sleep. I woke up at about 6:45 on Tuesday morning with contractions again. I went to the bathroom and discovered I had lost my mucous plug (yum). I got all excited again and then did some research that said losing your mucous plug basically just means you are massively pregnant and going to have a baby in the next few weeks. You can imagine my delight. Over the next hour while I was getting ready and trying to decide if I should go to work, my contractions were super irregular but not going away. I decided to call my mom and let her know that it might happen soon and go to work to keep myself occupied. My mom immediately booked a plane ticket and was on her way. I suddenly got really worried that it wasn't the real thing and she was going to come out here for no reason, but Chris was convinced that it was going to happen in the next 24 hours as well so I went with it, really hoping it was not a false alarm.

I went to work, went and picked Britta up from Chris's parents house, put her down for a nap, went for a walk around the neighborhood, bounced on my yoga ball, and generally tried to distract myself. By about 3pm, I was getting discouraged because my contractions were still really sporadic and not really getting any stronger or closer together. Just when I decided that it was indeed false labor, they started coming every ten minutes like clockwork. So, we went out to dinner, installed the baby car seat and decided to take Britta over to Chris's sister's house to spend the night. By this time it was 8 pm and they were still every 8-10 minutes apart, but still somewhat sporadic. My mom was on her way to our house from the airport and we went home to wait. My mom and sister pulled up to our house at just after 9, and I kid you not, from that point on my contractions got steadily closer and stronger. Baby girl was just waiting for her Mimi.

By about 10pm, they were seven minutes apart or closer and I decided to call my Dr's office. The on-call doctor told me that usually they would wait to have me come in but to head over to the hospital since I was a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) patient and they wanted to do some monitoring. I decided to wait until my contractions were at least five minutes apart so I could labor at home longer. By 11pm, they were. So we went to the hospital with my mom and sister and by the time we got there they were about four minutes apart. As we were walking in I looked at Chris and said "if they check me and I am 1.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced, I am going to punch someone." Lo and behold, 1.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced. An entire day's worth of contractions for no reason. Awesome.

The nurse told me to walk the halls of the hospital for two hours and then come back and she would check me again. If it looked like I had made progress, they would admit me. My sister had left by this point since she had to be up for work the next day, so Chris, my mom, and myself explored every square inch and stair well of Skagit Valley Hospital. I was really glad it was the middle of the night since I looked super awesome in my hospital robe stopping every two minutes to breath through contractions. I think I also visited every bathroom in the hospital during our stroll.

At 2:15 am, we went back and the nurse checked me. I was at a 3 and 80% effaced. Booyah--I was not going home! I got set up in my room and decided I wanted to try out laboring in the whirlpool tub. I got in and it was so relaxing, but really increased the intensity of my contractions. After about 45 minutes I got out and wanted the juice. I had decided to labor as long on my own as I could, but by no means wanted to go natural. I am just not that strong, people. So they checked me and I was at a 5/6 and told me I could get the epidural if I wanted it. I did.

The anesthesiologist came in and placed my epidural and told me to let him know if I had any weird symptoms. I had a ringing in my ears, but it went away after a minute or two so he thought everything would be fine. He said it should take 10-15 minutes to fully kick in and he would come back and check on me. Now, I had an epidural with Britta so I know what they are supposed to feel like, and this wasn't it. With Britta it was like and immediate slice of heaven; this was like a giant needle in the back and then crazy painful contractions that brought tears to my ears. I was so looking forward to some relief and then not to get any was devastating--hence the tears. So, after about an hour the anesthesiologist came back in, removed my epidural and proceeded to give me a new one, which he didn't like the placement of, so three giant needles in the back. And guess what? Nothing. (Disclaimer: my legs did go numb for a short while so I think the epidural did take some of the edge off, but I was in intense pain and having back labor at this point so I know it was not working like it should have).

By this point, I was at an 8/9 and 100% effaced. There was a small lip in my cervix that they were waiting to thin out and then they were going to break my water and have me push. By this point I was in blinding pain and things were kind of a blur. I know my doctor got there at about 8 am and I was at a 10 and 100% effaced. She decided to break my water and do a few test pushes to see if I could just push past the slight swelling of my cervix. I did a push or two and she gave me the green light to continue.

She went across the street to the clinic and I started pushing. Pushing was wonderful. Aside form the fact that I felt like I was pooping myself every time I pushed, it was way better than just suffering through the contractions. About 45 minutes into pushing, the nurse was all of a sudden like "Wait! Stop! Let me call the Dr.!" Apparently, I had one super great push that almost delivered the head before they were expecting it. The two or three minutes that I was not allowed to push while we waited for the Dr. were agony. It was all I could do not to just push the dang thing out--screw whether the doctor was there or not. Finally she showed up and I gave one huge push and out came her head and within two or three more pushes, she was all the way out. They immediately plopped her on my chest and I got to see her, gross slime and all. It was incredible.

I have had several people ask me whether this was better than my c-section. I will not lie, this was WAY more painful. At one point, I wanted to be like "alright forget this, just cut me open." But being able to hold my baby girl right afterward and go home the next day, and pee on my own without a catheter that day--all pluses. Yesterday I sneezed and I didn't feel like I was being ripped in half. That's not to say the recovery is all roses, but it sure beats having your abdomen muscles literally sawed through, and not being able to feel your incision site for a year.

All in all, we are just happy that she got here safely and that everything went so smoothly. I did not have any of the complications that I did with Britta and the word C-section was never even mentioned. I felt so much more in control than I did in New York.

We are in love with this new little one and Britta has been an absolute gem of a big sister. We couldn't be happier (well....I could do with some more sleep...but....)

Going to the hospital! I love not being pregnant anymore.