The Delivery Story

Baby Ella turned one week old last night at 6:48pm during Grace's soccer game. I said I would tell the story of the delivery. Here it is...with some pictures.

We left the house at around 6:15am to go to South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach where Bea was going to be induced. First of all, it's weird having an induction because you know that you are going to go and have a baby. It's a crazy sense of anticipation - very nerve wracking. Here is a picture of Bea's belly on the morning we left the house. Yes, there is a seven pound baby, two liters of extra water and a few pound placenta inside that belly. I have a picture of the placenta but Bea won't let me show it.

Then we checked in at the hospital and filled out paperwork and got checked into our room and they started the Petocin drip (that's the drug that starts inducing labor) at about 8:15am. My parents took Grace to breakfast at Ruby's. Then Bea's mom came and hung out with us. We were in a smaller room to start but then they checked us into our main room at around 11:00am. This room was beautiful and big and had an amazing ocean view. That's kind of their schtick at South Coast - "Have your baby with an ocean view!" They even give shirts to the baby that say that. Here is a picture of the view.

The rooms are LDRP rooms which means you do everything in them. L - Labor. D - Delivery. R - Recovery. P - Postpartum. Here is a picture of Bea waiting in the Labor phase. She got the epidural at around 1:00pm. It was pretty scary for her, but those things are amazing. She is such an amazing woman. So brave and so strong. At this point Bea was only at 3 centimeters and we thought we were in for a long road.

Then at 4:30pm the nurse examined Bea and she was at 5cm. Then I enjoyed a delicious Ruby's Beach Burger with bacon and Bea was very jealous because she couldn't eat. Then at about 6:25pm, Dr. Tran (our OB), came in to examine Bea. We thought this would just be another check and we would have to wait a few more hours. We sent the family out to let Bea get examined in private. So then Dr. Tran says that she is at 7cm, but that her cervix is very flexible and soft. The next words out of Dr. Tran's mouth are, "Let's try giving a push on the next contraction." WHAT???? SERIOUSLY??? Then Baby Ella was born at 6:48pm so you know that this process was very very very fast. Here's the first picture I took of Ella all covered in the gross white stuff.

Here is our new family with Dr. Tran.

Then Bea has to get stitched up and cleaned up before we can let the family come in. They were shocked when I said that they baby was born. They thought it was just another routine examination as well. Crazy. Then we spent the crazy two nights in the hospital with some great friends and family bringing tasty meals to us from Ruby's, Coyote Grill, and a yummy New York pizza place. We were so happy to come home. With Grace we were scared to come home. This time I couldn't wait.

Here is a darn cute baby at our home.