Welcome, Elsa Katherine!

SHE is here! I sure am shocked to have a baby girl! I will write a longer birth story later, but Elsa arrived yesterday at 10:22 AM via c-section weighing 8lb and measuring 21" long. She tried really hard to come on her due date, Tuesday the 18th, but I was at the hospital for about 33 hours before she made her debut. My water broke at around 1:30 Tuesday morning. I had to essentially be induced at that point since my cervix was still completely closed and posterior.

After 14 hours of pitocin, I still had made no progress-I was not even 1cm dilated. Even though the contractions weren't bad at this point, I opted to have an epidural to see if that would relax things enough to start dilating. Sure, enough I finally got to three, then seven cm. I had a rough time with the epidural-it came out at 7cm, resulting in excruciating pitocin contractions, and only worked on one side at two different points. I managed to get to 9cm by Wednesday morning and was basically stuck there for four hours. At that point, we knew that pushing would not go well and with the pitocin already maxed out, there wasn't much else to try. The nurses even held me up on my hands and knees after the epidural; everyone was trying so hard to get me the vaginal birth I wanted. In the end, it was better for everyone to get the c-section. My water had broken so many hours ago and there was meconium in my waters. Elsa's heartrate was great, but how much longer could she endure so many contractions?

I was terrified to get the c-section because of all my epidural issues. I was so worried that it would fail in the middle of the procedure. But, everything went fine and my "little" baby ended up being a pretty good size at 8lb! She is beautiful and perfect and has big eyes like Jason. I am in loooooooooove! She is making breastfeeding easy because she is a natural at latching. She was nameless for most of the day, but we finally agreed on Elsa, which has no meaning other than we like it and it's not terribly common. Katherine was a main contender for her first name, but we decided to give it to her as a middle name. It's my middle name too. Here are a few pictures for now. She is mad that she looks like a boy in her Cardinals outfit, but she has to represent:)

After many hours of labor and tears from pain and accepting the c-section. I had the tremors very badly and couldn't really hold her.

With her cousin just 4.5 months older. I see trouble in our futures!

With Grandma

First bath

Birth story to come, complete with the realization that Levi is clairvoyant...