How is this possible?

Tomorrow my baby will be one year old.  How did this happen?  It seems like just yesterday we were coming home from the hospital!  I can't believe she is already a year old!  I am sort of blue thinking about how quickly her baby-hood has flown by, how it seems likes last week Cooper was a year old, how I wish they would both SLOW DOWN!

I'm going to write down Ella's birth story because I want to reminisce and because I want to have it written down so I can always remember.  It will be realllllly loooooong - just giving ya fair warning.  :)  So one year ago tonight...

My water had been leaking slowly (just a teeny bit every once in a while) since about 9:00 - just enough to make me think maybe it really wasn't my water.  I refused to go to the hospital and have them say it was nothing.  Chris had gone to the grocery store to stock up on a bunch of stuff we needed.  When he got home about 10:30 I was reorganizing the DVDs in our TV cabinet (nesting much?).  I told him I was pretty sure my water was broken, and of course he freaked out.  With Cooper my water broke after I was in the hospital once labor had really started, and it was the kind of water breaking that you picture in your mind - no mistaking what that was.  This time I was unsure.  I messaged friends on facebook to see what it was like when their water broke to gather information (gotta love technology).  Then I laid down on the couch (like the books tell you to) to see if it would leak any faster, but it didn't change at all.  So about 11:30 we went to sleep.  I woke up about 1:30 wet and yucky and knew for sure then that my water had broken.

I woke Chris up, called the doctor, took a shower, called my mother in law to come stay with Cooper, poked around as long as possible, and then headed to the hospital.  We arrived there about 3:30.  I was having no contractions so the nurse recommended I walk, sway back and forth, and do other embarrassing things, to try to get labor going.  She said if I had not had any contractions by 12 hours after my water had broken, the doctors would not want me to try for a VBAC.  So I walked and swayed and did other embarrassing things while Chris slept in the chair.  Around 7:00 Dr. L came to see me.  He knew I really wanted to try for a VBAC, but that I ultimately wanted to do whatever was safest for Ella.  He said, keep doing what you're doing, and let's hope some contractions start soon.  He left until 9:00.  At that time I still had not had any contractions, but I was dilated to 7 cm.  He agreed to let me wait another hour, but wanted me to go ahead and get the epidural in case we needed to move quickly for a c-section.  He was concerned about my lack of contractions, even with my water being broken and the dilation.  At 10:00 nothing had changed, and he sat down and told me that it was his advice to go ahead and have a c-section.  He understood how I felt, and was very kind.  He said that he was concerned there was some reason labor wasn't progressing, and he wasn't willing to take any risks with mine or Ella's health.

So off we went for a c-section.  I was begging, and I literally mean begging, the anesthesiologist to make sure I was numb, and that the epidural would not wear off during the c-section this time.  Our nurse anesthetist was so sweet to us and so funny!  He was telling jokes and keeping me distracted from worrying while they got started.  During the c-section my blood pressure kept "bottoming out" (his words, not mine), and I would get really nauseous.  After the first time, he would act and give me something in my IV almost as soon as it started and put a cool washcloth on my forehead.  That cool washcloth was a Godsend.  I remember he kept flipping it to the cool side, and I thought he was a genius because he knew to flip it before I even realized it would feel nice to have it flipped to the cool side. 

At 10:56 AM on April 21, 2011, two weeks before her due date of May 5, Ella Kate Boyles was born.  Unlike with Cooper, I heard her first cry, was fully aware of everything that was going on.  The nurse anesthetist kept wiping my tears for me.  :)  Chris brought her over to see me and the same wonderful nurse anesthetist snapped this photo.

I was so shocked at how much I loved her just from this quick little glimpse.  I loved her while she was in my tummy, and I worried about her, prayed for her, longed to see her, but it's totally different when she is right beside you.  I was confused when I was pregnant about how I could love another baby as much as I loved Cooper, but I shouldn't have been concerned.  Miss Ella has always been the most wonderful blessing.  She made our family even more full of love, and I adore her!