Birth Story

Elise's estimated due date was Tuesday, February 23, 2010, but she never made her debut before then, so we decided to go in for an induction. We checked in to St Joseph Hospital on Wednesday night at 10pm, but because they were having such a busy night in Labor and Delivery that we didn't get into our private room until 1am. As soon as I changed and got settled into the bed, the nurse checked me and my cervix still didn't have much change yet. My OB wrote me up for 2 doses of Cytotec (ripen and soften the cervix), given 4 hours apart, then we were to start on Pitocin later on to get the contractions going. First dose was given at 1:30am. I was told that I may have minor cramps but should be able to get some rest and the nurse would be back 4 hours later to give me my second dose.

At 4am, I started to feel contractions. The nurse came in at 5:3oam to give me my second dose of Cytotec. This second dose killed me!! I immediately began to feel the contractions get stronger and longer. The on call OB came to check up on me at 7am and told me that I was progressing very well with the drugs, dilating to 1-2cm, and according to schedule, I should be fully dilated and ready to push the latest by 4pm.

At the beginning, I told Frank I wanted to try to go through this process as natural as possible and see if I can skip the epidural all together. Boy, I have no idea who I was kidding... At 7:30am, I was at 3cm and could no longer tolerate the pain. I was sweating, screaming, and basically pulling Frank's arm off since the contractions were 1 minute apart. Frank called the nurse and she came back with the anesthesiologist. Trust me, seeing the anesthesiologist was the best thing in the world, he was seriously my best friend that day. So we put in the epidural and I immediately felt better. I was still able to feel the contractions but the pain was no where near what I had felt earlier. After awhile, as the pain got worse I pressed for 2 extra boluses of medication on the epidural. Then at 10am, I got really scared because the pain I felt earlier was coming back and I thought the epidural was already wearing off. So we called the nurse again and she had the anesthesiologist come back in to give me an extra shot. She told me that I was feeling a lot more pain because I was almost done dilating and didn't need the Pitocin at all. Everyone was quite surprised that I reacted so well to the Cytotec and that I was going to be able to start pushing in less than an hour.

We started pushing at about 11:45am and at about 12:30pm she was almost crowning but my OB wasn't at the hospital yet. The nurse had me stop pushing and we waited. The pushing part wasn't all the bad except that I couldn't really feel much. I had no idea how hard I was pushing or where she was in the birth canal. After the arrival of my OB, she was born at 1:00pm!! When she first came out, I was so surprised since I didn't feel her coming out. They lifted her up and I said 'Oh my god!' She was all slimy and covered in blood. All I could think about was how did I get that thing out of me?!?!?! They had Frank cut the umbilical cord, dried her off with a towel and immediately put her on my skin. I am a mother! Words cannot describe how it felt to hold her for the very first time. After 9 months of waiting, she was finally here.

So on Thursday, February 25, 2010, Elise Camryn Leung made her arrival into our hearts.

Weight: 7lb 8oz

Length: 19 1/12 inches

Head: 35 cm

Apgar Score: 9/9