Our Miracle is finally here!

Ellayna Kathleen Holt was born Saturday, September 27th at 2:48 am! She weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and was 20 inches long. She is such a sweet baby and has already brought us so much joy, and she's not even 3 days old yet!! I'm sure you mamma's out there know what I'm talking about, but I just can't believe how much I love her already. I tried to imagine beforehand the love I would feel for her but its nothing compared to how much I love her now that she is here! The story of her delivery is one I'm sure I'll tell a million times and I'll never forget! A few weeks ago I went to the dr. and she said (to my surprise) that I was 3 cm dialated. A week later, I was at 4 cm and 70-80% effaced. The day after my appointment, I was having some severe lower back pain at work, combined with a lot of low pressure that just didn't let up. I called my dr. to see if she thought I was in labor. I talked to the nurse and they said I could be but it was hard to say. They offered to have me come in so they could check me but I decided not to since my dr. wasn't in and I didn't really feel like seeing the NP (I didn't have a great experience with the one on call). So the next day (Friday), I went to work and debated all day calling the dr. Finally at about noon I called just to see if I could come in for a quick dialation check before the weekend. They told me to come in at 2. So, I called my friend Laura to pick me up from work since I assumed they would tell me to go home and I didn't want to make Rusty leave work. I left work at around 1:30, got to the dr. around 2, and found out I was 6 cm dialated! At that point, the NP said I definitely needed to be admitted. The whole thing was so surreal. I didn't have my bags with me, nothing really ready for a hospital stay, and I really didn't feel mentally/physically prepared to have a baby!! But, but 3pm, I was hooked up to a monitor, and by about 4, Rusty got to the hospital and they broke my water. From that point, things didn't go quite as quickly. I didn't end up having her until almost 3am, after about 3 hours of pushing (with pretty much no epidural at that point). After I'd pushed for 3 hours, the dr. (not my dr.-my dr. wasn't on call) recommended we try to suction her head out because it just wasn't coming out. Once we decided to do that, she was out in about 10-15 minutes. Here are a few more pics for you to look at!!




I, obviously, think she is just gorgeous! Its funny, to me she looks different in every picture, and almost different every time I look at her! We do have a big prayer request though. We were supposed to come home from the hospital today (Monday), but this morning, little Ella tested with a really high level of jaundice. I was pretty teary eyed and worried at first but I'm feeling a little better now. The nurse who gave us the news wasn't the most pleasant woman and she basically freaked us out. But after talking to a different nurse and the pediatrician, we are feeling better. Right now, she's laying on the glow pad and we're also supplementing formula with breast feeding until my milk comes in. So far she is doing really well with the formula-they actually just stick a tiny little tube in her mouth while she's breast feeding so she doesn't really know that the milk isn't coming from me. We're praying that we can be discharged tomorrow morning. I am officially being discharged tonight but they will let me sleep in the hospital room unless they need the bed. We're praying that doesn't happen! If Ella isn't discharged tomorrow morning, I'm not sure what we'll do yet. Just hoping that doesn't happen. We really appreciate your prayers, and we'll keep you posted!!