Let’s start with her name. Ella has been “Ella” to me for quite some time. With our boys it took FOREVER to come up with a name. This time was a cinch! I think before she was even declared to be a she, I e-mailed Stuart one day and said, “If it’s a girl we should name her Marcella after Oma and call her Ella.” He replied okay, and that was that! Wow! 
I remember when we were expecting Myles that the thought entered my head to name him after my Grandma if “it” was a girl. He wasn’t so that didn’t work out, but the thought stuck. My Grandma (or Oma as she is to the great-grandkids) has always been such an important part of my life. She’s one of the most amazing women that I know!! If I could be just half the person she is I’d be happy. So to me it seemed only right that she should be honored with a namesake. I hope that Ella will grow up to have a strong character and gentle kindness like her Oma!
That said, we nearly let the name slip a number of times because Stu and I were calling her Ella for quite awhile. Although we always referred to her as “baby sister” when talking to the boys because their grandparents kept trying to get the name out of them. Sneaky sneaky!! And as you all know we’ve been oh-so-patiently waiting for this little girl to show up for some time. 
I’m not the most patient or happy 9 months pregnant lady, so the last few weeks were a trial! I’m so thankful for my parents and my mom’s help especially!! I’d be in huge trouble had they not come along to give a little boost that last week before Ella came, and then stay too! My mom is even forgoing their annual ladies retreat to stay a little longer and help me. I’m spoiled!!!
Monday the 20th was Ella’s official due date. I was pretty sure that morning that nothing was going to happen, and I looked forward to another day of feeling like I’d be pregnant forever! Ha ha! I went for a walk, rested some, did the normal stuff. By evening I was having contractions which I pretty much ignored. I’d been having mild to moderate contractions on and off for a LONG time! Funny how each baby comes differently. You just don’t know what to expect! Well Stuart and I were working on a Senior Portrait advertising blitz for the high school the next day. So we worked on posters, hand outs, and the website. All the while I kept having contractions, but I refused to even bother timing them. What was the point?? I knew I had a midwife apt the next day so I figured if something was “happening” I’d find out then. We finally went to bed around 11pm or so and I slept pretty well, so nothing there.
On Tuesday morning I felt odd. Just kind of “off” a little and not feeling to perky. So I figured pretty early on that this would be the day. But I kept my musings to myself. I called the doc and had my morning apt pushed back to afternoon because Stu wanted to meet me in town for dinner and then he’d go to the men’s Bible study at our church. Since my mom had been here I’d been taking lunch to Stuart. That was fun! We don’t get much “us” time so even that brief bit of time without munchkins was nice for us. Before I left the house I told my mom that I thought the baby might be on it’s way, but that I’d talk to Stu and see what he wanted to do about the doc visit. We hadn’t planned on him coming with me since he had work. So we thought we’d stick to the plan since I was confident I could drive it fine. The contractions were certainly present, but not THAT bad. Oh-ho-ho, on the way home from the high school, one hit that did NOT fall into the “not so bad” category! Whew!! I still had about 45 min before I was going to leave for the doc, so I ate a little lunch. By the time I had finished that I had made up my mind, it would NOT be a good idea for me to drive 45 min to the doc!! I texted Stu and asked him to take me, and he finished up at work lickity split and we were off.
When I checked in at the clinic they right away put me on the monitors even though I hadn’t told them that I thought I was already in labor. The midwife knew I was “past due” and they wanted to see what was happening. So we sat there for about an hour with the machine measuring contractions which the midwife later said she didn’t think were that impressive. Ha! Once that was done it was time to be “checked.” Ugh! With a look of surprise the midwife said that I was at 5cm already and we should head to the hospital. I was GBS positive again, had it with all 3, so I needed antibiotics before the baby came. I told her that with Myles once I hit 5 it was only about 30min before he arrived, so I think that freaked her out a little bit. Of course my water had already broken with Myles and this time it had not.
We got to the hospital and checked in… by the way, what is the point of “pre-registering” if you have to fill out all the same paperwork when you arrive?? Just wondering? By the time we got to the L&D floor and all set up it was about 4:15. I asked for some pain meds to take the edge off. I really am a wuss ya know? But I kinda wish I hadn’t asked because everything happened really fast, and I was kind of in a fog about it. All I wanted to do was sleep between contractions! Ha! 
The midwife came in and tried to break my water but I complained about that too much so she quit. Later I asked Stuart if I said anything “weird” because the last time some funny things popped out of my mouth. Not bad, mind you, but silly! He said that I didn’t, except that I kept telling the nurse and midwife not to touch me. He said that I was polite about it though cause I always added “please.” Ha ha ha!! Finally the midwife just told me that they HAD to touch me. The thing is while in labor I feel like ALL of my nerves are super charged and it feels like I don’t have any skin. So something as small as the nurse adjusting the tape on my arm for the I.V. was super painful. Weird, I know, but I didn’t invent the process.
My water broke on it’s own during one of the pushes and that was a very strange sensation. I felt like I had just given birth to a water balloon! Ha! I had on my iPod and was listening to music the whole time. At one point our midwife asked what I was listening to and I had no idea what she was talking about. Finally my brain registered that there was music playing, but even though I struggled to figure out the song, the only answer I could give her was, “music.” Duh!
Once the bag broke things happened really really fast because the midwife noticed that the cord was wrapped around the baby’s head. Thankfully she didn’t tell us that, so I didn’t find out till hours later, but we did notice that they became rather insistent that she needed to get out! I agreed, but unfortunately it was up to me to make it happen. Bah-humbug! Still, I think we got it done in 2 or 3 pushes after that, and as soon as she was out, she was squawking! She fussed at the midwife and fussed at the nurse, she even fussed at her Daddy and me when we got a chance to hold her. It was a fast delivery. It only took 2 hours from the time we checked in till she was there and in our arms! Our little Marcella Rose was born at 6:15pm on September 21, 2010! She looked very purple to me, but her Apgar ratings were 8 and 9 so that’s great! She weighed 8 pounds even and was 19 1/2 inches long. Beautiful! She had a very round head just like her brothers, and there will certainly be no doubt that they are all related as she favors both of them somewhat.
That night after Stu had gone home and I was trying to recover from my druggy/labor-y fog and get some rest, the midwife was back with my nurse because they were quite concerned about how heavily I was still bleeding. I know, TMI, but as I’ve said, birth might be womanly, but it is NOT lady like!! Anyway, I was offered more pain meds which I gladly took because the midwife needed to “go in” and make sure that there was nothing in the uterus to cause the heavy bleeding. Turns out there were a couple large clots and some retained membrane that were causing the trouble. After that things got better quickly.
Ella wasn’t as easy on me as Myles by far, but again wasn’t as hard on me as Qade by far! It has taken several days for me to start to feel “well” again, and as always breastfeeding is a pain. 
Try as I might I cant seem to get it going without a LOT of pain and suffering on my part. But I believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m oh-so-glad that the hospital nurse introduced me to Lansinoh soothies! Just trying to hang in there till it actually gets better! Our little girl nurses like a champ though! She had it down as soon as she got a chance to try! I’m so proud of her!
Now our littlest miracle is a week old. Last night she slept in 2 4 hour chunks!! That made mommy very happy! She is adored by her big brothers and especially her biggest brother! He is totally in love with her, and Myles thinks that “baby sisser” is pretty cool too, except she’s not very exciting. But I’ll tell ya more about their reactions later. We’re all adjusting pretty well to being a family of five. Again, I’m SOOOO super thankful for my mom’s help! I’ve been struggling with baby blues in the evening which is typical for me with all my kids. I don’t like to feel like an emotional basket case, but I just keep telling myself it’s the hormones, and nothing that goes through my head at that time is likely true. Strange place to be, but hopefully it’ll be short lived. I’m glad that it’s only that one time of day that seems to get to me.
God is good to us, and we are so thankful for our kids. Our growing-up-too-fast boys and our special little cherry on top! Each of them is so special and we’re so very happy to have them in our family!
