Meet Ellie Ryann

We are so incredibly excited to announce the birth of our fourth child, Ellie Ryann Robbins.  She was born on 12/31 at 4:35am, weighing 8lbs 2oz and was 20.5in long.  I like writing these blog posts chronicling the birth of each child so that I can look back and remember details I would not have otherwise remembered.  And I’m finding with the more kids I have, the more truth there is to baby brain.  Here is her coming-into-this-world story…..

I was due 1/1/14, but at my 39 week appointment, my doctor and I discussed the potential of an induction.  I very much did not want to be induced because I had been induced with all three other pregnancies, and although the 2nd and 3rd went smoothly, the labors were all incredibly long (well, longer than I wanted!).  Plus, I think part of me just really wanted to experience going into labor on my own and not having to mess with pitocin and all that junk.  But at the appointment, my doctor felt an induction would probably be inevitable because of my history of high blood pressures at the end (and it was starting to creep up already at that point, but not alarmingly high).   He was willing to wait it out and let me go past my due date, but it was coming, nonetheless.  So, with blood pressure increasing, a tax deduction date approaching, the fact that we were living out of a suitcase and ready to be in our own home (we were staying at my in-laws over the holidays because we opted to deliver in Cincinnati), and an induction coming anyways, we decided to schedule it.  They were able to fit me in at 2:00 on Monday, Dec. 30th to start the process of meeting our child.

Like true induction style, we were in the hospital a couple hours before I even had the pitocin to start my labor (one of the many reasons I don’t like inductions – a lot of mindless waiting). After being stuck with a needle about 4 or 5 times because of failed IV attempts and blood draws (apparently I have very teeny veins – they ended up needing to use a newborn size needle to draw my blood!), the pitocin was in and kickin’ at 4:15.  I arrived at the hospital 3cm, but the baby was still incredibly high (as all my kids have been).  So now we wait.  And we wait.  And wait.  The monitor showed contractions every 2-3 min, but my body was not feeling them.  I watched the nurse up the pitocin every once in awhile, and I think I may have begged her to up it higher each time.  Crank it up, like in the Pit of Despair (Princess Bride reference, for those who are following along with me here).  Because the contractions were coming at a constant pace, she couldn’t increase my pitocin anymore and we just had to wait for my body to kick in and start making the drugs work.  So the good news was that I wasn’t in pain.  The bad news was that no pain, in this case, literally means no gain.  For those who have never given birth or been around it, you can have contractions, but unless they are painful, it ain’t doing nothin’ to ya!  So when I was checked 6 hours after having started, I was still a measly 3cm dilated.  At this point, I may or may not have cried (guess you’ll never know!) out of frustration over the induction process.  Yes, I hadn’t sat around all that time in pain, but I really just wanted it to happen and stop waiting around in the hospital.  The same thing happened in Luke’s labor – a long time to wait for the painful contractions to start, but once they did, things got rolling.

Well, between 12-12:30am, my wish came true.  The pain started coming.  Why did I wish for this again?? Once the contractions got to a good rhythm and good amount of pain, I requested the epidural, and by 1:30am, it was in, which at this point I had dilated up to 5-6cm.  The skies opened up, birds were chirping, a rainbow appeared – ok, not really, but it was glorious!  So now that I’m pain-free, again, but this time with contractions actually doing something to me, Matthew and I decided to try to get some rest, since it still could be all night.  Dr. Bowen showed up around 3:30am to check on me and break my water, and at that point, I had jumped to 8-9cm.  We all knew once my water was broken, I was going to get to meet my baby very soon!  So Dr. B left, I began to feel pressure a little, but we still needed to wait for pushing because the baby had turned face up a little and I needed to get the baby to flip, so I laid on my stomach, sort-of, to flip him/her (at this point, still don’t know).

Ok, so this is where is gets SUPER crazy.  Around 4:30ish, Dr. B walks back in, to check my status and see a couple test pushes.  Usually the nurse will have me do a test push or two to see where the baby is, how far down they are, before the doctor even comes into the room.  In my last two labors, the babies were out with just a couple contractions and a couple minutes of pushing, so we were all kind of expecting the same thing with this one.  The nurses that come in to prep the behind the scenes and do all the grunt work had been in and out of the room, but had left at this point and were going to come back when I started pushing.  All that was in the room was Matthew, my nurse and Dr. B.  The bed normally gets broken down to prepare for the baby as well, but that was going to come after I pushed a few times, so up the bed stayed.  The nurse and Dr. B told me to go ahead and push.  The next thing I know, I see a spray of fluid all over the room (sorry if that’s graphic!), my nurse yelling “Whoa, whoa, whoa!!” and I look to see a baby in Dr. Bowen’s hands! I didn’t even feel the baby come out!  She shot out of me, quite literally, and landed on the bed (which normally would not have been there and she would have been on the floor- the Lord protected our little girl there!).  The moment was so crazy and chaotic, no one even had a chance to say, “It’s a girl!”  The only reason I knew I had a girl was because Matthew leaned over, looked at her, and said, “Well, there SHE is!”  They quickly put the baby up on me, grabbed my gown to cover her, and began to frantically run around, trying to figure out what had happened and start cleaning up.  Everyone, including Dr. Bowen in his many years of experience, said they have never seen anything like that before and were so alarmed by it all.  Little Ellie Ryann entered this world in extreme dramatic fashion – let’s pray that’s not her personality 🙂  I looked down at my little girl (double checked that it was IN FACT a girl – Matthew was right), and just held her tight, a little overwhelmed by what had just happened, and dazed at the whole experience.  The other team of nurses came back in very confused, wondering why the baby had already been born, and why there was so much water on the ground.  Oops.

It was crazy and surreal, to say the least.  I am thankful that I only had to do a half-push (as opposed to the 1.5hrs of pushing for Seth) and that she was protected during a very uncommon birth.  And of course, when I found out it was a girl, I was absolutely elated!  I would have loved another boy, but secretly (or maybe not so secretly) I hoped it was a girl, to give Emma a sister and even out the family.  So now we have 2 boys and 2 girls, and each one is an incredible joy and blessing.  The kids are beyond excited about her, and even Luke (17 months) loves her! He wakes up, saying “Baby? baby?” and immediately goes to look for her when he can.

We kept the names a secret the whole pregnancy, so being a girl and not knowing the name was super fun to announce!  We’ve had her name picked out since earlier in the pregnancy, but were constantly changing it and coming back, and even in the hospital room while I was laboring, we were still in debate.  But we ended up where we started, with Ellie Ryann. Matthew picked the  name Ellie, a name he has really grown fond of, and I fell in love with it too (plus, it fit our flow of names).  We went back and forth whether to give her the long, formal name and shorten it to Ellie, but none of them seem to fit us and we were only picking it to get to the name Ellie – so heck with it, her name is Ellie!  Ryann (pronounced like the boy name – Ryan) is a name I have always loved and wanted.  Then I married a man with the middle name Ryan (perfect! It’s a family name now), but he has never been keen on giving our daughter that first name, so he gave it to me for the middle.  So, Ellie Ryann it is!!

We are still adjusting to having another little girl, but are seriously loving it and really getting to know her.  I find myself calling her him/he a lot, mainly because our last baby was a boy, and I called her a he most of the pregnancy to prepare myself for a boy.  We are back in Louisville now, learning to live as a family of six, which in our house, mainly means not stepping on each other.  It’s going to be crazy and chaotic with 4 kids, 5 and under, but this is the crazy that the Lord has given us and we are beyond grateful.  We joyfully accept the challenge laid out before us and pray we are faithful in our parenting with all four of our God-given gifts and rejoice in his goodness towards us!

P.S.  My photographer friend, Kelly, came to photograph the birth for us and did a beautiful job!! She may have missed the birth (heck, I feel like I missed the birth it was so fast!), but she was still there to get our little Ellie’s first hour of life.  Check it out here: http://www.cincinnatibirthphotography.com/2014/01/a-beautiful-beginning-ellie-ryanns-birth-story/