The Morrison Memoirs: Little Miss Eliza Pearl Is Here

FINALLY! The wait is over, and Eliza Pearl Morrison has made her debut...albeit 10 days late. Eliza was born January 14, 2014 at 2:18 p.m. weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz. and measuring 20.25 inches at Swedish Issaquah.

I ended up going into the doctor on Monday, January 13 around 5 a.m. because I was feeling (or more accurately not feeling) as much movement as I had been. They did a non-stress test, which showed everything looked good, but said if things didn't change, call the doctor. A few hours later, because I still wasn't feeling very much movement, I made an appointment. The doctor recommended inducing and told me to back to get admitted in an hour.

Brady and I packed up our things and arrived at the hospital around 2 p.m. on January 13, 2014. By 4 p.m. they had started me on Pitocin, and things were underway. I had steady but mild contractions throughout the night. Brady and my mom were both there and managed to get some sleep in our luxurious accommodations. :)

Around 6 a.m. the nurse checked my progress, and to my complete dismay, I was only dilated 1 cm (the same I had been the day before when the doctor had checked in the office). At that point, I was convinced I had made the wrong choice letting them induce me and that this was going to take 4 days or end up in a c-section. A few minutes later, my doctor came on for the day and decided she would break my water. She broke my water around 7 a.m. at which point the "real" contractions began and I came to know what real pain was. I got my epidural around 9 a.m. (they had to give me an "add" as they call it twice because I could still feel the contractions). Around noon, they checked me again, and I'd progressed to a 2...not exactly the progress I was hoping for but progress nonetheless.

My nurse, Elizabeth, was monitoring my contractions and believed that the pattern indicated the baby was face up. She suggested changing my position to get her to flip (which she thought would help me dilate faster). After she changed my position, I began having really bad back pain and feeling the contractions again. Shortly after the anesthesiologist left AGAIN, they checked and I had gone from 2 cm to 10 cm in 45 minutes!!!!

My doctor came back and they began setting everything up. I pushed for about 45 minutes, and after hearing the doctor say she had the vacuum on hand if needed, I got down to business and pushed that little nugget out. Eliza was born perfectly healthy (and with a good set of lungs) almost exactly 24 hours after we had arrived at the hospital.

Brady and I immediately fell even more in love with her than we already had been, and she became our world. Now, two weeks later, I see our life is exponentially better with Eliza, and I can't imagine life without her.