Ella Marie Peterson

 Ella Marie Peterson was born on Wednesday April 4th, 2012. She was 6 pounds 11 oz and 20 inches long. I remember waking up around 6:30 with really sharp pains. In pregnancy they usually say any uncomfortable or weird pain is normal. However it was so painful it hurt to walk or lay down. I asked Nick to stay home from school which I never do because school is important. Finally at 12:30 I called my doctors office and described my pain and the receptionist asked how long it would take to get into the office and I told her 20 minutes. So she said see you in 20 minutes. At this point I started to get nervous because I figured she was probably coming that day. I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door. Nick stayed home with Brody. From the time I got to the hospital to the time she was born it was 2 hours. I had what is called placenta abruption which is when your placenta starts to tear away from the inner wall of the uterus. It can deprive the baby of oxygen and nutrients and cause heavy bleeding for the mom. That is why she need to come out and come out fast. Ella was born by c-section and had a rough little start to life. 

 She took in a lot of fluid when they pulled her out and was not able to breath on own consistently. The doctors gave her an apgar score of three which means she had a grimace response or "reflex irritability". I was able to see her head and that was about it. We started to get nervous when they kept rubbing her and no cries were coming. They called in the neonatal doctor that was working to try and help get a response. They moved her to the NICU before I was sewed up. She was hooked up to all sorts of monitors, an IV, and oxygen. Ella was born at 3:12 pm and I did't get to see her until 7:30 that night. They finally wheeled me out of recovery and up to the NICU. I was in a bed throwing up from the medications. I was able to touch her little hand. It was so emotional not being about to hold my baby. I had Nick go home to Brody because we couldn't hold her at that point and poor Brody had no idea what was going on.

The next morning I was I able to go up and see her. She was so beautiful. I was able to hold her even though she had all sorts of things attached to her.

 Ella spend one week in the NICU. I was sent home on Easter Sunday and she came home the following Wednesday. It was extremely hard to leave the hospital without my baby. After having a c-section you can't drive for 2 weeks so with lots of help from family someone would watch Brody and someone would take me to the hospital to be with Ella and take her milk.

 It was so exciting bringing her home! She is doing so great and when she went in for her 2 week check up she was up to 6 pounds 12 oz, after losing weigh in the hospital. Brody has really taken to having "my baby". He gives her lots of kisses and has a fascination with her eyes which he always wants to be touching. Nick was trying to teach Brody with a little doll that you don't touch babies eyes. Right after they went over it, when Brody thought Nick wasn't looking Brody was poking the doll in the eyes. Silly boy!

 We love having our sweet little Ella around and can't wait to see what kind of person she will become!