Eleanor Helen Lorenza S. was born on June 8, 2012 at 5:39pm, via c-section. She weighted exactly 8 pounds and was 19 ¾” long. She has a full head of long (!!) black hair and is perfect!

Her (long) birth story:

I started dilating and effacing at 37 weeks, and by 38 weeks was nearly fully effaced and a couple of cm dilated. I was having tons of BH contractions as well as contractions timed at 7-9 minutes (but wouldn’t progress past that point). At every appointment the OB staff would say they didn’t expect to see me at the next appointment…but then, there I was. At 40 weeks and extremely uncomfortable, my OB offered to either schedule a c-section or induce me on Friday (2 days later). My OB was concerned about LO’s size and my size, which was a topic we had discussed before in the pregnancy. My only “birth plan” was to do whatever my OB and hospital staff told me to do to get LO out as safely and quickly as possible, and the only situation I feared was laboring for hours and hours and then, in an exhausted state, needing a c-section. I don’t think vaginal childbirth is especially natural, so given the OB’s concerns and my own concerns and views; we scheduled a c-section for 1:30 Friday. I went home and cleaned my entire house lol

Friday morning, we got a call that my appointment needed to be pushed back, which was fine. Me, my husband and my parents met at the hospital a few hours later, got a room and basically just chilled until it was time for me to prep for surgery. It was the first beautiful day in about a week, and we enjoyed the sun through the window.

As soon as I stood up to go to the operating room after getting prepped, the sky went black and it started raining and hailing, with tons of thunder and lightning. It was a crazy storm! (this is important for LO’s name!)

The c-section was quick, and honestly, I couldn’t have had a better experience. All the doctors and nurses were wonderful, and they kept both me and my husband fully involved the entire time. Once LO was delivered, they got the fluid out of her lungs, and immediately gave her to my husband. He then brought her over and placed her on my chest, skin to skin, while they stitched me up and finished everything. The 3 of us bonded while the doctors did their work. After the surgery, the took us to our recovery room and I nursed LO, who is a freaking boobie champ. She latched right on right away and has been nursing tons since then. After about an hour or so, all the numbness went away in my legs (never had any trouble with holding LO, or trouble with numbness in my arms, and there was never any discussion about strapping any part of me to any part of the OR table), and my parents came in to see their granddaughter. By the next morning, I was able to get up and walk around (very, very slowly), and so they removed the catheter and my IVs. I went for little walks every few hours over the weekend and today they took out the staples and my incision looks awesome (as in, it’s barely noticeable!) – I think it will heal up nicely. I do take Rx pills for pain, but not a lot and the pain today is much, much better. Honestly, my nipples hurt much more than the section incision, so I’m hoping they toughen up soon. I love nursing LO and we totally bond while doing it, but it does hurt!!!!

We are home now and my husband and I are so totally and completely in love with Eleanor, as are all the grandparents.

Oh – and her name….we had not settled on a name by the time she was born and decided to take the crazy storm as a “sign”. Eleanor means “ray of sunlight!”