Baby Elle

Oh my Lord. I cannot believe how long it has been since I last blogged. So much has happened since then, but the most important of all being - our baby Elle was born on October 6, 2011! She was a beautiful 7lbs, 2oz and 19 inches long! She came after 34 hours of non-(pain)medicated labor that ended with an emergency cesarean and 6 days in the hospital. We are both healthy and happy and our family is transitioning to a life filled with nursing, dirty diapers, spit-up, non-stop laundry and LOTS of love. We couldn't be happier. :)

To get my husband's take on Elle's birth, and some amazing images that document our whole experience, please check out his blog. He is not a man of many words, so I was surprised when he told me he had blogged about our baby Elle's birth. It is really touching to read about it from his perspective and I can't share how amazing the whole pregnancy and birth was.

Many of you who follow me on facebook or twitter (and of course, my brides and grooms) may know that I was on mandatory bed rest for the last two months of my pregnancy. I developed pregnancy induced hypertension, preeclampsia and PUPPPS. Basically, my doctor told me that I needed to be stress-free and stay in bed until Elle was ready to come out. Against his orders, I still managed to work on 3 weddings during my "bedrest" because I found that I would be more stressed to NOT work on them, than to be working on them. :) However, I do have to thank my bride and grooms, truly from the bottom of my heart, for their patience, love and support during this time. Due to the complications listed above, I swelled up like a balloon (you can see some of that in the pictures of our birth and also in our amazing maternity photos shot by our dear friend, Amelia Lyon, and styled by another lovely friend, Jeni Maus from Found Vintage Rentals) and I broke out in a painful and itchy rash all over my entire body (minus my face). I had many emergency trips to the hospital and had three regular appointments per week in the prenatal center to monitor my own body but also the well-being of our baby.

 some of my fave images from our maternity session, shot by Amelia and styled by Jeni

During one of these routine visits, we discovered that Elle was under abnormal fetal distress with low vital signs of activity and we had to get her out right away. I was immediately admitted into the hospital for an induction, but nothing seemed to work. We were really hoping for a completely natural, drug-free labor, so being induced was already bumming me out. I still opted for no pain-meds, at the very least, and prayed that we would be able to give birth naturally. However, at about 30 hours into the labor I began to run a fever and simply felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety. I broke down to my husband saying that I didn't think Elle would be able to handle a natural birth and I think we would have to go with the cesarean - which, of course, meant I would need to be administered pain medication. He was so supportive of any decision I wanted to make and in the end, I don't know why I felt so emotional about it. Once the nurses alerted our doctor that I was opting for a cesarean and he saw Elle's vitals, he rushed us into surgery saying that he wished we had gone into it at least 5 hours earlier. It turned out that Elle's head was not completely facing downwards and she was "oblique" meaning her head was in my hip. The fetal distress caused her to expel and ingest some meconium while in my tummy - which freaked us out and led her to be monitored in NICU for a while before we finally received her in our arms. If we had been able to try for a natural birth, it would have ended in an emergency cesarean so I guess it was all just meant to be! Even with all of these complications, I wouldn't change a thing about Elle or her birth, and would do it all again in a heartbeat! We are so in love and I can't even imagine our life before her arrival.

I promise to be back to regular wedding blogging again, very soon! But for this post, I just wanted to share a bit about why I have been so MIA and how excited I am to be a mom! :) So, please indulge me a bit, as I share these images of our baby Elle.All images shot by my husband, Eddie of Up Imagery. :)

 

2 days old. In the arms of her daddy, in deep thought.

The first "babies" in our lives - Taylor and Benny, my niece and nephew - are so excited to have a little cousin. They pray for her every day and consider her their little sister.

 

Elle at just 4 days old! I love how her eyes sparkle when she smiles and she has a small dimple!

She was born in the year of the rabbit - our impromptu shoot before leaving the hospital.

Thank you for reading and checking back in after my long hiatus from blogging. I am excited to share all about the weddings we have worked on this year and the many we have in store for next! I can already tell that 2012 is going to be amazing and baby Elle is just the start! :) Happy Friday!