The Birth Story

Time to get back into the blogging routine since our little Eli came into the world! I think I should start off with my birth story. Caution: It's long. But I took it straight out of my journal :)


The story begins at my 37 week appointment. I scheduled my appointment on my day off from work and I was to see a rotating Dr within the clinic. Typically, I can count on my appointments lasting anywhere from 20-40 minutes... this includes waiting in the wait room. Ten minutes went by, then twenty, then I noticed that those who were there after me, were already being seen. Thirty minutes gone. I decided that if forty minutes passed and I still hadn't been seen - I would talk to reception. Ironically, my name was called right at 40 minutes. So, I am a little flustered at the length of time that passed before I was seen. The nurse took my blood pressure - and it was 140/82. She made a comment about how that was fairly high and that they were going to take it again. After about 10 minutes of waiting, my blood pressure dropped to 130/80. The Dr. came in and told me that I was 3 cm dilated and about 90% effaced. In response to my questioning the high blood pressure, she responded "well, being this far pregnant takes a toll on you little ones. We would like this baby to come sooner rather than later. This is going to be uncomfortable and you might bleed for the next couple of days." While on my way home, I was thinking through the appointment I had just had. Marty had just told me the other day that if I wanted my baby to come ... I needed to tell my Dr. to strip my membranes. Well, we were not in a hurry to have little man come. We wanted to wait for my mom to fly in (on Nov. 27th) prior to delivery. Yet, I had a feeling that the Dr. did just that - strip my membranes ... without telling me that she stripped them. 


That appt. was on a Friday. That Saturday David and I did a huge overhaul on cleaning/organizing the house. We finally found the glider that we wanted and purchased last minute items that we would need. I even decided to wash his clothes (something that I was waiting on doing until my mom got here). I somewhat packed our hospital bags as well. All that day I was bleeding and crampy and had consistent pain in my lower back. But, we got it all done. 


Sunday and monday had passed. I stopped bleeding and my back pain went away. So, I felt like I was in the clear. This little boy was not ready to come yet and would continue to "cook" for another 2 weeks. I told mom to not worry and that I would have him while she was here. 


Then Wednesday came. That night I just had the weirdest dreams. I just felt... odd. I woke up that morning after dropping Dave off at the bus and found that I was bleeding. I called Dave and told him. Luckily, I had an appt. with my dr. that morning, so I was going to ask her about it there. Dave was excited when I told him I was bleeding... haha. I was scared and anxious. I read prior to my appt that if I were to see blood - labor was around the corner (likely, 24-48 hours away). When I asked my Dr. about it that morning, she did not seem too concerned with the appearance of blood. In fact, she made it sound like labor could really be another 2 weeks away and I should not be concerned. So, I went to work. That morning I just felt so odd. At work, they decided to throw my a baby shower. It was so nice!! I wish I was able to enjoy it more looking back, but I was scared because I was bleeding and not sure when little man would make his appearance. I started having back pain - similar to the pain that I had on Saturday. This wasn't too concerning to me, as I was having back pain throughout the end of my pregnancy. However, around 11am, I started noticing that the back pain was coming and going.... and they were aligning up with my contractions (the braxton hicks ones) about 5 minutes apart. This was concerning to me. A coworker had once told me that if I started to feel contractions in my back, that I should worry. At lunch I went to go take Lucy out. David called me and asked how I was feeling. I told him "well, I think I might be in labor." - however, I wasn't fully convinced myself that I was. I was thinking that these contractions were just like my braxton hicks contractions and that there was nothing to worry about. I told Dave not to worry and if they get worse at the end of the day, then I will call the Dr. I did grab those hospital bags from the house at lunch - just in case. Then I went back to work. The contractions were more noticeable, but I could still talk and walk through them so I wasn't concerned. Around 3:30, they were starting to get worse. I decided to call my Dr. - who basically told me that I should sit in a hot bath and they were likely to go away. Around 4:00 I decided to go home. I laid on the couch and decided to time how far apart the contractions were and the duration. Throughout this hour, they were so painful that I had to arch my back and squeeze something throughout them. They were about 4 1/2 minutes apart and lasting from 40-60 seconds. I called Dave promptly at 5 and asked when he was coming home. He was thinking about staying late to work on projects... I told him he needed to come home. While he was on his way, I decided to take a hot shower to see if they would in fact go away. The shower helped... but they were still going strong. Dave got home and decided that we should clean the house before we went to the hospital. He wanted to stall for little bit because he thought that the hospital might turn us away for being there too early, or for me not being in labor at all. Around 6:15 we headed out. Ironically, there was traffic on the way to the hospital. There is never traffic!! There was an accident and it took us 30 minutes to go 1/4 mile. Throughout this, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and REALLY painful. I was pretty scared at this point! Yes, it crossed my mind... maybe I will have this baby in the car! We had heard from a couple of people that I should eat something prior to arriving at the hospital, because they won't let me eat when I get there. So, we decided to take the extra 5 minutes and stop at a fast food restaurant. I ate half the hamburger and couldn't continue. I was in pain! 


We arrived at the hospital and we see one nurse. She said that there was no other patients in labor and delivery so if I was in labor, they would need to call the on-call Dr. They hooked me up to the machines and strapped the heartbeat monitor on for Eli and then the contraction monitor for me. Right away, they could see that my contractions were coming about 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute each. After 4 contractions, the nurse said "well, I'll go call the Dr." Another nurse came in and said that they were moving us into our labor and delivery room. This was about the time I started to get a little panicky. I am not ready for him to come! Mom isn't here yet! Yet, it was happening. The nurse asked about whether or not I wanted an epidural, I requested that I get one as soon as they would give it to me. The nurse said they would call the anesthesiologist on call. When the Dr. arrived (around 9pm) she checked to see how far dilated I was - at this time, I was at a 6. She then broke my water (weirdest feeling ever) and then hooked up the heart rate monitor directly on Eli's head along with the monitor for my contractions. The previous monitor only measured the length of the contractions - this monitor would measure how strong they are. While we were waiting for the anesthesiologist, I decided to call mom and let her know that I was in labor. Looking back, I probably should have waited until after I got the epidural! Mom didn't answer, so Dave called Dad. Dave told Dad that I was in the hospital and that I was in labor. Dad handed the phone to mom, Dave handed the phone to me, and we just cried. Mom wanted to be there so badly, and I wanted her there too. Yet, Dave and I have done so many things by ourselves in the 6 years of marriage, that I felt it would be fitting for us to welcome our first baby, the one we tried for for so long, by ourselves.


I received the epidural around 10:00. That was heaven. The epidural was pure heaven!! I stopped feeling the contractions the moment she successfully inserted the spinal tap. However, I had to sit REALLY still while she put it in for about 10 minutes - in the space of those ten minutes, I had the strongest, most painful contractions I ever had. After the epidural, I decided to call Mom back. I was more calm at this point and was able to express to Mom how much I love her and though she wasn't physically there, we were going to keep her updates as if she was there. I started shaking. Not because I was cold or in pain, I was just shaky. This worried Dave a great deal. The nurse told him they were just "pregnancy shakes" and they are very common. After I called mom, I called Jen, and then Kim. I just told them that I was in labor but that everything was fine. They were hard phone calls to make, but I felt at home with Dave by my side.


After I made those three calls, Dr. Clevenger came in and said that she wanted to check how far I was dilated. It had only been an hour since I received the epidural. She checked how far dilated I was and then asked "Well, are you ready to push?" Thinking that she was joking, I laughed. Then she looked at her nurse and said that I was dilated to 10 and that she thinks that I should start pushing. This freaked me out! I wasn't ready to start pushing! I wanted to enjoy this epidural for a few minutes longer! I wanted to take a nap maybe! 

The monitor that I was hooked up to would increase in number when my contraction would get stronger. So, when the number got in the high 20's that was when I needed to push. I would push three times for 10 seconds and then stop for a minute or so until my next contraction came. In between contractions, Dave would feed me ice chips and kiss my forehead. He was so cute. He said I needed three spoonfuls of ice chips for each big push. We pushed for about 20 minutes and we weren't making a whole lot of progress. Dr. Clevenger then said that she wanted me to "labor down" , so we were going to wait for 30 minutes and let the contractions do their job to get baby further down the birth canal. Those next 30 minutes were the scariest, most nerve wracking 30 minutes EVER. They came and went, and the Dr. came back to try again. While pushing, I said that I didn't want a mirror to look at baby coming. But, the way that I had my legs up allowed me to view him come when he was closer. It was amazing motivation to see him come! Forty five minutes later, he was here. After the head was out, the rest of his body slid right out and they put him on my belly. He was amazing. Gorgeous. Handsome. Ours. 

Dave cut the umbilical cord and then they took him to get cleaned up and checked. He was 6 lbs and 3 oz of pure heaven. Little did I know... he would not be 6lbs for very long!!! Look at other posts to see how much he has grown! 

Little sleep was had for the next 48 hours while we were in the hospital. Eli would NOT sleep in the plastic container provided for him. He hated being swaddled. He wanted to be held. The medical staff was very strict when they said that we were not to sleep with baby. Well, that is the only way we were able to get ANY sleep. So I would hold the baby with the light on and rest my eyes (fall asleep) and once someone would knock, I would quick open my eyes and pretend I had been awake the whole time. Little did I know ... sleeping was going to be a struggle. 

Dave was really my gladiator. He did everything I needed. He changed ALL of Eli's diapers that first day. I could hardly move from the epidural and also the swelling from labor. Dave was so in love with this little boy that we brought into the world. Just completely smitten. Dave would also leave the hospital frequently to tend to our other little baby - our furry baby, Lucy. That was one of the hardest parts of being in the hospital was leaving Lucy. Luckily we had amazing neighbors that let her hang out during the evening times, and then Dave would come home 2 times during the day to let her out and play. Dave said a few times that it was hard to leave his baby to take Lucy out. I was so grateful that he did, because it took a lot of stress off!

He is just so beautiful! And that expression is to die for!