Birth Story

So we finally have our baby girl home with us.

Its been one helluva week and we have really enjoyed most of it. Sure we are tired and our schedules aren't matching up at all, but we still couldn't be happier.

I've always enjoyed reading other mothers' birth stories so I thought I would do my best to tell mine and hope every one enjoys reading it!

So as you know, we've had a confusing last trimester. Went into early labor, was hospitalized for 5 days, put on bedrest and meds, and still never really stopped contracting. I got to the point where I was frustrated and impatient. I stopped timing my contractions altogether because it just got my hopes up only to be let down.

Well on the morning of January 3rd, I woke up about 5am to what I thought was horrible gas pains. These are something I've struggled with the entire pregnancy. There's apparently nothing I can take for constipation (even if the bottle promises no cramps!) that won't cause me serious pain. So I wake up, and just try to breathe through the pain, take a Gas X and wait for it to kick in. An entire day goes by, and nothing has changed. The contractions make the pains worse. Eventually my husband comes home from work and I tell him that I'm still in serious pain and he decides we should go to the hospital. I didn't really want to just because I knew that they wouldn't keep me and frankly, I was tired of being disappointed.

We get into the hospital and at this point, I'm in enough pain that I can't talk through my contractions. They get me hooked up to the monitors and check my cervix. I'm dilated 4cm and 80% effaced. Not much change since my last dr. appt. We wait an hour. When the nurse comes to check me again, I'm dilated to a 5 and they tell me they have a room waiting for me.....The look my husband and I exchanged was priceless. This was it! We aren't leaving without a baby!

I get into my room and they tell me that I'm able to have the epidural now but the anesthesiologist isn't at the hospital and it might take him over an hour to get there. Ok, no big deal. They gave me a different kind of pain med which doesn't really detract from my contractions at all, but makes me just loopy enough that I don't care as much. I'm not sure why I decided to have that looking back....I think I was just scared.

Eventually the anesthesiologist arrives and gets me set up for the epidural. My contractions are 2.5 mins apart at this point and incredibly painful. I'm told to sit up indian style, and hunch over a pillow in poor posture for the needle. This is hard enough when you're nine months pregnant, let alone when you are contracting. I'm trying to stay still for the guy.

Now I'm not a doctor and I didn't see what was going on back there, all I know is that it hurt. Really badly. I had been in pain before, but I knew what that pain was doing for me and knew it was normal. It helped me not to panic. This was different. I couldn't help but cry feeling this guy dig a needle around in my spine. Finally it was over and my left leg got tingly really fast. Eventually I couldn't feel anything from the waist down on my left side....my right side was a different story. Apparently it didnt take because I felt everything on that side for the next two hours. The nurse tried everything she could. Eventually she told me that she could call the anesthesiologist back in to do it over. I looked at my husband with tears in my eyes...I couldn't imagine doing that again and wanted desperately for someone to make the decision for me. No cigar lol. So I had him come back and this time I didn't feel a thing and was told that's how it was supposed to go the first time. So now I have relief from the contractions. Enough so that I could rest for the big day ahead.

I woke up around 7am to a lot of pressure in my lower back. I thought maybe the epidural was wearing off. Nurse comes in and checks me, I'm at 8cm. She tells me that the epidural is doing its job but it will not relieve the pressure I'm feeling. Its the baby getting closer and closer to the birth canal and preparing for delivery. I'm told my doctor will be in soon to evaluate me.

My doctor arrives at around 8am. She checks me and I'm fully dilated and she breaks my water, tells me she has another C-section to do and then she will be back to deliver my baby. I get really excited. Until I start feeling contractions. This may not be true for everyone, but for me, having an epidural didn't cheat me out of the experience of feeling the need to push. I felt it big time and it was very painful to NOT push.

Eventually I had two nurses come in and start to prep me for delivery. They are going over what position to put myself in to push and how to hold my legs since they had no feeling whatsoever. Josh also had to help hold my leg up.

Josh was amazing by the way, stayed by my side the whole time helping me breathe through contractions, holding my hand when they hit me, and keeping me cool with a washcloth during the delivery. All this while trying NOT to pass out I'm sure. He's pretty squeamish.

I start pushing. It actually felt good to push through contractions and I was completely focused and tried to relax in between. Josh had his playlist going which was a huge help to me. Eventually the doctor arrived. Everyone with every push kept saying "Harder! Push harder! You can do this! Almost there!". I kept thinking to myself "I think they're lying to me....what if I can't push her out and they have to go in and get her?" I also found myself thinking "why does anyone choose to do this more than once?!"

My pushing must've been productive because I could feel her getting closer. Pausing between contractions hurt worse than pushing because I could feel the pressure immensely. I knew that continuing to push might mean tearing and I immediately erased that thought from my mind. I focused only on getting Elise out and would worry about myself later.

After an hour and a half of pushing, looking at my husband and saying "what if I can't do this?", He did what he does best and kept encouraging me. Next thing I knew the doctor was yelling "Look! She's coming out! Here she is!" We both looked just in time to see her come out. Feeling her come out was such a huge relief physically and emotionally. I don't think anything on Earth could come close to replicating that feeling. My husband cut the cord and they laid our little miracle on my chest. Literally no words can describe this moment. My husband followed her to her table where she was measured and cleaned up. I was stitched up for what seemed like forever and it was then that I was pretty grateful for the epidural.

Eventually they whisked her off to the nursery to check her for fluid in her lungs. She was eventually brought back to us and we simply sat in awe of this little miracle.

We have had a long, hard journey to get to this point. Sometimes we still feel like this is all a wonderful dream that isn't really real. This little girl is ours. We made her.

We can't believe how incredibly lucky we are.