Elea's Birth Story

DISCLAIMER: This is going to be a long and possibly tedious post-- but I want to write it out before I start to forget details and I don't really expect anyone to want to read through the whole thing.

On Friday the 11th I had a Dr. Appt. for Dr. Chalmers to check me. He said that I was a "good 2" cm dilated, 75% effaced, and her head was at -1. He also said he thought I would have the baby on Sunday and asked if that was the case, to work please work out the timing to get him out of having to teach Sunday School.

Saturday (July 12th) afternoon I started to feel crampy and was having contractions that were a lot lower than the Braxton-Hicks contractions I'd been having for the past couple of months. Jeff and I ran some errands and walking around Home Depot I realized that something must be happening because I was feeling ornery for no reason and Jeff poked at my stomach (like he had a million times before) and I had to stop myself from ripping his head off because it didn't feel good in the first place.

That night I called Ang and explained how I was feeling and she said that it was probably the real thing and to start paying more attention to the timing of them.

** I already posted about the 10 pm- 2 am time in an earlier post**

I woke Jeff up at 2:45 a.m. I told him about the frequency of my contractions and so he just said, "Well we'd better go to the hospital then." We had sort of put some stuff together to take to the hospital earlier that night so we just finished putting it in a suitcase and grabbed her car seat.

We drove the 45 minutes to St. George, I spent a lot of the time on the drive talking to my mom and dad. I felt bad calling to tell them that I was having regular contractions because it was just 48 hours before they would be in town. At that point the contractions weren't bad at all-- just uncomfortable. But, by the time we were near the hospital, it felt like Jeff all of a sudden forgot how to drive stick because I felt like the car was jerking at each stop sign a lot more than usual or necessary.

At Labor & Delivery they had me change into a gown and got me all strapped up to the monitors. I hate those stupid monitors-- and so did Elea- she purposely kicked the monitor that tracks contractions with her foot so the graph looks like grass with hills. I wasn't a huge fan of the girl who was asking me all my history questions and setting everything up-- and she ended up being the first one to check me. When she checked me she said that I was 70% effaced, dilated to a 2, and the baby was minus 2 station. So then I really wasn't a fan of her because she was saying that I had digressed, not progressed since Friday!

So they said that they would just monitor me for an hour and check me again at 5. So then I just sat there feeling really jealous of Jeff because he was sitting straight up in an uncomfortable chair and still able to fall asleep like that. I couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard I tried and hadn't slept for almost 24 hours at that point. I was stressing out because I was afraid that they were going to send us home and we would need to decide if we should go all the way back to Cedar or hang out at his parent's house until I progressed, however long that would be.

When a different nurse (thank goodness) came at 5:15 am to check me I had barely progressed. In her opinion I was a 2+, baby was -1, and 80% effaced. They knew that we had come all the way from Cedar so she told us to walk around the hospital for 45 minutes and at 6 they would check me again. So Jeff and I went walking around the outside of the hospital. I had on 2 hospital gowns and they kept the monitor straps on me, I just had the cords draped around my neck. Those stupid monitors are so annoying. Anyway, we walked around the outside, luckily it was still dark outside so it wasn't really hot. I had Jeff help me do a couple of squats to help open things up-- probably not enough to do much. As we walked around the contractions started to get more intense and closer together, so I would just ask Jeff what time it was with each contraction, and then I would have to ask him what time it was the last time I asked because I couldn't remember. The contractions mostly felt like pms cramps and like dull spoons were digging into my hip bones and pulling outward.

The nurse shift changed at 6 a.m. so at 6:15 a.m. another nurse came and checked me. She said that I was a 3+ and by then my contractions were coming closer together. She gave us the option to stay or go and come back later. I hadn't eaten since dinner and so I asked her if I stayed if I would be allowed to eat anything. She said I would be allowed to eat jell-o, popsicles, and chicken broth. . . so I decided to leave for awhile so that I could get something to eat. She looked really surprised when I said that we would leave and come back because a lot of women at 3+ are asking for an epidural. I was just hungry. So we went to Jeff's parent's house and I made me some toast with peanut butter and honey. And then had a bowl of Rocky Road ice cream-- figured I would go for one last horrah with chocolate before cutting it out of my diet to breastfeed for the next few months.

Ang went walking with me around the neighborhood for about 45 minutes and my contractions were coming about every 3-5 minutes. Then I went home and showered and blew dry my hair. After that I laid down for about a half hour to try and rest a little bit, but my contractions slowed down to every 10-12 minutes so Ang talked me into getting on the treadmill. It was pretty funny because I wasn't really concerned with keeping track of the timing of my contractions-- but Angie would just tell me to tell her when one started and she kept track of the time for me. So then I got on the treadmill and walked for about another 45 minutes and by then it was 10 something so I figured we should head back to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital they officially admitted me. I lucked out with a really good CNA and the nurse who said I could leave, and then looked at me like I was crazy when I did, turned out to be really good and was my nurse the rest of the day. She checked me again and I was only at a 4. At that point I was thining, "great, this is taking FOREVER" because it had been over 4 hours and I had only progressed 1 cm. Anyway, I asked if I could just have intermittent monitoring (because I didn't want to be stuck in bed), and she said the minimum is 20 minutes per hour. But the kicker is that you have to keep the monitors on even when they aren't plugged into the machines so it kind of defeats the purpose of the intermittent-ness. Jeff and I walked around the Labor & Delivery unit for about a half hour but I was bored so we went back to the room. When the nurse came in to remind me to plug the monitors back in, I found out that I could be up moving around the room as much as the cords would allow and didn't have to be in the bed. So that made me happy because then I could see Elea's heartbeat, but still be able to stand and move around, etc.

I had always said that I didn't want anyone in the room when I was in labor besides Jeff. But then Jeff and I talked and decided it would be good for Angie to be there with us-- she had been trying to talk me into letting her in the room for weeks. I kept worrying that Jeff was bored, or thirsty, or hungry, or whatever in between contractions and he was getting annoyed with me worrying about him. So the nurse checked me sometime before 1 pm and I was dilated to a 5. She suggested that she could call Dr. Chalmers to have him come break my water to help things progress faster. So it worked out that he was called right during the beginning of church and it got him out of his Sunday School lesson!

When Dr. Chalmers came I was dilated to a 6 and he broke my water. He was giving me a hard time because I was talking and laughing between contractions. I sort of expected that the contractions would get all intense right after he broke my water but it took awhile for them to increase in intensity. A little bit later Angie came and I am really glad that she did. When the contractions became more intense I would just put my ipod on and zone out through the contraction. Sometimes I would just repeat over and over in my head, "You can do anything for 60 seconds," or I would just focus on my breathing. I had Enya on my ipod and I had planned to listen to the relaxation/meditation tracks from the Hypnobirthing book but when the time came- I couldn't handle hearing talking through the contractions. So Enya worked. At one point I tried to lay on my left side but that worked for about half of one contraction before I started having back labor. That was not fun- so I turned around and knelt- leaning against the raised part of bed.

The contractions started to increase in intensity and were coming closer together but it was totally doable because there was a break in between each contraction. I tried a bunch of different positions, but for the next hour and forty five minutes no position really relieved anything. But moving around made me feel like I was doing something and so it helped. I started to struggle with my concentration and focusing on my breathing-- Angie or Jeff would remind me to breathe. By this point I stopped wearing the ipod too because it became a distraction, and one time I couldn't get it to play when a contraction started and I felt that contraction stronger than any of the others. So I decided it was better to not expect to use it than to be dependent on it and have it not work.

Angie & Jeff asked if I wanted them to have the nurse come check to see how far I had progressed. I told them I was nervous to have her check because if she said that I was only to a 7 I would be really frustrated. Honestly, at this point I was thinking that it might be a good idea to try the pain medication my doc had mentioned that only works for 15-30 minutes, but gives women going natural a little break/rest. They set the labor up bed really cool-- they put the back of the bed straight up, the middle of the bed flat, and then dropped the bottom of the bed to the floor- like a really big chair. The CNA showed Jeff pressure points that help with the contractions. When a contraction would begin he would lean forward with his palms resting right below my kneecaps. It was really good for me to have him actively "helping" me-- it made me feel like it wasn't all just up to me. After awhile the pressure points stopped working so he would just tickle my calves and feet and I would just focus on his touch. By this time I had started to feel a lot of downward pressure along with the outward hip pressure, etc. So they called the nurse in and she checked me-- LUCKILY I was at a 9+! That was a huge relief. She called Dr. Chalmers, who had decided to stick around the hospital after he broke my water because he said that natural labors tend to progress quickly. By this time I wasn't opening my eyes in between contractions. Jeff says that at this time the room was filled with all the different nurses-- I don't remember that though. Honestly, I could pick out the 2 nurses who had been checking on me all day but I couldn't tell you what any of the others look like.

When Dr. Chalmers came in he said that I was almost to a 10, so he just stuck around in the room for a few more contractions. The hardest thing for the last 20 minutes or so (I'm guessing on the time-- I had lost my sense of time by this point) was not pushing. It took everything I had to not push through the contraction-- but it can cause tearing and problems if you push before you are fully dilated. So finally Dr. Chalmers checked me again and I was fully dilated and he gave me the go ahead to push. Going into labor, I had planned on squatting or using a birthing stool, or something else like that besides being flat on my back or reclining because I'd read that it puts pressure on the tailbone/perineum and makes the hole for the baby smaller, not bigger. Dr. Chalmers knew this so he asked me what position I'd like to move into. I couldn't think about anything but getting the baby out so I just said , "I don't care," and left it up to him.

So I ended up on my back slightly reclined with my knees up. It was great to know and trust my doctor enough to just do what he and the nurses said. After pushing through one contraction they could already see her head. All I really remember is the sound of the CNA's voice counting and telling me to breathe, push, etc. When Dr. Chalmer's said something about her hair and I asked what color it was- they said black/brown. So I said something along the lines of "oh good, it's not red," because I knew Ang wants a red head and she was sure that we were going to get the red head. But I didn't realize, because my eyes were closed, that 2 of the nurses were redheads so they both said something like, "what's wrong with redheads?!" To be honest, I didn't really remember this part very much, but Jeff either thought it was funny, or was embarrassed, or something, because he told everyone we saw for the next 24 hours about it. Probably not a good idea to insult your labor attendants. . . When they had started getting everything ready for me to start pushing, Angie had left the room because that's what we'd agreed earlier. But by that time I really didn't care if she stayed in the room, but wasn't really aware enough to let her know. So the nurses were giving her updates as she stood behind the curtain wizard of oz style until she finally just snuck back in. I'm glad she did- and she was able to explain to the nurses about my redhead comment.

Anyway, it took pushing through 4 1/2 contractions and she was out. Dr. Chalmers was awesome and he had the nurses adjust the bed once and then did whatever Dr.'s do to keep women from tearing. They told me that it was only 10 minutes of pushing- Elea was born at 4:42 p.m. I don't know how some women can push for over an hour-- I guess you just do what you gotta do, but I was very blessed because by then I was so tired after not sleeping all night, etc.

Dr. Chalmers and the nurses knew that I wanted her to be put on my chest- skin to skin- so they immediately did that. I can't even begin to describe what it felt like to all of a sudden have baby girl out and on my chest. She was crying and her color looked good and she seemed HUGE. She had fat wrinkles on her wrists and ankles and TONS of dark hair. The look on Jeff's face is one that I will always remember-- he looked happier in that moment than I had ever seen him before. I got to just hold her there for probably a half hour, (maybe a little shorter, maybe a little longer) while they gave her her shots, checked her color, suctioned out her mouth, etc. The nurses didn't even try to take her from me until we were ready for her to be bathed-- and even that was done in the room. It was amazing to me how much I already knew and loved her.

Elea's birth really was a perfect experience for me. I couldn't/ wouldn't ask for anything to be different or better. I've been asked a bunch of times if I was a) glad that I did it unmedicated and b) if I will do it unmedicated in the future. The answer to both is yes. Sunday night I would have done it all over again because it was worth it, and the sense of accomplishment I feel is way beyond anything else I have ever done in my life.

** Angie & Jeff both need to read this over to see if I remember things as they really happened-- either way- this is how I remember it. **