The Story

We promised we would have the story of how Elliot was born and then life got a little crazy. Better late than never though, right? So here goes:
March 2 was the big due date...there it came and there it went. However, the very next day was my weekly, scheduled appointment. When I went in to the doctor's office I was kind of freaking out. I just wanted to know that everything was ok with the baby and I had been feeling uneasy for a couple of weeks. I guess when you cry to your super nice nurse they feel sorry enough for you to plead with the doctor to do a sonogram. My doctor told me that everything was probably fine but she wanted me to feel better so she gave in to my and the nurse's request.
At first everything with the baby was great but then my OB checked the fluid levels. Turned out they were pretty low, which can be an indication that the baby is no longer getting adequate nutrients. After taking her look-see my doctor went over to her computer all calm and nonchelant and then said, "Well, I'm going to have you go to the hospital right now and get induced." What?!! I mean, I knew they would induce me at 41 weeks if I had not gone into labor already, but that meant I still had a week. Despite my shock I was pretty excited...waiting another week was sounding pretty horrible anyway.
With permission from the doc we went home, grabbed our hospital bags and some food, dropped the dogs off at Matt's parent's house, then made for labor and delivery. By the time we were leaving I was having pretty good contractions. Guess I just needed to stress out to get things started!
Arriving at the hospital I was in a bed with Patosin dripping away by about 8:30PM. Not much was going on so I tried to rest and Matt tried to sleep. I was already dialated to a two when we got to the room, so my contractions sped up right away with the Patosin to every one to two minutes. They were still really mild and bearable though.
By 10:30PM I was a three. The nurses kept telling me I could ask for an epidural anytime, (I am a total wuss and will admit it...I was not even going to try labor without drugging myself!), but I didn't feel like my contractions were anything to cry about.
Around 11:30PM my nurse came in and told me the doctor wanted to break my water to speed things up. Since so many of my friends have had to wait for hours to get to that point with their induction I was all for getting things going. They moved me to a delivery room and the nurse told me she would get the anesthesiologist to do my epidural before they broke my water since once your water is broken Patosin contractions can be pretty painful and intense. That's what they told me. A few minutes later the nurse said the anesthesiologist was tied up in a C-section but would hopefully make it to me before the doctor did to break my water. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than in came the doctor with her little crochet hook thingy. They gave me a choice: wait for the anesthesiologist and take a few more hours to have my water broken or just go ahead and break my water and hopefully I would get drugs soon. Not wanting to wait any longer than necessary to see my baby I voted for the second option. The only reason I am putting this part of the saga in here is to be able to say this: after my water broke I thought I was going to DIE! Props to those who go natural. I think you are way strong and I think you must be crazy! My contractions were still every 1-2min. and lasted for about a minute! I think I lost a little piece of my soul. And it took another two hours before the anesthesiologist showed up and got that needle into me. Wow. I definitely did not take that relief for granted! Like I said...I am a wimp and I plan on being one with any subsequent deliveries I may go through!
After that little hiccup, everything went pretty routine, as it really had so far. I went from a three to a four in about half an hour, so around 3AM on March 4th I was a four. With the epidural running I was free to sleep and did so. Around 5AM I was dialated to a six, and then around 6AM I was an eight. At that point I was too excited to sleep. When they checked me again at 7AM I was a ten.
I started pushing around 8AM. Now people liked to give Matt a hard time about how he was going to deal with this part of having a baby. He does tend to have a fear of blood and/or needles which has caused some fainting problems for him earlier in his life. However, aside from leaving the room when I got my I.V. and my epidural, Matt stood by my side the entire time I pushed, held my foot for me and even watched Elliot's head going in and out so he could give me encouragement. Not only did he not get squeamish, he was the perfect labor coach. He would tell me I was doing great, he got a cool wash clothe for me at one point, on his own accord, and wiped my face for me. And after 45min of pushing I stopped believing the nurse when she would say, "It's coming!" but when Matt began to say things like, "Oh wow! There it is!" or "Good job, honey! It came out a lot that time!" I did believe that and it really helped me keep my energy up. Thanks, baby! You're the best husband in the whole world!
At 9:21AM the greatest miracle of Matt's and my married life occurred and Matt got to tell me, "It's a girl!"
And she is the sweetest little girl!

2 comments:

  • The Heitritter Family | April 18, 2010 at 5:55 PM

    Oh wow! I love hearing these birth stories. You are a trouper having to wait 2 hours after your water broke. After they broke my water with Oliver, I started having intense contractions within 2 minutes, but I got my epidural within 45. A good thing too, since babies just fly right out once my water is broken and Ollie came less than 2 hours later. Your little girl is absolutely precious!

  • Paul and Shug | April 28, 2010 at 11:21 AM

    This makes me cry. Good job.