My birth story: Baby Eli’s arrival
Every person experiences a very unique and truly unpredictable labor and delivery, so this is ours.
September 29th 2017
I awoke to the sensation of water trickling, I looked at the clock, it was 3:52 am. I went to the restroom to gauge how much water there was, and it was not much, maybe a teaspoon. I wasn’t sure what that meant so I moved to the couch where I wouldn’t awake Jeremy and began worrying. At 7 am I texted my midwife and she instructed me to go to the hospital so they could test the fluid just in case. I was convinced it was nothing. Around 9 am they did the test and at 10 they returned to tell me that it was in fact amniotic fluid. Once there is a rupture in the amniotic sack, the risk of infection increases significantly, so the clock had started, we had 48-72 hours to get baby Eli out.
So they admitted me to the hospital, contractions started around 10:30 am, but they were small and very far apart. Around 1 pm, they got me situated in my room, hooked me up to an IV and started me on Pitocin. By 2 pm, I was having mild contractions 2- minutes apart, but I wasn’t dilating very fast. Contractions slowed down, and began to pick up again very heavily around 5 pm at 2-3 minutes apart. These contractions were miserable, pitocin induced contractions that felt like an exorcism was taking place in my abdomen. It was unbearable and intolerable, so I asked for an epidural.
Now, when they administer the epidural, you are 1) contracting, but must stay very still, and 2) have to be held up by your partner. Jeremy held me up as I squeezed his arm so hard, until half way through the procedure, he asked the nurse to take over holding me. I looked back at him and he was as pale as a ghost and ready to pass out.
By 6 pm I was dilated to 7 cm. But contractions and progress slowed way down after that and by 6 am Saturday morning, I was still at 7 cm and 100% effaced.
So of course, they increased the Pitocin again. Through the night, there were a few instances where his heartbeat dropped below 100 and even down to 80. We weren’t sure what was causing it, but changing positions seemed to help some.
Around 11 am on the 30th, we decided it was time to start pushing, but there was concern about his position in utero, that it would be much more challenging than normal to get him out. We tried various techniques to assist him in changing positions, but nothing seemed to help.
At that time, I was 9.5 cm and 100%. I pushed using the squat bar, sitting up, and lying on my side. Each push moved him closer to joining us in the world, but he didn’t stay forward, he just kept going right back in, so again, no progress. Finally the midwife decided, after 1.5 hours, that something was stopping him from coming out. He was having a hard time coming out, so we had the discussion about a possible cesarean section. Although I was in tears at the thought, I agreed to it, for his safety, the risk of infection, and mine.
Around 1:30 we were rolled back to the Operating Room, with tears streaming down my face, the doctor, nurses and even anesthesiologist all tried to keep my spirits up. They numbed me through the epidural and IV, so much so that I could barely feel my fingers. My arms were laid out as if I were on a cross, and they began the procedure. Jeremy stood by my side as he watched the procedure. He asked random questions like “ What is that?” Regarding an organ sitting on my abdomen (it was the placenta, after Eli came out). Once he was out, they took down a part of the curtain and showed me baby Eli, I cried so hard, I was unable to speak. I wanted to hold him and touch him, but instead they took him away with Jeremy by his side to check him out and make sure he was healthy. I could hear him crying in the distance and every bone in my body wanted to soothe him, that’s when I knew what an emotional game changer having a baby was. They did the weight and took him away for a bath. It seemed like he was gone forever. The medical team tried to distract me by talking about CrossFit and working out, as they stitched me up, but all I could think about was m baby. Although Jeremy was with him, I was really hoping to get to at least touch him.
Jeremy brought him over to me, and held his face to my face. The tears streamed. I was a mother! This was my baby, he was finally here.
