I am so, so excited to share Eliza’s birth story with you all today. It was such an incredible and wonderful experience, and I still can’t believe how smoothly and perfectly it all went. It was also just so different from Abe’s birth that I was in awe the whole time. As you know, we had a c-section originally scheduled for November 2nd, but after a lot of thinking and praying about it, we decided to move it to November 11th, in order to give my body more of a chance to go into labor on it’s own, so I could attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). And I am so glad we did so! And so, on to the story… Please note that this is a birth story, so it might contain some graphic words and images. Read at your own risk 😉 (And I know this is SO LONG. It’s mostly for my own record, and I wanted to get all the details down. And also, I love to know all the details of birth stories, so maybe some of you might, too.)
Tuesday, November 3rd
I had my 39 week appointment that day and NOTHING was happening. Dr. Cox, my OB, tried to check my cervix, but it was still too high and posterior to really be able to check, just like it had been the last week. I’d had no contractions, or any other signs of labor. At this point I was pretty sure I was going to just have to have my c-section the next week because baby girl was not going to come out on her own. Also at this appointment, Dr. Cox said my fundal height was measuring quite a bit less than it had been at my previous few appointments (I think it was at a 36 instead of a 39). He said that it was possible she was just settling into the birth canal, but he wanted me to go in for an ultrasound to make sure my amniotic fluid levels were still ok, just to make sure. Truth be told, at the time I wished they would say it was low so I could just have this baby. I was SO uncomfortable and done with being pregnant. We (Kyle and Abe were with me) were able to go right back for an ultrasound with the tech. It was fun seeing baby girl again, and it was confirmed that she was DEFINITELY still a girl 😉 Her fluid levels were fine though, so home we went.
Wednesday, November 4th
I woke up around 8 am and laid in bed for a while. I was having occasional twinges of cramping, and as much as I hoped it was labor starting, I figured it wasn’t, and that it was just was my body being weird and pregnant or maybe that I was even imagining it. However, by mid-afternoon, I was definitely feeling some cramps, although not bad at all, and not too consistent, but they were there. I thought that labor was probably starting, but also figured that knowing my luck it would take me like 3 days to have this baby, so I didn’t get too excited about it.
Around 4 pm I texted Kyle, let him know I was having occasional cramping and asked him to pick up some dinner on the way home. (We ended up having Burger King, ha.) I started timing these cramps or contractions around the same time, just because I was curious how close together they were coming. They were coming probably every 10-20 minutes, and were lasting about a minute each. That evening the cramps were still coming and getting a bit stronger. I figured this might actually be the real deal. Around 7 or 8 they were coming about every 5-10 minutes, so after Kyle put Abe to bed we called his mom and dad to let them know what was going on. I almost just told them to stay home, because I still didn’t think anything much was going to happen, but they said they’d come up right away, just in case it did (and I’m so grateful that they did!).
I went to bed between 9 and 10, because at that time I was definitely starting to have to relax through the contractions, and I figured if this was the real deal, I should get some sleep. However, they were coming pretty consistently every 5-10 minutes still, and they were starting to get a little painful, so sleep evaded me. Kyle came to bed around 11:30, after his parents arrived, and I was still awake.
Thursday, November 5th
Around 12:30 am, contractions were definitely happening, and they were happening every 5 minutes. I went out to the couch so I wouldn’t keep Kyle awake with my tossing and turning and breathing through contractions. I basically laid on the couch for about an hour, and that’s when my contractions really ramped up. They were coming about every 5 minutes, lasting 1 minute. Around 1:30 am I went and woke Kyle up. I didn’t really want to be alone in my pain anymore. I called the hospital around 2:15 am to see if I should come in. Although I was definitely hurting, and having to breath through contractions and couldn’t really talk through them, I still was paranoid that these were small beans compared to what “real” contractions were and that they weren’t doing much. The nurse I talked to was pretty unhelpful, and told me I could come in if I felt like it or I could stay home a while longer, and that I could take bath or shower to see if it would help the pain. Thanks a lot. I decided to take a bath. I was probably in the bath for about a half hour, with Kyle sitting on the toilet seat next to me, bless his heart. I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes now, and they hurt quite a bit. (PS, I totally shaved my legs while I was in the bath, between contractions. I hadn’t shaved in like a month, so you know, I figured while I was in there I might as well.) I got out of the bath and told Kyle I thought we should probably go to the hospital just to be safe and to get checked. I got ready and got together the rest of the things we needed in my hospital bag while Kyle showered, and we had a little snack.
Kyle went downstairs to tell his dad we were going to leave, and they ended up giving me a blessing, which I really appreciated. A contraction started right as Kyle started to bless me, ha, but I remember he blessed me that things would go well.
Our hospital is about 10 minutes away, and I had 3-4 contractions on the way there. I’ve always heard women say that riding in the car while having contractions is not fun, and now that I’ve experienced it, I totally agree. It was awful.
We got to the hospital around 4 am. The nurse in triage hooked me up to the monitors and checked me and told me I was at about a 4-5, which I was quite happy with. I had still been convinced that they were going to tell me I was at a 1 and to go home. Usually they keep you in triage for about an hour to monitor you, but she got me a room right away.
After getting admitted and all those things, my new nurses (Ronda and Carrie) checked me again, and I was at about a 6 at 5 am. The next few hours were kind of a blur. I was breathing through contractions, and my doctor came in and checked me and talked to me. Nurses were checking me all the time, too. I believe I got my epidural around 6 am, and oh, that was wonderful. I was actually pretty proud of the fact that I got it when I was at about a 6-7. I felt good about making it that far, but I had no qualms about getting that epidural! I had actually told Kyle the day before that I didn’t want a student/intern, etc giving me the epidural, but I’m pretty sure one did. Ah well, he did a great job, and at that point I didn’t really even care anymore.
At around 7 am, my doctor came in, told me he was going into a surgery, and that when he got out he would break my water and that we’d probably have a baby shortly thereafter. Around 7:30 am, the nurses checked me and I was at an 8-9. So basically I just had a bit more laboring to do, and hopefully my doctor would be back soon and we’d have this baby. Kyle and I spent the next couple of hours trying to get some rest, but I don’t think it really worked very well. The nurses set up everything for delivery, and we were basically just waiting on my doctor to get out of surgery to have this baby.
Probably around 9:30 am the resident physician Dr. Reckon came in, and she and the nurses got me all situated for delivery. She then broke my water. As she was having me move down a tiny bit to the end of the bed, she said something like, “Oh my. Just moving that little bit, I see hair. We really need to get Dr. Cox in here now. No practice pushes for you!” (I think they had called Dr. Cox a few times to keep him apprised of what was happening, but now he really needed to come, ha.) Right around 10 am he showed up, and I started pushing. I believe I pushed through 3 contractions, and Eliza was born at 10:10 am.
She was immediately placed on my chest and it was an incredible feeling. After a few minutes, they took her over to the warmer where the baby nurses wiped her off, weighed her, measured her, etc. Kyle went over to watch, and my doctors stitched me up. (I ended up with a 2nd degree tear.) We had had two names picked out, but were waiting until we saw her to decided. Kyle came over to me, and said, she looks like an Eliza. (I’m planning on blogging about why we chose her name at another time!) And once I held her I knew he was right. They brought her over to me and I just kind of stared at her. It was amazing and I was so proud of myself that I had had a successful vaginal delivery.
That’s all for today! I know this already was so long, so I’ll talk about my recovery period in another post! I’m also planning on sharing how a vaginal delivery is different from a cesarean one, and also what I decided to do as far as breastfeeding goes. I can’t wait to write these all up for you! I’d love to know, though, what your birth stories look like. Did you have a vaginal delivery or a cesarean? Did you enjoy your experience, or hate it? Let me know! I love talking birth stories.
Wife to Kyle, and momma to Abe, Eliza and Jonah. I'm a stay-at-home momma by day, and a blogger by naptime. I graduated from BYU with a degree in Human Development, and I love to read more than anything. I love my Savior, and sharing His love for others is my greatest passion.
