Eli's L&D Story...the longest post ever.

So, I never did tell my blog friends about Eli's labor and delivery story. ...better late than never.

I went to the OB for a fetal NST (non-stress test) to make sure little Elijah was doing okay on his extended stay in the womb. The doctor said he wanted to see AT LEAST two heart rate variations in twenty minutes. Well, we saw ONLY two heart rate variations, so that wasn't really impressive. So, he ordered a BPP (biophysical profile) which is done via ultrasound. Everything on the BPP looked great. So my OB felt confident that Elijah was doing okay. Then there was the question - was I doing okay. As you all know, I was very done being pregnant. The dr said I was basically not dilated or effaced at all, so if I wanted an induction I would be looking at a 40-50% chance of going to a c-section...which I didn't want. So the decision was to wait and let nature take her course. I went home after my appointment and cried. It is a little depressing being pregnant for so long, and I know it sounds rediculous, but it really does seem like it will never end. Logic tells you that pregnancy has to end, but when you are so far past due, it really feels like it will never end.

Things took a turn for the better at 11:00pm that same day. I was woken up by my first contraction of the entire pregnancy. I never had a single contraction...not even a braxton hicks contraction...during the entire pregnancy. Everyone told me that I would just know when I was having a contraction, and they were right. When I had my first contraction there was no question. I had another contraction at midnight, 1am, 2am, 3am and 3:40am. Since the 3:40 K'tion was a little closer together, I decided to wake Pete and just tell him I was contracting...but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Then I had another K at 3:50, 4:00, 4:10, and 4:20...so we decided to go ahead and start officially timing them. Thus began the 38 hours of contractions. I called my dr at 6:30am to find out at what point I should go to the hospital. He said to go when I got ten contractions in one hour. He also said I would probably have a lot of laboring to do because I was not dilated or effaced when he checked just 18 hrs ago. I had no idea just how right he was.

So, long story short - I contracted FOREVER!! I would get 8 an hour, then 9 an hour, then 4 an hour, then 2 an hour, then 9 an hour ... but not ten. By 6:30 that night (12 hours after talking to my dr) I had decided this was mother natures cruel joke and I wasn't actually going to have this baby. So I decided that I quit....I stopped timing the contractions and finally ate something. Then at 9:30pm the contractions started to knock my socks off. Up until that point they were uncomfortable, but I could breath, focus, relax ... and that really helped. But at 9:30 the breathing and focusing went out the window...I was in serious pain (I found out later that a lot of that pain was bc Eli was posterior...which meant I was having back labor). From that point on every contraction was 1.5 minutes long, but I was still only getting 8 or 9 an hour. I did this for NINE HOURS!! At one point I looked at Pete (who had stayed up all night with me timing K'tions) and told him that child birth is for the birds. I had just had a kidney stone in january, and I told him I thought these K'tions were worse than the stone. He said based on my reactions to the pain he thought the stone was worse and that I had just forgotten how bad it hurt. So, it's a toss up but either way, they both HURT.

At 6:30 on THE THIRD DAY (if you count the first 11 pm contraction as the first day, which I do) I had 9 contractions in an hour. Then I had a super tiny contraction that I wasn't 100% sure was even a contraction. I asked Pete what we should do because if that was a contraction, it would be ten an hour. By the time I got the question out he was up and half way out the door (we were very tired of timing K'tions at this point and at least the hospital would be a change in environment). So we went to the hospital even though I was pretty sure they would send us home. We get to the hospital and I told Pete to park far away thinking that walking would help really bring on labor (for some reason I still didn't think I was in labor). We get to the OB ER and the nurse tells us we are dilated 4cm and 90% effaced. I burst into tears - I really AM going to have this baby!!!

We got to our L&D room and by the time my OB got there I was at 5cm. He broke my water about 8:30ish. This was the very last belly shot after they broke my water.


I decided to go ahead and get an epidural (this decision was actually made about midnight the night before when I was rolling around on the floor from the pain of back labor). I got the epidural around 9:30ish. After that...I started having a good time. Pete and I were both able to catch a quick nap (seeing as how we hadn't slept in quite a while). By about 2:00 I was at 10cm. After that I don't really have any concept of time. After a couple hours of pushing (which seemed like about thirty minutes to me) the OB said Eli was stuck due to being posterior. This gave me new motivation so I was literally pushing with every fiber of my being...but it didn't help. My dr said that if he could go in and rotate Eli that I would have him out in no time. I asked how he planned to rotate him and he said using rotating forceps. My heart sunk. When he saw our reaction he put his arm around Pete and said "now I am not in the business of hurting babies". So we told him to do what he needed to do to keep us out of the OR. My dr is pretty old, and I know he has delivered over twenty thousand babies...many of which were delivered back when forceps were popular. So I was confident he had lots of forcep experience. So he asked the nurse for rotating forceps. When she came back, he refused every pair of forceps she brought. He was VERY picky about his forceps, which also made me feel better. Finally they brought him a pair he found acceptable, so he dove in after that baby. And he was right (my doctor seems to be right every time). Eli was out in no time. One minute I was pushing and the next thing I knew I had a slimey blue bundle of baby on my stomach. I am not going to type out what that moment was like because putting it into words somehow seems to minimize what it was actually like in my heart and in my spirit. Our little Elijah was born...whew! 8lb 4oz and 20.5 inches long. This was wonderful news to me because I thought he would surely be 13lbs given the size of my belly, the fact that my family has large babies (my OB refers to them as giant offspring), and bc he was so past due.

After Pete cut the cord, they took Eli to the little table across the room to clean him up a bit. I'll spare the details, but I will say I had to get three sets of stitches, partly due to the forceps. However, the forceps didn't hurt Eli at all. He had a tiny bit of bruising on his head which may or may not have been from the forceps, and his head was hardly mishapen at all. People kept telling us his head shape made him look like a c-section baby. Way to go, Dr T!!!

They wrapped Eli into a burrito and Pete brought him to me. About an hour after birth everyone cleared out, and we took our first try at nursing. This baby was a textbook nurser...I was the one who was clueless. We had requested they wait to give Eli his eye ointment until a few hours after birth so he could see us during that alert phase right after delivery. He was (is) amazing.

And so goes the story of how Eli came into this world. And now for pictures - because, really, that's the best part.
Brand new baby:

Proud new mommy:

Proud new daddy changing diapers :-)