Elizabeth's Birth Story

Since Elizabeth's birth story never was blogged, and I don't want to lose it - I'm blogging and back-dating it. :) I think her's is actually written in her baby book, though. This is long!!!

Elizabeth's birth story starts with my OB visit on January 2nd. After doing a rather rough exam (he was stripping my membranes), he told us to be at the hospital "with some uterine activity going on" at around 5:00 the next morning; hopefully between the exam and our "homework assignment," labor would start. Brad and I both thought he was joking about going to the hospital. He wasn't. He said, "I told you I wanted to deliver this baby. I've got to cover L&D tomorrow so I'll be there anyway. Let's all be in the same place at the same time." And with that, we were instructed to be at the hospital at 4:00 a.m. Yikes!! Why did you change your mind and make it earlier, dude?!

I made a few phone calls on the way back to the office. I stayed at work until about 8:30 trying to get everything in line before I left. I went home and finished packing so Brad could put everything in the car. Then I edited and printed the "who to call, when" list and printed "Elizabeth's Scorecard" - Brad used the scorecard to record Elizabeth's vital stats so he'd have them handy when making his phone calls. We went to bed at about 11:30. As we laid there snuggled together, Elizabeth kicking us both, Brad said, "You realize this is the last time we'll be in our house together alone. The next time we are home together, we'll have Elizabeth with us." I started crying, what a sweet thing for him to say. I know I saw 1:15a.m., I'm not sure when Brad finally went to sleep. It's January 3, we're having a baby today.

The alarm went off at 2:30 - ugh! I'm vain enough that I had to do my hair, but didn't bother with make-up (I'm not THAT vain!) I grabbed a bowl of Rice Krispies to eat on the way to the hospital. I'm glad I did; little did I know that was the last thing I'd have to eat for over 24 hours. The LDR staff was waiting on our arrival and thrilled to see we'd brought candy with us. After getting settled, the resident did my exam and an ultrasound. Everything was fine so the induction could proceed. Pitocin was started, though at a very low dosage. I started cross-stitching to calm my nerves and focus on something else! I worked on Bent Creek's Spring Zipper. Shortly after shift change, they started cranking my Pit up a notch every 20 minutes. By 8:00, I couldn't concentrate on stitching any more. I moved to the rocker, moved back to the bed, back to the rocker, "No, I think I'm more comfortable sitting in the bed in the Lotus position. Honey, would you please turn off the TV and put in my classical CD? Ugh, those violins are getting on my nerves. How about the Edwin McCain CD? No, I don't want to listen to Jimmy Buffet. Will you please go tell the guy outside to quit jackhammering or I'm going to have to go out there and kill him. I don't care that he's five stories down, it's annoying!"

My OB came in to break my water at about 10:00, I was at 4cm. The plan was to wait for a contraction, then break it. We ended up not having to wait - it broke without assistance. Shortly after that, I'd had all I could stand. Pitocin labor is torture and I had them call anesthesia. Epidurals really are a good thing. After my epidural was in, my LDR nurse came in and asked me to roll to my right side. I knew something was up. Then my other nurse came in and asked me to roll to my left. Now I could see the monitor - Elizabeth's heart rate would decelerate when I'd have a contraction - mountains on my monitor created valleys on hers. Not a good thing. Other nurses were coming in to check on us, oxygen was readied awaiting Paul's orders for it. Paul came in quite a few times to check on us and had my Pit dialed back each time; I could tell by the look on his face he was concerned about my baby. Finally, he ordered internal monitors. I was at 6cm when he put them in - that was sometime between 11:00 and noon. Jimmy Buffet was finally in the CD player -- much to Brad's and Dr. Wendel's delight.

At noon, the nurses kicked out all my visitors (and believe me, there were a ton of people in my room...we were having a party!) so they could insert my catheter. While laying flat on my back, Elizabeth's heart rate stabilized with my contractions. So, I stayed there for the rest of my labor. The doctor came in to check on us again - "Let me know when you start feeling your contractions." "Like I am right now?" He checked me, I was at 9cm. It was 12:30...not much longer now. A few minutes later I told Beth that I thought I was feeling Elizabeth's head slide forward and back with my contractions. one of the residents was close by, so she had him check me. I was at 10cm and it was time to push. Jimmy Buffet was still in the CD player. It was 1:00. Brad, my mom, my sister and my dear friend, Jo, stayed in the LDR room with me. Everyone else went into the hallway -- no, not the waiting room...the HALLWAY. Kim and Diane asked the nurses and Dr. Wendel if they would leave the door to my room open, "We want to hear that baby cry as soon as she's born!" Beth asked if it was okay with me (of course it was!), she pulled the curtain so I wouldn't flash everyone walking down the hall. Daddy told me that Kim and Diane were "guarding" either side of the door, and constantly calling their husbands with detailed updates! I vaguely remember hearing "Cheeseburger in Paradise" playing over my head.

I'd been pushing for a while (and consistently in the 130 range) when Paul came into the room to check our progress. He told us Elizabeth was still pretty high and my pelvis wasn't giving to let her through so her head had a little bit of swelling. Not a big deal, he said, I could still push her through - "don't worry, just keep pushing you're doing great. I've delivered athletes babies, and they don't push as hard as you're pushing, keep it up." He said he'd be back to check on me in a bit. I remember as I pushed, Laura said, "Wrap yourself around your baby and push her out." I thought, "I've waited so long for this, I can't believe I'm finally here" which brought tears. I knew if I started crying I wouldn't stop, so rather than focus on how surreal the moment was for me, I decided to focus on what Laura said to do. Dr. Wendel came back at about 2:20. After watching me push, he sat down on the bed and told me that he was going to give me 20 more minutes and if Elizabeth didn't move during that time we were going to have to go to the OR. Not a problem, by then I was tired and I didn't care. My dad told me later, "He [Paul] walked out of the room, looked at Diane and said 'I just told her I was giving her 20 more minutes but I'm getting ready to put a zipper in that girl.'" I knew we were headed for a c-section, so the next 20 minutes of pushing were pretty much torture for me. I was exhausted and just ready to get it over with!

Less than twenty minutes later, he was back. I pushed, he looked at me and shook his head "No" to which I replied, "Then let's go." He had anesthesia called to redose my epidural and had my Pit turned off. The nurses were getting things ready to move me to the OR. Brad donned his "blue suit" and as Dr. Wendel walked out of the room he said, "Don't let her push any more." That was the hardest part of my labor. I had a baby stuck at my pelvis, Pit still running through my veins and my epidural hadn't been redosed yet...and I wasn't supposed to push?! Thankfully, my sister was there. She literally climbed on the bed and got in my face to help me focus through the contractions until my redosed epidural "took." All poor Brad could do was stand there and cry - he was so worried about me and his baby girl.

Once in the OR, I had a hard time staying awake. I was so tired and I could finally relax. Plus, they'd given me phenergan because I'd gotten sick thanks to my dropping blood pressure. Our neonatologist/friend came in to let me know he'd be there with us. Brad finally got to come in. It was time to get this baby girl here. I remember thinking she was stuck and they were having trouble getting her out because of all the tugging that was going on (they weren't having trouble at all). Finally, I heard it...a sweet little raspy cry. The anesthesiologist told Brad to stand up so he could see Elizabeth. On the other side of the drape, they were joking about how she wasn't even fully born before she started crying. She is my child!! Brad started taking pictures and all I could ask was, "She doesn't have a penis, does she? She IS a girl, right?!" Yes, she's a girl and she's healthy!!! She was born at 3:52p.m. - twelve hours after we arrived at the hospital.

I went to recovery while Elizabeth and Brad went to the nursery. I fell asleep in recovery so they held Elizabeth in the nursery to let me rest for about an hour. My OB came in to check on me before he left for the day, "How do you feel?" I replied, "Great. How long do I have to wait before I can do this again?" (I'd already asked him once in the OR and his reply was, "Can we at least get your uterus closed before we talk about that?!") I want to do it all again - and it could happen the exact same way...that would be fine with me!