Elodie's Birth Story

I know in advance this post might get pretty long, and many people have already heard the whole story by now, but I wanted to document my perspective/memory of Elodie's birth.

The short version: it was long and hard, and literally everything on my birth plan did not go according to plan, but it was all worth it :).

The long version -- day by day:

Tuesday, April 22 (Elodie's original due date)

• Didn't feel like she was coming any time soon. I had been walking a lot the previous days/weeks, and eating spicy food, etc. to try to induce labor naturally, but I had a feeling she wasn't ready yet.
• 2pm - Went to Mills-Peninsula hospital (where I would be giving birth) to have a routine Non Stress Test (NST). For non high-risk pregnancies, women get NSTs twice a week once they hit their due date, to check that baby looks fine, that there is enough amniotic fluid, etc.
• Everything looked fine, except my blood pressure was elevated (and my blood pressure was low/normal throughout my pregnancy, and even one day before when I had a doctor appt)
• 3pm - Nurse wants to monitor my blood pressure a while longer. If it doesn't go down, I would be admitted and induced that night!
• Of course that doesn't help me feel more relaxed, and my blood pressure continues to increase
• 5pm - We are admitted into the hospital. I'm not going home. We were not prepared for this (had planned to come and go after a quick NST).
• 7 - 9pm ish - Mia came to keep me company while Eric went home to get our stuff. I had kind of packed my bags already, but there was a lot I hadn't packed yet. 
• 8:30pm - 
• I got my hep lock installed in my arm (? not sure of correct terms), which is the thing where an IV can be hooked up later on when needed. 
• Since my cervix was not dilated at all, I started a dose of Cervidil, a drug that softens the cervix, to help my body get ready to go into labor. One dose of Cervidil takes about 12 hours to work, so we were told to get some rest/sleep. 
• Analogy: The cervix is like a banana. An unripe banana is tough and hard to open, but once its ripe, it is much softer and easy to open. We needed to "ripen" my cervix.

Wednesday, April 23

• 8:30am - My doctor came in to check on me and remove Cervidil. I am now 1 cm dilated. Kinda disappointed, since we didn't make much progress. (Some people get quickly dilated to 3-4 cm using Cervidil, but everyone is different.)
• Decision for next steps - another round of Cervidil (could take up to 12 hours and works slower, but since it is inserted into my body, we can remove it if needed) or take another drug called misoprostol (works faster, but taken orally so you can't "back out" of it or decrease dosage). 
• Decided to wait and see, since I was feeling some regular contractions 
• 11am - Decided on another round of Cervidil
• During the day, Eric and I walked around the hospital, hung out, waiting/hoping for the Cervidil to work its magic. My parents drove up that day from Irvine and came to visit us for dinner. Erina and Mia also came to visit that evening. 
• 11pm - Removed Cervidil, but there was NO CHANGE! I was still only 1 cm dilated, 50% effaced. SIGH.
• Doctor said to get some sleep that night, then we I would start misoprostol in the morning at 6:30am 

Thursday, April 24

• Couldn't get much sleep as contractions were starting to get more regular and painful
• 1:30am - My water broke! Contractions started coming every 3-4 minutes, and are getting more painful. I got out of bed to labor. We decided to call our doula, Audrey, as this seemed to be the real deal.
• This means my body went into labor naturally, so I wouldn't have to take misoprostol (which I was glad for)
• 3am - Audrey arrived, and suggested we try to get some rest if at all possible. 
• We brought our big stability ball from home, and I sat on the ball and rested my head on pillows on the bed in between contractions. Audrey helped massage my back, etc. while Eric took a nap.
• 4am - 8am - Contractions are getting more painful, and coming regularly every 5 minutes or so. 
• 8am - I sat down to eat breakfast. For some reason, this seemed to stall labor, and contractions slowed down to every 10+ minutes. 
• 9am - Doctor checked me. I'm only 2 cm dilated, 100% effaced. She talked about using Pitocin to make contractions more frequent (ideally 2-3 min apart). We decided to wait until noon, and try other methods to speed up labor (walking, etc.)
• 12pm - Labor is still slow (spaced out contractions, not as intense as before), so we started Pitocin.
• By 4-5pm, contractions are getting much more intense -- continue to get more and more intense/painful and close together. We try different pain management techniques. By 6pm-ish, I can't even talk in between contractions, just trying to rest/relax as much as possible in between.
• 7pm - I got in the tub to labor in the water, which helps a little bit, but contractions are REALLY bad by now.
• 9pm - I want to know how dilated I am. Contractions have been exhausting and intense and painful, and I don't know how much longer I can take them. I decide if I'm close (7+ cm) then I would try to go all the way naturally (no pain meds). If not, then I would consider getting an epidural, if only to get some rest.
• 9:30pm - Doctor comes to check me. I'm only 4 cm dilated!! Give me an epidural, please!
• 10pm - Anesthesiologist arrives to give me an epidural. He messes up and has to do it twice, while I have to stay as still as possible through crazy contractions that are still coming regularly. 
• 11pm - We all try to get some sleep. Since I now have an epidural and can't feel anything, the nurses really crank up my Pitocin to help increase contractions (that I can't feel) so I can finally get to 10 cm and push.
• 2am -  I can't really sleep because I can still feel the contractions slightly, but that's okay (still feels SO much better than before). 
• 3am - I'm 10 cm dilated! Ready to push!
• 3:20am - Start pushing.
• Pushing was the part of labor I hadn't really thought about before, or really "prepared" for. It was completely exhausting. Basically, every 3-5 minutes (with each contraction), I had to push as hard as I could for 10 seconds x 3 times during each contraction.
• I did this for 3.5 hours!!!!
• 5:30am - Doctor suggests using a vacuum to help pull out baby's head. When we attended birthing class and learned about the vacuum option, I had thought "ugh, who would ever want to use that??" But, two exhausting hours into pushing, when given an option to get the baby out in 3 pushes with a vacuum vs. at least one more hour of pushing, I gave in and decided to agree to the vacuum.
• 6am - We try the vacuum. I try pushing three times with the vacuum, but it didn't work and she didn't come out :(. It did help bring her down further, though.
• 6:15am - There's a lot of other things going on by now. I'm developing a fever, the baby's heart rate is going way up, there's a risk of infection for the baby, etc. It has also been way over 24 hours since my bag of waters broke, which is not good/ideal because there's an increased risk of infection for the baby. Doctor says if baby isn't out by 6:45, we may need to do a c-section. They start getting an operating room ready. 
• My thoughts: WHAT? A C-SECTION AFTER ALL THAT EXHAUSTING HARD WORK DURING LABOR/PUSHING?!?! No way. 
• Every push, I'm literally bursting pushing as hard as I can, and everyone is telling me good job, but push harder!! Ahhh, I can't push HARDER because I'm pushing as hard as I can!
• I'm beyond exhausted. I have to wear an oxygen mask in between pushes. Eric is feeding me ice chips and I'm SOO THIRSTY, but I'm not allowed to drink anything because I'm on the epidural. 
• I'm thinking -- how did everyone else DO THIS?! But they did it! Everyone else pushed out their babies, so I can do this too!
• 6:45am - Baby is still not out. I'm so depressed at the thought of getting a c-section, but she is so close to coming out, that my doctor is now determined to deliver vaginally. Me too.
• We try three more times. I push with every ounce of determination I can muster.
• 6:55am - Elodie arrives into the world. Eric and I both immediately bawl our eyes out in a rush of emotions that I can't begin to describe. Elation, relief, disbelief that she's finally here. After all that we went through, we're finally done!!! I can finally meet my baby!
• But first, a team of pediatricians/nurses need to check her for various things (she had pooped in the womb, she might have an infection, etc.)
• I was so out of it by then, completely exhausted and half delirious. But, I wanted to see and hold my baby! I didn't get to do the immediate skin-to-skin time with my baby like I had wanted to (which is normally done if there aren't any issues/risks with the baby). 
• I got to see her for a minute and take some photos before they had to whisk her away to the NICU for monitoring. I remember NOT thinking "wow, she's beautiful" at first. She looked weird, and I was worried about her long, cone-shaped head. 
• I was still numb from the waist down since I had been on an epidural, so I was confined to my bed as a bunch of people cleaned up the room. There was a lot of hustle and bustle around me while I DOWNED some cold coconut water (it tasted SO good, because I was SO THIRSTY) and then everyone told me to try to rest/sleep for a few hours. 
• At some point, everyone left and I was in my (dark) room all by myself. Eric was in the NICU with Elodie. I started feeling sad and depressed that I wasn't with my baby. I worried that we wouldn't "connect" because I didn't get to spend skin-to-skin bonding time with her in the very beginning.  
• About 2-3 hours later, my nurse helped me get in a wheelchair (I still couldn't walk since my legs were numb), and took me to the NICU to spend time with Elodie.
• As soon as I saw her, I started crying like crazy. This is when I had my first real bonding/loving moment with Elodie. I can't begin to describe the emotions running through me, but here I was, finally holding my precious perfect baby. I couldn't believe that Eric and I MADE her, and that she came out of my body. She was so tiny and everything about her was just perfect, and my heart overflowed with so much love.
• She looked much better/normal by this time (she had been cleaned up, and her color was now normal, etc.) 
• 12pm - Elodie was doing fine now -- all the things the doctors were worried about earlier were fine, so she got to move from the NICU to my room for the rest of our stay.

Okay, that was really long and I don't know if anyone finished reading that essay, but I wanted to write that all down before I forgot :). Elodie's birth was a bit traumatizing for both me and Eric, but we are SO GLAD she is finally here, after spending nine months waiting for her arrival!