To say that a lot has happened since my last post would be a drastic understatement. I'm not entirely sure that I'm going to start blogging again regularly, but I did want to get Ellie's birth story written while it was still fresh in my mind. I love being able to go back and read Joellen's. As more time passes there are small details that I'm reminded of when I revisit it and it makes me so glad that I wrote it when I did.
I started having contractions maybe a week or so before Eliza was born. Never anything regular or intense, but definitely a cue that my body was getting ready. On July 20th I started having them while I was out running my dog, Sally around 8 am in the morning. Again, it was nothing regular, but they started to get stronger as the day wore on. I didn't really think much of it because of the irregularity - 5 minutes apart, 12, 4, 21, 11, 6... It was all over the place.
Around 2:45 pm I decided to call the hubs and let him know that I thought we would be going to the hospital by the end of the day. The surges were still very irregular, but they were getting stronger. He got home, we got all our stuff together, and then we waited. Much to our chagrin, the surges stalled and almost stopped completely. I could get them going again with walking around but if I sat down and relaxed they stopped.
Around 4:30 pm I thought I felt my water break but I wasn't sure. That probably sounds really stupid, but it's not as obvious as they make it out to be in the movies. I also didn't have a clear memory of my water breaking with Joellen because it didn't happen until about 30 minutes before I gave birth to her. I called my doctor and she said she didn't think it was my water and just to wait until the contractions ramped up.
Around 7 pm we were getting Joellen ready for bed and I just had this nagging feeling that I should go to the hospital. So we decided that we would get Joellen to bed and then head to the hospital just to be sure that everything was ok. We got checked in around 8:30 pm and by 9:30 they confirmed that my water had broken.
In the US hospital system, if your water has broken, it is common practice to deliver the baby within 24 hours of the water breaking. This is because after the water is broken there is a higher chance of infection for both baby and mama. I'm not sure where I necessarily land on the issue (there is some conflicting research by midwives), but seeing as I was giving birth in a hospital, I knew that they were going to admit me and do what they had to do for me to have the baby in the next 24 hours. Also unfortunately, my surges had started to stall again, so I knew there was going to be some measure of intervention used - most likely Pitocin (synthetic oxytocin to ramp up contractions).
I had a lot of fear around Pitocin because I knew that the contractions were supposed to be more uncomfortable than natural and I could BARELY stand the contractions at the end with Joellen so I was very nervous about being able to deliver the baby without the epidural. They started giving me a very small dose of Pitocin around 12:30 am and by 2:30 I was debating getting the epidural. Not only was I exhausted, but I was also convinced that I was never going to be able to get thru this labor and delivery without further intervention. Also, with Jo after laboring for two hours, I was only about 4 cm dilated, so I thought I still had a good 6 hours(ish) of labor to go. This absolutely terrified me. So much, that I was physically shaking and would burst into tears every so often. A little after 3 am I started talking to the nurses about the epidural (the risks, the timing, the pain, what I could expect) just so I was more informed. Up to this point, because I had never considered getting an epidural, I had never educated myself on the process.
The intensity of the contractions were so powerful, it reminded me of the end of labor with Jo, but because I had only been in active labor for 3 hours, I believed I still had such a long ways to go. I decided to have the nurse check me and depending on how far along I was, that would dictate whether or not I would choose to have the epidural. You can imagine my surprise when the nurse told me I was fully dilated and effaced and I just needed to bring her down (for those in the know she was at +1 at the time) and then I could push her out. I burst into tears of relief and then understood why the intensity was what it was. It WASN'T the Pitocin, it was the fact that I was going to deliver this baby in under four hours and that's a massive change for the body to go through in such a short amount of time.
After about 30 minutes things ramped up and the nurses started getting ready for her to come out. The doctor came in, and at 4:01 am Miss Eliza Joy was born. There was one moment where I felt her head come out completely and the doctor asked me to stop pushing, which to me felt unusual because I was still having a contraction and thought I could finish delivering. About 30 seconds after asking me not to push, he told me that I could push again when I was ready. Later on I asked Adam why he asked me to stop pushing, and it was because she had a nuchal cord (the cord was wrapped around her neck) and he needed to carefully undo it to prevent any damage.
After delivering her, they placed her on my chest and didn't rush the cleaning and check up process. Basically they just made sure she was ok but really wanted her to just have skin-to-skin contact and bonding time with me. It was wonderful. I just had a teeny tiny tear that the doctor fixed with two stitches and while he did that, Ellie used her sense of smell to do the breast crawl and successfully latched and nursed within thirty minutes of being born.
They eventually weighed and measured her, and they also brought a nurse in from the NICU because Eliza had markers of being premature. After the NICU assessment they dated her at 38 weeks (per my OB I was 39 weeks, 4 days). She was 6 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long. She was perfect. She was healthy. And she was HEREE!!! We were so ecstatic and immediately started talking about how excited we were to take her home and introduce her to Joey.
It’s crazy how fast and immediate my heart grew. There was some nervousness about being capable of loving this baby as much as I did Joey. Jo has been my little partner in crime, and especially with COVID, it’s been the two of us by ourselves a lot and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to forge a bond as strong with a new baby. But upon her arrival, I realized that it just wasn’t true. I loved this new baby just as much and my heart was filled with a new fullness and joy that I didn’t know possible.
My recovery is going well and I’m going to start incorporating some light movement into my day, and Eliza is thriving. Joellen loves her sister, and while we know there are sure to be tough moments ahead, we are soaking up this wonderful time as a new family of four.
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