Elodie's Birth Story

I guess it began Thursday evening. I noticed that I was getting pains that more closely resembled menstrual cramps than Braxton Hicks contractions. They felt painful low in my pelvis, and burned and ached quite a bit. Friday morning I woke up and they were gone. However, throughout the day they showed up off and on. When I went to bed Friday night they were kind of bothering me more regularly, but I didn't think too much of it. I tracked them on an online contraction timer, but they were pretty irregular. Brian noticed that I was timing and told me to let him know if anything serious was happening. Saturday morning I woke up very early, around 1:30am, to a more painful contraction, and then they continued. They were still primarily located low in my pelvis, and not really radiating upward or downward, so I wasn't too sure what to make of them. But they were getting more frequent. Around 3:00 I decided to head downstairs and pre-register for the hospital, just in case. I also began timing my contractions. They were coming pretty erratically, anywhere from every 4 minutes to every 12 minutes. But again, they were really starting to get uncomfortable. I considered calling our nurse advice line, but then things started spacing out further, from 18 minutes to 32 minutes. At that point, it was 5:00am and I decided to go back to bed. I woke up around a quarter to 9:00am to another painful contraction. I got up and joined Brian, Noah, and my mom who were all watching TV. (Ok, my mom was actually cleaning, and should get credit for that.) I made the conscious decision not to eat or drink anything because I was really starting to suspect that this might be it. By 10:00am the contractions were back on a more regular schedule. After a while I headed upstairs thinking it would be smart to shower, but once I got into the bathroom I was concerned that maybe it was actually a really bad idea. Instead I finally decided it was time to call a nurse. Since it was a Saturday, our clinic system was on after-hours mode and it took 15 minutes just to get through to a receptionist. I explained that I thought I could be in labor, so she flagged me as "high priority" and patched me through to OB nursing. "High priority" my ass! I sat on hold for another 15 minutes, and by this time contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart and required concentrated breathing to get through. I should have trusted my instincts and just hung up at this point, because the nurse didn't even question me. She asked if I could head to a different hospital as the one I was going to was getting very busy, but when I explained that I was scheduled for a c-section there for the 18th, she told me to go and they would be expecting me. Brian and I threw some things into a suitcase (we were planning to pack later that day), kissed Noah goodbye (he clung to me and cried and cried), and headed out. 

The road we live on connects to a major highway that leads to the mountains. Well, this was a Saturday morning which is a popular time for people to be heading west. We were about the 5th car in line waiting to turn left to head east, and a steady stream of cars were slowly heading west. It didn't help that about 100 yards down the road to the west, a police car was pulled over with lights on. It took what felt like forever to finally get onto the highway. Once we made it, we had about a 45 minute drive ahead of us. About 10 minutes into the drive, I started to become concerned. The contractions were consistently 2-3 minutes apart, and lasting a little over a minute each. And they HURT. I really had to focus on my breathing. Keep in mind this is a bit of a twisty, windy road, so there is a lot of shifting from side to side. Not comfortable when you are in active labor! After about 30 minutes we were getting close to downtown Denver. I was starting to feel panicky. Things were really feeling intense and I went from just breathing through contractions to moaning loudly. Brian was clearly getting more and more nervous about me. He was so irritated by any little thing people in front of us did. If they didn't immediately floor it after a light turned green, expletives flowed. As we neared the hospital, I finally admitted that I wasn't sure I would make it. I think that really freaked Brian out. We finally made it to the parking lot for L&D, and of course the one open spot was somewhat blocked by some idiot who illegally parked their giant SUV. Brian had to make several maneuvers to get my car in, and the whole time I felt like I was dying. He ran to my side of the car and opened the door, but I was in the middle of a contraction and had to wait. We walked as fast as I could, and Brian ran ahead to get a wheelchair. I waddled into the triage room just as someone was coming for me, so they brought me into the back and got me into a room. I could barely talk and my whole body was shaking uncontrollably. In my head I thought, "C'mon people. Just look at me. I clearly need to be admitted STAT!!!" A nurse helped me lie down and did a quick cervical check. I could tell by how far she was reaching that I was extremely dilated and baby was low. I got another contraction and felt like I needed to push. She told me that whatever I did, do NOT push. Then she ran out of the room and asked them to get me a room immediately. "She's 9cm and her bag of water is bulging." This comment didn't surprise me, but it still scared the shit out of me. The nurse came back and talked me through another intense contraction. My body wanted to push so bad, and the only thing that truly helped me not to was the fear of what could happen to baby if I did. She began wheeling me up as another nurse was calling up to L&D to explain the situation. I overheard her say, "History of hydrocephalus, history of c-section." I was having another contraction, so I began shaking my head and pointing at my stomach to say, "NO, THIS baby has hydrocephalus and I need a c-section NOW!" They did not pick up on this, so I was wheeled to a regular delivery room. I was so out of it, but I knew things were not right. Luckily a doctor came immediately and she was able to clear everything up and got me into a triage room. There they hooked me up onto the monitors, got my IV in, and began tracking everything. Initially they couldn't pick up Elodie's heartbeat, and I was so scared, but Brian directed them to the spot where our OB nurse had picked it up earlier that week and immediately we heard it. However, with each contraction she was having major decels which dipped into the 60s. They explained that we needed to get to OR immediately and rushed me out while they took Brian to change into scrubs. As they wheeled me into the OR, the anesthesiologist asked how much time he had to prep. The doctor replied, "2 minutes!" I had to scoot off the bed they wheeled me in on and onto the one I would deliver on. Oh my god that was so hard with the pain I was in. As soon as they got me onto the bed, they sat me up and bent me over. The anesthesiologist told me I would feel two quick stings, and then the spinal would go in. As he worked they tried to get my shirt off, but it was hung up on my IV so they had to leave it hanging off the IV line. It was like a total circus. They laid me down and stretched my arms out. I think someone made a joke that I was being crucified. I felt someone holding my left arm and finally turned hoping to see a kind face. It was Brian! I had no idea he had even come in. He must have been too in shock to say hi. The anesthesiologist began brushing something cold on my legs and abdomen and asked if I could feel. I could, so he waited another minute or two and then I wasn't able to feel it in all the right places, so he gave them the green light. And just like that, they began the incision. From the time they wheeled me into the OR to that point had to have been no more than 7 minutes. I felt quite a bit of pressure as they worked to get her out. I think she was feet first, so they really had to dig to get to her head which was way up by my ribs. It was fairly uncomfortable, but not painful. And then, she was out. She didn't cry right away, but Brian assured me that she was looking around and alert. Then she cried, and it was the sweetest sound I have ever heard! It was such a relief, because a good cry meant that we did not need to have the "resuscitate or not" talk. Thank GOD! Brian got a good look at her and came back to tell me that she was cute and her head didn't look any weirder than his. (Brian has a giant noggin.) They cleaned her up and she earned Apgar scores of 8 and 9. That's even better than Noah! Nobody had ever said boy or girl, so I asked Brian to please confirm that she was really a girl. Never having seen an ultrasound image with my own eyes, I was still in quite a bit of disbelief that she could be a girl! And yes, they did confirm it, and in that moment I thought, "Oh my God, I have my Elodie!" Sweet, sweet relief! 

In all of her "fresh out of the womb" glory!

After they got her cleaned up they handed her to Brian and began sewing me up. At some point they took her off to NICU and Brian decided to stay with me. I was wheeled to recovery and after two hours we finally got to go to NICU to see her. As they wheeled me over we saw my mom, step-dad Ed, and Noah waiting for us. We all went in together, and then I got to hold my girl!

They encouraged me to attempt to nurse her which I was so excited about! I really didn't expect that. She was definitely interested, but as I expected, I remembered nothing about how to breastfeed. We struggled together to get a latch, but with plenty of persistence we finally succeeded. She suckled and nursed on and off for about 20 minutes, stopped, and then tried again for 5-10 minutes more. By then it was about 6:00pm and they wanted to take me into my own room. I kissed Elodie goodbye and off I went.

When I found out I was going to have a c-section, the one silver lining was that I wouldn't have to drive down the mountain in labor for an hour. Well, so much for that! In some respects, I love that my baby and my body made the decision of her birthday, and not a doctor. But wow, it was one intense experience! From the time we arrived at the hospital to the time Elodie was born was maybe 40 minutes. Talk about cutting it close. And I have to say, although I wasn't allowed to have a vaginal birth, I am pretty impressed with and proud of myself for making it all the way to 10 with no pain relief. I never experienced natural labor with Noah because I was induced, so I'm kind of glad I got as much of the experience as I could with Elodie. But would I like to do it again? Um, no! 

It's getting late, so tomorrow I'll try to bring you all up to speed on our first 4 days living the NICU life. Although I should probably at least tell you that her surgery went flawlessly, so THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for her or kept her in their thoughts. It worked!