Our Story

In celebration of Eli's homecoming today, I decided to grace the blogosphere with my labor story.  Labor stories to women are what sports talk and war stories are to men, so I feel I have the right to get it out there.  If you have already had children, read on . . . this might be somewhat interesting.  However, folks, if you are inherently against all things pregnancy related, you are a teenage girl who is scared of having children, or are a man that is not an ob/gyn, chances are this story is not for you!  (For the record, I'm pretty sure there are no ob/gyns reading this blog:)

In the hospital room, just before induction: 

Excited to meet our new little one:

  Last pregnancy picture:

I headed to the doctor on Wednesday, March 30, firmly thinking everything would check out fine and we would make a new record of making it past 37 weeks in a pregnancy.  I got in and the nurse took my blood pressure twice.  140/100 = not the best numbers we've ever seen.  It was the first appointment in a few weeks that I hadn't brought my packed hospital bag to.  Zach also insisted on coming with me, and I told him for a week that he should go to work instead b/c everything was looking just fine.  Ironic, isn't it?  Dr. Holmes came in, looked at my blood pressure, measured my belly, and said it was time to go have a baby.

Zach and I went over to UVRMC and checked in at labor and delivery.  For some reason, it just didn't feel real to me until I got hooked up with the monitors and started pitocin.  After a few IV attempts, they called in the anesthesiologist and had him hook me up.  Pitocin drip was started about 11:15.  The baby's head was floating a little and we needed some good contractions to start to bring him down.  Funny thing was, as soon as I sat down in the bed, I started contracting myself every 5 minutes for the hour it took to get everything started.  It didn't take long to get my labor moving and it started to get a little uncomfortable pretty quickly.

Dr. Holmes came in around 1 p.m. to break my water.  I insisted on getting the epidural before b/c I knew it would be pretty quick once he broke it.  The nice, nice epidural man came back in and got it going.  I really like that guy.  Can't remember his name or what he looked like, but I just remember thinking he was probably the most popular man on the floor at any given time.  Must be nice to be so loved for what you do.

After the epidural kicked in, Dr. Holmes came back in and broke my water at about 1:40ish.  (And here comes the gore).  Turns out that I had a partial placental previa.  We knew I had a low lying placenta throughout the pregnancy but my last ultrasound showed that it had moved up.  Or . . . really the baby's head was covering a small lip of the placenta that happened to have a blood vessel in it.  Because when my water broke, a whole lotta blood came with it.  I had an abruption and we needed to get the baby out pretty quickly.  My nurse checked me about 10 minutes later b/c I told her I was feeling pressure and I was still about a 4.  She left, saying she would check back with me in about 1/2 an hour to an hour.  Dr. Holmes didn't leave the hospital, but came back in and checked me 10 minutes later.  I was complete and ready to push.  He called the nurse, got into all of his gear and started working to get the baby out.  He was not super gentle because he was so worried about the situation and after 3 pretty short pushes during 1 contraction, Eli David made his entrance into the world. 

He cried pretty good for about 15 minutes, and then he just pooped right out.  Though purple is a fun, lively color, it is not one you want to see your newborn sporting on his face right after birth.  They called over a respiratory therapist and he was rushed away to the NICU, having aspirated a lot of blood.

While he was working on the post birth stuff, Dr. Holmes then let us know how very worried he had been.  He said that I progressed so fast after he broke my water that he wouldn't have even been able to do a C-section in that amount of time.  And b/c my water had already broken, it wouldn't have helped Eli's condition, because he would have aspirated all the same.  All I could think was how grateful I was my water hadn't broken at home because we would have had no time at all and a baby in very serious respiratory distress.  During the blessing I got when I was in PTL at 29 weeks, Zach reminded me 4 times that our little guy would come according to Heavenly Father's will.  I am thankful His will made it possible for Eli to get NICU care as soon as he needed it.

Though it was difficult to have our little guy in the NICU, I couldn't help but feel grateful that we were there with an almost full term baby instead of a 29 week preemie.  We are all asked to go through different trials and/or experiences, and I have to admit I am so grateful that was not what we were asked to endure. 

Well, that about wraps up my story.  3 hours start to finish.  Short and to the point.  I will always remember the special feeling that comes to a hospital room when a new spirit makes his entrance into the world.  It's emotional and beautiful and unlike any other experience in the world.

Meeting "the new kid," as Kye referred to him: