Eliana's Birth

It’s been almost eight weeks and about time I wrote Eliana’s birth story before the details get fuzzy.

Midway through my third trimester my doctor informed me he did optional inductions at 39 weeks. At that point I thought, “no way,” I want our baby to come when she’s ready. I’d read about pitocin and thought the cons outweighed the pros. Plus I wanted to give birth epidural free and I’d heard pitocin makes contractions worse.

As we neared our due date, Jeremy got a new position at his job with the training starting the week after the baby’s due date. This news, although great, threw a wrench in my plans to wait for Eliana to come on her own. With my mom living far away, there was no one else who could be there to help me out the first couple weeks. Jeremy’s job allows paternity leave, up to 3 months (unpaid) and we had already decided he would take two weeks off before he got the new job.

We asked for advice from friends and family and got opinions from both sides, but after talking to a friend who had an optional induction with the same doctor I decided it was worth talking to my doctor about.

At my 38 week apppointment I asked what the procedure would be like. He told me he places a foley catheter balloon, filled with saline salution, in the cervix to begin dialation. Gravity pulls on the balloon putting pressure on the cervix like the baby would. The balloon would be put in the day before the induction. After having it placed we would await a call from the hospital, where they would hook me up to pitocin. Dr. Newman told me pitocin gets a bad reputation; it basically makes things rough if a woman is not dialated, which is why he does the balloon. He said labor hurts no matter what. :) I decided to go ahead and have him schedule my induction for the following week. I really wanted to have Jeremy around the first couple weeks.

November 2 at 10:20 am I went to my doctor’s office to have him put in the balloon. Jeremy started his leave that day, I’m so thankful he was there. I have to say, having that balloon put in was probably the worst part of the whole induction/birth process. My cervix wasn’t dialated at all, so basically the doctor was forcing it open. I had never felt pain like that before. I almost vomited it was so bad. Jeremy was sitting next to me, holding my hand. He said he’d never seen me sweat so much; like all the pores on my face opened up. It almost got to the point where I called it off. I can’t even describe the discomfort. While I’m glad we induced early, I won’t ever do it again, unless its medically necessary. The nurse told me I would probably have some cramping and some bleeding; I had both. The cramping wasn’t bad, minor compared to the bad menstrual cramps I get. We went home to wait the call from the hospital. We were told it would be sometime around midnight.

I went to bed early, knowing it would probably be a while before I’d sleep again. at 1:45 am the hospital called saying they were ready for me to come in for my induction. Yippee! I started getting dressed ready and Jeremy busted out the video camera to begin chronicaling Eliana’s birth. We left the house at about 2:30 and got to the hospital around 3:00 am. We were shown to an office where we filled out paper work and told an estimate of what our cost would be after insurance was billed.

We were then shown to a tiny room in triage where a nurse checked to see if I had dilated yet. I was at 4 cm! I was pretty excited, in the back of my head I was worried the balloon hadn’t worked and I was in for a rough time. She hooked me up to a monitor to track my contractions and heart rate. She asked if I was feeling the contractions; surprised I said “no.” The nurse placed an IV and got the pitocin and anti-biotics (because I was Strep B positive) running through my system. We were only in that room for about 30 minutes and then escorted to the room where we would be giving birth.

The room was huge! We knew there’d be a TV and DVD player so we brough “Pride and Prejudice;” the long one. :) Once we were settled we popped in the movie and settled back for the wait.

At 8:00 am another nurse came in and checked to see if I’d dialted anymore. I was at 5 cm. She said she would let my doctor know and he’d probably be in soon to break my water. Having your water broken is the weirdest sensation. After that my contractions got a little more painful. I still hadn’t had an epidural. Everytime my nurse came to check on me she asked if I wanted one. “No,” I responded. The contractions didn’t hurt too bad. I’d had period cramps much worse than the contractions. The contractins were, however, painful enough to keep me from sleeping. I’m so glad I had the Bennet girls and Mr. Darcy to keep me company during the long hours.

Jeremy was great! He reminded me to breath and massaged my back during the contractions. All was well. A little before noon the nurse came to check my cerivix. I was still at 5 cm, so she upped the pitocin in my IV. The contractions started getting harder. I was fine for a while, but soon lost my focus. I was tired and before long in tears. I called the nurse on the phone and asked if I could have my epidural.

Once I decided to have it, the wait was almost unbearable. But it wasn’t long until the anesthesiologist came in and started prepping. He told me to hold still and was surprised at how well I did. Can I just say epidurals are amazing! I felt my body relax and I was finally able to get some rest.

At about 3:00 pm the nurse came in to check me again. I was at 10 cm! She asked if I felt the need to push and I said I did feel something. My epidural was wearing off so I could feel a bit of pressure. She said she would come back in 30 minutes to check on me. I sent Jeremy out to the car to get our phone charger, I was about out of batteries and I wanted to make sure I could call and send pictures as soon as the baby was born. As soon as he left I began to think it was a mistake for him to go. The urge to push got stronger. I didn’t call the nurse. I wouldn’t. Not until Jeremy got back. Man, did it take him forever to get back! As soon as he did I told him I needed to push. We called the nurse. She got me ready to do a few practice pushes. Jeremy was on one side and the nurse on the other. The nurse watched the monitor and let me know when to push. Not that I needed her to. The epidural had worn off enough that I could feel the contractions. My body knew when to push. I only needed a few practices pushes before the nurse told me to stop. WHAT! Oh man, waiting for the doctor to get there was worse than the contractions. It took forever! Probably only 5 to 10 minutes, but it felt like hours. Jeremy’s hand got squeezed to death, it was all I could do not to push when those contractions came. The room began to fill with all sorts of people. I was asked if a Med student could come in to observe. I said it was fine. The doctor arrived and sure took his time getting prepped. Finally he was ready. It was such a relief to be able to push. It only took a few, about 30 minutes of pushing before out came our precious little girl. She hardly cried. She was pefect. Eliana was born at 3:48 in the afternoon, 7lb 15 oz. It was such an emotional moment. I was exhausted, but my sweet girl was finally here.

Everything went as well as it could have. I wouldn’t have done things differently. It was so nice to have my husband with me for two weeks as we got adjusted to being a family of three. Eliana is Hebrew for "God has answered," and He has!