Okay, here it goes! I am finally going to share Ellie's birth story. If you are looking to read a heart warming, carefree, perfectly planned birth story then, well...this isn't it. I've been putting off writing it because it's a long story and because it was all too fresh. Basically, it was a pretty rough experience and literally NOTHING went the way I wanted it to. Except for getting my beautiful little girl here safely that is :)
Warning: This post contains details that may be sort of graphic in nature. So, if you don't like hearing about body parts and near death experiences, then it's probably best to skip this one.
It all started on Wednesday, July 31st...I was a week overdue and scheduled to go to the hospital that night to be induced. Here is a picture of me right before Christian and I hopped in the car to go to the hospital. I know, I know, I'm HUGE! (More on that later.)
We arrived at the hospital at 8 pm. I got checked in, changed into my robe, and got hooked up to the monitors. Christian and I were both ready to get things going and were anticipating meeting our little girl. I guess now is a good time to mention that I was planning on having a natural childbirth. I had taken a class, made a playlist, typed up my birth plan -- the whole kit and kaboodle. I was adamant about going natural. No way was any pain medication going to enter my body. Despite the whole fiasco, I was able to go natural -- just not in the way I had anticipated. I didn't receive any pain meds until after baby girl was born. I felt everything. Which was...not fun. As you will read about here soon enough :)
Okay, so anyway, at the hospital, the first order of business was to soften my cervix. In all of my previous appointments I wasn't even dilated to 1 cm and pretty much nothing was happening. So, the nurses placed a medicine tablet against my cervix to "ripen" it. ( I forgot what the name of that medicine was...) Anyway, so I was on this tablet thing for the whole night and into the morning. I was having regular contractions but nothing bad -- just a little crampy. So at 3 am the next morning, the nurses checked and I was dilated to 3 cm. I was super happy to finally have some progress! But then the progress stopped and by 5:30 am my cervix hadn't changed. At this point we decided to go ahead and start pitocin. The pitocin made my contractions come faster and stronger. They were uncomfortable but still not terrible. Two and a half hours later, I was going crazy sitting in the hospital bed, so I had Christian help me get up to walk around the room. As soon as I stood up, GUSH! My water broke. Everywhere. It was the strangest feeling ever! And there was SO much! It flooded the floor, went under the bed and all the way to the wall. We used up every single towel in the room and the nurse had to go out several times to get more. She kept laughing as she was wiping the floor, trying not to slip in the huge puddle. She said she'd never seen so much water before (and now we know that that's why I was so huge! Ellie wasn't a particularly big baby, but it was all that water that made my stomach so big.)
So after my water broke, the nurses took me off pitocin, hoping my water breaking would be enough to keep the contractions coming. I got back into bed and Christian and I proceeded to watch Master Chef on his laptop. At around 9:30 am, my nurse checked my cervix again. She felt Ellie's head, but it sort of bounced back against the pressure of her fingers. This meant that Ellie's head wasn't completely pressed against my pelvis yet. There was still enough fluid for her to be floating around up there. When the nurse took her fingers back out, there was another gush and then things started to really happen. Apparently, that last rush of water exiting my body was enough to slam Ellie's head against my cervix. When that happened, the umbilical cord got sucked down first and got trapped between her head and my cervix.
It was pinched. We could hear her previously strong heart beat start to drop on the monitor. My nurse became concerned and had me switch positions. Still no improvement. Another nurse entered the room and asked if she could help. Christian and I were getting worried. They still couldn't get a good read on the heart rate so the nurse inserted a monitor up through my cervix and attempted to attach it to Ellie's scalp. It didn't take. Now there were four nurses in the room. They quickly inverted my bed and put my pelvis as high up as it would go. At this point Christian and I are clutching each other and in between sobs I am asking everyone in the room if my baby is going to be okay. Ellie's heart rate was still dropping and suddenly my nurse yells, "We've got a prolapsed cord!" then turns to me and very hurriedly says, "I'm sorry hun, this is going to hurt." Then she plunges here entire hand up, up, into that cervix that is only 3 cm wide. Ouch. She was holding Ellie's head up, off the cord to keep it from cutting off her blood supply.
At the same time she sticks her hand up you know where, she jumps on the bed with me and we are being whisked away for an emergency c-section. I am sobbing from pain, but mostly from the terrifying thought of losing my baby. Christian is jogging along side my bed, holding my hand as tight as he could. As we're rushing through the hall, I hear "Anesthesiologist to O.R. #5 STAT!" over the intercom. My heart drops as I realize he's being paged for me. As we enter the O.R., Christian is told he can come in, but he needs to change first, so he lets go of my hand. (As it turns out, Christian never did get to come in. He got all suited up but they didn't let him in due to the nature of the emergency. So the last thing he sees is his pregnant wife being wheeled into a place where he can't follow. Terrible right?)
As soon as we enter the O.R. I am lifted onto the operating table and both of my arms are strapped down. My gown is ripped off and as soon as my naked belly is exposed I feel this shockingly cold sensation as iodine (or whatever it is they use to disinfect) is dumped all over me. Not only was the iodine cold enough to make me gasp, but they had to splash it over me in such a hurry that it ran down...there..ya know, that place where the nurse still has her hand, and it stung like crazy. The room is filled with people rushing around all talking over each other in loud voices. Then the anesthesiologist quickly explains there is no time for an epidural and that they have to put me out completely. As he is placing a mask over my face, telling me to breathe deeply, I see my doctor lean over my belly and hear the nurse say, "Tell me when you're ready to cut because I still have my hand inside of her." The last thing I remember is thinking that this could be it. I could never meet my baby.
Heart wrenching right? My doctor made the cut at 9:55 am and our sweet Ellie was born at 9:59, August 1, 2013. She weighed in at 7 pounds 14 ounces and measured 20.5 inches long. After they checked her out to make sure everything was okay, they took her to Christian who was anxiously waiting. Three hours later, I was wheeled from recovery and got to meet my little girl for the first time.
I was pretty groggy from the anesthetic at first but eventually regained my senses enough to get a good look our perfect little angel. The first thing I noticed -- she's a mini Christian :) They have the exact same nose.
And take a look at those precious cheeks!
August 1st was by far the scariest day of my life. But also one of the greatest. So there you have it! The story of how Elliot Claire Carnley entered this world. She sure knows how to make an entrance :)
