Birth Story

What a blur the past 12 weeks have been! Visitors, trips, sleep deprivation, changing schedules, and a new person to get used to as part of our family.  To be honest, this new person is still a bit of a stranger to us.  Sometimes I can't help but feel that she is only visiting and soon her REAL parents will come to pick her up and things will go back to the way they were before, just Stefan and me.  Who is this little stranger who has come to live with us?!  Her personality is so distinct that it hardly seems she was born; surely she must have arrived from somewhere else!

Evelyn's birth story is something I have debated with myself about sharing in print for the world to read, but I decided that I will leave it up to others to decide what they choose to read and what to ignore.  I know I like reading other people's birth stories, so I've decided it is only polite to share and share alike.

Evelyn was born one week past her due date.  As much as I appreciate all that Facebook has done to improve our ability to connect with people far and near, getting people involved on Facebook certainly made it feel like the whole world was holding its breath waiting for our baby to arrive--as if we weren't already!  Probably like every expectant mother, I had expectations that the baby would come early.  From 37 weeks on I was ready.  But Evelyn's due date came and went.  Everywhere I went I could feel people's eyes boring into me like I was a ticking time bomb.  I could tell they were just waiting to catch my eye so they could ask me "so when are you going to pop?!"

My parents came for a few days the weekend after my due date.  They stayed in a hotel nearby and we went to stay with them.  I swam in the pool and bounced on the exercise ball and walked on the treadmill in the fitness center since it was so hot outside.  We went here and here and had a very relaxing weekend.  Monday the 26th I had a checkup and non-stress test.  Stefan came too and we listened to her heartbeat and joked with the doctor about it being a full moon that night.  It turns out that must have done the trick.  About 11:45 that evening, just as I was going to bed I started to feel some cramps.  I tried to sleep but they were pretty consistent so I started timing them. 2 minutes, 6 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 3 minutes, 3 minutes....something like that until they had been 3 minutes apart and 1 minute long for over an hour.  So I got up, had a snack and woke up Stefan.  We left for the hospital at about 3 am.

The road was so quiet.  Riding in the car is one of my favorite memories because I had tried to imagine that part so many times.  Just me and Stefan, savoring the last bit of alone time before becoming a family of three.

My mom and sister had recently been sharing their birth experiences (including one in which my mom was standing outside the hospital trying to decide whether to go in and my brother was born ONE HOUR later!).  Their labors had all been less than 8 hours so of course I thought, "Wow, we could have our baby by breakfast!"  Not so lucky it would seem. :)

We checked in, the nurse in triage said I was 3 cm and my cervix was posterior so I probably had a long labor ahead.  7 hours later I had made no progress and was having some pretty intense back labor.  Then at noon my water broke.  I had reserved a labor tub but they told me I couldn't use it until I was 5 cm so during this time I spent a lot of time on the birthing ball, hanging on to Stefan, or in the shower.  Stefan was amazing through it all.  Finally at 3 pm my nurse said I was at 4 cm and she would start setting up my labor tub.  It took three (very loud and chatty) nurses two hours to figure out how to put the darn thing together and by this time I was about to go insane; the pain was very intense.  I got out of the shower (where I had been hiding to avoid the nurses) and finally I felt like I could lay down on the bed for a bit.  Up to this point I felt like I was having one long contraction with no rest in between.  Now when I laid down I was able to rest for a few minutes in between contractions, which felt amazing!  God really blessed me with being able to rest just went I was about to give up.  Then suddenly a new feeling: the urge to push.  I thought, "Oh my gosh!  That went by so fast!  Is it time to push already?!"  But I was still only 6 cm.

Finally they let me get in the tub, which came at just the right time--another bit of grace--because fighting off that urge to push thing was not fun.  I don't remember it being painful, just a lot of work to fight it off.  But I was excited to finally feel like I was making progress!  The tub felt amazing and since I could finally get rest between contractions, Stefan took the opportunity to feed me bites of popsicle, which was also amazing. :)

After being in the water for about an hour my nurse came to check on me.  I was 9 cm!  She stayed with me this time (she was always disappearing for hours at a time) and in about 15 min. I was at 10 cm!  For some silly reason she said thought it would probably be awhile so she called the doctor and told him not to come just yet (she said I would have to push once he got there).  While she was gone, Stefan said he thought he saw the head and called a different nurse who confirmed his suspicions.  So the doctor was called again.  45 minutes and a little oxygen later, Evelyn Elaine was born. :)

I was pretty calm up until the last few minutes at which point I was in a bit of a daze.  I remember screaming (not from the pain, but because in tae kwon do they tell you that yelling increases your effort :) I am a bona fide yellow belt after all) and then the doctor saying "Take your baby! Take your baby!" and reaching out to bring her up to my chest.  The first thing I thought was "Wow, she is so real, and she looks pretty mad about being born!" and  "Red hair?!"  She was so wonderful and such a little person; I couldn't believe she was mine.

After I held her and nursed her they took her to get cleaned and weighed.   Once all the activity was over, the rest was pure bliss.  My favorite part was when the nurse put Evelyn in my arms before being wheeled to our postpartum room--she was such a sweet and lovely little bundle.  The ride down the hallway with my new, sweet little baby was so wonderful, everyone smiled at us on the way and we smiled at them, like we all shared a delightful secret. :)

My parents were there when we got to our room and they brought me sushi, which I ate gratefully and ravenously--I was SO hungry.  It's amazing to me that the only thing they give you to eat in the hospital while in labor is high fructose corn syrup--i.e. the worst thing possible. :)  Medicine and science are not the same thing apparently.  The actual hospital food was amazing, however, and so was all the staff, which made me completely rule out home births forever. :)  It's nice to be pampered.

My sister and brother-in-law came (with their dog, Lucy) and were a lot of help in transitioning home from the hospital.  They also took some amazing pictures and video to help us remember our first few days with dear little Evelyn Elaine.



Baby Evelyn from Jeremy Mitchell on Vimeo.