Our baby girl is here! Elise’s Birth Story (G: 5 years, 4 months, 10 days old / C: 2 years, 9 months old / E: 0)

Elise Cecilia Ren Millington was born at 4:32pm on 5/3/15.  She weighed 9 lbs, was 20.5 inches long, and had a head circumference of 14 inches. 

Our family is complete and we are so in love. 

Warning!  This is a long post with all of my thoughts and memories of Elise’s birth.  If you don’t want to read about every detail of her birth, just skip to the end for some pictures, but remember these are the birth pictures, so skip even farther ahead to another post if you're looking for the really cute pictures ;)

Elise’s birth story:

I had felt anxiety about my labor and delivery for months.  Graham’s birth was so painful and traumatic, while Carter’s birth could not have been easier (except for the fact that I was told I could not have an epidural because my platelets were too low).  I was very, very worried that I would have a labor like I had with Graham, but would not be able to get an epidural, like was the case with Carter.  My pregnancy had been the most difficult this time around.  Lots of morning sickness, extreme fatigue, aches and pains, insomnia, and an umbilical hernia.  I didn’t feel like I would be physically capable of handling a difficult birth like I had with Graham.  As Elise’s due date drew closer, I had general fears about her health and my health and in the last week, I even considered inducing, just to get her out while I knew she was still alive.  But, in the end, I waited to go into labor naturally and ended up having a beautiful, successful birth with a healthy baby and mommy at the end. 

I had hoped to go into labor on May 2nd because I thought it would be fun to have our princess Millington born on the same day as the royal princess, but it was not meant to be.  From 12:30-1:30am on Sunday, May 3rd (Elise’s official due date), I started feeling regular contractions.  I was timing them and was just getting ready to wake up Nick when they stopped.  I was able to fall asleep and was woken up by a few more contractions around 3am but they didn’t start again in earnest until 5:30am.  Given how quick Carter’s birth was, I knew I wasn’t going to wait too long before going to the hospital, so I spent from 5:30 to 6:30am getting ready.  I took a shower, packed some last minute things (after procrastinating for weeks, I had finally packed the majority of my hospital bag the day before and I feel like Elise was waiting until I was ready with the packed bag to make her entrance), and continued to time the contractions.  At 6:30am I woke Nick up and called Alethea and asked her to come over.  When Alethea arrived, I ate a piece of toast and then Nick and I left for the hospital, so the boys were still asleep when we left. 

We parked and walked a block to the ER entrance.  When I had contractions during the walk, I had to stop and breathe through them, but the contractions were not so intense that I couldn’t handle them.  They felt stronger and more painful than what I had experienced with Carter, but in the back of my mind, I thought I would experience a similar birth to Carter’s.  I had been 4 centimeters at my last doctor’s appointment and I thought when I got up to the labor and delivery unit, they would check me, I would be around 8 (just like I was with Carter) and she would be born within an hour and the contractions would not get much worse than what I was already feeling so I would have an all natural (no epidural) birth. 

Well… they rushed me to labor and delivery from the ER after I told them how fast Carter had come and that this was my 3rd baby.  They booked me right into a delivery room (instead of a laboring room) and when they checked me, I was all of 5 centimeters.  What?!?!  Not at all what I was expecting to hear.  I had talked with my dad the day before about some of the technical aspects of an epidural and he had advised me that it was fine to get one, but there were enough risks to avoid getting one unless I really needed it.    

I didn’t exactly take my dad’s advice.  When I heard I was only at 5 centimeters, an overwhelming desire came over me to immediately get an epidural and just bow out of pain for this time around.  It was a difficult pregnancy, I felt old and out of shape, and I just didn't want to go through the pain of labor and delivery.  I explained my history to the nurse - that I have chronically low platelets that drop during labor and I said I wanted to get tested right away (before my platelets had a chance to drop) and immediately get an epidural if my platelets were high enough.  The nurse promised to rush my lab work and have the anesthesiologist on standby so I could get an epidural right away if I passed the blood test.  After what felt like a very long wait, my numbers came in.  To have an epidural my platelets had to be over 100 and my number came in at 101!  Hallelujah!       

The anesthesiologist came in and I told him that my epidural with Graham had turned into a spinal that only semi worked and it led to not one but two spinal headaches with blood patch fixes.  He said he couldn’t guarantee anything but the fact that I was calm would help him have a better chance of performing a successful procedure.  He performed the epidural and said he felt like everything had gone really well.  They told me I would feel pressure but not as much pain.  Well… let me tell you, I didn’t feel ANYTHING and it was wonderful.  The nurse would tell me that I was having a contraction and even though I couldn’t feel a thing, I could still move my legs and feet, so I wasn’t scared about being over medicated. 

The labor ended up being much longer than I expected.  I never stopped progressing, I just progressed slowly (and it didn’t help that the nurse kept on giving me false hope with declarations about how soon Elise would be out and then we would miss deadline after deadline), but it didn’t matter that things were slow because I was so comfortable.  I was giddy saying I could have a baby every day and I thought an epidural was the best thing that had ever been invented.

As far as a timeline goes, my best guess is that we got to the hospital around 8 and had the epidural around 9:30.  When the nurse checked me at 10:00, she said I was at 7 centimeters and so I should be ready to push around 1:00 because I should progress 1 centimeter per hour.  When she checked me at 1:00, I was around 7.75 centimeters (boo hoo).  Probably around 3:00, they broke my water (again promising I would be ready to push any second after that).  There was a little meconium in the amniotic fluid so they prepared us that after Elise was born, the doctor would quickly cut the umbilical cord and then a NICU team would be standing by in the room to immediately suction fluid out of Elise’s mouth to avoid meconium getting in her lungs.  They said their hope was that they could suction her before she started to cry.  They told us that based on how successful they were, she would either be fine or may need to spend some time in the NICU.  At 4:15ish, I was at 9.5 centimeters but they suggested a small dose of Pitocin.  It felt like moments after getting the Pitocin, the doctor came in and said it was time to deliver.

I didn’t have any urgent desire to push, but I also felt full of energy and ready to push when they told me to and the epidural did not hinder my ability to feel what I needed to feel in order to push.  In fact, my beloved epidural did not do much at all to prevent the pain of pushing, but for me, pushing pain is nothing compared to contraction pain so it wasn’t that much of a concern.  I pushed through two contractions and was able to get in four 10-count push cycles per contraction and then the doctor (Dr. Nomeland) told me to stop pushing.  With the boys, the “stop pushing” call came moments before the boys slowly slid out, so I thought the case would be the same for Elise.  No such luck.  Elise was a big baby, so the doctor had me stop pushing early and she took FOREVER to come out from that point.  This was the worst part of her birth.  I was not screaming but I was definitely yelling “ow, ow, ow!”  After an eternity, he said her head was out.  Another eternity, “one shoulder” and so on.  Now the reality is that the stop pushing part was probably closer to 10 minutes, but when she came out, I remember thinking and maybe even saying “that was so awful, that was so awful.”  It took me a day to realize that 10 minutes of pain out of an 11 hour labor was actually pretty fantastic and I had about as wonderful of a birth experience as I could have hoped for, but in the moment I was feeling fairly distressed.  Even the recover from the epidural was perfect.  I felt no numbness and had complete mobility back right after Elise was born.  The nurses kept on double checking with me because they couldn't believe I was already back to normal so quickly, but given the craziness with the epidural from Graham's birth, I feel like I earned it to have an easy time with this one.
 
The doctor used a vacuum for about 45 seconds to help guide Elise out (which left her with a big blister on her head – boo hoo) and after Elise came out, the doctor did an initial suctioning, cut her cord, and then worked on stitching up a very superficial tear while the NICU team went to work.  I remember feeling like the whole room was quiet (which it wasn’t) while I just watched Elise on the table.  At one point, they confirmed that she was in fact a girl and after a few short minutes, they told us that Elise did not have any lung distress and they put a healthy (APGAR 8, 9), pink skinned, jumbo sized, green haired (from all the meconium) baby in my arms and said we would have an hour to bond with her before they would come back to take her to the nursery to get cleaned up.

And there you have it.  She was here!

Elise and Nick went to the nursery while I got settled into the room.  After spending a little time together, Nick said goodbye and Elise and I got ready for our first night while Nick headed home to the boys and made it back just after bedtime.  The boys had woken up and went to bed with Mark and Alethea while we were welcoming Elise and the next day, they would wake up with Daddy and learn that we were now a family of five!

So, here are the pictures from Elise’s labor and delivery:   

Whiteboard goal: Welcome Baby Girl!

Checked into the hospital

Waiting to find out if I can get an epidural.

I got my epidural!

 

Getting silly.  An epidural is great!

Meanwhile, the boys were having a blast at a WWII plane exhibit at the airport.

Show time!

Absolutely incredible photo.  Half in and half out.  First breath.

It is ok to cry now baby.  All suctioning is done.

Meeting my baby girl for the first time.

First family photo.

Daddy holding Elise for the first time.

Still waiting for that first bath.

Finally getting cleaned up.

Love that full head of hair that sticks straight up every time after getting washed.

We love you sweet Elise!