Elliott's birth

The last time I blogged about the loooooong progression leading up to Elliott's birth was the post called Major Development.  It was all about the amniocentesis the night before he was born.  If you care to, you can review it here.

I barely slept at all that Thursday night.  I finally turned off the lights at 2 am and probably fell asleep between 3 and 4.  Then I was up at 7, ate breakfast, showered and got ready.  My mom, Michael and Spencer came to see me in the morning. 

I had the misfortune that day of having the only nurse I didn't really like.  I didn't not like her, I just didn't like her as much as I liked all the rest of my nurses.  She was there the day I came in to triage and was the first nurse to check me, so I think I had a bad, stressful association with her. 

We expected the results of the amnio around noon.  At 11:30 I asked the charge nurse to come in, something I had never done.  First I asked if the results were in yet.  She called the lab and found out that the lab hadn't even sent the fluid to the other hospital until 8 am.  It was doubtful the results would be in before about 3 or 4.  Then I asked her if she could get me a new nurse if I were to deliver that day.  I explained that I didn't have a problem with my nurse, I just had a bad association and didn't want her helping with the delivery.  The charge nurse was very cool about the whole thing and promised to be discrete in changing nurses.

My mom, Spencer and Michael left around noon.  Spencer had school and Michael was going to drop him off, then mail our Christmas cards. After they left I decided I was going to watch a movie while eating lunch and try to relax a little bit.  I got less than 30 minutes into Morning Glory when my new nurse (one of my two favorite nurses) Allison came in and announced that the results of the amnio were in: lungs were mature and there was no sign of infection. 

The plan was to start me on pitocin to really get my contractions going. The doctor didn't want to break my water until they got a good labor started. That meant I needed another new IV. I called Michael like 40 minutes after he had left and he came screeching back to the hospital.

We took these pictures to commemorate the last moments of my ever being pregnant.

Then we had to wait for the anesthesiologist to come in and get my IV started. He started that at about 2:00 and right after that they started the pitocin at a drip of "2" (whatever that means). I think I'm the only woman ever to get magnesium and terbutaline to stop labor and then 12 days later be given pitocin to induce labor.

At about 2:40 the pitocin was increased to a "4" and at 3:20 it was increased to a "6". My mom had been hanging out in the room with us and at 3:45 I told her she should probably get going. A friend was picking Spencer up from school and taking him to the park with her kids after school, but was dropping him off at about 4:15. My mom ignored me and proceeded to take a nap in the room. At 4:00 I had a sense that something was about to happen. I woke my mom up and with no uncertainty in my voice told her that she needed to stand up and walk out the door right now. By 4:02 she was gone and I really started feeling the contractions.

Then the pitocin was turned up to an "8". By 4:10 my contractions were starting to be completely out of control. They were coming in gigantic waves without much of a break in between. They were definitely a 10 on the pain scale. At about 4:13 Allison checked me and said that I was still at 8 cm. At 4:15 I started a contraction and it literally did not stop for 15 minutes. Right when the 15 minute contraction started I told Michael and Allison that I couldn't do this and I wanted an epidural afterall.  Then I begged her to turn the pitocin back to a "6" which she said she couldn't do, but then did for me. That was the last thing I said and then I started screaming and screamed for 15 minutes straight.

At 4:25 Allison checked me again and I was dilated to 10. At that exact moment the people came in to do the epidural, but obviously that wasn't going to happen so she had them leave. Then she asked if I wanted to push. Well, at that point I didn't have much of a choice because my body was pushing without me even being in control of it. It was a crushing pain like I can't even describe.

In the meantime, the doctor that was supposed to deliver me was in the OR doing a C-section, so the rest of the staff was running around trying to find another doctor and getting the whole team from the NICU assembled.

At 4:29 (and yes, despite the horrendous pain I was in, I was keenly aware of the time throughout the entire process, because something about looking at the clock and being aware of how long it had been made me feel just the slightest like I was in control) I was laying on my right side, gripping the side rails with both my hands and screaming as loud as I ever have screamed in my life when a very gentle voice got right up in my face and said, "Natalie. You have to stop screaming right now. Your baby is not getting enough oxygen. So you need to breathe for me. Now."  The doctor had arrived.

The team somehow got me rolled back onto my back and then had me start pushing.  It was about 4:32.  I gave one really good push and felt immediate relief.  I was positive that I had just pushed Elliott out.  Then they informed me that I had pushed out the amniotic sac intact.  It was whole.  Unbroken.  How is that even possible?

So, I was terribly disppointed because I truly felt like I had already had him.  They checked me and said that Elliott was still pretty high and I was going have to work hard to bring him down.  So I gave one really good push to the count of 10 and then they stopped me and made me breath.  Then I gave one tiny push to the count of about .5 and his whole body came flying out at 4:35 pm.

I don't know what they look for to see if a baby needs to be whisked away, but whatever it is they didn't see it.  They put him immediately on my chest and I got to hold him for about a minute before they took him to be checked out.  The neonatologist who I had been working with for 2 weeks came in, checked out Elliott and then came to talk to us.  He said he was officially removing himself from our care and Elliott would be under the care of the regular nursery.  He thanked me for making his job so much easier.  It was nice to hear.

Elliott's apgar scores were 9 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minutes.  When they weighed him I thought I misunderstood and made them say his weight like 4 times before it really sunk in that my almost 5 week early baby was 6 pounds 13 ounces.

This is Elliott's 1st ever picture.  He's about 10 minutes old.

Michael was a trooper through the whole thing, although there is very little you can do when your wife is in that much pain.  It's not like holding my hand or reminding me to breathe was going to make me feel better.

I was able to nurse within the first 20 minutes and Elliott did great.  Latched right on and stayed on for a good 15 minutes.  They had to give him a little bit of formula to get his glucose level up, but once it was up it stayed up.

Then he was able to get his first bath.

That's Allison bathing him.  Love her.

My parents came back to the hospital when Elliott was nursing for the first time.  Then Spencer and Michael's parents came at about 7 that night.

Spencer was pretty thrilled to meet his little brother finally.

Later that night after everyone left and Michael and I were finally alone with our baby, we took the first monthly picture.

Birth Day

And that's the story.

It is now apparent that I suck at the end of pregnancy.  For whatever reason I just can't seem to stay pregnant till full term despite having none of the risk factors or any other complications.  One of my doctors told me that if we were to have another baby I would be considered a high risk pregnancy from the very beginning.  I would have to be seen by a high risk doctor the entire time, they would sew my cervix shut at about 14 weeks and put me on automatic bed rest at 30 weeks.  We were 99.9% certain that we were done with kids, but now we are 100% certain. 

Our family feels very happy and very complete.