Birth Stories Part 1- Elise Joyce

I have two beautiful girls and a third one due soon. It seems like everywhere I go these days, I'm meeting other expectant mommies. I don't know if there's something in the water or if I'm just more attuned to noticing other preggos. Either way, I find that we all have one thing in common. We are always curious about other mom's birth stories. For me, it's a way that I gather information and learn from other's experiences in the hopes of translating some good information into how I choose to plan my delivery.

 So, I decided to start sharing the birth stories of my little one. They are all very different and I hope that someone out there will be able to benefit from my experiences and gain some good information as they plan their own birth story.

My eldest daughter is Elise and was born on February 25th, 2005. She was, thus far, the most difficult delivery. I had a good pregnancy with her. I had no issues or complications and so I decided that I would attempt a home birth under the supervision of a midwife. My friends and family all thought I was nuts, but I knew that was what I wanted.

So, Elise's due date came and went as often happens with first pregnancies, but after some natural remedies she finally started to come around. I really began to contract consistently in the late morning on the 22nd, so I called the midwife and started to get all ready to rock. She came to my home and said I was dilated to 5 but it would probably be another day before I got into really active labor. Bummer. So I walked and waited and waited and waited a little more as my contractions slowly began to grow together.

She was right the next day in the very early morning I found that I was in full blown labor. I don't remember exactly how far apart the contractions were but they were coming fast and painful. So my midwife came over with her team and set up the birth pool in my bedroom and I began to focus as I went through labor. I thought it would all go super fast, I mean I was dilated to 6 when she arrived that day, so I thought I was almost done. BOY WAS I WRONG!

Labor went for about 15 hours and then stalled. I had gotten stuck at 6 and the fact that Elise was oddly positioned in my pelvis with her hands near her face, was not helping matters. Additionally, I kept getting in and out of the birth tub because I was desperate for relief. I think that slowed me down some as well. So we tried various positions, my midwife broke my water, and nothing seemed to be working. Fortunately, Elise was a champ. She never got distressed.

After 30 hours of not getting anywhere, I decided that it was probably time for me to get to the hospital. At this point I thought I would probably have to have a Cesarean since she was being so darn stubborn. I got to the hospital and immediately begged for an epidural. I think I even yelled at a few people about it! It's at this point that things start to get fuzzy for me. I was so exhausted that as soon as I was given an epidural I fell asleep. However, I do remember waking up periodically to vomit. They don't tell you that epidurals make you vomit but for many women they do! Since the baby wasn't in distress they decided to give me pitocin and that worked while I slept. I woke up early in the morning on the 25th to a nurse telling me it was time to get up and push. In my sleepiness, I think I tried to tell her to come back later but of course, she insisted. So they sat me up and it was time to go. I remember I only pushed a few times and she was out.

They had this mirror on the ceiling and I remember this very surreal feeling as I watched my daughter come into the world. Then things took a turn for the worse. They took my new little baby away before I could even touch her and I immediately found myself being surrounded by more nurses and doctors. I could see my OB was frantically doing something right after the placenta detached. They were all talking but I was in a haze so they sounded like charlie brown's teacher to me. the last thing I heard was "her pressure is 60/20" Then suddenly I was in darkness. It was probably the scariest moment of my life.

You see what had happened is that after my placenta detached my uterus refused to do it's job and clamp down, so I lost a lot of blood very quickly and they couldn't get the bleeding to stop. I was told later that they were ready to take me to surgery and give me a hysterectomy when the meds suddenly kicked in and I started to stabilize. The general belief is that a combination of my body being exhausted after a long labor and the epidural is what contributed to the problems.

So after I don't know how many hours I came to feeling very weak and sick. I couldn't even lift my own arms. My mom came over with Elise and held her by my head so I could meet her for the first time. She was amazingly beautiful from day one and such a big girl at 9lbs 14oz and 23 1/4in long!

I was able to hold her after a day or so as long as I was sitting down. She was definitely worth all the trouble :) It took me several months to recover from the delivery but I did recover.

At first I was kind of bitter that I didn't get to have the birth experience that I had wanted, but in the end I learned that birth is unpredictable. As much as I try to plan every detail, I know that in the the end, God is in control and He may have a different idea. He helped me get to the right place to get the care that I needed to get. Now when I look at my gorgeous little blond baby, I don't even think twice about the 40+ hours of labor. I just think of how grateful I am to be her mom.

NEXT UP........ Ariana's birth story........