Eli’s birth story begins in the early morning hours of Thursday, June 24th. I was awakened around 3:00 am with contractions that were much stronger and longer than I’d ever had before. At first, they were happening in my sleep, but soon got too strong to sleep through. Soon, I was fully awake and looking at the clock after every contraction. They were coming about 7-9 minutes apart. I knew these were the real thing and that labor was starting. I somehow made it through the night without waking Adam. I wanted him to have one more day of studying for the bar before the birth, so I bit my lip during the contractions and stayed quiet.
By morning, the contractions weren’t coming nearly as frequently, probably only 15-20 minutes apart. After being stuck inside an office all summer, I desperately wanted to go swimming now that I was done working. My mom had come into town a few days earlier and we had planned on going swimming on Thursday. That morning, I was determined to stick to our plan even though I was in labor, so off to the pool we went. It felt awesome to be out in the sunshine and for my giant, swollen body to be floating in the water.
While we were at the pool, my cell phone somehow fell underneath my lounge chair without me realizing it and I dripped water on it for a few hours. By the time I discovered it, water had seeped underneath the screen and inside the phone. It was completely ruined! My whole contact list had disappeared, and soon, the phone just shut off. I was so upset that as I was going into labor, I didn’t even have my cell phone to be able to call people from the hospital. We went to the Verizon Wireless store to see if there was anything they could do to save it, but the damage had been done. Sad day.
By about 6:00 pm, the contractions started coming significantly closer together again. I laid on the couch writhing in pain while Adam timed them and recorded them in a notebook so that we’d know how close together they were. By about 6:45, they were very strong and coming anywhere from 5-8 minutes apart. At 9:45 pm, I called my doctor and she recommended that I “try to get some sleep” because the contractions weren’t frequent enough or consistent enough to go to the hospital yet. This made me so mad. There was no way in heck I was going to be able to sleep through them, or even in between them. They were so painful! But I did what she said and got into bed.
By 1:10 am on the 25th, the contractions were coming about 3-6 minutes apart and were very, very severe. Adam and I decided to go to the hospital because I couldn’t stand the pain any more. I was really curious to see if I was any more dilated than the 1 cm I had been at my appointment on the 23rd. I had Adam give me a priesthood blessing before we left the apartment. He was prompted to give me a blessing of comfort and to describe the special relationship that I would have with my son. It was a very special experience and gave me the strength I needed to get through the next few hours.
After some fetal monitoring and an internal exam at the hospital, it was determined that I would be admitted. I was 3 cm dilated. Hallelujah! I asked for the epidural basically as soon as they told me that I was going to be admitted. Call me a wuss, I don’t care, but after 24 hours of labor, I’d had enough. I was absolutely exhausted and desperately wanted some relief.
They moved me from triage to my labor and delivery room and hooked me up to my IV. The anesthesiologist came in at 3:30 am to give me the epidural. I was pretty nervous about getting it, but it actually didn’t hurt at all. It felt just like a little pinch and a sting. They didn’t have me lean over on Adam or the nurse for support like they do in movies and tv shows. I just sat on the table by myself with my back slightly hunched over. I was nervous about holding still enough for him to do it because I was shaking from the pain, but I did fine. The epidural started working within just a few minutes, and oh, what a miracle drug it was!!! I think my exact words were, “I feel like a new woman!” After he put it in, I only felt one more strong contraction before it started working. I was so glad that I asked for it when I did, because the whole experience became much more enjoyable after that.
The nurse also inserted a catheter since I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed to use the bathroom now that I was numb from the waist down. I did not like this little procedure at all. In fact, I thought it was a lot more miserable than the epidural. Weird, I know.
Adam fell asleep on the couch next to my hospital bed around 4:15 am, but I was too nervous and excited to sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that I was lying in the hospital, in labor, and that it would only be a matter of a few hours before I got to meet our son. I knew that I needed to sleep, but it was impossible. It didn’t help that the room was like 90 degrees and I couldn’t stop sweating. I also couldn’t get comfortable because I was worried about pulling out one of the tubes that was coming out of me.
Around 4:30 am, I started having an allergic reaction to the epidural. My whole body began to itch like crazy. I was scratching and scratching, but with no relief. I called the nurse, and she gave me a dose of Benadryl through my IV to help stop the itching. An hour later, I was still miserable, so she gave me another dose. It finally helped and I was able to fall asleep. The only problem was that I couldn’t wake up! The 2 doses of Benadryl had completely knocked me out. From that point on, I basically couldn’t wake myself up until about ½ hour before I started pushing.
The next few hours are a blur. I remember nurses and anesthesiologists coming in periodically to check on me. At one point, an anesthesiologist with similar height and build to my dad came in to check on me. In my delirious state, I really thought he was my dad and I remember feeling so glad that my dad had changed his profession from an ENT to an anesthesiologist and that he was going to be the one taking care of me. The doctor laughed when I called him dad and told me he’d be my dad for the day if I wanted him to be.
At 10:30 am, my OB, Dr. Piness finally came in to check on me. She did an internal exam and announced that I was now dilated to a 9 and that the baby had dropped ever so slightly from a -3 station to a -1 station. At this point, Adam left the hospital for a few minutes to pick up my mom from our apartment because things were starting to happen! While he was gone, another anesthesiologist came in and gave me some sort of stronger epidural because I had been complaining of feeling a lot of pressure.
This stronger medication took the pain and pressure away, but made me extremely nauseated and shaky. I was so nauseated I could barely move and I was shaking uncontrollably. At 12:30 pm, I was given some Zofran and the nausea went away, but I continued to shake until I started pushing. I have no idea why I was shaking so badly for so many hours. The nurse said it was probably just because of all of the trauma that my body was going through. She said that even though I couldn’t feel my contractions, my body was still having them and going through a lot of stress.
My contractions were extremely strong and intense, but they still weren’t as regular as my doctor would have liked, so I was given some Pitocin at 12:30 pm to help regulate them. At this point, the baby was still sitting really high and hadn’t dropped much. I started getting really nervous that he wasn’t dropping because my pelvis wasn’t wide enough and that I’d have to have a c-section.
At about 2:00 pm, Dr. Piness came in to break my water to help things progress even more. The water came out brown and she told us that the baby had passed his meconium in my uterus. This made me nervous, but she didn’t act like it was a big deal. Dr. Piness went back downstairs to her office to see patients. Things started progressing really quickly as soon as my water was broken. I was shocked when the nurse came in around 2:20 pm to check on my progress and announced that the baby had already dropped into the birth canal and that during the exam, she felt a head full of hair on our boy! I never imagined that he’d have a lot of hair! It was really exciting!
By this point, I was feeling a lot of pressure and a serious need to start pushing. My nurse Krista told me that she was going to go call Dr. Piness to come upstairs to deliver our baby and to not push until she got back. How rude! I remember it being super hard for me to just lie there and not push. She came back in about 15 minutes later and told me that I could start pushing. As ready as I had been to get the party started a few minutes before, I was overcome with nervousness when she told me that it was time now. I also remember being extremely surprised by the fact that I could start pushing without the doctor in the room. I always pictured the delivery room to be busy and full of people bustling around, but it was just me, Adam, my mom, and the nurse.
I began pushing at 2:50 pm. Adam held onto my left leg with one hand and supported my head with the other. He was given the job of being the one to count to 10 during each push. Krista held my right leg. Looking back, I really appreciate the fact that they held onto my legs and didn't just place them in cold plastic stirrups. It seemed so much more tender and personal.
I had no idea what I was doing, but Krista guided me through it. Dr. Piness came into the room after I had pushed through a few contractions. She guided me through it too and was great at helping my pushing be effective. I only had one ineffective push at the beginning, but after listening to the explanation of how it should feel, I learned quickly. I pushed through about 10 contractions, for only 25 minutes! It wasn’t painful at all, thanks to my epidural, and the whole experience was actually very empowering. I felt like I could do anything.
Everyone in the room kept cheering me on and telling me what a great job I was doing, which made me try even harder. When they told me that they could see the baby's head, I got so excited, I could hardly stand it. I wanted to meet my baby boy! They held up a hand mirror as soon as his head crowned so that I could see him. That might sound weird to some people, and I know not everyone is comfortable watching that, but I absolutely loved it. It was incredible seeing him for the first time, even if it was just the top of his head. The feeling in the room during the delivery was very calm and the spirit was incredibly strong. It was absolutely perfect.
Eli Paul was born at 3:13 pm. The moment I saw him, I recognized him. I knew him. I knew he was my son and that he belonged to me. I loved him more than words can even describe. We had an immediate connection. It’s hard for me to write about even now because my memories are associated with such tender feelings that are very dear to me. There is nothing in the world that compares to welcoming one of Heavenly Father’s children into your arms, straight from heaven, and knowing that He trusts you enough to take care of him and teach him for the rest of his life. It is incredibly humbling and powerful.
Eli was placed on my chest and I just held him and cried and laughed and smiled. Adam and I couldn’t stop staring at his perfect little features. The exact thought that went through my mind when I first saw him was “I’ve birthed my husband!” He looked EXACTLY like a tiny, purple, slimy Adam. I loved it.
Eli’s umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck when he came out, but it wasn’t wrapped very tightly and he was fine. I did end up getting a dreaded episiotomy (2nd degree) and the stitching up was actually the most miserable part of the entire birth experience. Oh yeah, that and when Dr. Piness reached up into my uterus and manually pulled out all of the blood clots while Krista pressed down on my stomach. Ouch! But the important thing was that Eli couldn’t have been healthier. His Apgar scores were 9 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minutes. He weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces, was 20 inches long, and had a big ol’ head- 13 ½ inches.
We stayed in the labor and delivery room for a few hours while I rested and ate some of the blessed cafeteria food. I was famished! Then we were transferred to the recovery room where we stayed for 48 hours before I was discharged home. We had a lot of visitors at the hospital including a surprise visit from my dad. It was a lovely few days.
And we all lived happily ever after…
