Quiet moments have been few and far between while on maternity leave, but I have spent most of those moments processing through the birth of sweet Eleanor Antoinette. I’ve experienced a wide range of emotions as I have gone over the days leading up to her birth. Happiness, frustration, peace.
I want to share Ellie’s birth story. I think it will be helpful for me to share all the events that lead up to her birth and allow me to close that chapter before I head back to work later this week.
Ellie’s birth isn’t a short story. Honestly, I’m a little jealous of the women who have perfect births without having to change everything in the middle of labor. I’m jealous because that’s what we were planning on. A smooth labor without the need of medicine or assistance. That’s not the birth story we got, no, Ellie was a little stubborn.
A little over two years ago, when we started trying to have a baby, Devin and I did lots of research on the kind of birth experience we wanted for our family. After several months we decided that when we got pregnant we would have all our prenatal care and delivery at Mountain Midwifery Center in Englewood, Colorado.
MMC was wonderful to me throughout my pregnancy. They are very “hands off” in their care, trusting that a mother’s body will naturally grow and deliver a healthy baby. Of course there are the standard tests to ensure that everything is going smoothly, but they never went searching for something to be wrong. Even with all the health issues that arose in trying to get pregnant, never was there a concern while Ellie was growing inside me. Every single appointment we got a clean bill of health. Maybe that’s why she didn’t want to come out, her world was perfect.
My due date came and went. The days continued to pass without any sign of contractions. Four days after my due date we went to MMC to check and make sure everything was still ok. Baby was still happy and healthy and I was dilated 4cm! We opted to do a membrane sweep to see if that would kick start labor. The midwife, Gina, told us it had a 50-50 chance of working within 24 hours. The hours passed and nothing happened.
Three days later (one week past my due date) we went back to MMC for an ultrasound and Fetal Non-Stress Test. We took some times to talk to the midwives, Vanessa and Chance, about the possible outcomes of the tests. We were told that there is a possibility that we would be admitted to the hospital for an emergency induction if the tests did not go well. My heart got heavy, we did not want to transfer to a hospital. An hour, and another membrane sweep, later we were sent home with gold stars! Ellie was still happy and healthy!
We continued to wait at home. I tried to keep myself busy with family and last minute preparations while balancing rest. My goal was to not tire myself out in the days before labor so that I could get the natural birth I wanted. I heard that many first time moms at MMC transfer to the hospital out of exhaustion for an epidural, and I did not want to be one of those!
The day before Thanksgiving (November 25th) and 41 weeks 3 days pregnant we returned to MMC for another Non-Stress Test. We were starting to get desperate and conveyed that to the midwife, Rachael. We knew that if we still had no baby by the time I hit 42 weeks we would automatically be transferred to the hospital of our choice for an induction. We chose to try some more “powerful” induction methods to see if anything would kick start labor. I was still dilated 4cm so we had a foley balloon put in to see if that would help. Rachael also sent us home with Cotton Root Bark and Castor Oil. The midwife instructed us to start with the Cotton Root Bark tincture and if combined with the balloon did not start labor to do one round of Castor Oil the following day. She assured us that Castor Oil always does the trick in getting labor started, even if the side effects are nasty.
The balloon did help for a few hours as I started getting contractions, but they waned a couple hours after we got home. Thanksgiving day was spent on the couch watching football and Christmas movies. I was ridiculously uncomfortable and had Devin help me remove the balloon as soon as I hit the 24 hour mark. That afternoon I started my first round of Castor Oil and prepared emotionally to have a Thanksgiving baby.
Still nothing.
The following morning I was emotional and discouraged that NOTHING seemed to be working to get our little girl to come out. I was 2 days away from having to be induced in a hospital and I was a mess. I called the midwives and they gave us the choice to come in and talk and check to see if I had progressed at all. It was Black Friday and Devin was scheduled to work both of his jobs all weekend. By the Grace of God his employers were understanding and allowed him to stay home with me. We headed to MMC around 1:00pm and met the on-call midwife, Tiffiny. She was surprised to hear that the Castor Oil didn’t appear to work. We talked about our options and decided that it would be best for Tiffiny to pre-register us at Denver Health for an induction on Sunday, November 29th. We had one more membrane sweep done and were instructed to do another round of Cotton Root Bark and Castor Oil, just for the hell of it.
We arrived back home around 2:30pm and I settled on the couch with a snack and the movie Elf. About thirty minutes later I started feeling minor contractions. Nothing major, but they did allow me to nap in between. Which is great because I was going to need all my energy!
The Santa Clause was up next and as soon as the movie began there was a change in my contractions. Becoming stronger and demanding more of my attention, Devin started “nesting” to get the house ready for us to leave. From shoveling the sidewalk (because it had started snowing , of course!) to doing all the dishes. He started timing my contractions around 8:45pm, knowing we couldn’t go to the Birth Center until contractions were 3 minutes apart, one minute long, for at least an hour. About twenty minutes in to timing and there was already the 3-1-1 pattern we needed. We called our Doula, Sarah, to update her and allow her to hear my have a couple contractions. He then called Tiffiny to let her know that we would be coming in tonight and would let her know when we were on our way.
With contractions being so strong and regular from the start everyone was confident that Ellie would arrive that night! Devin packed up the car with our bags and we left for the Birth Center around 9:45pm Friday, November 27th.
Little did we know what would take place in the next 24 hours...
No comments:
Post a Comment