I want to write down the details of baby Elna’s beautiful birth before I forget everything. It could be a long one…and quite possibly more detail than you are interested in. Feel free to skip around or not read at all.
Monday, May 30 (Memorial Day) I woke up at 5:30 a.m. thinking my water had possibly broken—a few days earlier at our birth class the same thing had happened and it was a false alarm. My midwife had told me then to walk around to make sure it wasn't a leak in my bag of waters, so Brian and I went on a walk at around 6 a.m. to make sure I wasn't leaking more. Sure enough, it was a false alarm. When we got back from the walk, between 7 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. I had a few contractions, but they were painless.
At 9:30 we left to eat breakfast at Elmer's with Brian's family. During breakfast the contractions became more frequent and slightly more intense. I would tell Brian when I was having one, but the family was pretty unaware that anything was happening because they were still not painful. We were planning on going to a movie at 12:20 with the family, so we had about an hour and a half before it started when we left Elmer’s.
We first went to Kinko's to get the baby's name artwork printed. The name we chose then ended up being different from the one we ended up with, so we ended up redoing it later. When we got home we decided it might be time to pack our bags for the hospital just in case the contractions continued-- which we kind of figured they would since they had been pretty regular for several hours. While we were packing and madly cleaning the house (just in case we wouldn't be back for a few days) I was in the nursery organizing some things when I looked out the window and saw something crazy happening-- I yelled for Brian to hurry into the room so he could also see it-- in the middle of the street right outside Elna's window was a man kneeling on the ground with two police officers pointing their guns at his head. In the meantime, two more police cars pulled up in front of our house-- one blocking our driveway. We never found out what was happening, but it sure was exciting. And we thought we were bringing our child into a nice safe neighborhood…
After packing we hurried to meet Brian's family at the movie (Pirates of the Caribbean). Sitting down I noticed that I was having contractions more often than I had realized. Brian asked me to squeeze his hand every time a contraction started and stopped and he timed them through the previews and beginning of the movie. He informed me that I was having contractions every 3 minutes. June had told me to call and come in when they were happening every 4 minutes. So, I went to call June. But first I called Mom to ask her if I really should call June since they weren't that painful. She thought I should. June happened to already be at the hospital since she was on call. We left the movie, after only seeing about 15 minutes of it (no big loss there for me-- not a huge fan of Pirates) and headed to the hospital.
We got to the hospital around 1:10 p.m. and by about 1:30 I was hooked up to a monitor to measure my contractions. The contractions were still not very painful, but they were very consistent. They still weren't sure at this point if they were going to keep me there. I was monitored for about 30 minutes by the nurse and during that time the contractions became pretty uncomfortable, but still very manageable.
June came in around 2 p.m. to check my progression. I was 3 cm dilated and 80-90 % effaced. It seemed to me that it might be a while before I was having a baby. June suggested we walk the halls to get things moving along. Brian filled out paperwork on a clipboard as we walked. They quickly became quite painful. Every time I had a contraction Brian would stop filling out paperwork and help me through it. I would wrap my arms around his neck and kind of dance/move my hips back and forth through each contraction.
By the time we got back to my room I was ready for the bathtub. I had about one painful contraction before my water broke. When my water broke it felt like something inside of me had popped-- that contraction was excruciating and from that point on my contractions went from very painful to very very very painful. Ouch. Brian hurried to get June.
Brian and June helped me out of the bath and dried me off as we walked to the bed. It was 3:15 p.m. June checked me again and I was already dilated to a 9 and ready to go. I worked through my contractions on the bed but on my hands and knees. I had hoped to be able to do a program called hypnobirthing, where you relax your body to such a point that birthing is not even painful. I kept thinking “breath the baby out,” but there was no “breathing” that baby out. I’m pretty sure I needed to take the actual class on hypnobirthing—reading the book and talking to cousins was not enough! For me there was no relaxing enough to not be in pain.
I pushed little bits from 3:30 on, but it hurt too much to keep up. June kept telling me as a way of encouragement that she could see a whole head of hair and that if I just pushed a few times she would come out. That's easy for her to say! When I really decided to push she came out in about 3 pushes. Yay for me! Brian received the baby. He was nervous that he might be a little faint from all the blood and such, but he handled it like a pro! It was 3:58 p.m. when she was born-- just a few hours after we got to the hospital. Since I was still on my hands and knees and she was still connected via umbilical cord, Brian was instructed by June to pass the baby through my legs while I was still on my hands and knees. I held the baby and turned over to my back where I could finally hold my baby girl. She was absolutely beautiful and so perfect (and a bit purple). After the umbilical cord stopped pulsing, Brian cut it. She was perfectly healthy, had so much hair, blue eyes, was 22 inches long, and weighed a whopping 10 lbs 3 oz. No wonder I couldn’t “breath” the baby out!
Mom & E
Dad & E
June & E
The first hour of her life was perfect and sweet-- just me, Brian, and Elna (who actually still had no name)-- and the nurses and midwife. I delivered the placenta, and then June stitched me a bit. After that hour we called family members announcing her birth.
Later that evening Brian's family members and the Roberts (family friends) stopped by to meet the baby. We didn't get much sleep that night. The hospital stay was nice and quiet. Other friends that stopped by were Stacy Bancroft and Bonnie Rust. Brian's mom came several times as well.
Tuesday afternoon we decided we should probably figure out what we wanted to call her for the rest of her life. We had several good ideas, and were pretty sure we wanted Elna, but had a hard time knowing for sure. Finally, once we decided on Fae as her middle name everything felt right and we knew it was the perfect name for her. She is named after both of her grandmas—two of our favorite people.
My mom flew into town Wednesday morning just a few hours before we were discharged. Barbara (middle name Fae) picked her up and they met us at the hospital. Brian and I went to a discharge class where we were told about postpartum things. When we got back we packed up and dressed Elna for her big venture into the outside world. It was so exciting to dress her up in a pretty dress, pack her in her carseat for the first time, take pictures outside the hospital and drive home.
Strapping her into her car seat.
Leaving the hospital.
And we’re home! Welcome home little lady!
