ELiya's Birth Story

This pregnancy had been so much different than my first, I
should have suspected the birth would be a whole new experience as well! I had
been off work for several months due to a shortened cervix and cramping. At my
34 week appointment I started to have
some concerns with my blood pressure, since I had been induced due to this with
my son my OB decided to start monitoring me weekly.

At 35 weeks my OB was away, I saw his partner who decided to
do the GBS swab early since my pressures were still elevated and she felt I
would be induced once I got to 36/37 weeks. Later that week at 34 weeks 6 days
I started having cramping and contractions, as well as some frequent bathroom
trips. This persisted for two hours and then subsided. Over the next week my
blood pressure remained a concern and I had frequent lower cramps and back
ache, as well as bathroom visits. I mentioned to Les and my mom that I thought
I was having symptoms of pre labour but I believed it would go on and off like
that for weeks. I wasn’t very uncomfortable, and I was enjoying the last few
weeks of my pregnancy.

On Wednesday March 21st I was sore and swollen.
My blood pressure was slightly elevated. But I wasn’t having any cramps etc. I
took a bath and mentioned to my sister that I thought I would have the baby in
a week or two and I would be induced. I saw my OB on Friday and I knew he
wouldn’t like my blood pressure. I told her I was a little sad that with a 2nd
induction I would never get to experience that “should we go? Am I in labour
moment?” I guess the baby heard me….

I went to bed at 11pm to find Logan had made his way to our
bed. I snuggled in next to him. We planned on spending the next day at a local
family fun center I was really looking forward to enjoying some time with L.
When Les got home I showed him that the baby had the hiccups and you could see
the little bum pop up with each one, I even got this on video. Les moved Logan
to his bed and we went to sleep around 12:30. I actually fell asleep quickly!

At 3:45 I woke up in a startle with a full bladder and
feeling wet. I ran to the bathroom and sat on the toilet in the dark. I
couldn’t believe how much I was peeing. I just kept thinking I can’t believe I peed myself.

Then I noticed my pajamas, underwear, legs and tummy were wet.

Very wet. I was confused to saythe least.

I knew I had just peed because I felt relief but there was A LOT of
fluid there. I made my way back to bed after cleaning myself up and realized
the floor and bed were wet as well. I put on clean underwear and they were wet
by the time I got to bed. I started to think maybe it was my water, but I was
only 35.6 weeks!

I woke up Les and said “I either just peed myself or my water
broke”. His response, “you probably peed go back to sleep”. I wasn’t
uncomfortable at all so I laid down. I texted a friend to get her opinion and I
started googling how to know if your water broke. Even as I was doing this I
thought it was ridiculous. I’m an L&D nurse how do I not know if I’m in labour!?
I had put on clean underwear (again) and a pad. I laid in bed until 4:50 and I
planned on getting up and seeing if there was more fluid, during this time I
started to have mild cramping about every 8-10 minutes. When I got up sure
enough the pad was SOAKED. I woke up Les and showed him the pad. He agreed it
didn’t seem like pee, I called my mom and told her I thought my water broke. I
was having some mild cramping but decided I needed to shower. I’m so happy I
did! I got in the shower while Les started gathering our things. While I was in
the shower I continued to leak and have cramps, I started to believe this may
really be it, I was in shock. After my shower I blow dried and straightened my
hair, and I tweezed my eyebrows! I can’t
believe I did that but I just kept thinking if it was the real thing I
wanted to look OK in photos. We loaded up the van and I carried a sleeping
Logan out. He woke up and was in a wonderful mood!

We dropped him off to my mom about 6am.

I got to the hospital around 6:15am and went straight up to
triage. I was still anxious about being sent home for peeing! My colleagues
were wonderful to me. They quickly got me on a monitor and I realized while I
was cramping regularly they weren’t picking up on the monitor. An amnicator
came back positive indicating I did indeed break my waters. They checked me and
I was 2-3cm but HIGH and posterior. I was admitted and waited until shortly
after 7am, shift change to go down to the high risk unit.

I was early and my blood pressure was quite high (135/103).

After being admitted and discussing my birth “plan”

(whichwas to get the baby out and try to avoid pain, LOL)

we decided that we would start oxytocin as I was feeling
cramps but they were not registering on the monitor or very painful. At 8:10am
the Dr came in the room (not mine the on call OB would be overseeing my car) to
discuss the plan and labs were drawn for routine and PIH blood work. Once all
the labs came back good we went forward and started oxytocin at 9:07am.

The cramps quickly got more intense
and were coming every 3-5 minutes, they STILL weren’t picking up on the monitor
but I could certainly feel them!

At 9:40am I asked for the epidural and the
anesthetist came quickly.
With my first delivery the epidural did not work well for
this reason the doctor did a combination spinal/epidural. Following that I had
a slight drop in blood pressure that left me feeling drowsy and slightly
nauseated. However it passed quickly. I was very comfortable and spent the next
hour and a half resting and texting my friends and family.

At 11:30 the baby’s heartrate started having some
decelerations, I was consciously not looking at the monitor but could hear it.
My nurse checked me at this time and I was STILL 2-3cm however my cervix had
thinned and come forward, none the less I was a big discouraged.

The baby’s heartrate continued to drop with each contraction and wasn’t having as many accelerations in between as we like to see.

The doctor came in and placed both an intrauterine pressure catheter
(to measure the contractions from the inside since they were still not picking
up well on the outside) and a fetal scalp clip to measure the baby’s heartrate
more accurately. At this point I was still2-3cm,

and the oxytocin was running at half of the maximum dose.

The OB on call mentioned needing to consider a
c-section if I continued to not progress (no change at all in 5 hrs since
admission or 8 hrs since my water broke) or if the baby didn’t tolerate labour.
This left me in tears.

Around noon I called my mom quite upset and she tried to
calm me. Les was started to get scared at this point because I was scared.
After these procedures I mentioned to the nurse that while I
wasn’t feeling my contractions and I was comfortable I felt A LOT more of the
exam then I expected to. Shortly after I started to feel pain in my perineum
and then I began to feel the contractions but only on the right side.

At 12:20 I got a top up through my epidural in attempt to help with the discomfort I was
having. I had NO relief from the top up, and while the right side remained in
pain, the left side became even more numb. We suspected the catheter was in too
far and called the anesthetist to come and assess, he was in the room at 12:40
and adjusted the catheter. They gave me a second top up at this time. At 12:55
I continued to have no relief and was breathing thru each contraction. I felt
no pressure just discomfort. The nurse decided to check me,

and I was shocked to hear her say I was 6-7cm! I asked Les
to call my mom and let her know I was OK and had some progress, that a vaginal
delivery was likely. While Les was still on the phone to her the OB came in and
assessed me, I was 9cm at 1pm! Since Les was still on the phone we told my mom
and sister to make their way up to the hospital with Logan. This was not our
original plan and unfortunately Les’ parents were working, however I didn’t
plan on having my baby early either!

I remained very uncomfortable but was coping well by
breathing thru contractions. I knew that things were moving quickly and that
helped me to mentally deal with it as well. At 1:13pm the nurse checked me
again and I was fully dilated, she said the baby was “low” as well. I felt no
pressure, or urge to push just contractions and pain. I didn’t want to push for
too long so we waited.

Not long after the nurse decided I should at least try
to push and see if it provided relief. She set me up to push at 1:25pm and had
me do a trial push. She quickly told me to NOT push and asked for assistance
and the doctor, she said the baby was right there! Once the doctor was there at
1:30pm I pushed thru 2 contractions and at 1:33 after just 3 minutes I heard
Lester say “Oh my Gosh it’s a little Logan!” I thought this meant it was a boy
however, then the doctor said “OK dad what do we have here?” and Les looked
down and said “Oh my God we have a girl!!”

I just started bawling at that point!

Eliya Deborah Joy weighed 5 lbs 12 oz and was 18.5” long.
Les cut the umbilical cord as he did with Logan but they couldn’t put her up on
my chest immediately because the cord was so short. After she was checked out
by the NICU and given APGARS of 9 & 9 I was able to spend some time doing
skin to skin and nursing her. She latched immediately. Les brought Logan in
alone at first and we introduced him to the sister he had predicted all along,
this is when Les bawled! Then my mom and sister came in to meet our girl,
everyone was pretty surprised that it was a she!

I had no tears at all and did not require any stitches.

My recovery was wonderful, I felt greatimmediately.

Eliya had to spend 5 days in the NICU for low sugars and jaundice
by day 2 she was being exclusively breastfed and by day 4 she was gaining weight!
She surprised me in more ways than one,
but I couldn’t have asked for a better experience (except perhaps a working
epidural but at least it was fast!)

This is the first time she wore clothes! I bathed her and dressed her
My awesome mama put together these thank you's for the nurses.
THey are pumped soaps wrapped in pink tissue (we had soem left from my sister's shower
so it was pretty convenient!) but mama added a tag and it was nice to have
something to give for all the awesome care we received

SHe also based these pink and yellow Ducky cookies and decorated this basket.
I was able to give everyone who cared for me or visited a Ducky Cookie!