And... FINALLY, the Birth Story!

Baby's Name:Eliana Rose
Due Date:March 15th
Birth Date:March 27th
Gestational Age:41 Weeks 5 Days
Weight:7 lbs. 4 oz.
Length:21 1/2 inches
Story:

I had labor/contractions several times over the last week or so (it's all a blur now, at one point it was 28 hours) only to have it stop. I dilated to 4-5 cm's and wouldn't progress anymore so my contractions would stop. Then on March 26th I took castor oil! The idea was to keep labor going to get me to dilate. At 10:30pm I had my first BM... no big deal. Shortly after I my contractions lightly started. I went to bed until 2:20am and got up to have another BM (again, no big deal). My contractions were 2-3 mins. apart, but VERY mild. When I showered they started picking up intensity so DH called the MW to come and she was there at 3am. My contractions were good solid contractions like what I'd been experiencing leading up to this so I felt pretty confident that we were finally going to get a baby out of this! I got in the birthing pool... a delight I must say! It took the pressure off of everything and made my contractions enormously easier. Plus the water just plain felt great! I had my candles lit, food in my tummy, meditation music playing, husband massaging, aromatherapy, and was in my total zone. Then... starting at 4am my cervix wouldn't open despite my contractions getting harder. The contractions did exactly what they were supposed to and got harder and harder, but because my cervix wouldn't open every time I would contract her head would push down on my cervix feeling like I was tearing apart because it wouldn't budge. Eliana kept stretching her legs out pushing herself out with every contraction making it excruciating. By 5am I was screaming at the top of my lungs with every contraction. By 6:30am my MW checked me again... no progress. Contractions got even harder, but nothing so she stretched me again. Then I went upstairs after hours of no sleep/no progress, hoping and praying for 5 minutes of sleep. My husband was on his knees next to the bed putting pressure on my back and massaging me... THANK GOD! It was the ONLY relief I had had that point. He pushed and rubbed for an hour giving me mini-snoozes between my contractions 1-2 minutes apart(still screaming). He fell asleep 2 times and each time it sent my body into contractions again... so I slapped his arms! Poor guy! He was such an AMAZING support for the whole thing. After the last slap, I went downstairs and told the midwife she needed to break my water because I was done. DH said he wanted to take me to the hospital because it was too hard for him to see me in so much pain. My MW said to wait and see what happened in the next few minutes first... at which point I cried. I just had it in my mind that my body was refusing to give me the birth I dreamed of. She then checked me and I was at 8cm's! FINALLY!!! So, she broke my water and after 45 minutes of pushing (and MW reaching in to pull my cervix aside), Eliana SHOT out across the birthing pool! Lol! My stinking cervix being the ONLY thing holding us up. I hadn't ever had a delivery without Cervidal so my cervix had no idea how to dilate. Once she made it past my cervix, she was out in like 20 seconds. One good push and that was all she wrote. My baby was on my chest! DH was crying, I kept saying, "Oh, my baby!!!" It was AMAZING!!! THIS was the moment that made it all worth it. She had the cord wrapped around her neck 3 times, but had her eyes open right away. We unwrapped the cord and within seconds she was crying and moving around. We just kind of hung out in the pool while the MW and DH got the cord blood and I delivered the placenta, then DH cut the cord, then Eliana and I walked to the bathroom and took a bath to get all of the icky stuff off. I was up and moving around... I felt GREAT! Just REALLY tired. The MW checked her out, apgar, weight, physical, etc. and then she took my blood. My mom came over right away and was crying tears of joy and a few hours later my boys came home from school and met their little sister. It was pure joy! They were beyond happy and just couldn't get enough of her. They kept saying, "Awe, she's so cute! I can't believe our baby sister is here!" Melt my heart! Then after my boys left to go to grandma's, we went to sleep.

Our first night was typical... up every 3ish hours for feeding. I love every second of it! She is breastfeeding very well. We are getting past the left breast being a chew toy, but all in all she's doing fantastic! I'm so in love with her!! We all just wanted her so much! She has been long awaited and now our family is complete!

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Eliana and Daddy