Elisa Jane's Birth Story

It all started with a routine OBGYN visit. I was 39 weeks, 3 days pregnant, and after off and on prodromal labor the previous two weeks, I was hoping to hear that I looked ready to go into labor at any second. But then my dr told me that just as with AJ, I had critically low fluid levels, and the baby needed to come out. And no, I was not dilated or effaced, and my cervix was way high. In case you don't know what that means, it's not good when you were hoping for everything to be all natural. So my dr gave me my hospital admittance papers and told me I had two days before I needed to admit myself. Thank goodness.. I mean, at that point you know you're having a baby soon, but it's still scary when it comes down to it.

Sunday morning I checked myself into the hospital; they agreed that I needed to be induced immediately, and gave me the choice whether I wanted a prostaglandin tablet or a "midwives cocktail". Luckily I had read about this cocktail and knew that the active ingredient was castor oil, so that was a no go for me. Castor oil is no guarantee of anything except diarrhea, which the midwife laughed at when I pointed it out. I expected the tablet to be very effective, as with AJ I was induced via prostaglandin gel, and they gave me a 24 hour timeline for it to begin to be effective , but in 15 hours he was laying on my chest. So that night, after the medicine was administered, I showered and slept with my contacts in, fully expecting that to be the night (and who wants to start labor dirty?). However, the night came and went with nothing. 

By mid morning the next day, I started to have leg cramps, but that seemed unproductive. By the afternoon I finally started to have some contractions, but nothing noteworthy, so they took the medicine out and said they would try something else the next day. And yes, this whole time I was staying in the hospital; so much fun. So after Paolo left for the night, I washed my face, decided against a shower until the morning and went  to bed. Naturally, that's when the contractions picked up. I started timing them and thought, well I should probably head over to labor and delivery (I was staying on a different hall), just to check it out. When I stood up, my water broke, which was not nearly as dramatic as in movies. I ran over to l&d, where they started monitoring, and texted Paolo that my water broke so he should probably head back. His response- what does that mean? Seriously, men.. 

Unfortunately, all these contractions weren't very productive and I was still not dilated at all. So they sent me out to walk. We wandered all around that hospital until about 11:30 pm, when it got too painful for me. My midwife took us into the delivery room, which had exercise balls, a tub, and all that stuff. I had my heart set on a water birth but she then told me that the tub was currently out of service and the other rooms were occupied.. so there went my idea of a relaxing labor. So I bounced and paced until I was worn out. My contractions were strong, but manageable because the time in between was ok, whereas last time, the medicine dosage was too high and didn't give me a moment to recover.  But then after a couple hours, there was the heartbreaking moment when my midwife told me the cervix had moved down but still no dilation. I had had in my mind that this would be a short labor, but now it seemed impossible. 

Paolo and I were both exhausted by then. So we both sat down and worked on me just breathing and relaxing. Somehow it worked and i dilated a couple centimeters. Then my midwife told me she could do something which may help me progress. Honestly, I didn't understand what she did (my German was kaput at that point); it may have been a membrane sweep, it may have been voodoo, but it hurt like crazy. It was, however, effective. An hour and a half and three pushing contractions later, Elisa Jane (ey-LEE-sa) was born (4:09am). 

She came out so quickly the midwife actually had the nerve to tell me to wait, as a dr needed to be in the room for the birth. She was so quiet that had it not been for the searing pain, I wouldn't have known she was out. After Paolo hesitantly cut the cord, they placed her on my chest, she just looked up at me, and it felt like my heart grew three sizes. This tiny, helpless baby made those nine miserable months fade away. And thus began this new, sweet chapter in our lives. 

Ciao for now,

Kathleen