Well, this little corner of the internet hasn't seen much activity in the last... oh, seven months. I really meant to write at least a post or two. As a matter of fact, there are several draft posts saved on my account that never got past the opening paragraph. I think I have a few good excuses for the neglect, though!
Knowing that I have family members that live at a distance but want next-door-neighbor details, I knew this blog had to come out of hiding and do its job. Without further ado, the story of Eli's birth.
On Monday, October 17th, I had an appointment with my midwife. I was 5 days overdue and Derrin and I were both getting pretty antsy to get Eli movin' on out and into the world. The midwife, Nannette, offered to check to see if I was making any progress. Surprise, surprise--two centimeters dilated, and Eli's head was super low in my pelvis. Nannette said we would probably have a baby in the next couple of days. She swept my membranes to help get things moving.
By the time we got home I was feeling crampy. Derrin went to work and Sierra and I went shopping. We picked up some herbs Nannette recommended and some crickets for the lizard so he wouldn't starve if we had the baby and couldn't go out and get them. We got home about 5:30, I showered, we ate dinner, and I took a walk around the block. By 7:30 I was having some very crampy contractions and I thought this could be the beginning of something for real. I debated texting Derrin at work and letting him know, but thought it wasn't serious enough for him to come home and I didn't want him all worried and excited and preoccupied at work.
I actually found myself displaying some very animalistic behavior. I was closed up in my room, I didn't want to talk to anyone or be around anyone. Mom asked me if I was okay a few times and I just brushed her off. Looking back on it I can see I was behaving like most animal mothers who seclude themselves and hide away till their baby is born. I just thought I was cranky. I started trying to time contractions, but found that they were pretty irregular. I'd have a few that were 2-3 minutes apart, then some that were 6 and 7 minutes apart. I convinced myself this wasn't regular enough to count yet.
Derrin got home about ten. I told him I'd been having "some uncomfy contractions"... and he was shocked when I had three within the first ten minutes I was home. I insisted I didn't need to call Nannette. I could still walk (sort of) and talk (kind of) through the contractions. Finally, he convinced me to call her. She told me to drink some hot tea, get some rest, and call her again if the contractions were consistently less than 5 minutes apart for 2 hours. We tried to go to bed, but there was no way I could sleep through the contractions at this point, which were way beyond uncomfortable. He started timing contractions. Two were 6 minutes long and a minute and a half long. Then three in a row that were a minute and a half apart, but only 30-40 seconds long. I was so frustrated I ended up in tears. I thought the inconsistency meant they weren't the real thing. Derrin finally stopped timing them so I would stop crying.
Derrin dozed off for a few minutes and woke to me moaning through the contractions pretty intensely. He asked if I should call Nannette and all I could say was "I don't know, I don't know." He suggested I get in the shower. What an amazing idea. It felt so good and the pain was so much milder under the hot water. But after a while I got all cramped up from sitting in the little tub, so I got out. The contractions hit twice as hard. Derrin told me to wait so he could walk down the stairs in front of me--I ignored him and took off as fast as I could. All I knew was the faster I got back to the bedroom the less likely I was to have a contraction on the stairs.
Once we got back to the room, I was hollering pretty good through the contractions. Derrin was becoming more and more insistent that I call Nannette, and I still really didn't want to, so I told him to wake my mom and ask her. He went and got her, and she walked into the room, heard my noises, and said, "Uh, yeah... call her now." He called her while Mom started rubbing my back through contractions. It was about 2 AM, and I was probably in transition or very close to it at that point. I was nauseous and I got sick right after Mom came in.
It was about 3 AM when the first birth assistant, Amy, showed up. I didn't know she was there until she had her hands on my back. I was still on my hands and knees, and she recognized how much tension I was building up in my arms and legs from bracing myself against the pain. She suggested I lay on my side. I didn't think I could move, but once I did, it helped so much. She started rubbing and pressing on my hips, which helped to open up my pelvis and felt so good. Everyone in the room heard me sigh in relief. I have no idea what I would have done without this amazing woman. She was so wonderful. During every contraction, she reminded me to keep my noises low instead of high-pitched, to breathe deep, and to relax. If I tensed a certain muscle she squeezed it and told me to relax it so that I could feel exactly where the tension was and relax it. She had Mom rubbing my feet because I kept tightening them up and kicking them with the pain.
Nannette arrived about ten minutes after Amy, and just in time! Right after she got there, my water broke, and she said I was fully dilated and could push anytime. They got me onto me knees with my head on Derrin's shoulder even though I kept saying I couldn't move, and that was all it took. It might have been as many as three more contractions, and whoosh! Out came Eli, head and body all in one push. Amy told me to reach down and take him. I couldn't find him for a second when I reached for him. Turns out that he had his hand up by his head, and the cord wrapped around him a couple times, pinning his arm to his head. Nannette had to take an extra moment to untangle him. Then they put him in my arms, and I leaned back against Derrin. Eli started crying after a minute. He never got very loud, just cried enough to let us know he was okay.
He was latched on and nursing within twenty minutes. When I got up to go to the bathroom Nannette did her exam on him, including his weight and length. He's a tall boy, although a couple of his 22 inches were his big alien head that has shrunk down since (he came in at 20.5 inches at the pediatrician on day 2).
Derrin was awesome. He got me through it all by himself for all but the last hour and a half. And he's learned that the next time we do this he shouldn't listen when I insist he doesn't need to call the midwife!
Hopefully I'll be good about posting updates with all the new Eli stuff--and Grayce, I hope this was enough detail for you!
