evelyn's birth story

{First of all, THANK YOU so much for all your prayers and sweet comments from the post before E was born. It was a strength to read those during labor and feel so much love from all of you.}

It all started at 6:45 on October 8th. My phone rang. We were not expecting a call quite that early. We were the 3rd induction on the list for that day, so we thought we would get a chance to sleep in one last time. We had stayed up the night before until 1:30, doing some last minute cleaning, setting up the pack n' play, packing, and gearing up for the baby. The nurse on the phone said, "So, are you ready to come have your baby?" It sounded so silly. Like I was going in for a dentist appointment or something. We showered and got ready. This was it. It was surreal.

We got to the hospital at 8:00 am.

By 8:30, I was sporting the hot hospital gown and ready to go. I was a 2.5. I really, really wanted to avoid Pitocin, so I tried some natural labor-inducing techniques. We walked a ton, doing too many laps around the L&D ward to count. It seemed to work. I progressed to a 3.5.

At 12:18 pm, I decided to have them break my water to pick things up. There was more walking, bouncing on the birthing ball, relaxing, etc.

Sidenote, we were in the same room we had Blake in. Cool huh? (Or maybe that was the reason things were taking a while. Last time we were in that room for 18 hours.)

By 4:40, I was still only at a 5. We had a few decisions to make. My water was already broke, so we knew we were having this baby one way or the other. I could have kept waiting it out, (but after remembering that even after going into labor on my own with Blake, I still had to get Pitocin eventually because I just wasn't making any progress.) we decided to have them start it really low. I didn't want to wait another 6 hours to eventually get Pitocin anyway. "Bring it on," I said. I'm getting too anxious to meet this baby.

And boy did the Pit start working. Ouch. Contractions came on much more intense and faster. I got into my hypno-birthing techniques. We blasted the "Rainbow Relaxation" through the room. I got into my groove. I held onto Brandon's hand. He gave me a massage. I took deep breaths. I was feeling good. Well, not good, but good enough to hold off on the epidural.

But by 5:50, they were so strong and hard (one of the reasons I didn't want Pit). I was having a hard time staying relaxed and not being relaxed means not being able to dialate.

As Brandon was holding my hand and trying to breathe through them, I said, "Babe, I'm getting the epidural." This was never my ideal birthing situation to begin with and although I had been preparing to go natural due to low platelets, I felt like being induced made my desire for an epidural 100 fold.  And you know what, I didn't care one bit. The actual process of getting the epidural freaks me out, but I knew that it would be worth it to help me relax and help me progress.

6:23 the magic numbing happened. I still felt a lot of pressure, but I was only at a 6.

By 7:40 pm, I was feeling so much pressure. "Brandon, go get the nurse." I felt the need to push. The nurse checked me and I was at a 10. Wow. That happened fast.

I started pushing at 8:00, and by 8:37 pm, our sweet baby was born.

I remember the midwife holding the baby upright. I looked, saw that it was a girl and then Brandon confirmed that sweet fact. What? A girl? We were most certain it was a boy. (The ultrasound tech had slipped and said it was a boy way back at 20 weeks. Or at least we thought she had slipped. Apparently, we were wrong.)

I was anxious to get that sweet babe in my arms, and we had planned to do immediate skin-to-skin and have Brandon cut the cord. The next thing I know, the midwife quickly cut the cord. It had been around the her neck and her face was blue. What happened next was all a blur. A nurse immediately took her away from the midwife to the warming table. I looked up saw doctors and nurses filling up our room and they speedily started working on our baby girl.

That blissful moment rapidly turned into a heart-racing one. I looked at the nurse and midwife and said, "What's wrong?" They couldn't give me an answer.  I kept asking, "Is she going to be okay?" They didn't even know. Meanwhile, I just stared at Brandon who was trying to get some clarification on the situation.

Apparently what had happened is with the last push, it tightened the cord around her neck. She turned blue, stopped breathing and they couldn't locate a heartbeat on the monitor. One of the nurses pushed the "Code Blue" button and that's what triggered all the extra help.

After 5 minutes, the feeling in the room started to shift. The extra doctors and nurses began leaving and we began to feel peace enter the room again. We finally heard a cry, the most welcome sound of the entire day.

A few respiratory nurses continued to work on her and I just kept longing from the bed to hold my baby girl. I'll never forget watching Brandon look at his baby girl for the first time. I could see in his eyes the immediate love and desire to protect and care for her.

^^^ah just look at her holding her hand. melts my heart^^^

She was a healthy girl, 20 inches long and weighing 1 more ounce than her brother but looking almost identical to him.



They had a few more checks to do to ensure she didn't need a trip to the NICU.

And then I finally got to hold her! I fell in love with luscious dark hair, her eyes, and squishy lips. 

We were so grateful she was here safe, despite that little scare. To have this moment together was nothing short of a miracle. Here were the miracles:

-Everything was okay with me. They tested my platelets when I first checked in and they were at 106, 10 higher than the day before. Epidural was an option. Hooray! Because the last thing I wanted was to be induced without an epidural. 

-I had very minimal bleeding (which was not the case last time) and didn't tear at all. No transfusion. No serious complications. 

-I was 95% sure I was going to do a water birth at the hospital if I needed to do it natural. I prayed to know if that was the right way to go. Well, after contemplating and everything switching up on us with my platelets and being induced, I decided that I wouldn't go down that route. With what happened after she was born, it was a huge blessing I didn't deliver her in the water. And maybe that was partly why I had the platelet issue so that I would avoid the water birth. 

We were now a family of 4, all because of our perfect little baby girl.