Elizabeth's Birth Story

On March 30, I walked 10 miles. The riverwalk here is a 2 mile round trip, so late that morning Vershal and I walked it twice, then came home for lunch. Later that night, Calley and I walked it twice more, then went home and ate supper. After that we walked it once more. 10 miles was my goal because that's what I did with Micah. It was so hard and I was tired. I was having some contractions when I went to bed that night, but nothing I couldn't sleep through. I was having one ever time I woke up to pee. The last time I woke up was at about 3:45. I laid in bed until about 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up. I got in the bath to have something to do, but Micah woke up about that time and wanted in. I made him go lay down in bed with Vershal and I got out and got in the bed with them. When Micah went to sleep, I got back up and started watching Iron Man, from the part where I fell asleep the night before. At some point I asked Vershal to get up with me to put pressure on my back when I was having a contraction. Micah got up pretty soon after the movie went off and just wanted to crawl all over me. I guess he could tell something was up. He just wanted to sit in my lap and cry... and he still really wanted to get in the bathtub with me. So we took a bath. And we called Mom and asked her to come get Micah. I was still in the tub when she came and got him. I stayed there for a while, and then got out for a while. Then got back in. The whole time I was thinking "Is this the intense pain that sends people to the hospital for an epidural?" I just kept thinking this is not bad enough to make me want to go to the hospital. It hurt, but I could handle it. At one point, I thought if it got any much worse I wouldn't be able to handle it and I got back in the tub and the contractions slowed down to about 6 minutes apart. I was able to sleep between them and get some much needed rest. Jackie and Jenny showed up a few minutes later and I woke up good. I even felt really good between contractions for a few minutes and wanted to talk. Calley came a few minutes after that. Then they started coming really fast, but they were also really short and I was confused. I didn't know what was going on. I was thinking "Well, this is starting to get hard again." Then I had my first pushing contraction and my water broke with it. Then I understood why everyone wanted epidurals. I said I wanted one at that point and was told they wouldn't give me one at that point. Well, I knew that and I really didn't want one. I just wanted more time. The pushing really took me by surprise. There was no moving me at that point. If someone had suggested getting out of the tub at that point, I would have punched them as soon as I was able... which would have been today. I'm not sure how long I pushed for, but I think I only had about 6 or 7 pushing contractions before she was born. She came out in one push. Her cord was fairly short, so I had a little trouble moving. I had wanted to wait until the placenta was born to cut it, but I felt like I needed to walk around some. We cut the cord after about an hour of waiting and nursing (it was just long enough to nurse). The cord was limp and white, so we cut it without a clamp. There was some slight bleeding, but nothing scary. We tied it off with some twill anyway. (Or rather, Vershal and Jenny did). I got up and walked around some and the placenta came on out. Then I wanted people to come over. I just wanted that last part out of the way before people came over to see her.

The hospital called a few hours later to check if I was coming in for my non stress test. I told them that I would, but I had just had the baby, so I thought I'd stay home. They didn't believe me at first, but then they said "Well, congratulations... you are not a girl... you are a woman." They called my doctor for me and he said I could go in for a check-up if I wanted to, but if I felt okay then I probably was okay. I felt great so decided to stay home. We talked to the pediatrician and they said we needed to go to the hospital for the newborn screenings, that they couldn't do them at their office, so we went today.