eleanor's birth story

8 days past my due date

my water broke at 12:20am when i got up to go to the bathroom

i was so excited because water breaking means i'll have my baby

within the next day

and it had never happened to me before

plus my doctor told me it's all that it would take for the baby to engage

michael and i chatted for an hour or so

then he went back to bed

and i went and read a book in the living room for a few hours

i figured if labor wasn't going too strong

i could be at home until the morning

when we could get the kids up, dressed

and over to our neighbor charlene's without waking everyone up in the night

so i fell back asleep until just before 7:00am

and we got the kids ready

and took them over

then went to the hospital

 the nurses were not very happy that i'd waited at home so long

but it was fine and they got me all hooked up and monitored

including an iv in each arm, per v-bac regulations

and told me i was at a 1.5 and then eventually a 2.5

(side note: after this month our hospital won't be offering v-bacs 

so i felt extra lucky that i was getting to try)

i spent all day having contractions about 5-6 minutes apart

that grew in strength

my doctor was out of town but would be around by the evening

so i spent hours before i got checked again

and around 7:30pm (12 hours after i got to the hospital)

i finally saw my doctor and she told me i was dilated to a 4

which was good news

but although my water broke at home

it mended itself and was still a full bag of waters

so she decided she'd break my water in an hour

 by this point i was hooked up to fluid and antibiotics to help to decrease

the chance of infection since my water broke so long ago

when she re-broke my water there was a RIVER inside of me still

it soaked everything, and surprised all of us how much fluid there was

no wonder i was measuring so big

(well that and my giant baby)

so we assumed labor would just hurry right along

but instead my contractions kept getting stronger

and i didn't ever dilate more than 4.5

i was in terrible pain and by 12:30-1 i was pretty sure she wasn't coming

they figured she was sunny side up

so they had be get in different positions to try to move her

but it didn't help
(this picture was definitely from earlier in the day, i wasn't so happy at this point)

 finally i wanted to be put out of my misery

so they put some morphine in my iv

and i immediately fell asleep

out of exhaustion, it took the edge off but i could still feel the pain of the contractions

after that i felt like i wanted to die

when i woke up the doctor and i decided that i needed a c-section

so the OR team got me all prepped

 i could hardly keep my eyes open and felt like i needed to vomit

i was surprised they never gave me a drug to stop my contractions

 i had painful contractions all the way until my spinal was given to me on the operating table

so after 26 hours of labor

nine days overdue

i finally had my eleanor mae

via c-section

i feel like i gave it my absolute all

her head was apparently not sunny side up

but just plain sideways

and cock-eyed

so she was not coming out vaginally, ever

not to mention she was 9 lbs 5 oz

which is possibly just a little too big for my 

barely 5'1" body to handle

the birth was absolutely not what i was planning

at the end, before and during my c-section

i felt like i was having the worst experience of my life

my body was so tired, no progress was being made

my eyes wanted to shut, i started vomiting...

i just assumed it would've been different

i thought it would be quick and the result would be a successful v-bac

but that was not how it was supposed to be

and i don't have any regrets

i now know that i will have c-sections from now on

my doctor told me my uterus is super strong

and i hardly have any scar tissue

so i'm not worried about our family size being stunted by

the amount of c-sections i can or cannot have

 eleanor was of course worth every second of my labor

all 41+ weeks of pregnancy

and the c-section recovery i was hoping to avoid

 michael and i love being parents

there is no greater joy in life

i love how close it makes me feel to michael

every time we have another child

and how i feel the love in our family grow

 eleanor is so loved

everyone is adjusting well to her

and her siblings are just as in love with her

as we are