She’s here!!!! Birth story added 6-3-18

Sam • IVF warrior mama - unexplained infertility + Hashimoto's

Nemo is a sweet baby girl born this morning at 5:43am after a fast and ferocious labor for mama. All 3 of us are settled into our post partum room and will update more later ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

And yes it ended up being au naturale... mama didn’t have a choice as baby and body made quick work of labor.

Say hello to Grace Parker

Born May 31 at 5:43am

8lbs 14oz and 20 in long

With a 35cm noggin! She’s a big baby and no one had any idea she was awaiting (or that she’d be so big 😱)

Her fast and ferocious tale

(Trigger warning: post partum hemorrhage, rapid birth, unmedicated birth, and some expletives are thrown in)

Birth of Grace

Omg it was intense. I woke up thinking I was dreaming I was having contractions then tried to pee and realized by how pee was coming that I was in fact having real contractions. So I whipped out my phone. They're 6 min apart and 1 min long already. This is 12:30am. I wake up Tiff. Tell her what's up. We time a few more. Same 5-6 min apart. Text doula. She suggests we try to labor at home. They're far too intense for that I cannot walk through them. I tried the ball and counterpressure and a few other things and holy crap they were intense. Nothing was helping and they were getting closer together and more intense. She asks for timing. I screenshot app. She says OK call hospital since at this point they're close. It was 4-1-1 and pushing 3-2-1 at this point. So we call hospital they're worried they're full so they say wait for a call back and I tell Tiff NO and doula said just go. They call back as we're almost in car said come. Tiff pees and poops and feeds Beau. I get myself mentally together to walk to car. This is 3:12. We leave. Thank God for no traffic or construction. We get there in 45 min. They're 3-2-1 and closing in. Bearing down is now evident. I am worried I'll puke or poop or something. We pull into ED parking and Tiff asks if I can walk in Fuuuhhhh NO. I tell her to go get me a wheelchair. Kid comes running out with one and next contraction before they get up to me POP my water breaks. But we had brought a pad under me in car so we're good. I am in the midst of a contraction get wheeled in and then onto elevator and up to L&D; they want to book me in small room. Thank God for doula and Tiff as they remember and are able to say she was hoping for a water birth. I got the big tub room. They ask me to pee. I try. I can't. They check the pad I had under me. It's wet and I also had a liner on so they could see it appears to have meconium on it so no tub. Midwife asks me to get on back for a check. This felt like death during a contraction mind you. I'm borderline crying. Doula asks them to keep all lights off or low and gets out candles as the midwife checks - I AM 9.5 CM she's like ummm so there's only the smallest but of cervix left. I think I said holy shit at this point. So she asks me not to push but let body do its thing contracting. I'm like wtf this hurts so bad. I was ready to give in to the epidural on the drive over. I’m of course mooing and making all kinds of moaning at this point - I had been since I got up. I didn't know I was that far in until I got there. So now with being that far dilated there's no chance of that and I have to do this shit. Thank God for our Doula Kara. She was a godsend so Tiff could just be there for me through every contraction. Not too long after 5 there's pressure to bear down so they said OK. I'm on my left side at this point as I couldn't labor on my back or all 4s or squatting like I hoped. I was too far gone. So someone else is holding my leg up because there's just too much pressure and I can't do it physically. They tell me if I want to push to grab my own leg, curl up and push pulling my leg into me. I don't do this the first few tries because I'm crazy uncomfortable but then finally when I do after one contraction shit starts going down for real. Baby's moving down and progressing a lot. And midwife suits up and there's medical speak. Another contraction and I'm pushing 3 pushes per contraction they're that long. So I start pushing and after a bit baby's head appears and everyone gets excited. At this point I can legit feel it. They ask if I want to see or feel it I said no - I didn't want to move. Body slows down labor a tad to gather energy for each contraction and then they start getting more intense. And more pressure and I keep saying I don't like this or something like that. Then head starts coming and I knew that it was close to being over. AND I WAS SO FUXKING HAPPY. So my body mustered more and the contractions while more intense feeling wise - they were slightly more spaced than before so body mustered up strength and I could truly push the head out. So I could sorta feel the ring of fire but it wasn’t bad at all. All of a sudden after a few pushes I could really feel that the head was super close and again I knew we were getting closer to no more pain so I took a good calming breath and said ok body when you’re ready!!! And boom baby head was close. Close. Closer. BOOM OUT. And I knew it was all down hill from there. Baby’s head came out quickly followed by the body with my body taking over pushing for me. So at 5:41 am our sweet Grace made her grand entrances after roughly an hour of pushing and 5hrs and 15ish min of labor. I did end up birthing the placenta super easily after and Grace latched on quickly to my left breast but I did end up with a PPH mainly because labor was so fast. They said it had nothing to do with my placenta - which by the way was massive. I got to look at it later and I have nothing to compare it to but wow it was amazing. The sacred was still attached too. So they had to do some management to get the bleeding under control and I ended up with a catheter which was glorious because I didn't have to get up or face stinging to pee. I also did end up with a second degree tear from how quickly it all went but they stitched me right up. So baby girl Grace Parker Elliott was born at 5:41am at 8lbs 13.5oz and 20 inches long entirely unmedicated. She got delayed cord clamping until it was done pulsing and she got to crawl to the breast. They waited on all testing for over an hour and kept everything in room. She is the most beautiful and amazing thing I have ever done and of course I just can't stop the tears. We are so ridiculously in love I don't even know how to explain it. She's the freaking cutest most amazing little one I have ever witness and yes I cried when they put her on my chest.