Finally Sharing My Birth Story (it’s a long one)

On Wednesday, May 12, 2021, I went in for my weekly check-up to see how I was progressing and how baby was doing. I had been having noticeable contractions for over a week, which we thought were labor contractions when they first started, but actually weren’t. My mom, who was also my doula, had flown in from Florida when we thought I was in labor. So at this point, we were hoping the monitor that tracks contractions would show contractions that were more “progressive”. Let’s just say, the appointment went completely different than expected, and I wish I had eaten lunch before. During the non stress test, baby girl’s heart rate was too low and wasn’t having enough fluctuations. This meant that I had to go have a 30 minute ultrasound to see how baby was doing immediately. My mom had taken me to my appointment and came in at this point to be with me. The 30 minute ultrasound is called a biophysical exam and to pass, you have to score an 8/8, otherwise, it’s highly recommended that you get an induction. We scored a 4/8. During the exam, I tried squatting, playing music, singing/talking, trying to get baby to move, but nothing worked. The results showed that she wasn’t moving enough, she was flaccid, and some other things that I don’t remember. Because we didn’t pass, the next step was induction. I was so grateful that my mom was there from the start of all of this. God’s timing was perfect. Sadly, because I was being admitted for induction, I was told I wasn’t allowed to eat anything, so my 39 week pregnant self who hadn’t eaten lunch had to accept the fact that I was going into labor on an empty stomach. Praise God that He is my strength! Going into labor, I had my prayer support group, family, my mom’s coworkers, and more all praying for me and baby, and we definitely needed it. After being in triage for awhile, I was moved to the labor and delivery room, and my husband arrived with all of our bags awhile later. My appointment was at 12:15, and at around 8 pm I was induced. They had me on a low amount of Pitocin and my contractions progressed enough that they lowered the amount they were giving me. Then our nurse came in to let us know that baby was having heart decelerations (her heart rate kept dropping). She got the doctor on call and he told us that if the decelerations didn’t stop, they would stop the induction and do a C-section in the morning because it meant that baby wasn’t handling the stress of labor well. We updated everyone and knew that we had lots of prayers coming our way. And praise God, the decelerations stopped! By the next day, the contractions were beginning to intensify. In the morning, my midwife came in and let me have a “liquid” meal since I was so hungry. I was so grateful. By the afternoon, I was so exhausted, and asked to be given the medicine you can be given before an epidural. I was able to get some sleep before the contractions got even worse. I eventually hit a point where my body was so exhausted and I could no longer relax, so we started talking about an epidural. I was 7-8 cm dilated, but knew that I would probably progress quicker and have more energy to push if I were able to relax and rest. So I got the epidural and was able to rest for awhile. I started to feel the contractions again, which I wasn’t expecting haha, so I was checked and was 10 cm dilated! This was probably around 11 pm on the 13th. After about an hour of pushing and 30 hours of labor, our baby was born on May 14, 2021 at 12:11 am. We had waited to find out the gender and after baby was born, my mom was the one who got to tell us it was a girl. It turns out Eliana had had the umbilical cord wrapped around her body and neck, and there had been a tight knot in it, which was probably the cause of the lack of movement and heart decelerations. But God kept our baby girl safe and healthy, and answered so many prayers throughout labor and delivery.