Eli came into the world on February 23, 2015 at 6:43pm. It was a much smoother delivery than with Aiden (you can find his birth story here), thank goodness. I also have some funny videos for you to watch from some of the labor. I think you will enjoy them ;)
Eli's Birth Story
PRE-LABOR:
My mom arrived last Wednesday, the 18th and I had an appointment the next day at the OB. When I went (oh I saw Emily Maynard--she's pregnant too and has the same doctor as me... that's another story), the doctor checked me and I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. I really wanted to kick into labor naturally, but with all the hard contractions and cramps I was having, it was really hard to get around with a 19 month old and function normally... So we scheduled an induction for Monday morning.
Over the whole weekend I was having some bad contractions. So much so that I was sure I would go in naturally before Monday at 8am. Well Monday rolled around and I was still having regular contractions so we went into Labor and Delivery and they hooked me up. We waited and waited and watched as the contractions showed up on the monitor every few minutes. The doctor finally came in after a c-section at around 11am and we discussed options. He checked me and I was still about the same.. maybe 1.5 cm... but he had seen Eli's heart rate and found enough reason that it was "medically necessary" to induce. Basically he wanted to have a justifiable reason to do so... and I guess he was able to find one from the monitoring they had done for the last 2 hours.
OH! I almost forgot. Prior to the doctor coming in, the nurses were trying to set me up on an IV. I didn't know why they were so early on, but I let them.... well, I let them try...
The nurse, bless her heart, was an older lady, and she just COULD NOT find a vein to save her life. She stuck the needle first into my right wrist, and wiggled that needle around, stuck me again.... moved it around... and then gave up. At that point my wrist felt like it was on fire and I felt like I was going to puke. Having passed out while pregnant with Aiden, I know what it feels like to begin to lose it... and well, I was beginning to lose it. My hearing got muffled, I started sweating and feel like I was going to throw up. Darin knows the drill at this point (I really had issues when I was pregnant with Aiden), and grabs me a cold rag so I can stick it on my neck and face. I try really hard to breathe and finally come to.
I let the nurse know I gained my composure back and she beings trying on my left wrist. Right wrist THROBBING, I allow her to stick and wiggle again in my left... I ask her, "did you get it?"
"I think so, but it's not giving any blood..."
...okay.. doesn't that mean you DON'T have a vein? I began to feel sick again, and she begins to insert fluids into my "vein." I can tell you right now it wasn't. My arm began to feel cold.. I look over and I have a golf-sized lump on my arm.
It starts to hurt and I say "ow, ow, ow...."
the nurse looks down, "oh!" and pulls the needle out and sticks a bandage over the huge LUMP on my arm.... it looks terrible and it hurts even worse. Both my arms killed if i moved them at all. I began to feel REALLY sick again, and she left--having given up on finding a vein. She must have been having a bad day... or she needs to give up being the "IV nurse"... because that was a terrible start to my labor story.
Here is a picture of the after math of my two attempted IV inserts. Also, the one on the left hurt every time my blood pressure cuff went off... it was great. You will see in one of the videos below. ;)
INDUCTION TIME!:
After thinking through some options, the doctor decides to try a cervical balloon with a low dose pitocin. I am terrified of pitocin, and was hoping for the most drug free induction I could get, but the doctor reassured me it was a lower dose than typically given and that they can pull it out at any time. After asking a bajillion questions, we began with the balloons.
A cervical balloon is basically that. 2 small little ball-like balloons. One goes INSIDE your uterus on one side of the cervix, while the other goes on the outside. They fill them up with water to expand them little by little (every couple hours) and it begins to apply pressure to your cervix, the same way the baby's head does when the baby drops. This allows for a release of prostaglandins--a hormone that allows for labor to start. The low-dose pitocin was paired with this method to help the contractions continue to be regular.
The balloons went in at 12:30pm, and they got another nurse to do an IV (took her 5 seconds... I really don't have hard veins!) and they began dripping the pitocin in. My contractions picked up to be about the same pain level, but more regular. One every 3-4 minutes. They got a little stronger and a little closer together over time, and they filled the balloons up once more.
THE LABOR:
By mid-afternoon, I was breathing through each contraction fairly hard, and the nurse asked if I would like some pain killers. I think at this point it was maybe 3? or so? I said no, I don't really know why... because they hurt like heck... so the nurse was like, "I think you should. You're clearly in a lot of pain, and if you are planning to get pain meds at a certain point anyway, it's not going to matter when..."
She had a point. I don't know why I feel like I have to suffer through a little longer.... especially with how much pain I was in. I was literally feeling them at 8/10 pain scale... so she checked to see where my cervix was at. The doctor said if you tugged on the balloons and they came out, that would indicate I was greater than 4cm, the diameter of the balloons... so she tugged gently, they didn't come out, so she gave me a pain killer through my IV. I got this with Aiden too--they tend to give it to you before the epidural to see if it can hold you over longer. It is amazing. With Aiden I saw unicorns and rainbows... or at least it felt that way... this time around they must have given me a stronger dose... because this stuff DID NOT wear off until AFTER Eli was born. haha.
When she initially gave it to me, I was knocking out and talking to Darin. He videoed a lot of it... so here are the videos of me on this amazing drug for your entertainment. To explain--I am not crying, I am laughing HYSTERICALLY. So much actually, that I wet the bed. I was trying to open my eyes but they were too heavy.. so I could only keep one open... IF that. When I closed my eyes I was in a Lego DUPLO castle... and Darin was there with a phone in my face.. taking a video because I was talking nonsense. He mentioned Ellen Degeneres... I remember that... I think we are secretly hoping she sees these videos and invites us on her show.
Here they are (I don't really know what order they go in... but there are 3):
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
My contractions were SO bad I began needing Darin to squeeze and lean into with each one. They were only like a minute apart and a 9.99999 out of 10 (is it hard to say 10, because that is like the highest you can go? it is for me. Either way, they killed.) The nurse called in the Anesthesiologist who was taking her time.... It seriously took her like 30 mins or more to come. That doesn't seem long but when that means you have to sit through like 15 contractions then it REALLY seems long. Finally she arrived and gave me the epidural. The pain slowly started to fade--but I could still feel them contractions in my tail bone. The nurse tried a catheter, and I could feel everything, so I was not numb down there... but it was enough to take the edge off the pain from screaming through contractions to breathing a little heavier. As the nurse tried to help me empty my bladder, she shoved the baby's head out of the way, because it was pushing and not allowing me to empty. When she pushed the baby out of the way, my water burst.
Within about 30 minutes the nurse told me to start pushing.... I was so confused... "aren't I only like 5 cm?" I asked.
"No, you're 9.5, now let's start pushing."
Oh wow.. this was about 5:30 ish 5:45pm. I began pushing. At this point I could still feel the contractions enough, and so I could know when to push. In between, the other pain killer were still fairly strong, so I would almost fall asleep. I couldn't finish a sentence... I was so drugged. As the epidural set in more, I got more and more numb. After a while I couldn't feel my contractions anymore, and didn't know when to push. I think I may have gotten the epidural a little too late..
WELCOME BABY!:
Anyway after an hour of pushing, falling asleep, waking up, pushing, falling asleep... the baby was here! 6:43 pm. It was such a shock to me how fast this labor was... compared to my 30 hour labor with Aiden. I was in much less pain when I held Eli for the first time, since the epidural at that point was at its peak.
I did skin to skin for an hour, Darin went and picked up Aiden and my mom at home and Aiden was able to meet his little brother.
Eli was 20 ¾ inches long, and weighed 8lbs 0.6oz.
Eli came at 39.5 weeks, but he weighed as much as his brother did at 41.5 weeks. He's a big baby. He has long fingers and toes, I suspect he will be taller than his brother when they are older. He has light brown hair, not blond like Aiden was, but you can definitely tell they are brothers.
We chose the Japanese name name Keitou for his middle name, because the "Kei" character is from my name, meaning "blessed" and "Tou" is the character for "winter."
"Blessed Winter"
Aiden was Kai, with "Ka" from my name, meaning "summer" and "i" meaning "great"
"Greatest Summer"
I just am in LOVE with my 3 boys. I one lucky girl!
Last video. Aiden holding Eli for the first time. This is the next day after he was born. My mom and Aiden came after lunch for a couple of hours and ate dinner with me. I sure missed my little boy while I was in the hospital. So grateful my mom took good care of him:
Until Next time,
The Brinley's
