My Birth Story

I am so excited to welcome my beautiful little girl, Elia Harper (pronounced Uh-LEE-Ah). She was born July 23rd at 9:30 pm. Elia was 7lbs 11ounces and was 21 inches long! I wanted to share my birth story with you because I know many of you are currently pregnant or plan to be at some point and had lots of questions. I’m giving you a heads up now, I don’t hold back on the details! 🙂

Here we go…

It was July 22nd and I had just come home from the Taste of River North. My due date was the next day and everyone kept telling me to walk around and eat spicy food. I was convinced I was going to be at least a week late, but never the less, I obliged and ate a jalapeño burger. To be honest, I was so convinced I was going to be late, my doctor and I even set up an induction date for later the following week.

That night, I decided to take a bath. I was feeling just a little bit crampy and uncomfortable and thought it might help soothe me. I had been getting Braxton Hicks contractions for a few days at that point and just figured these cramps would go away with a little warm soak. About halfway through my bath, I noticed that the cramps were coming every 10 minutes or so. They weren’t bad or anything, but when I started to detect a pattern, I started timing them. Sure enough, I was right. They were actually coming every 8 minutes and lasting about 45 seconds.

I never wanted to be the “girl who cried labor, so I calmly called my husband in and told him about what I was feeling. He asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, but at this point I wasn’t in very much pain, so I figured I’d just keep timing them to see if they got closer together or more painful.

Sure enough, right around midnight I started to feel them getting a little bit closer together. I called my Doula, Britt, (kind of like my birth coach) and she agreed that I was most likely in labor. She advised me to wait it out as long as I could because right when I got to the hospital, I wouldn’t be allowed to eat and I would be stuck there until the baby came (and it could take hours or days.) So for the next couple of hours, Dan and I watched some funny shows and just tried to pass the time.

At around 6 am it got to the point where my contractions were about 4 minutes apart and I noticed my mucus plug came out when I went to go to the bathroom. Sorry for the gross details, but hey, this is a part of labor! At that point, I decided it was probably time to go. The pain was getting stronger, but still totally manageable. I just got a little worried since this was my first labor and wanted to get to the hospital earlier rather than too late. I called Britt and headed off to Prentice Hospital.

When I arrived, the first thing they did was check to see my dilation and how soft my cervix was. To my surprise, I was only about 2.5 centimeters dilated. I would have thought given the pain I would have been much further along. The good news was, my cervix was almost fully ready to go. They asked me if I wanted to get an Epidural/Pitocin and get things going or would I rather walk around the hospital wings for two hours to see if I could jump start it more naturally. Since I could still manage the pain, I decided to take the walk. Dan, Britt and I spent the next two hours walking around and stopping every 3 minutes when I got a contraction so I could breathe through the pain.

After the 2 hours of walking, I was exhausted and hopeful that I had progressed my labor enough to go upstairs and get a room. They checked me out and I was only 3 cm dilated. I was totally bummed. The pain was getting worse at this point and I was pretty ready to go upstairs to the birthing suite and lay down. Within a few minutes, I was escorted up in a wheel chair and brought to my birthing room. At this point it was around 11:00 am.
When I got to the birthing room, I worked with Britt who had me use a bosu ball to try and ease my contraction pain. After about 2 hours, I felt like I had the pain under control (as much as I possibly could) and was excited to see my dilation progress. When they came to check me, I was still only about 3 cm! I felt like the girl who wouldn’t dilate! They strongly advised at this point I get things moving along with the use of Pitocin. Since I was worried about how much worse the pain would get, I decided at that point to get the epidural and then have them start the Pitocin.

I was SO nervous to get the epidural, but I have to be honest, it was very easy and felt really really good after. I didn’t realize how much pain I was actually in until I didn’t feel it anymore. In hindsight, I sort of wish I did it earlier. After the epidural kicked in, they started me on the Pitocin. They came back to check me at 5pm and I was finally progressing! I got to 5 cm. They told me to expect about 1 cm every half hour to hour from this point so I should be ready to push in 5-6 hours. That felt like a good time frame because I was exhausted and was excited to get some sleep! An hour later, just as I was about to dose off, another doctor came in to give me a check since they noticed my contractions were really long and coming very very close together. Turns out I was actually 10 cm and progressed in just one hour! It was crazy and I was in total shock.

So, it was time to push! Now this isn’t meant to scare anyone, but pushing for me was by far the hardest part of this entire pregnancy/labor. Basically, every time you get a contraction, you have to push for 10 seconds and do this 3 times per contraction. Not only is it exhausting, but mentally thinking about what is going on down there was so overwhelming. Even though I could only feel pressure (no pain), I just couldn’t imagine how a baby was ever going to come out. After 2.5 horrible hours of trying to push out my baby, the doctor noticed her heart rate was dropping. He told me we really needed to get her out and advised they use a vacuum to help get her out. After talking it over with him and learning the risks of it (vs going for an emergency c-section), I agreed.

Within 10 seconds of agreeing to the vacuum, the lights in the room got SUPER bright and about 20 people rushed into the room including the NICU nurses and doctors because my water had meconium in it (basically the baby pooped in my water and could have ingested it.) I have to admit, this was probably the scariest moment of my life. I felt like I was about to die. I started hysterically crying for the first time during this entire process and turned to my husband with a look of defeat. I felt horrible that I couldn’t get her out, but I know it really wasn’t my fault (and he reminded me of that.)

Within seconds, they got the little suction cup all set up on her head and told me to start pushing really really hard. My face and body were shaking so much, I thought I was going to explode. About 2 minutes later and a few pushes, I heard cheering and felt the biggest relief I’ve ever felt in my life.

She was out.

The doctors immediately took her over to a designated station across the room to check her and luckily all was good. About a minute later they brought her over to me and I experienced the single happiest moment of my entire life. Elia Harper was finally here and I couldn’t have been more in love. All I kept thinking was, “she is perfect.”

Once I had her laying on me she stopped crying and I was able to start breastfeeding right there. She latched really quickly and everyone was shocked how hungry she was. Given how much I ate during pregnancy (and how much I eat in general), I wasn’t surprised at all. She is definitely her Mother’s daughter.

Being a new Mom has been one of the most overwhelming, emotional and most exciting times of my life. These last few days I’ve cried a ton, laughed even more and have learned a patience I never knew I even had. The love I feel for Elia continues to grow every single day and I’m amazed at what our bodies can do and create. The doctors suggested a few post pregnancy core workout which was very useful as it made my body come back to normal to fit back into my routine.

We had a few photos taken at the hospital and I will share them below. I can’t believe how different she looks just 10 days later!

Thank you for your continued words of encouragement, messages and gifts. They mean the world to me and I feel so blessed to be able to share this experience with all of you.

Love always,
Erica