Elyas Robert was born yesterday; 11/3/08, at 7:47 pm! He is BEAUTIFUL, and weighs a WHOPPING 9 lbs 9 oz! I will post the entire story when I get a chance, maybe still tonight, but my parents are here at the hospital now. Ely has been in the NICU, but is doing much better, and I ended up with a c-section (after 18 hours of hard labor, 3 hrs of pushing--No drugs). Long story--but a very happy ending! Thanks so much for your well wishes; I will post more later (and I will get a picture up soon)!


Congrats!

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Congrats Krissy!

Im so excited for you!!!

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Krissy- that is fantastic news!! Welcome to the world, Ely! Krissy, I know that you are sore, exhausted and overwhelmed with emotion...just enjoy loving on that little one and know that you'll be home soon. Can't wait to see a picture of your big man and hear your birth story.

BTW, Welcome to the mommy club!! (finally! )

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Congrats Krissy and Welcome Ely!!! Can't wait to hear your story and see pics of your little guy.

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Welcome Ely and Happy Birthday.

Can't wait to hear about your birthing story Krissy

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Congratulations Krissy! I am looking forward to hearing the story! I can't wait to see pics of Ely!

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Congrats Krissy! So glad Ely is here safe and healthy. Can't wait to see pictures!!

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Congrats!!! Can't wait to see pictures!

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Congrats Krissy and Welcome Ely

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Thank you all So much! Well, I guess I will post the story here. But first an update on Ely's progress. I am in the hospital, and it looks like we will be here for awhile. They are going to be keeping Elyas in the NICU for at least 7 days (so Monday would be the soonest we could be discharged). Luckily, they are letting him be in the room with me at all times, except for when I am sleeping since he needs to be monitored. His bloodwork shows that he has an infection still, and since he had a rough beginning and they don't know for sure what the infection is, they need to keep him long enough to monitor him and keep him on IV antibiotics until his bloodwork starts to look more normal. They took the tube out of his belly (it went through his nose to his belly), and he is off of IV liquids, so he just has the IV lock for the antibiotics. I will stay here with him; they will let me stay until Friday for the c-section, Saturday I get to stay in the hospitality room, and then they will let me sleep in his NICU room. He LOOKS and ACTS totally healthy, and is breathing well now (and nursing like a CRAZY!), so hopefully he will just keep doing well and we can get him home soon!

Ok, so I woke up around 2:30 am Monday morning with some contractions, and they were 21 minutes apart, so I didn't think it was going to be anything. I decided to get up and walk around, so that if it was labor it would go faster (you all know I had been TRYING to go into labor for quite some time!) I walked downstairs, went into the bathroom, sat on the toilet and felt a "pop". I wasn't actually sure if my water broke, cuz it was just a little gush, but then I stood up and there was another little goosh, and then another. It had green in it, so I knew that there was some meconium staining, so I went and woke up DH and told him we better go. He made some coffee while I called the doula; contractions didn't seem so bad. We walked out to the car, and I got my first hard contraction. By the time we got to the hospital (10 minutes away), the contractions were about 8 minutes apart. By the time we checked in, they were about 6 minutes apart. They immediately put me on the monitor, and they were now 2 minutes apart and getting very painful. Things were obviously moving fast. The baby did not look great on the monitor, his heartrate didn't show much variation, which is not a great sign. They checked me and I was dilated to 3. They started my IV for GBS. Because of the meconium, and his strange rythm, they kept me on the monitor for most of the labor, pretty much the entire time except for when I was in the tub (which did not help too much with the pain, by the way!). The contractions were very strong, and lasting a very long time. Within the hour, they started to piggy back. In other words, I was not getting a break between contractions at all. I would have a long hard contraction, it would start to subside, but instead of stopping, I would immediately start another. My doctor was a little concerned; he said that it looked like I was in transition, and that spontaneous labor is rarely like that--you usually only see those kinds of contractions from someone on too high a dose of pitocin. No one ever offered me drugs--they all respected my birth plan, but after a few hours I did ask about my options. They decided to check me at that point, and I was dilated to 6, 100% effaced and anterior. I decided not to have any drugs, but it was very hard. The contractions never did stop piggy backing, and the next time they checked me I was 9 cm. I spent the majority of the day in the rocking chair; my DH was my superhero, he did such an awesome job! The doula said that she has never seen a husband do a better job at coaching; she kept teasing that if she could bottle him up she would make a fortune. I was fully dilated around 3:15 and started to push. It was excruciating; pushing an almost 10 lb baby through your birth canal SUCKS! I used the squatting bar with a sheet tied to it, and pushed with all my might. I was making great progress. Within about 45 minutes of pushing, his head was just about crowning. The nurse only had to put her finger in to the first knuckle to feel his head. BUT, this is where things started to go wrong. The pain was unbearable, and I continued to push as hard as I could, but he was not moving any further. After 2 hours of pushing, I let them give me one small dose of fentonal (a narcotic), which was not helpful (it did NOTHING), and then I moved to hands and knees to push. Still nothing was changing. My doctor was starting to worry about the baby, because he was so far in my pelvis that it was very hard to monitor him. After 3 hours of pushing, it became evident that something was just not right, and I agreed with my doctor that we needed to get him out asap. So, we decided to do a c-section, because my doctor thought that a forceps or vacuum may be too dangerous at that point. The worst part of the entire labor for me was trying to stay still for the spinal block. I was still pushing, afterall, and you can't just stop pushing anymore than you can just not sneeze when you have to. And since my contractions had pretty much no break between them, I had to try to stay still while pushing through a terrible contractions, as they put a large needle in my spine. That was awful. Once they got the spinal block in, I finally got some relief, and they prepped me quickly for the surgery. DH and my doula were both allowed in with me, and once they started they got Ely out pretty quickly, but they didnt let me see him. They took him immediatley to the other side of the room, and I knew something was wrong, so I sent DH to be with him. At this point, the doctor was talking about a possible transfusion because my uterus wouldn't stop bleeding, but I was more worried about Ely. I don't actually know how they got the bleeding to stop, but they must have figured it out. I could sort of see Ely just a little, but they were working on him and giving him oxygen. Finally someone came over to let me know that he was not breathing well and was acting "shocky". They carried him by me and let me see him VERY quickly, and then took him out of the room to the neonatal intensive care unit. Doc finished stitching me up and they took me back to my room for an hour before taking me to my new room. When we went to the new room they let me see him through the glass, but he was in an incubator so it was hard to see. Since my legs were numb (I HATED that), I couldnt go to the NICU, but DH went and got some pictures for me. I was more confused than anything, and I just kept asking to breastfeed. To everyone's surprise, they brought him to me around midnight (he was born at 7:47) He was stable, so they decided to let me nurse. He was SO BEAUTIFUL! I put him to breast and he latched right on! He has been nursing great ever since. They finally told me his weight; 9 lbs 9 oz. I also spoke with my doctor and the neonatalogist. It turns out that he was posterior, but also sideways, and being so big and in that position, it would not have mattered how long I pushed; it would have been impossible to get him out. It is a good thing I agreed to the section when I did. I am very sore and swollen down there from all the pushing, so except for the tearing, I pretty much feel like I had a vaginal birth and a c-section! yuck! As I said in the update on him, they don't actually know what is wrong. He has an infection, and he was not able to breath on his own for awhile when he was born. This could be from the meconium, the GBS, or something completely unrelated. Luckily, they let me stay with me all the time now, except for when I am sleeping. He is such an awesome baby; he is very intense; he stares at you like he is analyzing your every move, and makes a very serious face! It is so cute! And he is such a chunk!!!! I can't believe I grew a baby to almost 10 lbs!
Well, that is my LONG story. I am not sad about the c-section, because I know that it was what was needed, and I at least got to try for the birth I had planned for. I also feel good knowing that nothing I did caused the section--I avoided anything that raises the risks of having one, so I cannot blame myself at all. In the end, I am good with how the birth went; now I just need him to keep getting stronger so that we can take him home!

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Krissy

I hope Ely gets better soon. I will keep that precious little man in my prayers .

Also, I know what it feels like to have a vaginal birth and a c-section at the same time. My recovery from the c-section was easier than the vaginal birth.
I hope you heal up really soon too.

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Krissy- OMG, what an adventure you had there. I sure hope they get Ely all fixed up. Sounds like he get's better by the minute.

You are my hero! After reading that, I'm starting to think I'm not woman enough to survive giving birth.

Here's to both of you feeling much better soon!

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Krissy - what a story!

I hope Baby Ely gets better and you all can get home and enjoy each other even more!

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Krissy - You did a great job Momma! Wow you had a pretty intense labor and delivery. I know you will be glad to get home with your son. Keep us posted when you can!

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