Evalana's birth

Joshua could probably tell this story better than I, but I’ll give it a try. On Thursday I was having a little more contractions than the day before and feeling a little less comfortable, so I was hopeful that Evalana might be coming soon. I’d been telling Evalana that Friday morning would be a great time for a birthday. When we went to bed on Thursday night, I was never able to get to sleep because of the contractions I was having. I woke Joshua up around 1:00 to let him know that the contractions were seeming to get a little more intense and were making me feel nauseous and shakey. Some were about 10 minutes apart and some were more like a minute and a half. Some were short and some were longer, and some were fairly intense and some were pretty mild. Anyway, because of the inconsistency, it seemed more like what we had heard of false labor being, so we weren’t sure of what to do. I got up and drank some water and took a bath, but the contractions kept coming, so we decided to head over to my dad’s house since they live just a few minutes from the hospital, which sounded better to me than the 25-minute drive from our house. I didn’t want to show up at the hospital if I wasn’t really in labor, but I also had in mind that my mom had me in about 2 ½ hours, and I didn’t want to cut it too closely. Some of the contractions were still making me feel nauseous, and, before we left for my dad’s, I threw up all the water I had been drinking. Joshua got everything together in the car, and I think we probably left for my dad’s house around 3:00. the contractions got stronger while we were there, so Joshua called our doctor, doula, and family, and we got to the hospital about 5:00. It was a little overwhelming to know that I could be walking through those doors for our daughter’s birthday. When we got into our room, the nurse checked me and said that I was 3 or 4 cm dilated and 100% effaced (cervix thinned out), so we’d be having a baby today. I was so relieved to hear that; I didn’t want to be having all of these contractions for nothing. It was so exciting to think that we were going to see and hold our baby soon. We had told them that we didn’t want IV fluids unless I was dehydrated, but by that time, I was really dehydrated which was causing no break in between my contractions at all, and I was still vomiting. Once I got some fluids, I had a few minutes break in between contractions and Evalana’s heart rate improved, so I was very thankful to have them. My water broke about 7:00, and I started having to push. When they checked me then, I was 8 cm dilated. The pushing that happens really surprised me. I didn’t realize it would be so strong. It felt kind of like vomiting backwards, and I had no control at all. It’s amazing to witness with my own body how God created this whole process. Other than the encouraging words Joshua, my mom, and Cami (our doula) were saying to me, I was fairly unaware of anything else going on. I was on my hands and knees for about half an hour, and then they checked again and said that I was at 10, so we could go ahead and start pushing the baby out. I pushed on my side for about 45 minutes. I could see her getting closer in the mirror, but, when she seemed right there, it still seemed like it took so long to get her head out. But it actually did come out. The doctor got her shoulders out and then, at 8:17am, said, “Okay, Rachel, reach down and pull out your baby.” So I grabbed her and pulled her onto my chest, and everyone laughed at me because I said, “There really was a baby in there.” And then Evalana looked up at me, and I said, “And she has a face!” the nurse said she had a little goo left in her lungs, so she took her and suctioned her, but then I got her back on my chest and got to look at her and feed her for a couple of hours, and it was great. My sister, stepmom, dad, and brother all came in to meet her. Then, after pooping out at least a few ounces, she weighed in at 8 lbs, 11 oz. and 20 inches long. They said her apgar scores were 8 and 9, so that’s good. Then Joshua’s mom got there, and, soon after that, his other set of parents came in. It was so great to have everyone there. It was an exciting day. Everything went better than I could have imagined, although very different from what Joshua and I were expecting. And even the pain was much less and different than what I had expected. I thought it might be really intense sharp pain, but it was more like just the strongest cramps ever. They sometimes had asked me to rate my pain from 1-10, with 10 being giving birth, but even as she was being born, I still wouldn’t have rated it the 10 that I expected it to be. The whole thing so far (pregnancy, labor, having a newborn) has gone much easier than we had expected, and we are so thankful for all the blessings that God has poured out on us with our little Evalana. So that’s my version of Evalana’s birth story, typed out over several days with one hand while feeding Evalana.
11/03/10: a little more detail on the labor experience.