If birth details are not your thing, feel free to skip this post! But I wanted to record the memories while they were still fresh, as birth is a beautiful, painful, and faith-building process. God's grace in birth is amazing! And yes, the story is long... It's hard for me to be brief, and for things like this I want to remember every detail.
 |
| 40 weeks pregnant and very "due!" |
The Birth Story of Eliana Grace
November 4th
came. After all the “what-if’s” of going into labor early with all the
traveling we did in the 3rd trimester, we had made it to the due
date. Well, technically the “due date” could have been calculated for a week
before (as I was measuring early), but I wouldn’t let myself think it until
this later date. Much as I know that it’s just an arbitrary date, I get antsy
when it rolls around with no baby!
The day was like many
before it. I played with Hadassah outside in the morning, and went on a fast
walk to the mailbox (30 minutes round trip) by myself, in hopes that maybe that
would start something. Braxton Hicks contractions had been going on pretty
regularly for the past few weeks, and while it seemed like I was having more on
this particular day, I didn’t let myself read too much into them. I sewed that
afternoon, working on little Ellie’s Easter dress, thankful that with her delay
in arriving I at least had more time to get things done!
By evening, I was
definitely more uncomfortable. Just making supper and getting Hadassah to bed
left me exhausted. And these seemed to be more regular contractions, and more “feely”
ones too. Could it be? Ryan told me “not tonight – let’s wait ‘til morning!”
which mirrored what he’d said the night I’d gone into labor the first time around,
so I laughed, wondering if this really was for real. Not wanting to leave the
house a mess, I took extra time to straighten up that night, and even put away
my sewing supplies. A pretty big step in thinking this was it!
But, I decided to lay
down, just in case they’d stop. Even if they didn’t, I knew I’d probably be in
labor for a long time, and knew how much I needed rest. I was smarter this time
around, or maybe just more tired with a toddler too! So we went to bed early,
and I actually slept for about two hours. Pain in my back woke me around 11:15
PM though. This was definitely it.
We ate breakfast around
midnight, as I was a little hungry and knew I’d probably need some fuel for all
that was to come…
Ryan knew he needed to
conserve his strength and rest while he can, as the pain wasn’t too intense
yet, and the contractions were just 6-8 minutes apart. Having gone through always
every-3-minutes-or-less contractions with Hadassah’s birth, I was thankful for
the longer break between the pain, but also almost a bit bored waiting for
things to progress! ;) I sat on the exercise ball quite a bit, pulling out the
verses I’d written on index cards. Once again, the Word of God proved such a
comfort and encouraging during the increasing pain. In my back, yet again. As
much as I’d tried to encourage this baby to be in the ideal, anterior position
through exercises for that purpose, it seemed I was birthing a posterior baby
again. While I was disappointed, I knew God would get me through, as He
faithfully did before.
Ryan checked in with me
periodically during the night, as I labored and tried to rest as I could. Laying
down again proved fruitless and way too painful, so I walked some and stayed on
the ball mostly. A heating pad on my back helped some as the pain grew, but by
4 AM I needed pressure to be applied most of all. Ryan got up then, to give
stronger pressure, and we discussed calling the midwife. Remembering that she’d
told me before she had a 4:30 AM alarm, we decided to call around 5 AM.
Of course, cell phone
service down in the valley is pretty terrible, so after the phone cutting in
and out, Ryan went down to my parents’ house to make the call. When trying to
look up my parents’ home phone number to tell the midwife, he accidentally
called their home phone. My mom picked up right away – “Is Anna in labor?” I
think she was even more excited than we were. J
The midwife wanted to
talk to me, to assess if she should come or not. By that point I definitely
couldn’t easily talk through the peak of the contractions, but we didn’t feel
like we needed her right then, so she said she’d be on call.
Ryan ran around between
pressing on my back, blowing up the birthing pool and getting things for it situated
with my dad’s help. Soon Dad left for the airport to pick up my sister Lydia,
Hadassah woke up, and I was able to hug her quickly before Ryan took her to my
parent’s house. It was so nice having them just down the hill from us! I told
Hadassah that this was the day baby Eliana was going to come out, and she
seemed to understand… I’d talked to her before a few times about how when baby
Ellie came, Mama would be sick for a while, as it hurt a little bit for a baby
to come out. She made no protest as she left for Grandma’s.
A bit later, mom sent up
some scrambled eggs and bagels. Grateful that Ryan had some food for him as the
contractions were closer together now, I could only stomach one bite of each.
Well, I was definitely in the “can’t think of eating now!” stage of labor,
which was a good sign, as it meant things were progressing!
Finally around 7 AM, we
told the midwife she might want to start heading this way, as it was a 45
minute drive. I was getting some contractions that double-peaked, and the pain was
less and less bearable. I moved downstairs as Ryan started filling the pool. It
took a while to get the hose set up right, and where it was screwed in outside
there happened to be a huge bed of fire ants! So each trip to adjust something
ended with him running in and pulling off his socks as fast as he could before
getting bit by ants. Comical looking back on, but not fun to experience! Those
contractions where he wasn’t there to press on my back were definitely hard,
but I had hot water in the pool to look forward to!
Unfortunately, once
everything was in place and the midwife had arrived and checked baby’s
heartbeat (“good and strong!”), we checked the water filling the pool and
discovered we had too quickly run out of the hot water. The pool was 1/3 full
of cold water. So our amazing midwife went to work, boiling water on the stove,
over and over and over again, pouring it in and hoping for the water to warm
up. I appreciated her staying in the background, and not checking me other than
for the baby’s heartbeat periodically. She gave me the time I needed without
any pressure.
By this point, even sitting
on the ball was painful. I stood mostly, my arms around my amazingly strong
husband’s neck, leaning into him and almost hanging on him as the pain
radiated, mostly in my back but also in front. I started groaning, prayed a
lot, and was so thankful for the music playing in the background. Making a
playlist of well-known relaxing, encouraging, and uplifting worship music had
been so worth it. And Ryan was my rock. I was amazed at his strength in
supporting me, and couldn’t imagine laboring without him.
As the pain grew and
contractions came closer together, I could feel baby moving down. Were we
getting closer? At least I knew that by standing up I was giving gravity
opportunity to work, but I also really really really wanted to get in the
water, knowing what a relief the warmth and weightlessness would be. But the
water still wasn’t quite warm enough… I started bearing down a little,
wondering if this baby would just drop out on the floor while I stood up! But I
also tried not to push too much, not wanting to push too soon like last time,
knowing I’d need to save strength. Finally the midwife declared, probably
around 10 AM, that the pool was okay. I didn’t waste a minute in getting in.
And what a relief… The
contractions were still very painful, but being able to squat and sit without
having to put much weight on my legs was so helpful. I was given more juice to
keep my blood sugar up, and started pushing more in earnest, accompanied by
sounds I never knew I was capable of making outside of giving birth!
Feeling more and more
like pushing, I also told the midwife she could call my mom to come up. While I’m
not one to want extra people around – even the midwife hung out on the porch
most of the morning to give us privacy – I knew my mom would be so blessed to
be at the birth of a grandchild. Especially when it had been her dream since my
dad built this guest house to have a baby born in it one day… A dream I’d
laughed at before, wondering how that would ever happen, only to come to this
point and be the one birthing here. I wanted to give her this gift too, since
she had been the one to set the example and give the encouragement to try home
birth in the first place.
When the tension in my
back eased a bit (while still quite painful!), I knew baby had worked her way
down past that point and that delivery was closer. I pushed even more, dreading
the feel of the head crowning, but knowing what to work for. Having given birth
once before, I knew what to push for (and also how painful it would be!), and
just wanted to hold my baby and have these labor pains be over! With one big
push I felt a gush and realized my water had broken. Progress!!
As my vocalization
increased, my midwife helpfully instructed me that I was pushing too much out
of my mouth and not enough down below. She told me to stop making noise, and
instead focus on pushing more down. It was hard to do, but so helpful! As “Rock
of Ages” played in the background, I heard the words “through the water and the
blood” and knew the pain would be worth it. I pushed with all I could, and felt
the sensation – the head had crowned!
Ryan had gotten in the
pool with me to be ready to catch the baby, and he was able to see the head be
delivered. But, just as had happened with my first baby, the next pushes, hard
as I gave them, didn’t produce the body. Suddenly the midwife jumped in the
pool, giving no thought to her clothes. She instructed me to lean back and
reached down to grab the baby. A shoulder was stuck. It seemed like an eternity
of “tug of war” as she yelled for me to push with all I had (which, in my
exhausted state felt like I had nothing… but God gave strength I didn’t know I
had!). She twisted and pulled (“like a cork off of a bottle” she later said)
and I pushed, praying with all my might, and hearing Ryan pray, “Lord, please
save Eliana.” The thought occurred – what if something’s wrong? – but I didn’t
let myself dwell on it, instead focusing on trying to push, though I felt I had
nothing left. I was also thankful to know my mom was praying in the background
too. I knew that God was in control.
And God delivered,
through the hands of an amazing, knowledgeable midwife. This amazing woman had
delivered my younger sister 20 years ago, so she’s seen a lot of babies. My
baby was a little blue, and didn’t cry right away as I snuggled her to my
chest, thanking God and telling her to breathe. Ryan asked if everything was
okay, and the midwife told us not to worry as she suctioned her throat a bit.
And seconds later, she coughed and cried a little, and began to pink up. She
was okay! And she was perfect. I noticed her hands right away – long fingers! :)
My mom noted the time on
that November 5th day: 11:20 AM. All in all, my painful labor had
been about 12 hours. Not the “lots shorter” labor so many said they had for
their second birth, but still 5 hours less than labor with Hadassah, so I was
thankful. And she did look to be about 41 weeks gestation. But I was still glad
I’d had that later due date in my head! ;)
When the midwife said “he”
for the second time, I asked if we really had a girl. Turns out the midwife
hadn’t looked, so we checked, and we were really holding a girl, our second
daughter! Our Eliana Grace. Our God had truly answered with grace, as her name
implies.
We bonded for quite a
while in the pool, before the midwife said I should move to the bed as she
preferred to deliver the placenta out of the water. So I reclined and nursed
Ellie for the first time. It’s amazing how babies are born knowing what to do!
The placenta still hadn’t come, so Ryan got some skin-to-skin bonding with
Ellie while I moved to the toilet to try and get the placenta to come. The
midwife prepared a shot of Pitocin, but I pushed and prayed for the placenta… I
was in enough pain with the contractions there were that I really didn’t want
any stronger contractions! Finally, the placenta dropped out without Pitocin.
And I was amazed at its size - how it
and my baby fit inside me I do not know!
Especially when we weighed
Eliana… As the midwife got her ready to be put in the sling, she said, “Any
guesses?” I had gained a little less weight this pregnancy, but I guessed she
was still over 8 lbs. The midwife said, “I think 8.2” and then gasped: 10.1
lbs!! I was amazed. Guess all the dire predictions the doctor in Shanghai had
given me about having a big baby had come to pass. But, other than the shoulder
dystocia (which I had with Hadassah as well, though she was just 8.8 lbs),
Ellie was born without complication, and I didn’t even tear this time around,
despite her largeness! That has made healing so so SO much faster and
everything just less painful!
And I was so grateful God
had allowed us to come back for this birth. I know the pressure from the doctor
in China would have been strong to induce and/or go for a c-section when they
saw how big baby was looking on the ultrasound. When pushing took a while, that
could have also called for a c-section. And I just couldn’t imagine laboring in
a hospital room… I really enjoy the peaceful environment of home and the
freedom it allowed me to move around and do whatever I wanted without pressure
or too much monitoring. Add to that the birthing pool; I really don’t know if I
could have lasted and made it through without it. So God knew what He was doing
to allow things to work out for us to come home for the birth.
In addition to her 10.1
lbs, Eliana Grace measured 21 inches long and was strong and healthy. She took
to nursing right away, too. She somewhat concerned me that first day though,
after nursing twice fairly close together, she slept for 7 hours straight,
despite my best efforts to get her to wake up and nurse. I needn’t have worried…
That night she woke every 2 hours on the dot!
My sister Lydia arrived
home with my dad from the airport, having flown in from Eastern Europe, 20
minutes before Eliana was born. So it was quite the exciting morning! After
getting cleaned up and Ellie dressed, we had our first visitors. My sis-in-law
Megan had come over that morning to help watch Hadassah, who had a blast with
her and told me all about it later! My brother Elijah had joined everyone for
lunch, so he and Megan came up to meet Ellie, followed by Lydia. My mom came up
for some Grandma snuggles soon after, and dad came once he returned from a
meeting. They brought Hadassah up to us after she woke up from her nap, and we
enjoyed some bonding time as a family of four.
I’d thought months ago about how I wanted to introduce Hadassah to her sister. I
didn’t want her to show up after a day of not seeing mommy and suddenly see a
new baby in my arms. So we put Eliana in her cradle, and I got to snuggle my
first baby with a big hug. Then, I took her over to meet her sister, and she
was instantly enthralled. She wanted to hold her and we kept pointing out her
cute little fingers and nose. We now had TWO girls!
God is good. He gives
grace upon grace, and we are so thankful for His blessing of new life!
Especially neat? Our first neighbor from China was here too! He is spending a year in the states for his work, and he flew all the way from California to spend over a week with us in Alabama!
My dad watched over an excellent turkey, as always!
This year we're a family of four... so much to be thankful for!
There was lots of delicious food - and cute young Indians and pilgrims joining us! :)
This year we're especially thankful for our newest blessing, who slept through the whole meal (thus letting her mommy eat!).
Only in the South do you get to eat your Thanksgiving feast OUTSIDE! What a beautiful day!
Loved seeing my nieces hold their cousin. I remember when Lisa Beth was the baby in MY arms, and now she's holding my daughter!
You know it's good when the dessert takes up almost the same amount of room as the main meal! But when you're feeding 28 people... 
Huge, tall trees against blue BLUE sky still haven't lost their fascination for me. :)
My parents, with their 13th grandchild. They have been wonderful hosts to us all this week too!
