We are home from the hospital now and have had some more time to heal, rest and most importantly spend all of our time with lovely Eliana. Now that we have had some time to relax we can finally share the exciting story of Eliana's entry into the world.
The first signs of labor woke Britt up at about 5:30 AM Sunday, November 11th. At that point Britt was having contractions every 20 minutes or so. We patiently timed them for much of the morning until we were comfortable admitting to ourselves that Britt was indeed in the very early stages of labor.
Nervous and excited, we tried to carry on about our day. We read the paper, watched Meet the Press and cleaned the house. I need to stress the point that by mid to late morning the house was spotless. The significance of this point will become evident later in the story.
By the afternoon the contractions were coming every 15 minutes and were beginning to pick up in intensity. We still had a long way to go before we could even think about going to the hospital, but it was starting to ramp up. By 4:30 PM the contractions were no more frequent, but definitely more painful. It was at that time that a particularly powerful contraction caused a mighty wave. Britt's water broke and everything was about to shift into high gear.
Within 20 minutes after her water broke, Britt's contractions jumped from 1 every 15 minutes, to 1 every 3 minutes. Where is the transition we heard about? Britt tried to take a bath to manage the pain and to determine if this new pattern would persist. Indeed it did. It was about 5:15 or 5:30 that we packed up to go to the hospital.
Now, every doctor, birthing class instructor, and woman who has had a baby herself will tell you: "it's not like it is in the movies." I would like to amend that statement to include the following disclaimer: "except when it is exactly like it is in the movies."
After Britt's contractions started to come every 3 minutes I turned into Hugh Grant in Nine Months (yes its a terrible movie but the imagery is important here). We had our bags packed and ready to go, but I was an amped up idiot. I couldn't find anything, i started packing new bags, and I furiously started throwing everything I could into the car. I also slammed my finger in the car door. We (the royal we, it was all me) managed to completely destroy the house we had cleaned all day in a matter of minutes. It turns out it is not easy seeing your wife in pain. It wasn't until about half way to the hospital that I - not the one in labor mind you - finally started to calm down.
When we arrived at the hospital we found out that Britt was 4 centimeters dilated and progressing nicely. She labored in the room for a while before the nurses started to conduct tests and everything was going well (says the one who didn't have a single contraction, but the booboo on my finger hurt pretty bad). After every nurse in the maternity ward tried and failed to find a vein in Britt's arm, Britt decided to get in the jacuzzi to relax for a while. It wasn't until Britt was in the tub that a nurse anesthetist finally located a vein in Britt's wrist.
At about 6 centimeters Britt had passed her goal of laboring naturally through 5 centimeters and kindly asked for an epidural. I cannot stress enough how polite Britt was during labor. She apologized on more than a few occasions for burping and swearing. The epidural brought instant relief, however things were about to get interesting.
Not long after the epidural took effect the nurses started to look concerned. It turns out that each new contraction caused Eliana's heart rate to drop significantly. The nurses attempted to correct this problem by changing Britt's position regularly hoping whatever was causing Eliana's stress would subside. Nothing worked.
The doctor was called to our room and he said we were out of options and soon to be short on time. We needed to get Eliana out of there before here heart rate fell too low for too long. He recommended a c-section.
A c-section was obviously not in our birth plan, but it was medically necessary at this point and all we cared about was the health of our daughter. We consented to the c-section and we were rushed off to the operating room. The operating room is by definition controlled chaos. There were at least 10 doctors and nurses in the room and each was busily prepping Britt and their instruments for the procedure. Britt was numbed from the chest down and a curtain was drawn to prevent her from seeing the cutting that was taking place. The doctors were amazing, especially Murphy the nurse anesthetist who I credit completely with keeping Britt and I calm and focussed throughout the process.
At 11:59 PM, just one minute shy of her due date and less than 30 minutes after being told we needed a c-section, Eliana was born. Her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and her lungs were full of meconium. After the doctors suctioned all the goop out of her lungs and an hour and a half in the transition nursery she was happy as a clam in her mothers arms.
We all spent three days, counting Sunday, at the hospital recovering. We are home now and we are a complete family. We spend our days staring at Eliana and wondering who this beautiful girl is going to be.
