Nancy's Birth Story

I suppose I should start by owning my birth plan. It went a little something like this: get an epidural. The end. (No, literally, that was it.) I had this little revelation about Genesis 2 (Original Intent) and 3 (The Fall) after birth, and it's what I'm feeling from here on out as I'm sure every one of my birth plans shall be the same. :)  You see, our labor pains were cast on us as a result of The Fall of man--sin  entering the world (Gen 3:16). So I am one hundred percent down with experiencing less excruciating childbirth as God originally intended it to be before sin entered the world. ;) ALL power and respect (and glory...for real) to you mamas who do it naturally. Y'all are amazing. And I love you for your strength. That's just not for me, so I'm owning it loud and proud since--you know--my #1 pet peeve of all is folks who don't own it. :) And please read the tone above filled with grace, love, and a smile.
Now that you know that behind-the-scenes of my birth plan heart, let's dive into the timeline of the best day of our lives: Nancy's Birth Day.THURSDAY, APRIL 23
I woke up, worked out, and headed to my 40 week appointment. Being 40w2d, I knew I wanted my membranes stripped to get things going. The doctor asked if I'd experienced any contractions to which I replied, "no?" I certainly hadn't felt any. Then he checked my progress and not too terribly much had changed: still 2 cm and about 90% effaced. I immediately said, "Wait, aren't you going to strip my membranes?!" to which he replied, "I just did." Aaaand then he explained to me that I must have a high pain tolerance because a) stripping membranes is a generally uncomfortable procedure and b) to be 2cm and 90%, I'd definitely had some contractions. Maybe I'm naive? Or maybe he's right about the pain tolerance? Maybe both. After my appointment, I headed home and mom and I walked. And walked. And walked. Anything to get those contractions going. We wound up walking about 6 miles. HA! I think I started having contractions on the walk? You'll see this theme of unclarity continue throughout the day. #cluelessFor dinner that evening we had Deejai, and I ordered my usual: Pad Prik level 5. (Always.) During our meal I kept having Mark and Hope feel my stomach while I asked, "Is this a contraction? Doesn't my stomach feel really hard?" They were convinced I was having contractions. I still don't know if they were real or Braxton Hicks. But either way, we decided to go on a nighttime stroll for about 30 minutes around 8:45 that evening.When we got home, what I guess were real contractions continued. They just weren't painful and about 30 minutes apart. Marky and I went to bed around 10:30, but I never fell asleep. My contractions continued and started getting close together...real enough for me to walk to my mom's room at 11pm and tell her that I wanted to take one last long shower. Also I wanted my mama to dry my hair. I really thought things were happening, and--spoiler alert!--they were. :) I crawled back into bed with Mark at midnight. He was dreaming away. And I never went back to sleep.FRIDAY, APRIL 24
I kept timing my contractions (there's an app for that) which were now about 10 minutes apart. I wound up dozing in between contractions, waking up at the beginning of each on  to press "start" and "stop" on my timer, and dozing again till the next one. They were obviously strong enough to wake me up each time. Around 2am I was bored and went downstairs to walk some more. I did the tiniest laps around my mom's house. Forever. I was entertained at 5am when the news finally came on. The contractions were definitely stronger and I 100% knew they were the real deal by this point. Some people say it feels like period cramps? I didn't really relate it to that. I had back labor, so my contractions always started and stayed mostly in my lower back. More than anything, it felt like immense downward pressure that you could feel coming on and going. They reminded me of a balloon inflating and deflating in a way -- just because you could feel the pressure arriving, getting really strong, and then "deflating" again.Anyway, I crawled back in bed with Mark around 5:30am and told myself I was going to wait till 6am to wake him up. That's just what I did. At 6am I asked Marky if he wanted to take a shower before we went to the hospital, that I'd been up all night, and all of that good exciting stuff. He was so happy; we were so excited! Marky took his shower and I called the doctor's office to let them know what was going on. My contractions were about 3 minutes apart at this point. The nurse said the hospital was ready for me. Yippee!My little brother was getting ready for school at this point (remember--we're living at my mom's while we're in between home owning in Wilmington and Charlotte), so I got to hug and kiss him goodbye and assure him that Nancy wouldn't be born till after he got out of school anyway. :) My mom poked fun at me in my fear that the hospital wouldn't admit me. You see, this was my biggest thing with labor...I thought the initial contractions were going to be a lot more painful than they were. Not being able to talk through the contractions? The moaning in pain? What? I didn't have any of that (...yet. Don't worry. It did happen.). I even felt like a bit of an idiot when they rolled me into the hospital in a wheelchair. Oops. I doubted myself and hoped they wouldn't say, "You're still 2cm. Come back later." My mom was like, "ELISE. You've been having contractions all night. And you're 3 days overdue. No one is going to send you home." Mama knows. She was right.At 7am we were in triage getting checked in! Yippee! Much to my relief, I was "3 pushing 4" cm and would definitely be admitted. Phew! I was pumped. We were giddy. We just spent a bit longer in triage because it was shift change. Marky and I took some selfies to send some "Surprise! Guess where we are?!" texts.

One of my favorite things about being in triage was Marky's tangible excitement. He's not a picture guy, and he immediately started taking pictures and even videos to document our day. While waiting through the shift change, we busied ourselves by googling things like "how to read contractions"...you know...on that little machine that shows your contractions. :) It was fun and lighthearted. I was jut hopeful to get to the room in time to watch Live with Kelly and Michael at 9...all the important things.We got to our room around 8am and met our nurse, Colleen. Whoever wheeled me from triage to the delivery room told me that I would love Colleen immediately. And that was extremely true. We connected from the start. She immediately told me that Dr. Brown, who would deliver baby Nancy, would immediately feel like a girlfriend to me too. Check and check. They were both my gfs from the moment we met. Two lovely, sweet ladies who were both huggers...my kinda people. I thank the Lord that they were both there this April 24, 2015! God is good. He handpicked these two for us for sure!

Mark added the last part, of course. What a nut! :)

Colleen gave us the low down on everything that was going to happen, and we decided that to walk around a bit before the epidural since I still didn't feel much pain. We did a lap or two around our floor, got Mark some coffee, and came back to the room in time for--duh--Kelly and Michael. Marky and I enjoyed a few hours of just the two of us before my mama and sister came after lunch.

Most of the day was spent waiting. I decided to start pitocin before my epidural. I wanted to be able to walk around/use my legs for as long as possible. And the contractions still weren't really painful. Colleen and I schemed about the pitocin with the plan that it would speed things up so she could be there to deliver baby Nancy before the time her shift was over. (I told you we bonded from the start! I knew I wanted her there so badly to help welcome Nancy into the world!!) So yeah...I had the "bring it on" mentality.

Lots of waiting. Pitocin pumping through my system. I chilled on the birthing ball lots because it just felt better on my back. (Plus I didn't want to be lying in bed for a whole day.) Colleen kept us so abreast on the anesthesiologist's schedule. He had a c-section at 2pm, so I had to decide if I wanted him to come to me beforehand, knowing that his time there would last around 30 minutes.

I passed. My contractions were of course getting stronger and closer together with the pitocin, but I could still easily talk through them and wasn't grimacing in pain. Well, two o'clock hit (c-section time for the anesthesiologist), and I easily hit a point were I didn't want to look at anyone during my contractions anymore. I couldn't talk through them. I just wanted to look away from my family, close my eyes, and get through them. At that point, I told Colleen to send the anesthesiologist over after his c-section. This pain was I suppose what I expected the initial start of labor to feel like. :)

I was pumped to see the anesthesiologist when he arrived. The pain was there and it was real, but I could still manage it. It was my personally perfect time to get the epidural. He did his thing. I've never had a fear of needles (nor did I look at what exactly he was putting in my back), but the epidural was a piece of cake compared to contractions. I flinched once and that was about it. Then I waited for the medicine to work. And waited. And the 10 minute window passed. Nothing. My body went from 0-60 at this point. All of the sudden my pain went from manageable to...no words horrible. With that pitocin pumping through my system for several hours, the contractions were strong as anything and only about 1.5-2 minutes apart. Colleen called the anesthesiologist back in to check me. He would put ice on my face and then on my legs and waist asking if it was the same coldness at every point he touched. Yes, yes, yes, yes...and yes, yes, yes. I could feel everything.

This is the part where I gained insane, incomprehensible mad respect to all natural laborers. I was in more pain than I would ever wish upon anyone. Holy moly. I went from needing to look away from folks during my contractions to feeling like I was having the worst out of body experience and that I couldn't be myself. My face wasn't the right color, I had a bucket in front of me because I was on the verge of vomiting from the pain, my hands were shaking, I was groaning from the pain, and thorough each contraction, a single tear would come out of my left eye. I was squeezing the crap out of Mark's hand and thinking, "What if my body doesn't respond to epidurals? What are we gonna do?" Owning it: I didn't say it out loud but I definitely thought..."if this doesn't work the second time I want a c-section."

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Fuzziness begins for Elise...so, it's Hope here now to let y'all know what happened during the epidural madness. Y'all. Colleen told us that it would be about 10 minutes for the epidural, so mom and I went into the waiting room. And we waited. And waited. And let's be real, we started to get a bit freaked out. Mom and I debated back and forth for a good five minutes on who would go into the room to check on her. Obviously, I volunteered and wouldn't let up. So...in I walk into the L&D room. Elise had ice packs everywhere and a bucket in front of her face. I'm sure I looked like I had seen a ghost because I have never seen someone (especially my sister) in pain like that. Colleen just looked at me and said, "it didn't work" and I just said, "okay I'm going to tell everyone not to come in here" because I had NO idea what's going on. Epidurals don't work sometimes?! Wait..what?! Confused. Elise looked at me and said "NO!" in response to our family coming back in...and I walked out. My hands were trembling because I felt so helpless and let's be real...I've never had a baby and I was like OMG THIS IS REALLY GOING TO  HURT! Anyway, I walked ran back into the waiting room and told my Mom. Our sweet Mimi and Papaw had arrived to the hospital at this point and everyone was worried. Mom walked ran into Elise's room to see for herself what was going on. At this point, I sent text messages to Elise's best friends and our cousins asking them to please pray for Epidural #2 to work. 

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That pain, y'all. SHOOT. I can't remember the last time I cried from pain. And I was even trying not to cry and that little tear would just come at every contraction. Mark was such an encouragement and rock to me during this time. I couldn't have done it without him, and I promise you I could even see the pain in his eyes as he helped me through each contraction and comforted me when they were over. The anesthesiologist couldn't try epidural #2 again soon enough. I had Mark pray for us that #2 would take and we could go on with labor as I had envisioned it.

Praise Jesus, it took. (And thank you, Lord, for epidurals.) The 30-45 minute window from epidural 1 not working to epidural 2 working was not fun at all, and I surely didn't feel like myself. But when that epidural kicked in, boy, did I feel like a peach!!! A-mazing. Best thing ever. Colleen checked my progress (we hadn't checked it since triage!), aaaand I was 8cm. I burst into tears of happiness and couldn't help but exclaim, "I AM SO AWESOME!" No shame. I was pretty pumped and proud that I labored 8cm by myself. Basically the closest I've ever felt to superwoman. Yep.

The last 2 cm were filled with a peanut ball, my sister doing my makeup, being happy as a clam with no pain, Colleen making a "throne" for me with the hospital bed to get baby girl to drop a little farther (so I would have the urge to push), and a few family pictures before I kicked everyone out except my sweet hubby...

I felt so blessed to be surrounded by my family on this day. I looked around the room and teared up. Family is everything, and I felt so grateful to be in Charlotte. Thank you, Jesus!!!

Just us for the last time...!

With these party people in the delivery room!

Time to push! I did my first push at 7:30pm. It was just Mark, Colleen, and I initially. Colleen taught me how to push, we did one practice push, and she told me I was really good at it (holla!), so she went ahead and called in Dr. Brown. Dr. Brown came in and gave me the same compliment for that first push I did with her and that this baby would be here soon! Dr. Brown also I asked if I did yoga. Nnnoooope. But thanks Pure Barre Wilmington & HSM. I'm definitely gonna say that a strong core was everything in these minutes! Seriously...

About halfway through pushing, Dr. Brown told me that Nancy's heart rate was dropping and she needed to call the peds team in. She told me to push like I'd been pushing, she would give me an episiotomy and use the vacuum (which is not anything electric by the way--and much to my surprise--it's literally a suction cup and a lever), and we would get this baby out fast. If I couldn't hold my end of the deal up, we'd have to go to an emergency c-section. In my head I thought, "Oh HECK no. I didn't labor 8 cm on my own for a c-section!!!" So we got our girl out fast. In total, I pushed Nancy out in 23 minutes. She was born at 7:53pm. 

The complication was that her umbilical cord was pressed up beside her face as she was coming out, and the smooshed umbilical cord meant lack of oxygen meant heart rate dropping. Somehow, by the grace of God, I never felt scared or nervous when that happened. I just looked at Dr. Brown and said, "I trust you." I really did trust her. And low and behold, we got Nancy out safe and sound and in a jiffy. As the peds team evaluated Nancy and Dr. Brown stitched me up, I thanked her for delivering Nancy and shared with her that she made my biggest dream come true today. I told her all I've ever wanted in life was to be a mommy. We both cried. She kissed me on the cheek and immediately won sweetest doctor ever award in my heart.

Welcome to the world, Nancy Hope! | 7lbs 6oz of pure joy

You can see why the peds team thought she had red hair initially! The bleach blonde was a little red from the mess. ;)

Meeting my daughter. Looking into her eyes. Having her grab my cross in our first moments together and praying right then and there for her to know Jesus early on in her life...these are the most exquisite, love-filled moments of my life.

Nancy's first kiss...her Daddy. So proud (and wrapped around her tiny, long fingers) from the very start.

We decided to call and FaceTime with Mark's parents in England before everyone else came in. I am so glad we did!

I love these pictures and the joy you can see in our faces. Colleen snapped these of us before she went to call the rest of the family in.

Meeting Nancy

In awe

Our family of three 

With our angel of a nurse (and now friend!), Colleen. We love you!!!

We spent another couple of hours in the delivery room doting on the newest addition to our family. Did I mention that Colleen obviously stayed on for the next shift to deliver Nancy? She was with us till late in the evening...helping me walk after the epidural wore off, chauffeuring us to our new room,  and just simply being the best. :)

Marky volunteered to change the first dirty diaper. Go, Daddy, go!

Oh, and since I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours, I requested two slices of pizza and a huge slice of this. Best day ever. ;) Nancy, you changed our lives forever on this day. We will never be the same; life will never be the same. I am so glad that God chose us to be your mommy and daddy.