The Heatons: Ellie Layne Heaton: Birth Story

We are so excited Ellie has finally joined our family and all is well with us! We had a more unique birth than I anticipated with Ellie, in some good ways and in other ways just not what we had really anticipated. I went to my 40 week appointment and Chris decided to join me, it was on a monday. I was still 4CM dilated and 80% effaced, no progress. I was pretty bummed and I had started to reach my patience limit, my doctor said he would like to see me go into labor on my own but he would be willing to induce me that week sometime and that Chris and I could talk it over. I told Chris the absolute longest I could wait would be thursday, so we discussed with Doctor Ott and he said Wednesday morning would be good for him if it worked for us. I was extremely excited and felt grateful that there would be an end in sight for this pregnancy. I felt a little disappointment though because I was really hoping to go into labor on my own, I decided I would start taking long walks to see if that would help. My mom and I took Kinley to the park that day and I walked the path for awhile but I was in so much pain in one spot (lower abdomen on my right side.) It was almost excruciating pain so I stopped walking and figured her shoulder was pushing on something and causing me a ton of pain. The next day we decided to go again and same thing happened, I got the terrible pain in the same spot. Chris gave me a blessing tuesday night, and it was incredibly sweet. It calmed my nerves and helped me not feel so much anxiety, I slept fine that night and felt calm the next morning too. I knew it was because of the blessing he gave me that I was as relaxed and at ease as I was. We had to be at the hospital at 8AM wednesday morning, I started to get butterflies as we walked into the hospital and signed in, I knew I would be walking out of there with a baby in our arms! We got everything situated and Dr. Ott came in to see us around 9:00 AM and we started Pitocin, they kept bumping up my pitocin every 20-30 minutes. I started getting consistent contractions that were pretty close together, but nothing too bad. Chris and I walked the halls and hung out for a couple hours, I told Chris my goal was to have her by 3PM, he kinda laughed and he said "it was a great goal, but not to be disappointed if it didn't happen that fast." :) I remember around 1:30 walking and Chris and I kinda laughing because we were sure I was going to go way past my goal of delivering by 3. A little after 2:00 PM my doctor came in to check me, I was only at a 5! I was pretty disappointed that that many hours only dilated me a centimeter but the Dr said "lets break your water and get things moving along." So, they broke my water and within minutes I started having this crazy pain in the same place I was feeling it before while walking but this time on both sides, the pain was really low and below my abdomen. I told the nurse I wasn't feeling contractions in my abdomen only this crazy most intense pain of my life, she told me she wasn't sure what the pain was. I was crying almost hysterically because I have only ever felt that much pain once before and it was when I was 9CM dilated with Kinley. She left to go talk to another nurse and she told me "it's likely that pain will stick around until you deliver." I felt really sad but I told Chris I wanted an Epidural, I knew deep down in my heart I didn't want one but I wasn't sure if my body could take that amount of pain for hours and hours of labor to get me to a ten. The nurse offered to put a pain killer in my IV to help and that she would call the DR for an okay for the epidural. She gave me the pain killers which instantly made me dizzy, but did help me "relax" in-between these crazy pains. She turned off the pit because of the amount of pain I was in, I was so frustrated because I didn't even know I was having contractions. I was just hurting in a weird place with weird pain, only an hour had passed since my water had broke and the doctor came in. He checked me and said "well, no need for an epidural you're at a 9." I think I was in shock but if I wasn't in so much pain I would have jumped for joy, I said "Okay, I'm totally fine without one. I can do this." It's amazing how strong our minds are, and how much it helped me cope with the pain once I realized it was almost time to push. The doctor stepped out for just a second to go back to the clinic and a few minutes had past and I told the nurse I was feeling pressure and it was almost time to push. She text Dr. Ott and told him, I then told her again "this baby is coming!" She left to run grab him, and I yelled to Chris that I felt pressure and she was coming right now, no one was in the room with me but him. He was totally calm but stood up ready to help deliver my baby. :) It was taking everything in me not to push, then the nurse came running in and told me not to push again. The doctor came running in behind her, got suited up and said "okay, I'm here you can push now." The monitor that detected the contractions had moved, so they couldn't really tell when I was having one so I would tell them when I could feel another one coming on. It was a few minutes after 3:00 when I started pushing and at 3:17 PM our sweet Ellie was born. They put her on my chest and let me hold her while I got just a couple stitches, she was so sweet and was crying a little bit. Chris and I both had tears in our eyes and my heart was full of so much love. I didn't shake or anything after delivering her, I felt really really good. I even said "let's have another one" right after getting to hold her for the first time. :) It was such an amazing and spiritual experience for Chris and I, and I'm so grateful Chris is my spouse and partner. He was so amazing and supportive the whole time during labor, he was always upbeat and positive. Ellie was 7 pounds 12 ounces & 20 inches long, she is absolutely perfect and looks just like her sister.