Violet's Birth Story

This is for those of you that like birth stories... if they make you sqeemish, you might want skip this post. :)

The Birth Story of Violet Elyse McInellyI had a doctor’s appointment on June 10, the day after my due date, with high hopes that I wouldn’t have to go to it. Sadly, I did. My doctor checked me and I was at a 2? And 50% effaced. I think he intentionally did a rough exam to help things along, though I wouldn’t let him strip my membranes or break my water. I cramped the rest of the day and spotted.

I woke up at midnight with contractions that I couldn’t sleep through. I went down to the basement and started tracking them online while I played computer games. After 2 hours they were 5-6 minutes apart and I needed concentration to get through them so I went upstairs to wake Kaylon up. We tried to not get excited, but started to get things ready to go. Once Kaylon saw that I was fairly serious, he go the girls up and got them in the car, while I called Kaiser to get the go ahead to go to the hospital. We dropped the girls off at the Crawfords and headed to Reston Hopsital a little before three am.

Since it was during off hours we had to check in at the ER. We registered there, my contractions coming about 4 minutes apart or so. They offered me a wheelchair, but I declined in favor of walking. We got up to labor and delivery to find out that all the rooms with tubs were in use. I was disappointed, but figured there was nothing I could do about it. We met our two nurses and showed them our approved birth plan for natural childbirth.

I got checked and I was 5 cm. They hooked me up to the monitor and got my IV going. The nurse doing it couldn’t find my vein and kept fishing for it even though I had a contraction and Kaylon asked her to stop. So began our adventure with nurses who don’t understand natural childbirth. The other nurse was in charge of asking me the million questions that could have been included in preregistration, and so would have been more accurate since I would have been able to think. She actually had the nerve to lecture us at one point because she didn’t feel like we were giving her enough of our time. She threatened that if we didn’t answer her questions now that she would have to interrupt out family time after the birth. At the time I didn’t have the frame of mind to get mad, but looking back I’m pretty ticked about it. Hello, I was in LABOR!

The doctor arrived sometime (I think an hour) after I was admitted and check me herself. I was now at a 6, 80%, and 0 station. I don’t think I was ever at a 0 station before 9 cm before, so that made me very happy. I asked if I could get out of bed, but they said that while the baby was showing no decelerations on the chart, she wasn’t having enough accelerations, so they would have to keep me on until she did. We tried flipping me on my left side, a popsicle, and eventually I started pushing my belly to wake the baby up. I hated laboring in bed and wanted to be up. I had a few double peaking contractions and some back labor that made me literally pray that I could get through this. Kaylon’s voice was very soothing though- sometimes I forgot to tell him a contraction was over because his voice was keeping me calm. I remember my hand shaking at the peak of some contractions- Kaylon thought it was me, but I had no control over it. Looking back, that should have been a clue as to how far along I was.

Finally, after nearly 3 hours the baby had enough accelerations that they allowed me to get out of bed. I told Kaylon that I wanted to get in the shower. The back labor made me want the water on my back. So into the bathroom we went. I emptied my bladder and then got in the shower to sit on the shower chair. Kaylon controlled the water for me, but I was getting cold on the side where the water wasn’t and I was shivering. Just as I was about to suggest doing something warmer something happened that has never happened to me before: my water broke all on its own.

I told Kaylon to go let the nurses know that my water had broken. After he left I realized that it was stupid to have him leave me since the contractions would only get worse now that the water was not longer there to cushion them. The next contraction came, harder just as I had suspected and then at the peak more water gushed out and to my surprise I felt the urge to push. My mind raced- could it really be time?

Kaylon returned only to have me send him back out to give them a very specific message: that at the peak of every contraction I had the urge to push. I resisted the urge to push as I waited, not wanting to push if there were any cervix left. Just as I had intended, both nurses and the doctor came in immediately. The doctor then stupidly told me that I couldn’t have the baby in the shower. No duh. Did she really think that’s what I was trying to do? Did she expect me to walk to the bed by myself in transition? Since no medical personnel were taking any steps to help me, I explained to Kaylon that he would have to half carry me to the bed, and told him to forget about the towel he was trying to wrap around me.

So Kaylon carried me naked to my bed where one of the nurses tossed me a gown that I put on as the doctor checked me. I was terrified that I would be wrong- that I would only be at a 9 or would still have a stupid lip of cervix to have to wait through, so I was so relieved when she said that I was complete. I remember thinking, “It’s almost done- I’s actually almost done!” She instructed me not to push while they broke the bed down, but I had been doing that in the shower and decided that I would do small pushes instead until they had their stuff together.

Finally I had their ok to push. I was surprised at how uncomfortable her head felt in my pelvis. I don’t know how I had forgotten that, but it really stood out to me this time. I think it took about 3 pushes to get the head to crown. They had to remind me to pull my legs back to help stretch down there, but I remember feeling like I couldn’t move my legs by myself, so I was grateful that Kaylon and one of the nurses helped me. I stopped pushing as her head emerged and then did two more small pushes for the shoulders. Suddenly, at 6:08 am, there was a baby on my belly. Kaylon asked them to let the cord stop pulsating before they cut it. I just stared in wonder at this new baby- she had seemed so abstract the 9 months since there was so much going on besides my pregnancy; but just like with the others, I felt instant love and protection flowing out me towards this defenseless child. I could no longer imagine life without her. She was mine.

They let me hold her for quite a while before they took her to weigh and measure her. I thought she looked so tiny but they kept saying how big she was. They were right- she weighed in at 8lbs 5oz, 21 inches long, apgar scores of 9 and 9. When they returned her to me all cleaned up she latched on like a pro and nursed for probably a half hour. The next day we named her Violet Elyse. After she was born I had revisited our list of names and Violet was the one that jumped out at me. Elyse is for Kaylon’s mother.

Violet is probably the most loved baby in the world with her 3 sisters doting on her constantly. We love having her in our family and are grateful for yet another blessing from Heaven.