Baby E's Furious Entry Into the World

A number of folks have asked me about the birth story of our newest daughter, Eleanor.

Here is her story:

I got up to pee at 12:45 PM. 
Then I felt like I peeing all the time but I tried to lay down.
I sat up a few minutes later and felt like puking. 
And I did. I made it in the toilet. 

Since I puked, I woke Russ up and said I thought I should go to the hospital and just get checked out. 
I figured they'd just send me home, so I told Russ that I'd just drive myself to the hospital.

Thankfully, Russ said that he would drive me. He got dressed and I went and got P from her room and put her in the car. We started the short drive to the hospital.

I made Russ promise me that he wouldn't tell anyone that we'd tried to go to the hospital if it was a false alarm. I didn't want to be known for crying wolf I guess.

I had two contractions in the car that were pretty intense. I think they were about 3-5 minutes apart. 
Still, I didn't think much of it. Russ did not speed, I did not feel like he should drive any faster, and I think we made jokes along the way about how rough the morning would be teaching seminary and going through our work days.

We got to the hospital and I got out of the car and walked in while Russ parked the car and brought Phoenix in. I puked two times while walking in- and I think this is when Russ knew we would be here.

I remember thinking that I must look drunk- walking and then puking, walking and then puking.

Well, I got in the hospital and no one was at the desk. I pressed a button and told the nurse, "I may be in labor, but I don't know".

In fact, I filled out paperwork right there and wrote "possible labor, I puked" for the reason I came in.

Walking to the triage room I started having a contraction and the nurse said I could stop and wait for it to pass (what a novel idea! I would've kept moving...). 

Russ and P caught up with us at this point.

We got to the room and she handed me a puke bag. This is about the time I quit caring about things and just wanted to be checked if things were serious.

She gave me a gown and I quickly switched my clothes.
When the nurse saw how quick I changed, she quit asking questions and checked me.

Here is the how it went, conversation wise:

Nurse: Oh my goodness you are at an 8 or a 9.

Me: Where's the epidural???

Nurse: No epidural, you're having this baby right now.

Me: No... I can't do this. Please.... RUSS TEXT THE BEAUREGARD'S TO COME GET P!

Nurse: We have to move you to the delivery room

Me: Is that where the epidural is?

Nurse: No, I mean we can try, but it takes about an hour with blood work. You are just going to have this baby.

*****
We got to the delivery room and nurses were running everywhere.

Some nurse came in and tried to talk to me about blood cord banking.
Another nurse yelled at her ,"forget the blood cord there's no time"

I scribbled on some consent forms.
And I kept screaming about an epidural and that I couldn't do it without one.

P and Russ were patting  my back as the nurses told me to breathe and push.
Then P started crying.
A nurse tried to take her from Russ but that wasn't happening.

A nurse checked me again and touched E's head.

A lady doctor I have never met came in and sat down to deliver the baby.

Our friends showed up and took P.

Russ came back in.
And this is where I really lost it.

I asked for a Russ for a blessing. 
Then another contraction came and he just put one hand on my head and pushed down.
Not sure what good that did.- but he was trying to accommodate through the madness.


I kept yelling "I can't feel my feet"

And "I can't do this"

The doctor said, "Do you want to feel your baby's head?

And I said something like, "No, I want this to end"

She said, "Once you push the head the rest of the way and the shoulders then you're done."


I asked if I had to wait for another contraction.
She said no.

So I monster pushed and E was born!

P had been gone maybe 10 minutes. We had left our home about a hour before.

Then I laid there shaking in shock for about 40 minutes, scared to move.

I'll do a follow-up post if you have any questions... that aren't too personal!