the birth of elijah

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It’s been 8 weeks since I had my second baby – Elijah William Gast. He was born July 1, 2021 at 3:42pm, about one week before his due date at 39w+1d weighing 8#8oz.

I’d hoped to get his birth story out by 2 weeks postpartum, but you know… mom life 🙂

It wasn’t the birth I was expecting or hoping for for my second time around. You can read about my first child’s birth story here and how that birth turned out

Breech Baby

For some background on my second baby’s birth. We found out Elijah was breech at a 33 week ultrasound I had done. I’d changed doctors mid pregnancy because I moved, and my previous OB hadn’t sent in my 20 week anatomy scan, so my current OB and midwife wanted a new ultrasound. They told me he was “frank breech” and had me get another ultra sound around 36 weeks. After finding out at 33 weeks that he was breech, I began doing “all the things” to try and flip him. Everyone told me not to worry and that I had plentyyy of time for baby to turn.

The ECV

I started doing spinning babies, inversions, hot and cold, bouncing on a yoga ball, seeing a Webster certified chiropractor, tried acupuncture all to which I got to my 36week appointment..and he was still breech. We decided to schedule an ECV (external cephalic version) at 37 weeks – where doctors MANUALLY try to flip baby from the outside. They figure out where the head is, then put strong force on my belly to try and turn him.

Now let me tell you…all the prep and forms and consent forms…it’s scary stuff! Risk of emergency c-section, risk of baby’s heart rate dropping, risk of hemorrhaging, etc. They perform the ECV in the operating room. I opted to not get the epidural and I’m so happy I didn’t, because just after 10 minutes of attempting to turn baby, his heart rate significantly dropped and the OB decided to call it off, which I’m really happy about because I didn’t want to put baby boy in additional distress.

The risk of doing an ECV is that if baby’s heart rate drops and doesn’t recover, they would have to perform an emergency c-section, which at 37 weeks, we don’t really want to do if we can hold it off for baby to mature more in the womb.

My doctor and I decided to attempt another ECV at 39 weeks, which is also when they’d schedule my planned c-section if baby was still breech.

But after thinking about things and weighing the pros and cons and the risk of the ECV not working and needing an emergency c-section and talking it over with my husband, we decided to just go with a planned c-section at 39 weeks. I felt very at peace about this decision…

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The Flip

I continued seeing my chiropractor and well at 38 weeks, I had an appointment with her and SHE FLIPPED HIM AT HER OFFICE!!! I’d been seeing her for awhile but he never turned until now. It was crazy! He just needed to do it on his own timing. I decided to go in to my OB’s office to have an ultra sound done to double check and well it was confirmed- Baby boy had flipped and was head down. We cancelled the c-section and decided to let nature take over.

I was so excited to experience a spontaneous delivery. To not be induced. To trust my body and trust that baby would come when he was ready.

There was some fear and anxiety in the anticipation of not knowing when it would happen, mostly because I still didn’t know who was going to watch our daughter Audrey. I was hoping Elijah would come close to the weekend so that my sister who lives in Atlanta could come down for the long weekend and take care of Audrey.

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The morning of

On July 1, 2021, I was lying in bed snuggling with Audrey when I felt a lot of discharge (TMI ??). I’d had discharge throughout my pregnancy which is normal, but this time I felt a little more than normal…

I got out of bed and used the restroom, and I’d completely saturated my panty liner but what was shocking was there was all this brown/greenish discharge! I got super scared and started Googling what that meant, and Dr Google told me this is very serious…means there’s an infection. I texted my doula and sent her a picture (yes they’re there for that ?) and she told me it looked more like meconium and that my water had broken! She encouraged me to go in ASAP.

She said usually if your water breaks, she encourages you to labor as long as you can at home but because there was meconium and I was also GBS positive (ugh), she said there’s more risk to the baby and that I should go in. *Meconium in my water usually means that at some point baby was in distress (most likely the ECV – poor boy)

I was definitely in denial that I might be delivery that day. I looked around the house and it was a mess. I usually clean the kitchen in the evenings so I can wake up to a clean kitchen, but not last night…the kitchen was a mess. I wanted to clean it, and take my time, but I was also scared and unsure what this all meant and obviously trusted my doula to go in.

I called my babysitter and asked if she could watch Audrey, which thankfully she was free, then called my sister in Atlanta to start her trip down to get Audrey. I cancelled my 2 lactation consults and referred them to my colleague.

I grabbed my hospital bag and went through my checklist, which by the way I’m sooooo grateful for all the work I create for my clients, because even I benefit from it ? (check out more of my checklists and how to prepare for the postpartum period in my Baby Ready course).

I called my husband who was at work and told him my water broke and I was headed to the hospital and was dropping off Audrey at the baby sitters

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My last photo with Audrey as I dropped her off at the baby sitters

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Once at the hospital

Once I got to the hospital, they took me to triage and one of the midwives on staff came to check to see if it was indeed my water that had broken and she said yup! with meconium. She said just as my doula had said, and that because there was meconium in my water, and also being GBS positive and needing to be on 2 rounds of antibiotics before baby would be born, there’s more risk for baby and they’d prefer to get baby out ASAP.

Then the word I’d been dreading..”we’ll have to induce you”

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My induction

The midwife suggested I start on the induction medication – cytotec, and after 4 hours, see where I was, then possibly start pitocin. We decided NOT to do a cervical check, just since we both didn’t think it was necessary, (getting cervical checks increases your risk of infection and since my water had broken, we didn’t want to increase that risk.)

My husband got to the hospital and they moved me to a labor room, and started me on cytotec around 10/1030am. I was walking around the room and had a snack. They then brought lunch around 11/1130am and I ate some food knowing that I needed some fuel for labor – Hi! I’m a dietitian lol.

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I didn’t want to eat too much though, because I knew that once the contractions started, I’d get super nauseous and sick and end up throwing up. Around 12pm or so, I started to feel some contractions but they were pretty spaced out. Then the contractions started to get worse and worse.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my doula there because of covid restrictions, but THANK GOODNESS my nurse was around and she was a godsend! She acted like my doula and honestly didn’t really leave me! She got water and peppermint for me to help with the nausea. She put me in different positions. She gave suggestions for my husband to help alleviate *some* of the pain, like putting pressure on my hips – oh my goodness! Game changer! so so helpful!

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Labor

My contractions really started to pick up around 1pm or so. I declined all pain medication/epidural as I did with my first and man birth is rough haha. I went into the shower which felt really nice! We walked around the hall but honestly I didn’t like that! I didn’t like how busy the hall was and how many people/nurses were around. I wanted to moan and groan during contractions and I felt like I couldn’t do that in the hallway. I bounced on the yoga ball, swayed back and forth, went on hands and knees etc.

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Quickly smiling after a pretty bad contraction in the shower

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Around 230pm the contractions were getting SO bad! I asked my midwife to come and do a cervical check and tell me how far along I was. I was 5cm dilated, and 80% effaced. She then said she’d come back in another 2-3hrs to check on me.

I told my husband I couldn’t do it. That this was too too painful and I wanted pain medication. He remembered that with Audrey, my first, when I said I couldn’t keep doing it, that that was when I was nearing the end and my body was progressing. He reminded me that I *could* do it and that I’d done this before unmedicated and I could do it again.

Around 3pm (30mins after the midwife checked me) I got the urge to poop. I had to poop so bad! I told the nurse I wanted to sit on the toilet and quickly poop but she said nope! that I might push the baby out haha. She took me to the bed and had me get on all 4s – hands and knees. She encouraged me to keep going. I remember feeling like I was roaring like a lion LOL.

I then got even stronger urges to push and I started pushing and actually POOPED!!! Ugh sooo embarrassing! I know it happens but man! so gross haha. I remember screaming how gross it was and apologizing. My nurse got the midwife who got the whole team in.

They turned on the light and I right away yelled and told them to turn it off!

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Delivery:

I started pushing on my hands and knees, and baby boy started crowning. I remember looking at my husband’s face and he was just like “ugh” LOL (so bloody and poopy and gross). As he was crowning, his heart rate started to go down. They flipped me on my back, then on my side and my nurse started coaching me on pushing. I followed my body’s intuition but she coached me on how long to push for before taking a break. They then gave me oxygen because his heart rate continued to decrease.

The midwife told me he was stuck and I needed to do the “McRobert’s position” which is a birthing position for babies with shoulder dystocia. At this point, like 10 people came into the room and there was a sense of panic because his heart rate continued to go down.

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I then heard the midwife ask her assistant to get the vacuum but I screamed “NO! Do NOT use a vacuum!”

“Your baby is stuck and his heart rate is going down, we need to get him out!” and I remember saying, “just cut me! Cut me! It’s okay just cut me, but don’t use the vacuum.” (Vacuums, although often used, can pose risks to baby’s cranial nerves which can make feedings plus other things, much harder on their little bodies).

My midwife then gave me an episiotomy but thankfully just a 1st degree, I guess just enough to get his shoulder out. I remember her apologizing because she realized I didn’t have an epidural, but honestly I didn’t feel any pain with her cutting me. I’d just experienced the ring of fire and everything was burning down there, that that was nothing.

They then had me push again and out he came at 3:34pm! They quickly brought him up to my chest but he wasn’t responding and sounded very congested. They tried to clear him on me and shake him but he wasn’t responding. They quickly cut the cord as I yelled, “NO I want delayed cord clamping!!”..”your baby is not doing well, we need to take him over and check him out”.

There was an entire team from pediatrics there, so like 10+ people in my room, which was very overwhelming to me. We waited for the placenta to come out then my midwife stitched me up.

So my entire labor from when they started the cytotec was about 5.5hrs!

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Post Delivery

Baby Elijah was over with pediatrics for about 20minutes as they monitored him and cleared his lungs and assessed his shoulder etc. During this time, I got the postpartum shakes which I got with Audrey super bad. My whole body started shaking and teeth chattering non stop. I got superrr cold too.

They cleaned me up, because I was a hot mess down there – poop, blood, water, meconium, vaginal fluid, amniotic fluid…all the things. Thankfully because I didn’t have the epidural, I could walk around and walked to the shower and cleaned off. They cleaned my bed and sheets. By 430pm/5pm they’d brought dinner.

With both my babies, I delivered just before dinner was served, which was perfect. I was ravenous! I ate everything they gave me plus my PBJ I had quickly made that morning.

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