Eliana was born at 5:37am on January 8th, 2014. She was 7lbs 11oz and 20 inches long. Here is her birth story:
7 Jan 2014
On Tuesday morning we were getting ready for work. I was kissing Jesús good bye since I was working from home and he had to drive to work. All of a sudden, I felt some leaking. I told Jesús and he wasn’t sure if he should go to work or not. I told him it wasn’t like a gush or anything and it could just be my bladder, so he should go ahead to go to work and I’d call him if I felt it again. So he left for work. I ended up having this leakage for the entire morning. I ended up calling Dr. Gladdin and he told me to go straight to labor and delivery. So I called Jesús and let him know. He immediately left work (and he was so excited!) and got home around 11:30 am. We packed up the car with everything we needed (hospital bag, car seat, etc.) and headed to the hospital.
We checked into labor and delivery and they checked to see if my bag of waters broke. It had! So we were admitted into labor and delivery even though I really wanted to go back home since I wasn’t having any contractions yet. At this time I was feeling excited that I was going to meet my baby girl that day or the next. I couldn’t believe that the wait was finally over!
After we got settled into our room, we decided that I needed to walk around and try to get contractions started. Soon after, the doctor called me and said that he wanted to induce my labor since my water had broke and I was more prone to infection now. That is not what I wanted since I really wanted everything to happen naturally. I asked him if we could wait 24 hours to see if my contractions started naturally and he didn’t feel good about that, but said I could. However, he asked if we could meet in the middle and only wait 12 hours. I agreed. So, I had until 8:30pm that night to get things started. So Jesús and I took a lot of walks around labor and delivery and I did a lot of standing and swaying trying to get her to drop enough and get contractions started.
I ended up having some contractions, but they were not strong at all. So, at 8:30pm my doctor called and asked if I was still ok to start Pitocin to induce labor contractions. I agreed since he started me with a very low dosage. I honestly thought that the low dosage would trigger my natural hormones to get things started, but my body just wasn’t cooperating! So each hour they increased the dosage by 1ml and the contractions go stronger.
8 Jan 2014
By 2:30am I was having very strong and intense contractions. They were lasting a 50-60 seconds long and only 30-60 seconds apart. I knew that I had to be almost ready to deliver because they were so intense and so often. Jesús was so helpful and such a source of strength for me. He helped me with my breathing and was so supportive and encouraging to me during the contractions. I am so thankful that he was with me every step of the way.
The nurse came in to check on us and asked me if I wanted any pain medication. I told her that I really didn’t want to go that route, but I could make a better decision if I knew how far along I was. So I asked her to check to see how dilated I was. I was thinking to myself that if I was at least 8cm, then I knew I could make it through the pain because the end was near. Anything less than that, I decided I needed to have some sort of pain medication. So, the nurse checked and told me that I was 90% effaced, but only 3cm dilated! I couldn’t believe the pain I was having and that I was only 3cm dilated. So Jesús and I talked about our options. The options were to have nubain (which would take the edge off the pain, but make me and the baby drowsy) or an epidural. We opted for the epidural since we didn’t want the medication to affect our baby like nubain does.
The anesthesiologist was there within minutes and got everything ready. He was moving very fast since I was having contractions one after the other with only a minute between them. So when my contraction ended he did the epidural within that minute. Jesús said he’s never seen anyone work that fast. I still had a few contractions after the epidural, but they felt less intense since the epidural was working. Finally, I didn’t feel any contractions, just pressure. So I decided to dim the lights and get some sleep since they said it might be awhile until I am fully dilated.
About an hour later, the nurse came in to adjust the fetal monitor since it lost the signal. So that woke me up. She told me to let her know if I felt a consistent pressure (or if I felt the feeling to push or have a BM). I let her know that I was already feeling that consistent pressure so she said she would check to see how far along I was. At this time, Jesús was sleeping on the chair that turned into a bed in our room so he wasn’t really aware of what was going on. However, he woke up when the nurse said loudly “Girl, you are 9 ¾ cm dilated! I can feel the baby’s head!” Jesús jumped up out of that bed so fast! The nurse started getting everything ready for the doctor…turning on lights, turning on the warmers for baby, etc. I started crying because I was feeling so many emotions (excited to see her and meet her…scared about delivery…overwhelmed with joy…). Once the nurse prepared everything she said I could push when I felt the urge to push. So, I started pushing!
This next part I want Jesús to write in his own words. Things were happening so fast and I was concentrating on pushing that I don’t remember all the details that happened with him. So this is his version of what happened once I started pushing:
After that, they cleaned her up and cleaned me up and transferred us to our room where we would stay for the day and night. The doctor came back later that day to check on me and said I was free to leave the next day or we could stay another night. We decided to go home on Thursday (Jan 9th) and begin our new life with Eliana.
She is our blessing from God, a miracle. We love her so much! We are so thankful that God has entrusted us to be her parents.
7 Jan 2014
On Tuesday morning we were getting ready for work. I was kissing Jesús good bye since I was working from home and he had to drive to work. All of a sudden, I felt some leaking. I told Jesús and he wasn’t sure if he should go to work or not. I told him it wasn’t like a gush or anything and it could just be my bladder, so he should go ahead to go to work and I’d call him if I felt it again. So he left for work. I ended up having this leakage for the entire morning. I ended up calling Dr. Gladdin and he told me to go straight to labor and delivery. So I called Jesús and let him know. He immediately left work (and he was so excited!) and got home around 11:30 am. We packed up the car with everything we needed (hospital bag, car seat, etc.) and headed to the hospital.
We checked into labor and delivery and they checked to see if my bag of waters broke. It had! So we were admitted into labor and delivery even though I really wanted to go back home since I wasn’t having any contractions yet. At this time I was feeling excited that I was going to meet my baby girl that day or the next. I couldn’t believe that the wait was finally over!
After we got settled into our room, we decided that I needed to walk around and try to get contractions started. Soon after, the doctor called me and said that he wanted to induce my labor since my water had broke and I was more prone to infection now. That is not what I wanted since I really wanted everything to happen naturally. I asked him if we could wait 24 hours to see if my contractions started naturally and he didn’t feel good about that, but said I could. However, he asked if we could meet in the middle and only wait 12 hours. I agreed. So, I had until 8:30pm that night to get things started. So Jesús and I took a lot of walks around labor and delivery and I did a lot of standing and swaying trying to get her to drop enough and get contractions started.
I ended up having some contractions, but they were not strong at all. So, at 8:30pm my doctor called and asked if I was still ok to start Pitocin to induce labor contractions. I agreed since he started me with a very low dosage. I honestly thought that the low dosage would trigger my natural hormones to get things started, but my body just wasn’t cooperating! So each hour they increased the dosage by 1ml and the contractions go stronger.
8 Jan 2014
By 2:30am I was having very strong and intense contractions. They were lasting a 50-60 seconds long and only 30-60 seconds apart. I knew that I had to be almost ready to deliver because they were so intense and so often. Jesús was so helpful and such a source of strength for me. He helped me with my breathing and was so supportive and encouraging to me during the contractions. I am so thankful that he was with me every step of the way.
The nurse came in to check on us and asked me if I wanted any pain medication. I told her that I really didn’t want to go that route, but I could make a better decision if I knew how far along I was. So I asked her to check to see how dilated I was. I was thinking to myself that if I was at least 8cm, then I knew I could make it through the pain because the end was near. Anything less than that, I decided I needed to have some sort of pain medication. So, the nurse checked and told me that I was 90% effaced, but only 3cm dilated! I couldn’t believe the pain I was having and that I was only 3cm dilated. So Jesús and I talked about our options. The options were to have nubain (which would take the edge off the pain, but make me and the baby drowsy) or an epidural. We opted for the epidural since we didn’t want the medication to affect our baby like nubain does.
The anesthesiologist was there within minutes and got everything ready. He was moving very fast since I was having contractions one after the other with only a minute between them. So when my contraction ended he did the epidural within that minute. Jesús said he’s never seen anyone work that fast. I still had a few contractions after the epidural, but they felt less intense since the epidural was working. Finally, I didn’t feel any contractions, just pressure. So I decided to dim the lights and get some sleep since they said it might be awhile until I am fully dilated.
About an hour later, the nurse came in to adjust the fetal monitor since it lost the signal. So that woke me up. She told me to let her know if I felt a consistent pressure (or if I felt the feeling to push or have a BM). I let her know that I was already feeling that consistent pressure so she said she would check to see how far along I was. At this time, Jesús was sleeping on the chair that turned into a bed in our room so he wasn’t really aware of what was going on. However, he woke up when the nurse said loudly “Girl, you are 9 ¾ cm dilated! I can feel the baby’s head!” Jesús jumped up out of that bed so fast! The nurse started getting everything ready for the doctor…turning on lights, turning on the warmers for baby, etc. I started crying because I was feeling so many emotions (excited to see her and meet her…scared about delivery…overwhelmed with joy…). Once the nurse prepared everything she said I could push when I felt the urge to push. So, I started pushing!
This next part I want Jesús to write in his own words. Things were happening so fast and I was concentrating on pushing that I don’t remember all the details that happened with him. So this is his version of what happened once I started pushing:
Before Lisa started pushing, the nurse (Melissa) said she could see the head. I said that I wanted to see. I was able to see her hair and I got excited and my eyes watered and then Melissa said “Put your gloves on because I saw on your birth plan that you wanted to catch her”. So I put on the purple gloves and stood by Melissa. So I copied what Melissa was doing on Lisa’s left side on her right side. As Lisa pushed, Eliana would come out about a centimeter, but then when Lisa was done pushing she would go back about ½ centimeter. After that happened a few times, Eliana started to crown. At that point I stopped and looked at Melissa and said “Melissa, have you ever delivered a baby without the doctor?” And she said “Yep, it happens all the time”. Then I said “Then let’s go!” {laughing} So then Lisa gave one more set of two pushes. Eliana was right there. At that point the doctor walked in and it was kind of like “Hey everyone...” Like he didn’t realize how far Lisa was. Then he looked and said “Whoa! We are having a baby!” and started moving more quickly. So he put on his leg covers and gloves. Then he grabbed a sponge with soap and water and said “Lisa this is just soap and water and cleaned Lisa up”. Then he said “Alright, it’s time…just a couple pushes when you are ready.” Then he said “Jesús, are you ready?” I said “Are you for real? Yes, I’m ready!” He said “Well come here then” and I went where he was. When Lisa pushed for the first time, she was fully crowned and he told me where to put my hands. And the second push, her head came out into my hands and his hand. Her umbilical cord was behind her back so he reached around and put it to the front. Then he said “Jesús, she’s going to be slippery, grab her by her shoulder and when Lisa pushes, pull her out.” So Lisa pushed, I pulled and Eliana cried. Then I put her on Lisa’s chest as quickly as I could. The doctor waited for the umbilical cord to stop pulsing and told me to grab the scissors. He clamped her umbilical cord and told me where to cut it. So after I cut the cord, I went back up with Lisa and I heard the nurses say “Grab the camera!” But I had to thank God first and jump up and down a few times, and then I grabbed the camera and gave it to the nurse and returned to Lisa and Eliana.Once Jesús placed Eliana on me I was so filled with joy. I couldn’t believe that she was here and I was holding her in my arms. She was able to latch on and start feeding right away! We started talking to her and she recognized our voices and opened her eyes. It was simply amazing. The nurses gave us about an hour and a half to just bond with her and hold her before they weighed her and cleaned her off (they call it the “Golden Hour”). I was very thankful for that time.
After that, they cleaned her up and cleaned me up and transferred us to our room where we would stay for the day and night. The doctor came back later that day to check on me and said I was free to leave the next day or we could stay another night. We decided to go home on Thursday (Jan 9th) and begin our new life with Eliana.
She is our blessing from God, a miracle. We love her so much! We are so thankful that God has entrusted us to be her parents.
