All Things Allison Marie

Pregnancy after loss is never easy. I knew that going into this pregnancy, but God was so kind to promise me through His Word that we would get to bring this baby home. I clung to that promise as I experienced spotting a couple of times in the first trimester, went to triage for reduced fetal movement in my third trimester (everything was fine thankfully!), and developed preeclampsia towards the end. It was a rollercoaster, but we did get to take this baby home, and I want to share my birth story with you today.

I guess I will start by saying that I like to do things as natural as possible. I am very grateful for modern medicine and will use it when needed, but I had Levi and Hudson naturally and I was planning to do the same with Eliza. However, like I mentioned above, I developed preeclampsia. Because of that, they wanted to induce me at 37 weeks. At first, I said absolutely not. That’s way too early and she couldn’t be ready, not to mention my body couldn’t be ready. But the more I talked with trusted friends, nurses, and midwives, the more I realized how dangerous preeclampsia can be. My blood pressure was never really high, but I did have protein in my urine. And I didn’t want to get to the point where my blood pressure got dangerously high. So through a lot of prayer, we decided to get induced at 37 weeks.

My induction was set for August 9 at 8am, but around 5:30am that morning, the hospital called and said they didn’t have any available beds. They told me that they would call me when a bed became available. They called that night around 9pm, but I was not interested in starting labor at night when I was exhausted, so I told them to call the next person on the waiting list and I’ll wait until the next bed becomes available. The charge nurse called the next morning, so my parents came to pick Levi up and we headed to the hospital. I think we got there around 11:30am, and they got us into a room and started with all of the questions and plans. They checked me and I was already 2cm and I think 50% effaced.

I’ve always heard that Pitocin contractions are much worse than natural contractions, so I wanted to try to do everything possible to induce labor before introducing Pitocin. We started with a dose of Cytotec, and I think I had a few contractions but nothing crazy. They gave me another dose 4ish hours later, and I felt more contractions than before and they were stronger, but when I would move positions they would peter out. I was trying the peanut ball, walking around, bouncing on the birth ball…and I did make it to 5 cm with those contractions. But like I said, they weren’t regular.

The midwife on call that night didn’t think that another dose of Cytotec would help, and I didn’t want her to break my water yet, so she suggested trying to use a breast pump to get contractions going again. I did, and contractions did pick up some, but not enough. In hindsight, I wish I would have just slept that night and rested for the next day, but I had no idea that wouldn’t work. And every contraction helps to bring baby here!

The next morning around 9am, we decided to start some Pitocin. Honestly, if there was not a medical reason for my induction, I would have just went home that morning and waited until my body was ready. But I really didn’t want my preeclampsia to get worse. So we started Pitocin, and contractions started picking up, but I wouldn’t call them painful at this point. Jason got me breakfast and we started playing a card game, and that’s when things started getting crazy.

I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom, so I went and I ended up starting to bleed and passing a good-sized clot. Then the contractions started getting very painful. They weren’t wrong when they said that Pitocin contractions are worse – they are way worse in my opinion. For me, it was an easy decision to ask for an epidural and I have no regrets. Because I was originally wanting to go natural, I was in a specific birthing suite. So when I decided to get the epidural, I had to switch rooms.

At this point, I was heading into the transition phase, about 7cm dilated when they checked me upon changing rooms. However, because I had preeclampsia, the anesthesiologists would not place my epidural without running labs again and checking my platelets. I was so upset – I was in so much pain and the lab was taking a while. I tried nitrous oxide but it really didn’t help. I threw up while waiting, and then finally after about an hour or so, the anesthesiologists came in. That also took a little while. But when the epidural was placed, it was the best feeling in the world. Instant relief!

Once everything settled down after that, they checked me again and I was 9cm. I decided to let them break my water then. About an hour after that, I started feeling more pain and pressure, so I had them check me and I was 10cm. Time to start pushing! For context, I pushed for 3 hours with Levi. I was really nervous about the pushing phase. But I only pushed for 5 minutes and our sweet Eliza was born! It was August 11 at 1:39pm. They put her on my chest and she immediately started crying. It was the best sound in the world. Levi only grunted when he was born and had to go to the NICU, and Hudson never took a breath or cried. It was a very redemptive moment.

We did delayed cord clamping and skin-to-skin for a couple hours. She was ready to eat pretty soon after being born, and she latched great! When she was finally weighed and measured, we found out that she was 8lb 1oz and 20in long.

After that is when it got scary. At the time they only said that I was bleeding more than they wanted, but later they told me that I hemorrhaged. They were giving me all kinds of medications trying to get the bleeding to stop and ended up using the JADA system. Jason was holding Eliza at the time, and I remember I kept looking at him to see what his reaction was. Thankfully, he was calm, so I stayed calm. I was so thankful that I had gotten the epidural because all of this was painless. Something similar happened to me when I had Hudson, and since I didn’t have the epidural, it was very painful for me.

I was starving after all of that, but because of the bleeding, they wouldn’t let me eat in case I needed to go to the OR. I didn’t eat until around 2am that night/the next morning when they removed the JADA and my bleeding was under control. Jason went and got me IHOP (one of the only places open that late) and it was the best thing I’ve ever eaten, haha!

I was finally able to move to a postpartum room after that, and the next morning my parents brought Levi to the hospital to meet Eliza. He wasn’t sure about her at first, but he warmed up and he loves her. We had a little bear that Eliza “gave” to Levi, and he loved that.

Because of the bleeding incident, we didn’t leave until the day after Levi met Eliza. We were so ready to be home and grateful for a healthy little girl! Her bilirubin levels were a little high, so we had to go to the doctor for 3 or 4 days after she was born to check her levels. It was annoying to have to leave the house every day postpartum to go to the doctor, but we were grateful she wasn’t in the NICU or anything like that.

I just want to say that I prayed my whole pregnancy that God would handpick the nurses and midwives on call during my birth, and He truly answered that prayer. The nurses and midwives were exactly what I needed at each stage. The nurse I had the day she was born was a saint! I’m so grateful.

Eliza is 8 weeks now and doing great! She is doing great breastfeeding and we’re adjusting to being a family of 4. The first few weeks were pretty tough with Levi, but he’s doing a little better now. We’re trying to focus on quality time with him!

Last thing: we took the online Surrendered Birth Course and I highly recommend it. It’s geared more towards natural birth, which is what I planned, but it also goes into interventions and the pros and cons. That was so helpful for me because I felt prepared going into our scheduled induction – I knew what I was saying yes and no to. Hence the name, the course’s theme is surrendering your birth story to God, even when you have the most “perfect” plan.

Well thanks for reading! You can read Levi’s birth story here and Hudson’s birth story here if you’re interested.

With all my love,