Elsie Jane Birth Story

Elsie Jane's birth story began very early on in my pregnancy when we found out her due date. June 16 was the "projected" date for our little lady to arrive, and that meant that she might just carry on the Mechling tradition of being born on her parent's birthday. For those of you who don't already know (and if you don't, I'm shocked because Kevin told this story to just about everyone he met) Kevin was born on his mom's birthday, his dad was born on his mom's birthday, and his grandmother was born on her mom's birthday. So in a nut shell, there was a LOT of pressure put on Elsie...err....me to have this baby on June 19.

Also, June 16th happened to be my first day of summer vacation...good timing right!? AND that weekend we were supposed to celebrate Father's day, my brother-in-law Ted's Dental School Graduation and party, Kevin's birthday AND his mom's birthday...oh yeah, and I was supposed to have a baby somewhere in there. 

After successfully making it through the end of the school year activities without going into labor (thanks to my AMAZING job share Jessica), I was ready to take on the busy weekend and get this baby OUT! June 16th came and I put on the stretchiest dress I owned and headed off to Ted's graduation party. I had been having false labor for weeks, and was feeling like things just might happen that day. At the party our friend/masseuse Elly was there and even gave me a labor inducing massage during the party. Classy I know. ;) But to our disappointment she was not ready. 

The weekend continued with celebrations of Father's Day and Kevin's birthday, and baby was still not ready. On Monday, I even repeated the same experience I had with Clara of shopping and lunch with my mom and grandma to get some post baby jammies, AND getting a second massage from Elly, but yet again, Elsie just wasn't ready. 

Finally I went in for an induction on the evening of June 20th. The whole process was actually very relaxing, and exciting because I knew I would finally get to meet my little girl soon. That evening the inserted prostaglandins near my cervix to soften it, and possibly induce labor. That night I slept great, thanks to a sleeping pill, and woke up the next day rested and ready to go. When I got up to go to the bathroom the prosoglandin came out on its own, and so did my mucus plug. When the nurse arrived I told her what happened and she said that my body was just getting ready. Next they hooked me up to the pitocin at 9:00 am and I started to feel the contractions. For the next few hours I only went from 2 cm to 3 cm, and it felt that everything was taking forever.

So my Dr. gave me permission to walk around the maternity ward to hopefully get things going where I would walk for 15 minutes, and then go back on the pitocin for 15 min. after my 3rd loop around the maternity wing I went back to my room to go to the bathroom, and sure enough, my water broke! I didn't make a pop sound as some people say, but it was more a feeling I had inside of someone snapping a rubber band inside me or the actual feeling of when a water balloon breaks in your hands. 

Within minutes, the contractions became significantly more painful . By the time I got to 4 cm, which was in the early afternoon, I was in excruciating pain, and was ready for an epidural. Afterwards I was able to rest and since the nurse told me I probably had quite a while before I was ready to push, we told our family not to come to the hospital yet. It was then that I called my mom and told her about getting the epidural and she reminded me that after she had an epidural with Katie she started pushing within an hour.

Just as my mom had experienced, within the hour I also started feeling quite a bit of pressure and called the nurse to come and check me. Sure enough, I had jumped to 8 1/2 cm, and was almost fully dialated. Unfortuantely, I fluctuated between 8 1/2 and 9 cm for a while because  a part of Elsie's head was hooked on the edge of my cervix and was preventing it from fully dilating. Pushing now could cause swelling, and making things more difficult. 

An hour or two later I was fully dialated and ready to push. With Clara I only had to push for about a half hour, but this time around it was taking much more effort. I was using everything I had to focus on moving this baby down and out. After almost an hour of pushing (or so I think) my Dr. said that she saw the head and it had a LOT of hair. Now our Dr. also said this with Clara, so I didnt think much of it. As I pushed more, I had to muster all of my inner stregnth to get her out, and I remember feeling like this girl had to be big. My intuition was right and my beautiful girl weighed in at 9 lbs 3 oz! And the hair! They weren't lying! Elsie's beautiful black locks were some of the longest many of the nurses had ever seen. 

Overall, her birth was a wonderful experience and we are so grateful to my Dr. and the nurses for all their help and support.