Elliott’s Birth Story

I can’t believe it’s been a week already! Elliott is such a good baby and Reagan is such a good big sister, everyone is so happy that the days are just flying by. Elli is an excellent sleeper too so that is definitely helping 🙂

I am so excited to share Elli’s birth story with you guys! It was such a fast morning that I didn’t feel like we really had time to soak everything in, so this will be a fun post to come back to over the years to revisit and remember all the details from the day.

I had an induction date set for July 25, 2017 after my growth ultrasound showed that Elli was measuring in the 90th percentile. I really didn’t want to be induced, but I had been having braxton hicks contractions for weeks and was doing everything I could to induce labor naturally, so I thought she’d for sure come on her own.

At my 37 and 38 week appointments I had my membranes stripped and while they caused some pretty intense braxton hicks, that’s all they did. I had them stripped with Reagan too and nothing came of it, so I don’t think that method works for my body haha. I spent the days leading up to the 25th walking, bouncing on the exercise ball, eating spicy foods, using essential oils and pressure points but nothing worked. As it got closer to our day, I started accepting the fact that I would be induced and I started to prepare for that.

The day before the induction I was a mess. I was super hormonal and sad that Reagan wouldn’t be my baby anymore. I was anxious about everything going perfectly, about the house being spotless, and about how Reagan would react to this monumental change that was happening. I went to work that night just to give my brain something else to focus on, and after I got home I spent hours doing laundry and picking up and trying to make sure everything was perfect.

We went to bed that night around 11:30 and we had to be at the hospital by 5am…oops.

We drove to the hospital, got checked in and assigned a room, and by 6am the pitocin was flowing. I had heard horror stories about pitocin, so I made sure everyone around me knew that I wanted an epidural and I wanted to feel NOTHING. At my two checkups prior to this I was dilated to 3cm, when they checked me before starting pitocin I was a 4cm almost a 5cm.

The pitocin got things going, but very slowly. I kept feeling these slight cramps and even asked the nurse if they were actually contractions because they were so minor. I almost didn’t even notice them haha. She assured me that they were, and that once my water was broken things would speed up. I again mentioned that I wanted an epidural.

At 8:30am my OB came in to check on me and break my water. I was still dilated to 4cm which I thought was lame but everyone told me it was normal. Having my water broken was pretty quick and painless, but it freaked me out a little bit because I couldn’t tell if my water was coming out or if I was peeing the bed. Everyone told me it was just my water but I really wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

The nurses were right about my contractions, they definitely picked up after my water broke! They quickly became more painful but they weren’t anything I couldn’t handle. I managed the pain by squeezing Jared’s hand and not talking–basically just focusing on breathing until it passed. We kept at this and I reminded my nurse again that I wanted an epidural.

At 9am, 30 minutes after my water broke, the anesthesiologist came in and talked to me about the epidural. She was awesome, and walked me through everything step by step. Getting the epidural was pretty painless, I was also focusing on staying still and not moving through the contraction I was having so that helped distract me haha. I was checked again and at 7cm! I was pretty proud of this since I got my epidural with Reagan when I was only at 3cm.

By 9:30am the epidural was in and I was starting to feel my legs go heavy. When I got the epidural with Reagan, I literally could not move my legs. This time around, I could move them but I couldn’t feel anything. I much preferred this! It was nice to still have control over my limbs but be comfortable and not in pain. The nurse put a peanut ball in between my legs to help the baby descend, and guessed that we’d have a baby by 2pm.

Literally 15 minutes later, I called the nurse in because I was feeling pain and a huge need to push (I never felt this with Reagan). She listened to me and said she preferred to wait to check me again since it had only been 15 minutes and I probably hadn’t progressed at all. I informed her again that something was definitely happening, and that I literally could feel the baby coming out. She went ahead and lifted the blanket to check me when her eyes got big and said “okay we are having a baby!” {told you so}

At 9:45am they called the doctor (who luckily works across the street) and got me into position to push. At this point I was freaking out because the epidural hadn’t had time to go into effect, and I could feel every contraction. I kept pushing the magic epidural button and the anesthesiologist even came back in to try to hang another bag but baby was coming too quickly. Between freaking out and telling myself I really should have prepared better, my doctor coached me on pushing and reassured me that I could do this. Seriously, having a good OB makes such a difference.

Everyone was ready at about 10am. Gilmore Girls reruns were on in the background because no one had time to turn off the T.V. I started to feel a contraction and so I pushed. I pushed three times during that contraction and the doctor told me to rest for a second so I didn’t tear. I could feel the ring of fire and just wanted to get baby out fast! I rested for about 10 seconds, gave one more push and baby girl was out! Four hours and four pushes and all of a sudden we had a baby! Elliott Kimber Anderson was born at 10:07am weighing 7lbs 15 oz and 20 inches long.

The hospital I delivered at has a golden hour policy where they give mom and baby an hour to bond and breastfeed before taking baby to the nursery. This time was so wonderful for us to spend together as a little family. We texted our relatives, took tons of pictures, and started breastfeeding which she figured out immediately! The morning had gone by so quickly that it was really hard to believe that we already had a baby.

Looking back and realizing that I made it to 7cm on my own and that I delivered 30 minutes after getting an epidural, I really think I could have done this birth naturally. However, I loved having an epidural to take the edge off even a little bit so I could be calm and focus on getting baby here. This birth was every bit as perfect as Reagan’s, and I really couldn’t have planned it any better myself! My nurses were great, Jared was exactly what I needed him to be, and our photographer was great at capturing everything while letting us have our space.

I got a ton of comments about the gown I wore–people tell you to just wear the hospital ones because labor is messy but I LOVED having my own! It’s from Kindred Bravely and is only $32! It was so soft and had easy open front access for monitoring and breastfeeding. I did have to modify it by cutting the back and adding velcro so I could get an epidural, but it was super easy to do. And it was fun having all the nurses and docs telling me how cute it was!

Okay, now I am SO SO SO excited to share some of the pictures we got from that day! Sarah was absolutely amazing to work with, I really cannot say enough good things about her. We chatted the whole morning and got along super well, and during the delivery she captured every emotion and moment so we didn’t have to worry about it. Having her there to photograph this occasion for us was probably the best decision we’ve ever made. Even though it’s only been a week and everything is super fresh in my mind, I still look at these pictures and can see moments that I don’t remember happening at the time. I love seeing Elliott as she entered this world and seeing our initial reactions to her. I love all the firsts that she was able to capture and all the details that we missed because of everything going on around us. If you have been debating getting a birth photographer, I highly recommend it, and if you are in the San Antonio area I hope you consider hiring Sarah! (her prices are also THE best you’ll find)

With all of that, here are some of my favorites from the day, enjoy!