Elijah Kevin Hobbs
Born December 23rd, 2015 at 2:49am
8lbs, 7.6 oz, 20.5 inches long
Written January 1st, 2016 - Eli's birth story
My main goal for months with this baby’s birth was to finish
all my classes before the baby came. I’m happy to say the goal was met with no
problem. December 7th, on the week of finals, I had a doctor’s
appointment and asked my doctor to check me. She optimistically told me I was
dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced. “I’d be surprised if I saw you next week!” she
told me and excited I set my next appointment “just in case”, thinking that I
was going to have a baby any moment. The next day I participated in a relief
society activity and excitedly told everyone the news. It was just the waiting
game.
Nothing whatsoever happened. The appointment I was sure I
wouldn’t have to go to came and I dragged myself into the office. My due date
was that weekend and the doctor asked me my goals. I said I wanted to have the
baby before Christmas and she told me she could induce me Friday night, right
after Sam’s big test. YES, that sounded great and had her set it up. However,
during the week I was having second thoughts. Joey’s labor went so fast and as
well as anyone could have hoped and didn’t like the sound of Pitocin. The day
before I decided to cancel the induction and see if I could go into labor on my
own. I was still sure I could do it before Christmas (which was in a week). A
weekend of Star Wars, a Christmas party, and Christmas meetings at church was
able to occur. But now I was really itching to have this baby.
I had a small ultrasound on Tuesday the 22nd to see how baby
was doing and he passed with flying colors. I think they wanted this done to
see if he was a candidate to be induced since I was over my due date. My sister
called me and told me my doctor was working that day (she is a labor and
delivery nurse at the same hospital) and was sure that if I called her and if
it wasn’t too busy she would induce me. At that point I just wanted to be home
for Christmas and not be pregnant. I wanted to talk to Sam about it, but he was
in a surgery all day and couldn’t call me at a time before I should decide, so
I chose to be induced. My doctor was busy, but she set up an induction that
night with another doctor (she probably assumed I would still be in labor by
her next shift in the morning). So, that was that. My hope was to go into labor
on my own if they broke my water, but if I had to have Pitocin, I wasn’t
against an epidural.
I came in with Sam at 8pm and was set up in a labor and
delivery room. After a little waiting I was put on a fetal monitor and just had
to wait until the doctor could see me. Baby was having a good party, which made
it hard to keep track of his heart rate. The doctor came in at 10:20pm and
decided to break my water to see if I could go into labor on my own. Apparently
I had a ton of amniotic fluid because it ended up pooling at the bottom of the
bed, and started dripping off, something my sister never seen before. After cleaning me off, we waited to see if
contractions would start to pick up. Sadly, my contractions slowed down and it
was looking like I would need Pitocin. Sam thought a couple laps around the
floor might help kick start contractions, so I got the fetal monitor to go and
started walking several laps around the labor and delivery floor.
When Sam and I returned to my room he pulled out the
birthing ball. I really had no idea what to do with it, but I was bouncing on
it and talking to my sisters for a few minutes before I started feeling funny
and wanted to lie down. We were waiting
for baby’s heart rate to be “reactive” before putting me on Pitocin, which
after his dance party, he wasn’t keen to come out of his sleepy state. Sam thought food would help him so he went to
a vending machine and came back with a Kit Kat bar and Dr. Pepper. Heidi told
me he wanted to get me a Monster energy drink but she told him he was crazy. So
I ate the Kit Kat and took a few sips of Dr. Pepper, but by then my
contractions became more and more frequent and painful. Turns out I didn’t need
Pitocin (or candy for that matter).
This was around 1 o’ clock when I started to really go into
labor. I had Sam apply pressure to my lower back when I felt one coming and
just breathed through it. The labor was progressing quickly, but not quickly
enough for my liking. I had the doctor come in to check me around 2 and she
told me I was at a 6, and I didn’t know whether I liked that or not. When was I
going to be a 10? Well, it didn’t take too much longer. After extremely painful
contractions and sitting on the toilet for a while (the position gives slight
relief), I asked to be back on the bed. It wasn’t long after that where I felt
the extreme urge to push. Everyone kept telling me to wait, and I did while the
doctor checked me. I was an 8. It didn’t feel right with this crazy urge to
push, so I just watched her get ready. It really felt like she was taking her
sweet time, but I just wanted the baby out of me at that point. I did a few
weak pushes when my body couldn’t hold on any longer while she checked me one
more time then she told me I was complete. Sam wanted to deliver the baby, so
he got dressed and was in position. I straddled down and did what they told me
to do. Within three pushes our sweet little Elijah Kevin entered the world at
2:49am.
I truly forgot how painful and awful labor and delivery is.
After giving birth to Joey I was on a high and life felt great. It felt a
little different with Eli. I was happy to see him, but I spent all my energy
having him that the high didn’t come like it did with Joey. All I could think
about was how painful it was. However, it was a shorter labor and delivery with
Joey. I also liked laboring at the hospital because they had everything I
needed to labor there and I could be ready to go before I was in heavy labor.
I’m just glad I didn’t have to have Pitocin. Elijah is a sweet newborn. He
loves to eat eat eat, and he is getting some chubby little cheeks. Hopefully
when Sam goes back to school I can handle my two sons by myself!
