Ellie’s Birth Story

Since we are expecting baby number 3, I thought it was about time to write down the birth stories of our first two kiddos. I have ALWAYS wanted a permanent place for Ellie and Brecken’s birth stories to sit—to look back on, for Ellie read when she is older, and for others as well. It has been almost 5 years and I am going to do my best to remember her birth story as accurately as possible. Here we go!

Our sweet Ellie girl was due in between two travel weeks for John. We wanted to be sure that John would be here for her birth, so we decided to induce labor on April 11th. Her due date was April 12th. I specifically remember my mom being upset that we decided to induce instead of letting labor happen naturally. One of her reasons being an increased risk of the birth ending up a c-section…(hint, foreshadowing).

We went to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning on April 11th to begin the induction process. I had no idea what to expect, since she was my first baby. (Ignorance is bliss.) I got my IV put in and they started the pitocin a few hours later. They let us know that things would most likely progress very slowly, and to just sit back and relax.

Around noon, the doctor came around and said that I could get my epidural, or I could wait until the anesthesiologist made his next rounds a few hours later. I was worried about it taking too long for him to come back around, so around 12:30 pm I got my epidural.

I believe to this day that here is where I made one of my biggest mistakes… I allowed a anesthesiologist “in-training” to administer my epidural. I said something like, “everyone has to learn somehow.” I would NEVER, EVER again let a student administer something so important. (You will find out why later…)

After the epidural, I couldn’t move my legs, so John and I played card games together and watched our monitor and the monitor of the woman in the room next door. Somehow, we had access in our room to the woman in labor in the room next to us. We had a great time comparing contractions throughout the day. I remember all of this being a very pleasant experience. The woman next door finally “flatlined”. We asked if she was okay, and they said that she had had her baby boy and was doing great! Now it was my turn. : )

Around 7:00 pm, things started to get pretty intense. Even with my epidural, I was having a hard time. I remember my mom, dad, and aunt coming to visit and around that time, and I was ready to be alone (with just John and my nurse). I started trying to push around 9:00 pm (guesstimating times here—it was almost 5 years ago.). I was freezing cold. Shivering like crazy. Shaking, and just really struggling. Baby wasn’t progressing the way they wanted her to, so they had me flip over onto my hands and knees. I can still remember flipping over to my hands and knees (being 9 months pregnant and not being able to feel my legs) being such a difficult and painful process. I almost passed out and threw up at the same time. I kept trying and trying to push. Trying different positions as the time passed. The doctor came back every 20 minutes or so to check my progress and each time there was very little to none. After 2 hours, she finally had me stop trying.

That was when she gave me the news that I needed to prepare for a c-section. She wasn’t sure why, but baby was stalled out and was not going to come out on her own. I burst into tears. I called my mom and apologized for everything. I was distraught and honestly, terrified for what a c-section entailed.

We had originally thought we were going to have our baby on April 11th, after arriving so early in the morning, but Miss Ellie wanted to be born on her birthday, and her due date.

Around 11:30 pm, I was taken into the room for surgery. It was freezing in there. They re-administered my epidural so that I had a fresh dose to get me through the surgery. Everything started out just fine, but after I was cut open and the ring was placed to hold everything in place, I started screaming and crying in pain. I could FEEL the ring that they placed. I was told that I would be able to feel “pressure”, but this was excruciating pain—not just the “pressure” that was described to me.

At one point, I screamed for the doctors to STOP. All of them backed away and put their hands up, showing that they weren’t touching me. But the pain was still there. I remember saying, “yes you are!!!”. The anesthesiologist tried laughing gas to calm me down multiple times, and finally ended up putting me completely under because the pain was so intense and unbearable. I am not sure what happened entirely, but I think it was a combination of an incorrectly placed epidural and Ellie being so far down in my birth canal that they had to dig her out, that caused the horrific pain.

Ellie was born just after midnight with her daddy there with her, and mommy still asleep. Ellie spent several hours with John while I was “under”. He got to have quality time with his newborn baby girl and I know those moments were so precious to him. He told me that he said to her, “this is your father speaking”, (something he said to her when I was pregnant), and as soon as he said that, she would look at him and stop crying. Isn’t that amazing!?

I woke up around 3:00 am. I remember being taken to an elevator and moved into our room for the night. They asked me right away if I wanted to nurse her. I said, “yes'“, and was honestly so surprised at how quickly she was ready to eat.

It was later found that I have a “misshapen sacrum” and there was no way that Ellie was going to make her way out naturally. This experience helped me gain a whole new appreciation for modern medicine. I know full well that if I went through a birth experience like this centuries ago, it wouldn’t have worked out the way it did, for Ellie or for me. For that, I am forever grateful.

My healing was rough following the surgery, but, of course, it was all worth it to bring our beautiful baby girl into this world.

Ellie Anne Marie Robinson. Born April 12th, 2017. 7 lbs 0 oz. 20.25 inches. I would do it all again in a heartbeat to get our girl. She was (and is) absolutely perfect. What a privilege it is to be her mother.

And here she is almost 5 years later. What a blessing.