Croix Elijah Birth Story!!
Photos below story
Our birth story starts the night before. February 9th, I get offline late to head off to bed, its around midnight and I check my home voice mail messages and at 10:30pm I had received a call from a lady at Labor and Delivery and it just said to call her. So, I call at midnight and am told they are really busy and they don’t want me to show up for my induction at 5am, but want me to wait to come in until 8am, then I even was told to call before I come, just to make sure I can. I was NOT pleased, and made that quite known. I had to call my IPs give them the bad news. She took it better than I did, so I headed off to bed. My mind was RACING and I could not get to sleep. I was so pissed. I think I ended up sleeping from about 430 to 6am, not very good.
So, I called L&D at 7 and spoke with the same woman, we both a little nicer to each other :) and she told me to come on in at 8. I called my IPs, told them to chill at home til I found out what was going on, and headed out, getting there a little after 8. Did all the paperwork and settled into my nice maternity suite and got all hooked up. I had tested positive for Group B Strep so I got the antibiotics for that and started on pitocin at 9am.
My doctor, when I was supposed to go in at 5, told me he would break my water at 9, so I wasn’t expecting him for a while, which I wasn’t happy with. Noting my other pregnancies, I’ve always gone quickly after my water was broken, and I wanted to get started going. My nurse, Christa was great and we chatted a lot. I kept joking around and asking where the dr was. He had 3 surgeries to handle, the last one being at noon, so I was counting on him being there around 12:30, which I wasn’t happy about, but what could I do, right. So, I let my IPs know that it would still be a while, so they could take their time heading over. They knew I was there alone, so they said they would be there by 11 or 1130 to hang out with me. This was a little after 10 that I spoke with them, and to my HUGE HUGE surprise, my door opens at 11, and in walks my dr. I was like “oh my god, you are here”. He threw his hands up in the air and said of course he was. I was stunned, and he proceeded to break my water, which there was a ton of. I called my IPs and told them to get over there, cuz my water was broken after all, and it would likely go quickly now.
I was checked and after my water was broken I had dialated from 2 to 5. The baby, however, was really high up, they had to reach way back when checking me, to even feel his head. My nurse came back and said that the epidural guy wanted to know if I wanted my epidural now, because he was afraid of not getting it in, in time. I was in no pain whatsoever, so I was a little worried about doing it then, didn’t know if it could slow down labor or not. But, I opted for doing it then. So, he came in and gave me my epidural. Let me tell you, its MUCH easier getting the epidural when you aren’t in pain. It was kind of nice. When I was getting that, my IPs showed up and my IM Jan was with me as I got the epidural. After it was in, they all came in. My IM and IF were there, along with both of their daughter, born 6 months and a day earlier to another surrogate, their moms and IMs sister. We sat around talking and I was checked every once in a while and nothing was going for me. I was in no pain and very restless. I’m use to flying and nothing was going on. I was so aggravated. By 3, my epidural started to wear off. I decided to let it wear off to see if it would help things along, and I’m not sure that it did, but things certainally started flying. (Next time, I will wait til I’m in a little pain before getting my epidural. Rather be in some pain early on than do it this way.) I started to be in some real pain so they called back the epidural guy and he gave me another dose. He was like, it will kick in, in about 10 minutes. The contractions were flying at the point, and I’m like “do you know how many I will have in 10 minutes”.
The nurse asked me if I was feeling anything different if I felt any pressure. I told her that I’ve had to push for the past 5 contractions, but I wasn’t pushing him out until the epidural kicked back in. She’s like “you think you have to push?” I said “I’m there, he’s right there. I HAVE to push, but I waiting on the epidural”. She wanted to check me, so she waited until a contraction went by and checked me. She prepared to reach way up again, when she came across a head, he was right there. She called the dr and the contractions started getting easier. They set up the bed and the dr came in. IPs family went out to the waiting room (they had been in the hallway since I started to have some pain) and my IPs came into the room. The dr checked me and said I was ready to go, so he put on his gown and stuff. They raised the bed and I started to push. I had his head out in 2 ½ pushes. Dr told me to wait while he cleaned his mouth out and such. He had me push on his shoulders, and it told me a 1 ½ pushes to get his shoulders out. I waited again and gave another half push and he came sliding out. My IF cut the cord and the dr held their little boy up as he started to scream. It was 4:06pm. They took him right to the warmer. My IM was sweet, she asked me if she could go to him, and I was like, of course, go see your son. She was worried about me, because I didn’t have anyone there for me. They were both great about making me feel special and be there for me. Anyway, they cleaned him up and the dr finished up with me. I tore a little bit and then I started loosing a lot of blood. They called for some medicine and a nurse brought it in and stuck me in the leg with this medicine. He said that it kept starting and stopping that I was bleeding a lot, and I guess it mostly stopped and he was satisfied. He stitched me up with just a few stitches and finished up with me. Soon after he finished up with me, they were done with the baby. The nurse handed the baby to me, and I got to look him over. With Audrey, I gave her a kiss and handed her to her mommy, which was the plan this time, but they wanted to take some photos, so I had him a few extra minutes. I gave him a few kisses, then handed him to his crying happy mother. She held him for a few minutes, then handing him to his daddy and another family was complete.
After they spent a few minutes with them, IM went out to get their family and they all came in to see the new arrival. Its was hectic and loud in there for a while. Around 6, I kicked everyone out while they changed my bed, I went to the bathroom and I got dressed in a nicer gown. My girls showed up after this, and my IPs brought their little boy back in and everyone came back so that my girls could see him. IF’s stepfather came at this point to, and we all sat around chatting. I showed Croix (who was not named at this point, which is why I kept saying little boy) to my girls who adored him, but were interested in the second hand on the clock as well. They left at 7 and I kicked everyone out, as some of them were leaving anyway, and I wanted some time to make some calls and finally let everyone know what was going on.
The rest of the time in the hospital was pretty good. I wanted to go home that night, but of course the dr wouldn’t let me, and there was so much that happened surrogacy guidelines wise that I had to be around anyway. I hung out with my IPs and their little boy after everyone went home, until around 1am. I finally went to my room and they settled in for the night. I tried sleeping and couldn’t, and rested until 5am. After I found out they were up, around 8, we hung out all day. There was even a time that the two of them took a nap, and I got little Croix to myself to take care of. Speaking of Croix, he wasn’t named until about 11am that morning. We had to work on the birth certificate and the only thing holding them up was that they are horrible with making choices on names. I kept telling them that I was going to name him Frodo if they didn’t name him. They kept bouncing a few names around and finally decided on Croix Elijah. I can’t promise he will always be that, but he is that for now. Hehe!! :D So, they had a nap and Croix and I hung out, then we were all working on getting out of there, which I warned them would take forever and it did. We started around 2, and I was released around 6 I think, but hung out since they were going to take me home. I finally got too tired, and called for my mom to come get me at 8. They still weren’t released yet. I left at 9, and they were almost out of there.
And that, is my birth story. I am doing and feeling well. I have the occasional cramping or back pain from the epidural, but overall, I feel great, as always. Already ready to get back into the saddle and find someone else to carry for next time. I’m going to enjoy my babyless body for a little while, start a diet, but know I’m ready to do it again soon. Speaking of body, I only gained 3 pounds during the pregnancy. The day after having him, I was down by 13 pounds, and hopefully some more will follow soon, so I will be on a good head start on my diet.
