Eliza Marie

Sunday evening I asked Stan and my Dad to give me a Priesthood blessing.  I didn’t know when this baby was coming, but I knew it was soon and felt anxious and nervous about childbirth.  In the blessing I was told that the baby and I would be well, but that things don’t always go as planned and that I was in the hands of competent medical professionals.

I had a C-Section with Miriam because she was breech.  There was no reason not to try for a VBAC (a Vaginal Birth after Caesarean).  Although scheduling a C-Section would have been much simpler and faster, the long-term effects of multiple major surgeries caused me to want to try the “normal” way.

What made me decide that “normal” meant “natural”??? 

Here was the plan:

Have a doula help me deal with the pain to lessen my chances of any complications and need for an epidural.  For the record, I am not "opposed" to epidurals.  But epidurals do come with their own risks, so I wanted to see if I could do it without.

We hired a highly-recommended doula, Sarah.

What's a doula? 

In a nutshell, a doula is a birth coach.

She helps you labor in different positions and helps you breathe and handle the pain of the contractions

You may be asking, why couldn't Stan do that??  

A doula has a wealth of experience and can tell just by how you talk through a contraction, approximately how far you may be dilated.

If Stan had been the only one telling me "you're almost there!"  I would have been like, "how do you know??!"

It just helped tremendously to have someone with experience on her side.

I had had about an hour and a half of contractions with Miriam before they took me in for my c-section.  In that short time I progressed from 1cm to 5cm.  Because of this, I was anticipating my labor to progress quickly, especially with the help of my doula.

This is where things DID NOT go as planned.

My water broke around 6 a.m. Tuesday morning.  We went to the hospital at which point I was 2-3 cm dilated.  We labored and changed positions all day long.  

Here's Stan chilling out before things got hard.

By 6 p.m. I was only 4cm and exhausted already.  So we had them start me on Pitocin, the synthetic hormones they give you to induce labor and get contractions going.  

It worked, but slowly.

At the point where I was tempted to ask for the epidural I thought I had passed that point of no return, as well as was continually receiving reassurances that I was "almost there" and that this last phase of labor goes quickly.

For me, nothing was quick.

Somewhere around midnight I was 9.5 cm, wanting to push, but told to hold off for that last bit of cervix to go away. 

This was NOT what I wanted to hear.

Finally I got to push, but even that took over an hour.

I won't bog you down with some of the discouraging thoughts that ran through my mind during those last few hours.  Let's just say, you can't really "give up" during labor and that lots of prayers were being sent up.

At 1:54 a.m. on Wednesday, September 21, Eliza Marie McBride was born.

8 lbs 11 oz, 20" long.

The worst part was over, and the best part began.

Dr. Smith, his shirt says it all.  Calm, cool and collected and ready to get to Las Vegas to go to a concert.  However relaxed he may seem, I had ultimate trust in his abilities as a doctor.

Bearing a child is definitely an incredible event, experiencing the worst and best of feelings.

I am so grateful for this beautiful spirit sent to our family.  She is so fresh from Heaven, so perfect and so pure.

  I am so grateful for a loving husband and father to these beautiful girls.

I am so grateful that in the end, everything turned out just fine.

Here are a few of Eliza's visitors:

One of my best friends, Renee MacCabe. 

Grandma and Grandpa Hornberger.

My friend Lurana Edwards.

And of course, Big Sister Miriam.

Eliza is so perfect and so sweet.  I am so grateful for her.  I am excited to see how her and Miriam interact and grow up together.  

Miriam playing with her baby.

Thank you Lord for this precious gift.  

May I now be equal to the task of raising her.