Elizabeth's Birth Story

Elizabeth Ann Salomon was born on her due date, March 26, 2011 at 3:24pm.  Here is her birth story, if you are squeamish you should probably just scroll though the pictures:

At 2:30 in the morning Jason started fussing so I got up to settle him and felt a small gush of water.  After that nothing happened so I went back to bed and waited until morning.  When I got up around 5am it happened again and Jeff made the executive decision that we needed to go get checked out at the hospital.  I was unsure because this was nothing like the definite water breaking that I had with Jason, but went along with Jeff's plan.  We arrived at the hospital around 7am.  The nurse, Heather, got me all set up in a room, ran a test to see if I was leaking amniotic fluid and asked all the usual questions.  She checked my cervix and I was 3 cm dilated and she said that she still felt a bag over the baby's head.  The Doctor headed in a little later and did a different test to see if I was leaking fluid, but said she did not feel the bag over the baby's head.  I was finally admitted by the Doctor at 10:30 and they started an IV and Pitocin to augment the small contractions I was having.

I could feel the contractions pick up and by 12:30 I was ready to talk about an epidural.  The nurse said that the anesthesiologist was just headed into surgery, but when he was out I would be first in line.  He finally was able to come in about 2pm, but had a lot of trouble getting the epidural in the right place.  He finally found the spot and I was feeling relief by 2:30.  Shortly after he left I realized I was still feeling pain low in my right side and then it spread more to my back.  In trying to find a more comfortable position I knocked the baby's heart rate monitor off so another nurse came in to help adjust it.  I told her about the pain and at this point my body was shaking and asked if this was normal.  She asked how long ago my cervix had been checked and I told her it had not since I was admitted.  She checked me and as she had guessed I was fully dilated, but she still felt the bag over the baby's head.


 Things started moving really fast at this point nurses rushed in to prepare the room and they called the Doctor.  The Doctor checked in and was telling me about what was going to happen and just checking in when I had to interrupt her to say that something was going on and I needed to be checked.  At about that time I gave birth to...a water balloon.  It seems that my water had sprung a high leak, but much of the bag was still intact so as my body was pushing it pushed out the bag of water and any remaining amniotic fluid.  The doctor called all the nurses over to take a look at this unusual sight and I was reminded to ask for a mirror so that I could watch the birth.  The bag was broken and in just one contraction with a push for her head and a push for her body, Elizabeth was born at 3:24pm.  It all happened so fast I almost didn't believe it was real.  She was 6 pounds 4 ounces and 19.25 inches long.  She had some fluid in her stomach (probably from being in the sac for so late into labor) but it was cleared out within an hour of her birth. 





 We are all in love with our beautiful baby girl!