the birth of Cora Evangeline

Cora Evangeline was born on July 19, 2014 at 5:57pm. She was 9 pounds 4 ounces and 20 inches long.

 

The day of my due date I had a check up with Donna. It was in the late morning and I thought, "hey, it's my due date, I might as well have my membranes swept and see if anything happens." Because after all, at that point, I was totally done being pregnant and wanted to meet my sweet baby face to face.

Within 20 minutes of having that done I began having real contractions. There was a stark contrast between the braxton hicks I had been having since around 20 weeks and what began around noon Friday, July 18. Initially they were approximately 10 minutes apart. Then they moved to 5-7 minutes apart. I was getting really excited thinking Cora was going to actually be born on her DD. However, after about 3 hours the contractions had pretty much stopped. Every so often I would have one or two, sometimes even 3. But nothing consistent. I was bummed!

That evening we got together with a bunch of family (Mom, Dad, LoryJean, Sarah, Devin, Steve, Eliza and me) and went to Red Robin. I had the best burger (the bansai burger) and it made not being in labor be a little bit more ok ;)

The next morning (July 19) I didn't want to sit around the house moping, so Mom and I decided to go to the museum of play with Eliza. It was a lot of fun and we came back around lunchtime. That afternoon at 215 is when everything began my contractions began.

They started 10 minutes apart and that lasted for approximately 45 minutes. Then they moved to 8 minutes apart for another 45 minutes. Around 345 I went downstairs to get something to eat and they quickly moved to about 5 mins. I went back upstairs to lay down again and realized that I was WAY too uncomfortable to be lying down and decided to go to the bathroom. At that point, I basically couldn't get up from the toilet. It was 4pm and I was having a contraction every 2-3 minutes. Mom came up to check on me and I said we should probably go to the hospital because it wasn't until then that it dawned on me that I actually had to get IN the car and RIDE there... which did NOT sound fun at ALL.

We ended up leaving for the hospital right around 5. When I walked downstairs I had another contraction in the kitchen and all of a sudden I felt like I was going to push. That totally freaked me out because I did NOT want to have the baby at home or in the car! I made it to the car and we drove to the hospital. Steve pulled up to the front door and as I got out I started crying and was asking what I was supposed to do? I was in so much pain at that point and he said walk in. I could NOT walk in and the thought of him leaving to go park the car before taking me in was more than I could handle. So he just left the car right there and took me in in a wheel chair.

I was so upset at this point because I truly thought I had hours left to go and I just didn't think I could handle much more. It was BAD. When we walked into the birth place though, all the nurses at the front desk were saying, "Oh wow, she's an 8. She's a 9. She'll be pushing in 10 minutes." I had my head in my hands with my eyes closed and crying. I hadn't realized I was in transition... but I was. And those nurses were right.

They checked me in at 8cm and the labor nurse was telling me to let her know when I felt like I had to push. I told her after she had said that a few times (because apparently I was acting slightly maniacal and hyperventilating) that with Eliza I never felt the urge to push, but that I started pushing at 8cm and dilated during the pushing. She called Donna immediately when I told her that. She had me move down to the end of the bed where they had dropped the end down lower so that I was essentially squatting. It took me a little while to get down there but once I did, Donna said she was going to break my water and we would have a baby.

At that point they began coaching me to push, but I wasn't getting it. It was like I was lost inside my own body and my brain was saying to do it but I couldn't get myself to cooperate. Plus I didn't really want to. I told myself though that I HAD to and that it would be over so soon if I just did it. I asked Steve to push me forward and hold my back and once I did that I started pushing. I pushed for 4 minutes, 4 times through 2 contractions and Cora was born at 5:57pm.

They handed her to me and I couldn't believe how small she was! I said that she was so tiny and the nurses said she was huge. I thought, Gosh how big could she be? Turned out she was 9lbs 4oz, almost a pound and a half bigger than Eliza!

I lost quite a bit of blood waiting for and delivering the placenta. They made me nervous with how frantically they were working on me. I asked if it was serious and was told that yes it was but that they were fixing it and I would be fine. I couldn't hold Cora for long right after she was born because I was losing strength in my arms. That was another reason I knew I was losing a lot of blood.

 

I was able to hold her again about 20 minutes later and she was able to nurse quickly. She literally nursed about 8 out of the first 12 hours she was alive. It blew my mind. And I was so glad that I had the energy to sustain that... because my labor was so quick I was not totally exhausted. That is until the next day when I wasn't able to get any sleep because of all the nursing!


(Eliza and Cora meeting for the first time)

So there is the story about how little miss Cora Evangeline came into this world. She is such a blessing to our family and it feels like she's always been here even just a month after she was born!