The Birth of Baby Elijah

As most of you already know Elijah David Figgins was born on Friday, June 4th at 4:28 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz and was 21 inches long. For most of you that's all that matters. For journaling purposes I'm going to write a detailed account. Feel free to skip it.

It really started on Wednesday morning. I woke up around 3 feeling horrible and fluish. My skin hurt and I felt sick. I had a doctor's appointment that morning and in the waiting room I noticed I was having contractions pretty regularly. The doctor stripped my membranes and said that my fluishness could be early labor. I was beside myself being so uncomfortable and feeling so horrid. She told us to go find someplace to walk to try to help the labor. She told Dave if I was still feeling so horrid to come to the hospital later. We had some lunch and walked around the mall and my contractions were still 10 minutes apart albeit pretty painful at times.

That evening we waited at Dave's parents' house for my little sister Stacy to fly in (that was an adventure). We ended up driving all the way to Hobby airport only to find out that she had flown all the way to Houston and then been turned around back to Dallas due to bad weather. We stayed the night at his parents to be closer to the airport to pick her up in the morning. That night I was still having contractions.

The next day we picked up Stacy and headed back to Conroe. She and I went walking at some stores in our local strip mall and the contractions were seeming to get harder. She kept me walking and bending over and all sorts of moving. When I got home we had dinner and I was having some pretty decent contractions while talking to my two other sisters on the phone. We decided that we'd wait through the night and go in the morning if the contractions continued. I went to sleep around 11 and woke up at 1 having contractions every 10 minutes that were hard enough that I had to breathe through them. Poor David did not sleep much that night either. We put off going in until I was sure they'd talk to my doctor while I was there. They hooked me up to the monitors my doctor came and checked me and said that I'd progressed 1 cm from my appt 2 days before. They admitted me and I was ecstatic! We were having a baby. They admitted me and broke my water which had a little meconium in it. Dave watched saying that he had to see everything once. He has since said that he doesn't ever have to see that again. I thought he was gonna puke right there.

I told them we should go ahead with an epidural seeing as the contractions were getting stronger. By the time the anesthesiologist came I was glad I had asked. I do have to say that getting the epidural was one of the worst parts of the whole thing. I cried and the got yelled at for crying because I needed to tell them what was hurting and not just cry. So then it became "pinch" sob sob "nervy feeling" weep weep. I do have to say I was grateful for it though. Labor wasn't too bad.

My contractions became weaker so I had to have some pitocin. Then my blood pressure started to drop (no big deal unless your normal blood pressure is 90 over 60) so I was given oxygen and rolled on my side. Then the baby's heart rate started dropping between contractions. I was rolled from side to side each time I set off an alarm for either myself or the baby. The doctor came and explained what was going on and checked me. I was dialated to 7cm by then and they said that they would see if I would progress fast enough to deliver vaginally but that if things didn't get better that I'd have the have a C-section.

I cried. I know that once you have a c-section you always have to have one and I didn't want to have the longer recovery. I had David give me a priesthood blessing and just had faith that if it was the Lord's will that I would not have to go to the OR to have the baby. Another nurse came in a little while later to turn me yet again. When she did so she yanked the mat under me really hard and got me on my side better than I had been (it's hard to be on your side with a completely dead leg) and the baby's heart rate stabilized. I was dialated to 10 when the doctor checked me so we sent Stacy out to the waiting area at 4:08 (because seriously, no one needs to see that who doesn't have to). They got me into the stirrups and on my back and explained the art of pushing. I started pushing and the doctor called the nurses station for a bunch of stuff among which was forceps. I was proud that I held it together and just kept pushing. Dave was watching and thought it was gross until the doctor pointed out the top of baby Elijah's head. They all praised my pushing which I assumed was normal and then asked if I wanted to feel his head. When the nurse came in with the forceps she asked the doctor what for and she said nevermind, they wouldn't need them (YES!). Baby Elijah David Figgins came into the world at 4:28 after about 15 minutes of pushing. He was holding onto his umbilical cord when he came out (which may have been the cause of the heart rate issues). He is beautiful. I cried, David cried and we both feel so blessed to have him in our lives.