Evelyn's Story

On Saturday, 39 weeks pregnant, I woke up feeling antsy and a tad grouchy. We went to the grocery store as a family and on our way home I began to feel sick to my stomach. The nausea lingered for the rest of the day, but wasn't unbearable. After dinner with our neighbor, I went to bed early telling Brody I was extremely tired and that my body felt "weird". On Sunday morning, I woke up and I just knew she would be coming. I was crampy and beginning to have contractions of the nature of pain I'd remembered my other labors having. They weren't terrible, coming once every hour or so, but they had that "edge" to them that let me know it would be relatively soon. After church and rest times, we planted flowers and a new tomato plant in some new pots for the front yard. Around that time, I began to notice the contractions were getting closer- around every 30min or so. We finished up our yard work and came inside. I began cooking our dinner- pork roast, mashed potatoes and biscuits! I was starving and knew that if I was going into labor, this would be my last good meal for some time! Once I got the roast in the oven, I told Brody I was going for a walk. During my walk and once I returned, the contractions were still short (lasting 30-45 seconds) but getting stronger and were now less than 10min apart. We tried to call his parents to put them on alert to come watch the older kids, but we couldn't reach them. After about an hour, I called a sweet friend of mine while Brody called his brother. My friend came with her entire family, bearing ice cream treats for all! They were able to play with our kids and get Hazel to bed so that Brody and I could head to the hospital. By this time the contractions were 4-5min apart and, being my fourth, I didn't know how much time we had so wanted to get to the hospital as soon as we could. Brody's brother and his two girls came to relieve my friend and stayed the night with our kiddos.

Once at the hospital, I was only dilated to a 3! I was so disappointed, but determined to stay and get things moving. My friend, who was our Doula with Hazel, could not attend the birth as she was 39 weeks pregnant too! So, to make her proud, I got up and started walking the halls... at her "Doula" pace! I walked through every contraction for an  hour before my nurse wanted to monitor me again. When I got back on the monitor, the baby's heart-rate had jumped to the 170-180s. This was not a "normal" rate and was concerning to the nurse and my OB if it were to remain high. After being on the monitor for another 45min with her rates continuing to be high, her heart rate plummeted to 50. It would get into the 60s and 70s, but drop back down to 50s again. My nurse and 2 others ran into the room, checked to make sure the cord had not prolapsed, threw oxygen on me and began adjusting my position to maintain her heart rate. I had seen this happen on TV before and heard of it happening to friends, but I was panicked. When I heard the words "possible C-section" I began to cry. Scrubs were brought out for Brody and I just began to pray for our sweet daughter. I didn't want a C-section, but if that's what was going to get her out safely, we would obviously go that route.

My nurse then looked me in the eye, and very sweetly mentioned an epidural. She had given birth twice naturally, I knew that she wouldn't throw that around to scare me, but to tell me the truth of the situation. If I got an epidural now, and needed a C-section, they would not have to put me completely under. I nodded in agreement and anesthesia was quickly at my door.

Once the epidural was placed, my OB placed an internal scalp monitor on the baby's head to keep better track of her heart rate. My position was shifted around again, but soon her heart rate was maintaining in the safe range of 130-140 and I was dilated to 4.5.

Once that storm ended, my blood pressure dropped due to the epidural. I was sick, dizzy and couldn't open my eyes at all.  Thankfully, it was a minor spell and I recovered from it very fast.

And then, we waited... we watched the clock tick past midnight and I told Brody to try and sleep.

Around 1:30 I began shaking uncontrollably and knew I was in transitional labor. I was dilated to an 8 and they began prepping my room- I tend to jump from 7-10cm very rapidly. At 2:06 my nurse told me that baby was high and I would probably have to push a little while. She allowed my 3 practice pushes during a contraction... she looked up, smiled and said "Never mind! Baby is right there!" and she ran to grab my OB. I had to breathe through the next contraction and then, after 3 more pushes, delivered Evelyn Toelle at 2:17am. The cord was wrapped around her neck two times.

Fifteen minutes after her birth, Brody and I sat quietly, alone in the room with our new daughter.

Evelyn is named after 2 great-grandmothers whom she will never know. My Oma, my great-grandmother was Evelyn. One of the last conversations I had with her before she passed away in 2005 was that I wanted to name a daughter after her someday. She was, apparently, thrilled and at her funeral I was approached by several of her sweet friends from church asking if I was the one who was going to "carry on Evelyn's legacy". Toelle is the last name of Brody's grandparents. They both passed away when he was really young, but the stories we have been told of them and their family line are amazing. They were German farmers who met at a barn-dance and held hands to church even in their later years- always loving, always hard-working.

The older kids are in love. We reminded Korben that this is the baby he prayed for, and he is smitten. All 3 want to hold her, rub her back and "shush" her when she is getting her diaper changed. So far, life as a Party Of Six has been tiring, but joyful. We are so grateful for our sweet new blessing.

 

(I apologize that Blogger rotated the photos this way)