Elena's Arrival

The day I hit 37 weeks, my water broke with no contractions. At the birthing center in the hospital I was given the option of inducing labor or waiting a few hours to see if labor began on its own. Since I wanted natural child birth, (no pain meds), I opted to wait for my contractions to start on their own. A couple hours at the birthing center and contractions did start. Here is a picture of me between contractions. I labored in the shower and a laboring tub before I was ready to push. I was only in labor for about eight hours, and it would have been shorter, if Elena had not become stuck under my pelvic bone. Shoulder dystocia is very scary but we all stayed calm while the midwives performed several maneuvers to get Elena out.


When Elena finally came out, she wasn't breathing. Since the midwife already knew we were having delivery problems, the pediatric team was already in place and were able to assist her breathing. She was then taken down to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where she was put on oxygen for a couple of hours and thoroughly examined. Tests showed the placenta had pumped Elena's blood out of her body during delivery. So along with shoulder dystocia, heavy bruising, Elena's electrolytes needed to be balanced before she could be released from the NICU.

I was finally stabalized and allowed to go to the NICU as Elena was being taken off the oxygen tubes. The above picture is the first time I saw her. I was so relieved to finally hold her.

During the time we were separated, Carl was able to be with her and hold her for a little bit. He came up to my room and gave me updates. Those two and half hours seemed forever long. We were so happy to be united as a family, finally.

Elena Marie Stiehl was born 3 weeks early and weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 20 inches long. As my stay in the hospital came to an end, we thought Elena's stay was too. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The massive bruises she sustained on her head and left arm began to healing, which caused the blood cells to break down. But it happened faster than her body could rid the byproduct, bilirubin. Friday, she was put on a bilibed to help breakdown the bilirubin. If levels get too high it can cause brain damage.





Even with the help of the bilibeds it became unclear when she would come home with us. The nurses tried to be optimistic and every day someone would tell us today she'll go with you. Not until Sunday were we able to take her home, and even then it almost didn't happen.

While in the NICU it is procedure to have an open IV line in case it is needed. Both her arms had been used. On Saturday we came in to see the IV in her head. It was an emotional site to see, but she seemed to poke fun of it just a little bit as she did an impersonation of "one million dollars" from the Austin Powers movie. Fortunately the nurses did not need to use this IV line.

Finally we have seen the discharge papers and Elena is going to come home with us---just look at those happy faces! We couldn't be more ecstatic to leave the NICU after 5 nights and 5 days and head home for good.