Sunday, August 4th was Elliana's due date. I was pretty sure sweet thing was not coming early, but I had wanted Friday the 2nd. When she didn't come that day, I wanted her to wait until after the 4th because our old small group was doing a cookout, and I wanted to go. Sunday morning I woke up thankful that Elliana had make it all 40 weeks. And I really just wanted a family day. We decided not to go to church, and the four of us headed to Flying Biscuit for breakfast. I love going out for breakfast, and this felt like a great way to mark sweet girl's due date.
The rest of the day we just casually spent watching the baking show, and then I did some actual baking. The boys played. Adam worked in the garage. It was the Sunday I wanted. We went to the cookout with our friends that evening. At the very end, I started to think, "I'm having some discomfort, I wonder if labor is near." By the time we got into our neighborhood, I was having very mild contractions that may have been real or maybe just braxton hicks. They continued off and on that night while I was awake. Nothing big. Adam had no way of knowing when I was having one because nothing about my talking, breathing, posture, etc changed.
We went to bed wondering if middle of the night labor would start, but I wasn't convinced. I didn't sleep great. I even came downstairs around 2 because I knew I was having occasional real contractions and thought maybe I could spur labor on. But I quickly realized that it was too early. I got back in bed, and I would just wake up for a contraction, breathe through it, and then lay back down and fall asleep. Maybe two an hour worth sitting up for.
That morning I was still not convinced this was actually labor, so I insisted Adam go to work. A little before 10 I turned a 30 minute show on for the boys and got on the treadmill to see if I could intensify things. At this point, contractions were still a breeze and so, so spread out. The walking helped contractions start coming in 10 minute intervals. They were still totally manageable. Adam was checking in on my status all morning, and I was still telling him to stay at work at least through lunch.
At 11 I decided to start writing down when contractions were happening and how long they lasted. At this point, contractions were coming about every 5 minutes and lasting almost a full minute. At 11:30, I updated Adam, and he left work right away! I still felt like the contractions were too easy, but he didn't care. He raced out of the office at the insistence of literally everyone there. My mom headed towards the house to come get the boys around noon.
By the time Adam got home, contractions were the real deal. I was squatting through them or rolling on the exercise ball. The boys were certainly confused, and Nolan was downright nervous. He could not sit down to eat lunch. He was pacing the kitchen, asking me all the questions. He thought something was wrong every time I would go silent and squat, which at this point was every 4-5 minutes.
Adam was wanting to leave for the hospital immediately, but I honestly was not in as big of a rush. I still felt like l could have a ways to go, and I didn't want to be at the hospital in labor for a long time. But I also had made the decision days before that I was going to honor Adam in this process. He had his own traumatic experience with Nolan's birth, and he loved everything about Isaac's birth- controlled, peaceful, medicated basically the whole time because I was induced.
The drive to the hospital was miserable. I like to get through contractions on all fours, squatting or on the ball. Sitting in the front seat was awful. We thankfully got to the hospital with zero traffic complications, which for Atlanta, is kind of a miracle. We parked the car and gathered our stuff. Adam offered to drop me off, but I didn't want to do that. But the walk to the labor and delivery desk felt long! I tried to walk through contractions but often needed to stop and get through it. When we got to the desk, I would drop into a full squat for a contraction and then stand up to keep talking. The lady at the desk was hilarious. She called back and said she needed a nurse NOW! Since it was my third baby, she knew this could be quick!
When we got to the room they had me put the awful hospital gown on, and then they put the fetal heart monitor around me and put a monitor on me to track contractions. Being in active labor while in that hospital bed was so hard. I needed to be able to move, but every time I moved, they lost Elliana's heart beat. I was stuck in the bed! Contractions were coming fast!! I was 5cm upon arrival, and I knew things were moving. A contraction wouldn't even be over and another one would start.
I had decided in the car I would get an epidural. And we said that upon arrival to our labor and delivery room around 2:00. But they had to do blood work, and I needed a whole bag of fluids. It was a full two hours later, before I was laying in the bed with an epidural. At that point, I was 8cm dilated. The nurse continued to have a hard time keeping a good read on Elliana's heart rate, so I was laying down holding her monitor in place on my abdomen. When the nurse checked me at 5, I was complete and ready to go. My doctor wanted the pushing to be very minimal, so she took her time getting into the room. I wanted to push by 5:15, but we needed more nurses in the room. It was just me, Adam, and the doctor. The doctor called a nurse in and said, "This baby could come on her own. I need nurses in here!" At 5:30 it seemed like they would finally let me push. I pushed twice, and our precious baby girl was born at 5:38.
They put her on me right away, but they quickly realized her crying didn't sound right. She also looked almost purple. They called in a Care Team to work on Elliana, and my doctor tried to assure me that she was fine but just needed some TLC. They took her off my chest to do a deep suction on her lungs and put her on oxygen, and for the next hour they worked on Elliana to get her cry sounding right and her body temperature up. They put her back on my chest at one point to try to get her warm, but it wasn't working. So they took her back to the warmer and eventually wrapped what looked like a heating pad completely around her body.
Even though she was in the room with us the whole time, I had a very hard time seeing what as going on. And the Care Team was not narrating what they were doing to assure me that she was ok. I stayed pretty calm but also silently cried pretty much the whole hour wondering when they would let me hold her and if she really was ok. Adam stayed close to me the whole time, which I appreciated.
The Care Team was eventually satisfied with her stats, and they brought that tiny baby girl back to me to hold. I held her little body and tried to take in every detail of her perfect face and breathe in her newborn goodness. Elliana Joy Tomberlin was here!
The name Elliana means, "God has answered." And in many ways, we needed faith throughout the whole pregnancy that God really was answering our hearts' longings for another Tomberlin. Our belief may have been fragile at times, but we did believe God was answering us. We didn't necessarily know what it would look like, but God answered with deep, profound joy in our daughter.
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