The Car Birth Story Of Elodie Charlotte

The Car Birth Story Of Elodie Charlotte. She was born at 34 weeks in the car after a fast and furious labor, right into my arms!

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This pregnancy and birth taught me so much. It’s amazing that no matter how many children you’ve already had, there’s still more to learn from each one!

The beginning of this pregnancy I had so many dreams about this baby. They felt prophetic in a way.

I dreamed that she was a girl, and that we would name her Elodie. Also I dreamed that she came early and super fast and that my mom missed the birth. I really wanted my mom there so I had told her to come down from Montana at least 4 weeks before her due date! Little did I know that wouldn’t be enough!

The Birth Story Of Elodie Charlotte

I started having braxton hicks contractions earlier with this pregnancy than with any of my others.

It started around 15 weeks, just slight tightenings of my uterus. Very small practice contractions. That continued for the whole rest of the pregnancy, and they’d get worse if I was up on my feet for a long time.

As I entered week 32 I felt them start to change. If I was up on my feet working on things for very long they’d change and it almost felt like the start of my period. Just super crampy contractions.

So my midwife told me to lay down whenever that crampy feeling would start. I was on kind of modified bed rest at that point.

But by the time I was 33 weeks it was seeming to just be more and more often. I put myself on full bedrest. But they just continued.

That week I even lost my mucus plug and had bloody show. Which made me really nervous because typically I don’t have those signs until like the day before I go into labor.

The contractions still felt like prodromal labor contractions. They were more than just braxton hicks, but not too painful and not regular at all.

But I just had this feeling. I felt something was changing in my body. That I was going to go into labor soon and it would be fast.

I kept texting my midwife every day with updates, but she said just keep laying down as much as possible to try to hold it off. She put me on a high dose of magnesium and I’d go take a warm bath to slow them down as well if laying down wasn’t helping.

November 7th

We got to the morning of the 7th and I decided I needed to go into the hospital. Which is a huge deal for me. I have always had home births and I am terrified of hospitals. But also grateful they’re there incase of emergencies like this.

I had contracted all night long and they were just painful enough that I’d wake up every time one would start. Still not real labor, but I felt it was soon and it was making me so anxious.

I was around 33+5 I believe. Way too early for baby to be coming!

So my sister-in-law came over to watch the other kids and Luke and I headed to the hospital.

We got there and they got us checked in and hooked me up to the monitors. But as soon as we had gotten there my contractions pretty much stopped. I think I had maybe 3 the whole time we were there and they weren’t crampy feeling like the others I had been having.

They also checked me and I was only 1cm.

The doctor never even came in to see me, they just said they were braxton hicks contractions and to go home and not worry about them.

I tried to explain that they had been worse than this and I have had several other births and I can feel something is happening. But they just dismissed me.

So we went home and I layed down all day. I took a bath that evening around dinner time. I even had a little glass of wine to try to calm them down. In desperation I texted my friend who works at an OB’s office to see if she could ask him for advice. He said I could try to take a Benadryl and go to sleep. So I took one and planned to go to bed soon.

11pm

But first I called my midwife. I felt on the verge of tears! And I told her there’s no way I can do this for several more weeks! I felt so discouraged!

She just told me I needed to take more magnesium and try to go to sleep to make them stop. She said that because they were so irregular that they weren’t doing anything, and I was probably still at 1cm. I didn’t feel that would work but I told her I’d try. She said if they get regular to let her know.

So I went to bed. I felt so sleepy from the Benadryl so I’d fall asleep instantly in between contractions.

They still were totally manageable, but having been told so many times that they were just braxton hicks and that I’d probably have them for weeks I felt so upset. They weren’t painful, but more than I wanted to deal with for weeks, if that makes sense.

Around 12am

But then I had one that I felt way down by my cervix. It was a lot more intense than the others.

I timed them and they were 60 seconds long and a little less than 10 minutes apart.

I texted my midwife and she said to try to take a bath to make them stop. Again I told her I didn’t think it would work but I’d try.

So I woke up Luke and asked him to fill the bath.

In his half-asleep stupor he accidentally started filling the bath with scalding hot water. When I tried to step in I almost burned my foot off! So I sat on the toilet while he tried to drain the water and let it replace with cooler water.

But I suddenly decided that this was going too fast and we just needed to leave and go to the hospital. Getting up out of bed made them intensify 100x. I knew it was too late to stop them.

12:20am

I called the midwife and told her we were leaving right now and asked her to head to the hospital with us. Luke called his sister to watch our kids incase they woke up. And we left.

Luke has never driven so fast. He made the 30 minute drive to town in 18 minutes.

My memories of that car ride are a blur. I really hate laboring in the car where I’m stuck in a position and Luke can’t help me. It made it so much more painful. I had my hands on the seat behind me kind of lifting my butt up off the seat for a little relief during contractions. I only opened my eyes a couple times and I remember seeing really blurry wiggling traffic lights.

5 minutes into the drive I checked myself and I felt her head and bag of waters only 2 inches from the opening.

The contractions were so intense, it felt like I would crack open.

I was perfectly quiet during the whole thing though. If I keep control of that it helps me manage the pain easier. During contractions I focus on relaxing every muscle I can. Even in my face. If you are just watching it looks like I’ve fallen asleep.

5 minutes later I decided to break my water so she’d be born faster. I had this deep feeling that she was totally fine and that she shouldn’t be born in the hospital. I needed her to come out before we got there.

So I used my nail and broke her waters. Which was harder than I expected because her sack was so thick.

Amniotic fluid gushed everywhere. I was sitting in a lake of it on the leather car seat.

Two more pushes and her head was out. Then a split second break and another contraction brought her shoulders and body out.

She was born just before 1am.

It was only 45 minutes to an hour or so from when my contractions had gotten regular while I was laying in bed!

I pulled the cord off her neck and turned her over to see her.

She let out big strong cries. They were like music to my ears!

I wrapped her in my sweater.

We called the midwife and told her she was born and she almost couldn’t believe it! She got there like 15 minutes later while we just waited in the parking lot.

She checked baby over and listened to her noises and looked at her color. Then we decided to just go over to her birth center (that was about 5 minutes away) to check her over more thoroughly instead of going inside the hospital.

She weighed 5lbs even. Her oxygen was between 95% and 100%, her lungs sounded good, her heart rate was good. She even latched on and started nursing within 20 minutes of being born.

It was amazing!

For a baby that was born the day before turning 34 weeks, she was a strong little fighter!

The midwife said she did better than some of her full term 40 week babies do!

After we got my placenta out, me all cleaned up and changed and baby examined again, we decided to go home.

She has continued to nurse super well and I’ve kept a super close eye on her oxygen, temperature, heart rate, color, and such.

She was a bit jaundiced so I got a home-jaundice light to use on cloudy days. And we sit in front of the window on sunny days. She is pretty much better now!

I have recovered super well also. I didn’t tear at all and I didn’t loose much blood. We are two weeks postpartum and my bleeding is pretty much done. I’ve tried to rest as much as I can. I just milk Penelope every morning sitting on my stool, and then I go lay down pretty much the rest of the day. I’m trying to make sure I don’t make my prolapse worse by overdoing it too much.

It’s been a pretty magical postpartum. Elodie is such a tiny little peanut and such a happy, content baby!

Thanks for reading her birth story!

And blessings!

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