david elliot // birth story

My longest pregnancy and my hardest birth, but we made it!

Our David Elliot entered the world on March 17, 2024 at 4:07 in the morning.

He was 8lbs 3oz. (All of my babies have been

over 8 pounds and it just blows my mind lol.)

His name means:

Beloved, the Lord is my (your) God

Little back story before we step into the birth story:

During my entire pregnancy, our family walked through some really hard stuff. Specifically: our rental house had mold growth and our landlords were trying to brush it off, but I knew something was wrong.

We were throwing up monthly, had chronic flu-like symptoms that only went away when we went out of town and even behavioral issues: I had severe depression and anxiety.

These symptoms (for me) lasted for 10 months and for Payton and the kids the symptoms lasted 5 months.

When we told our landlords we thought there was mold, they handled it poorly and so we paid for a mold test ourselves. They came out, tested the walls, the crawlspace and the air. They detected 13 types of mold in the house.

About 4 weeks later, we were under contract to buy a house.

We moved when I was 32 weeks pregnant in January 2024 and all of the stress from the months of mold, and then packing and moving, made me worried I would go into labor early, so I took things easy. (Meaning, I would not go into crazy unpacking/nesting mode :) )

My birth team was rooting for me as I stepped into the 38th week of pregnancy at the end of February and we were expecting him to be born any day! My body was so ready and he was dropping lower and lower, and let's not forget the stress my body went through for months with the mold etc., etc.

...But, labor didn't start.

Week 39: Labor didn't start.

Week 40: Labor didn't start.

In fact, labor hadn't even entered the chat, lol.

It did not understand the assignment.

No contractions, nothing.

My chiropractor was seeing me 2x a week to make sure my body stayed nice and open. My body was so ready for birth but baby boy was sooo cozy and wasn't dropping into position.

Week 41: Wednesday, March 13th, 1 week past my due date and my midwife gave me some tinctures to drink 3x a day to get contractions started. (For anyone interested, the tinctures were blue cohosh and cotton root bark). I drank those in red raspberry leaf tea 3x a day for 3 days. She checked me and I was 3cm dilated and maybe 50% effaced. My cervix was also really soft, (from drinking raspberry leaf tea!) which meant whenever contractions started, labor would be quick! I also started losing some mucus plug, which gave me hope that sweet David hadn't forgotten about me lol.

Saturday, March 16th.

41 weeks + 3 days

My midwife had me drink the tinctures every 30 minutes to start contractions.

I noticed around 4pm that I was having several contractions an hour.

Around 8:30pm I texted my midwife and said: "I'm having lots of contractions, I'll time them for about an hour and see if there's any pattern to them."

For one hour I was having contractions every 15 minutes, lasting about 45 seconds. It told me labor was potentially close, but it hadn't started yet. At 9:30 I told her it wasn't labor and I was going to rest.

At 11:30pm I called her and told her to come. In those 2 hours, my contractions went from 15 minutes apart to 4 1/2 minutes apart! I hadn't slept at all, but I was able to rest.

Labor had started!!

Y'all, I was SO excited.

sorry the image is dark, but this was my birth space :) so magical and peaceful!

Sunday, March 17th.

At 12:30 my midwife and her assistant were there. My contractions were going steady. I turned my music on and the twinkle lights

and just breathed through those contractions, lowering David further down into my pelvis.

Here's where my sense of time was lost.

David was born at 4:07am, and this is what happened between 1:00ish and 4:07ish:

My contractions were getting very painful. Every time I had a contraction, my sacrum would hurt. (And I mean, HURT.)

My midwife was able to confirm that David was actually posterior, which mean he was face up instead of face down.

Historically speaking, posterior births are much longer and harder for women.

The hardest part for me: I have screws in my sacrum/pelvis, so with every contraction, instead of pushing David further down, it kept pushing him into my screws. For an hour or two we were trying to find a position for me to tolerate the contractions to get David past my screws and into the birth canal so I could eventually push.

We tried so many positions...I tried breathing through the contractions but y'all. It hurt like hell. My tailbone and sacrum were bulging from the intense pressure they were under. My midwife said she had an epidural and I entertained the idea. I thought if I could numb my lower half I could at least get David down and wouldn't feel him pressing into my screws anymore, then labor could progress instead of linger.

Like, y'all, it was so intense. As a contraction came, I would try and breathe through it but just give up halfway through and cry out the rest of it. I couldn't take that level of pain very well.

Right after I said I might need it, my midwife recommended one final position:

Standing upright with my arms around Payton's neck and his arms around my waist. With each contraction she told me to bear down and take all weight off my legs and just "hang" on Payton.

That worked!!

We finally found a position that didn't hurt my tailbone, sacrum - anything!

It took just a few contractions and he was past my screws. I immediately felt the urge to push and started following my instincts.

David Elliot made his arrival 9 minutes later and we were just overjoyed and so full of relief!

Hardest labor I had ever had, but I'm so grateful we made it through!

We checked to see if I tore, and there was a little bit of a flesh wound, but I didn't need stitches.

I'm currently 7 days postpartum and it's been a wonderful week, honestly. Hardest labor, but best recovery so far. (I'll take it lol.)

I thought to wrap up my birth story, I'd compare all 3 kids' births just for fun!

Honey:

40 weeks, 1 day

8lbs, 1oz

Labor: 2 hours

Pushing: 26 minutes

Zion:

39 weeks, 1 day

8lbs, 6oz

Labor: 6 hours

Pushing: 45 minutes

David:

41 weeks, 4 days

8lbs, 3oz

Labor: 4 hours

Pushing: 9 minutes

Welcome, David Elliot.

Oh, how your life has been a blessing to us all!