Elena's Birth Story

At the Alamo, 40 weeks + 2 days pregnant

I'm a sucker for birth stories. I love reading about the sacrifices women make to bring these sweet, innocent babies into the world. The strength displayed in first growing babies and all of the associated discomforts for 9-10 months, followed by the extraordinary feat of bringing said baby into the world, no matter how that occurs, is inspiring. Elena definitely came on her own terms, and I'm so glad she did! Although, in the days and weeks leading up to her birth date, it was exhausting and frustrating waiting!


My due date was March 19th. The first week of March, I woke up in the middle of the night with contractions and feeling super nauseous. I couldn't go back to sleep or get comfortable, so I sat in the living room, thinking about how odd it was for me to have contractions so early before her due date. Looking back, I think I had a tummy bug, but that's beside the point. I canceled chaperoning Landon's field trip to the zoo that week, and continued to have random contractions throughout the day, especially when walking around. These were definitely Braxton-Hicks type contractions, I could still walk and talk through them, but it still got old having my stomach working out all day long.

My mom came in on March 12th. She is always so helpful with the housework and the boys. At that point, my contractions were starting to get more regular and intense, but still not active labor intense. We stayed close to home and as the days turned into a week, they were 8-10 minutes apart for several hours at a time, sometimes during the day and sometimes at night. Monday and Tuesday (18th and 19th) I was SO EXHAUSTED from anticipation, trying to still take care of my boys, and contracting so much. The 20th, nothing was happening. I decided to take my mom and Owen sightseeing in San Antonio on the 21st because we had an appointment at the midwives. At that time, I was 1-2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. Not great but not very encouraging since I was already past my due date. My midwives and I decided to just let it happen when I was ready instead of trying to get anything going. I tried raspberry leaf tea and Clary Sage essential oils. I relaxed, rested and practiced self-hypnosis and went on tons of walks. We walked all around the Alamo in San Antonio and I showed my mom the riverwalk. 

Friday morning, March 22nd, around 2:00 am, harder contractions started about 7 minutes apart. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I tried changing positions a couple times and by right after lunch time, they were 3-4 minutes apart and at a medium/high intensity, even with position changes, so we decided to head up to St. Luke's Baptist Hospital in San Antonio, which is about 50 minutes away. In the car, they spaced apart, but were still very strong. I was able to stay relaxed in between, and it took awhile when I was in the OB ER being assessed in triage for anyone to help us because I was just riding them out with breathing. The contractions were really strong, and about 4-6 minutes apart, but with every position change they would space out. The midwife on call was busy delivering babies upstairs, so we sat in triage for a few hours, and it was very uncomfortable sitting on the gurney being monitored. When she finally came, I was at a 2-3 and 70% effaced. Not necessarily what I wanted to hear, since I had barely progressed with contractions all day long. She gave us the option to either be admitted and she would break my water, or we could walk for a few hours and see if things progressed with walking. At this point, I was pretty tired, but didn't want her to break my water so we opted for walking.

The OB ER was located at the entrance of the hospital, right next to the gift shop and elevators leading to the labor and delivery floor and recovery rooms. So, as I breathed through contractions and walked in a loop around this front entrance area, I got to see all of the excited families going up to visit the babies with balloons and gifts. After two hours, things had not gotten any more or less intense- it was about the same. When I sat down to be monitored again, things spaced out again and I was exactly the same as far as dilation and effacing. Sad day. Even before she checked, I kind of knew that if things hadn't picked up by this point, I was being sent home. She said to come right back if my water broke, and that we would probably be back later in the night. Because we live 45-50 minutes away, we decided to spend the night in a hotel just in case so we didn't have to drive back in the middle of the night. We picked up dinner and I literally brushed my teeth and conked out before 7:00 pm.

I woke up at 5:30 am having had no contractions over night and feeling 1000% better and well rested. I was annoyed with myself for having Austin stay home from work for nothing two days already because of contractions, but no baby. I was determined to not have a false alarm hospital visit, but we did. We left the boys when we didn't have to. All of these things weighed heavy on my mind. I got up and showered with no contractions. Landon had his Little League Baseball opening day and first game Saturday morning, March 23rd. Since I was feeling better and not having consistent contractions at all, we packed up, ate breakfast and drove back home to cheer Landon on. I dropped Austin off at the baseball opening ceremonies, came home and refreshed our hospital bag. I did some gentle stretching and sat on my beloved birthing ball that I missed so much when we spent the afternoon in triage the day before. As a fun bonus, Pleasanton Little League live-streamed the Opening Day Ceremony on Facebook, so I was still able to watch it from home while stretching and resting. Then I went to his Little League game, making sure to bring my own comfy chair so that I didn't have to sit in the bleachers.

Landon did great in his game, and hit two doubles! I was so glad to be able to go and cheer him on. Different feeling contractions started up a little before the game, still very far apart, but starting down lower and even more intense than the day before. After the game, we came home, had lunch and I played Uno with the boys and my mom. I started having more frequent, more intense contractions and managed them with Owen climbing me like a jungle gym while we were playing Uno. After awhile, they were 5-6 minutes apart and pretty intense, so I went to lay down and see if they continued or stopped with a change in position. After a few laying down didn't feel very good, I tried going on all fours and my water broke! That was around 3:50 pm. Everyone was outside playing on the trampoline at the time, and contractions were getting super close together and intense really fast so I made my way as quickly as I could to the back door and called for Austin. He ran in, threw our stuff in the car and we were on our way back to the hospital.

Once my water broke, things got really real. Combine that with having to be in a car, semi-reclined during really super intense back labor contractions it was hard to do the self-hypnosis and go to my happy place. We had Rainbow Relaxation and Birthing Affirmations playing in the car, but it didn't really help that much. Austin was driving as fast as he possibly could because he could tell that this was real active labor and we were cutting it close. In order to get to the hospital in northwest San Antonio, there were several interchanges with pretty tight turns, so it was hard to keep calm as we whipped around those. I knew that I was really close to giving birth because I was super nauseous. There was nothing to throw up in, and I didn't want to stink up Austin's car, so I held it in. I also started having those thoughts like, "Why did I think it was a good idea to have a baby?!" "Why does anyone ever have babies?" "This is the worst thing ever in the entire world and I really hope that I'm pretty far along in this birthing process because I don't know how much more I can take!" When we were a mile or so from the exit, Austin was trying to get around a driver going slow in the left lane. The jerk sped up not allowing him to pass, so he changed lanes to get behind him and ran over something in the road. At first, I thought we had a flat tire because something under the car started scraping the road and bumping, but it was in fact the skid plate that had been torn from the undercarriage of the car and was dragging on the road. That just added to my discomfort!

When I was ready to start breathing Owen down and out, both of my arms went completely numb. The same thing happened as we were getting off the exit to get to the hospital, which was still about 2 miles off the highway. I told Austin I didn't think we were going to make it, and he just reassured me that we were. I tried to continue breathing up instead of breathing down. We pulled up to the hospital and Austin ran faster than I've ever seen him run into the OB ER. Very soon after, two nurses, the OB on call and Austin came running out with a wheelchair. They quickly brought me in, checked and I was 10 cm dilated and ready to push. They wheeled me up right there in the gurney, and brought me in to a L&D room where my midwife was waiting. At that moment, I started feeling the urge to breathe baby down. The OB that had followed us up to L&D said, "Wait! You can't push yet! You need to get on the bed and get a heart rate on the baby!" I said, "Nope, I'm pushing!" Megan, the midwife that was waiting for me, thanked him for his help and dismissed him. Between contractions, I said I wanted to squat, but just managed to transfer to the L&D bed from the gurney and pushed Elena out from my side in 6-7 long breaths at 5:11 pm, just 10 minutes after we pulled into the hospital driveway.

They placed her on my chest and it took a little rubbing with a towel to get her to cry, so I was a little concerned because both boys cried right away. I still had my normal shirt on because there was not time to change. After she was born, we had to get identification and paperwork squared away because they had no idea who I was, which was weird. They didn't have my ID bracelets or anything for about an hour after we got there. They didn't have time to put in an IV, and I didn't need one, so they had to draw blood a couple times during our hospital stay, but other than that both Elena and I were healthy from the beginning. I felt pretty good afterward, I think because of how short my active labor ended up being. Later that night, they took Elena to the nursery for tests. Austin went to supervise, but was a little perturbed that things were taking so long and she was crying so much, so they let him in to assist the nurse. I was showering and they brought me in as well after that so we both helped with the tests and immunization and weighing in the nursery. Apparently, they don't usually let parents in but because it wasn't too busy, they let us come in.

Brand new!

Elena eats really well and didn't have any problems with jaundice or weight loss like her brothers. She is also sleeping way better than my boys did at her age. We are grateful for this sweet girl in our lives! She has a lot of dark hair and dark blue-gray eyes at this point. She is looking more like Owen than Landon, but I see both boys and features of all of us in her. It will be fun to see who she looks like as she grows up!

Elena is pronounced eh-lay-na. She is named after our grandmothers- Helen Marie, Laura Elizabeth and Helen Elizabeth as a mash-up of Helen and Elizabeth. Her middle name is Marie- as the firstborn girl of my parents, I was given my mother's middle name of Marie and so I passed that on. Also, all of the Brown women Austin's family have the initials EMB, so for our firstborn girl we wanted to continue that tradition.