From The Onofrio Nest: Elaine's Birth Story

She's here, she's finally here! Our beautiful sweet Elaine arrived on February 2nd at 7:41 PM, six days before her due date, which was around the date I was expecting her since Tommy was born a week early as well. What I wasn't expecting was the speed with which she came! Her birth story is one for the records...

Throughout the night before she was born and early in the morning the day of her birth I was having fairly frequent and strong contractions. Hoping Elaine was on her way, I asked Benjamin to stay home from work and we headed to my regularly scheduled appointment with Sandae (who is Benjamin's aunt and an amazing certified nurse midwife). I was disappointed to find out at my appointment that I was only dilated to 1cm, which was the same measurement as my last check the week prior. With that in mind, Benjamin headed into work and I got on with the rest of my day, which meant cleaning, doing laundry, baking bread, running some errands for Primary, and even going to Miles' parent teacher conference. I continued to have strong contractions on and off, but they were irregular enough that I figured I wasn't progressing any more than I had during the previous night's contractions.

Around five o'clock Benjamin arrived home from work, and shortly after that my contractions started increasing significantly in intensity and frequency. I decided he probably should stay home from Scouts which he was scheduled to attend at 7 just in case, but thought perhaps things would still die down so didn't hurry to let Sandae or my mom know. I took a bath, and by the time I got out I decided this must be the real thing although my water still hadn't broken. Benjamin called Sandae to tell her we were heading to the hospital and called my mom to ask her to come stay with the boys. It turned out that my mom had just left their house in Centerville and was driving my dad to the airport, and she asked if we thought I could wait for her take make the 30 minute trip to there and back. Since my water hadn't broken yet I figured we had time, so we told her we'd be okay. Within a few minutes after the call, though, my contractions really picked up speed and were coming only 3-4 minutes apart and I knew I couldn't wait or Elaine was going to be born somewhere between our house and the hospital. We tried calling a few friends/neighbors in search of someone who could quickly come stay with the boys and finally reached Dana James who was on her way home. She walked in the door and Benjamin and I raced off in the car. We passed a parked police car as we drove down Eagle Ridge Drive and Benjamin hit on the brakes just in time or we probably would have been pulled over and Elaine would have had to be delivered by a cop... As we drove Benjamin called Sandae to say that we were minutes from the hospital and the baby was minutes away from arriving, too. We pulled up to the hospital and I knew I couldn't walk so Benjamin sprinted inside and came back out with Sandae, a nurse, and a wheelchair. They helped me into the chair and in what looked like a scene from a movie they ran me inside through the ER and upstairs to Labor and Delivery. I stripped down, they strapped on the monitors, and Sandae checked me. I was at 8 cm and my water still had not broken! Sandae broke my water and I nearly immediately dilated to 10 cm. Elaine started have decelerations in her heart rate and Sandae said I needed to push "NOW!" so I gave a few good pushes and out she popped, only 16 minutes after being hooked up to the monitor! There may have been a bit of hollering and crying (I was not planning to have a natural birth this go round!) but I was so grateful to have her here so quickly and early, especially because it turned out her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and arm which was a bit frightening. She was so perfect and my heart was so full of love for this sweet little girl I thought it might burst.

Weighing in at 6 lbs 15.5 oz and 20 inches long

Here we are shortly after delivery. I have to laugh when I compare this picture to the ones taken at Tommy's and Miles' births. I look less haggard than after Tommy's birth, and significantly more haggard than after Miles' birth, which is a perfect reflection of what their deliveries were like...