Elliott Grace Davolt!!

The baby is here! I was 41 weeks and 1 day when I went into labor and….. IT’S A GIRL!! Elliott Grace Davolt was born on June 10th 2012 at 4:32 PM weighing 8lbs 13oz. and measuring 20 1/2 inches long. Today she is 2 weeks old!

I'm going to try to remember the birth details though I really should have done this sooner so I didn't forget as much. However, as most everyone knows the first couple of weeks with a newborn can be pretty crazy and you hardly get anything done. I'll try to do this in sections so you can pick what you want to read if you don't want to read the whole thing…it’s kinda long.

Saturday June 9th 2012


We were trying to put off being induced as long as possible because I believe that everything goes smoother when it happens naturally. However, there were a lot of things going on, we prayed about it a ton and decided to go ahead and be induced. It was one week after my due date. I talked to Dr. Shappard and he scheduled the augmentation for sometime around 8pm on the 9th of June.

The hospital is a little over a mile away from our house so I called a few people to see if they wanted to walk to the hospital with me. My mom came a little early and did some massage techniques on me that she had read about (I sure didn't complain about that!). My mother-in-law Melody, my best friend Stefanie, Joanne Rankin and Sarah Eckert made the walk with us.

As we were about to leave my house, the hospital called and told me that they had a lot of women come in and they wanted to postpone my appointment until midnight or 7am the next morning. They called Dr. Shappard to see what he wanted to do and then called me back. We decided to go in at midnight.

First Stage: Labor. June 9th and into the 10th


First (Early or Latent) Phase of Labor
June 9th 8:30pm to June 10th 12pm
(Contractions 5-20 minutes apart; cervix 0-3 cm dilated)

Because I already had a bunch of friends over to walk with me, we decided to go ahead and walk to the hospital and then walk back. Might as well right??? (Melody ended up going home.) At about 8:30pm we left the house and just as we were leaving I thought I felt a little fluid leak out. I had just gone to the bathroom so I thought it was a little weird for me to leak urine, but I didn't know what else it would be. As we got down the street a little ways I kept feeling more fluid leak out slowly and I was worried I had really wet my pants and it was becoming noticeable. A little longer and I realized my water must have broken because I really didn't need to use the restroom and this was a lot of fluid!. I let my comrades know and we kept walking, talking about how my water must have broke the whole time, of course. I called Jesse, who had stayed home, and told him that he may have to meet me by the hospital with new pants. As we got closer to the hospital, I decided to call the nurse back and see if I should come into the hospital or go back home. She said that if my water broke I needed to come in. We walked the rest of the way to the hospital and Jesse met us there. They took Jesse and I into a room and tested to make sure my had water broke. Sure enough... It was almost baby time! The ladies all came in to say goodbye and good luck and then Jesse took them back to our house to get their cars.

Jesse took this picture of my pants after my water broke.

I thought I was going to be in labor all night. However, once my contractions finally started they barely hurt. It went on all night like this. Jesse tried to get some sleep while I walked the halls with my dad for a while. At around 2am the nurse wanted to give me cytotec to get things going and I asked if we could wait a little longer. Dr. Shappard was paged to make sure he was ok with holding off on the cytotec. He gave orders for me to try to rest. My mom came at around 3am and she did some more massaging, hoping to get the contractions stronger. All the while I was grateful for light contractions, but I knew they were not doing the job. I was dreading the pain so much!

Second (Active) Phase of Labor
June 10th 2012. 12 pm to ??
(contractions 3-4 minutes apart; cervix 3-7 cm. dilated)

Morning came and I ordered breakfast and downed a good sized meal. Still not having much pain with my contractions. It must have been around 9 or 10 am and I went ahead and took the first dose of cytotec (which melted in my cheek). I was just so tired from being up all night and wanted to get things rolling. I was also pretty worried that my water would have been broken for over 24 hours and they would want to give me pitocin or something really strong to get things going. I ordered my lunch and then took another cytotec pill around 11 or so. My lunch came at noon and about the same time I started getting some intense labor pains. I couldn't eat my lunch through the pain. I started walking the halls again and it started hurting pretty bad. Stacy, our amazing nurse, kept having to monitor the baby's heart rate because occasionally the baby’s it would fall during a contraction. I ended up having to stay in my room so they could monitor the heart rate. I used a big exercise ball to rock back and forth on. Jesse and my mom would rub a couple massage points on my feet when my contractions would come. I couldn't bear the pain when they didn't rub those spots. My best friend Stefanie must have stopped in around 2pm and started helping massage me as well. At some point they were not able to get a good reading on the baby's heart and they made me lay in bed, on my side, while they stuck a heart monitor thing in the baby's head. Once I laid down I started getting some crazy bad back labor. Stef rubbed a spot on my back with a tennis ball and again I couldn't stand the pain unless my mom was rubbing my feet and Stef was rubbing my back. Jesse HAD to be right there by my head. If he left, I got really upset. I also got pretty upset when anyone would talk during a contraction. I just couldn't concentrate when there was talking.

Third (Active or Transitional) Phase of Labor
June 10th 4pmish
(contractions 2-3 min apart, 60-90 min long; cervix 7-10 cm. dilated)

So I had now been in labor about 21 hours. I don't believe the first 19 or so counted though because they were not even close to the pain I was in when I got to this 3rd stage of labor. I was so intent on relaxing during a contraction that I barely made a noise. Believe it or not! I actually had to tell my massage crew when I had a contraction so they could start massaging (and quit talking) again. Toward the end it didn't feel like the contractions ever stopped. They got a little lighter but the pain was so intense that it never seemed to stop. I'm guessing the time was 4:20 or so when I felt like I needed to push. Dr. Shappard had been called a little before that and he came rushing down. (Our poor Dr. was already at the hospital all day because his mother-in-law was dying. He came a couple times to check on us.) Dr. Shappard checked me and said that I was a rubbery 9 cm. dilated. They all told me to hold off on the pushing. I waited for what seemed forever. Then I really really had to push. Everyone started rushing around. My mom and Stef left the room.

Second Stage: Delivery.



I begin pushing at probably 4:30 or so. The nurses made me lay on my back... you should have seen the fuss I made when they made me move from my side to my back. They took off the end of my bed and stuck my feet the stirrup things. They told me I could push. I waited until I got a really strong contraction and then I pushed with everything I had. Talk about a burning pressure! I kept pushing and out the baby came in one huge push. I was so focused on pushing and the pain (and my eyes were closed) that when he handed me the baby I didn't even think about the gender at first. That lasted less than half a second because he handed Elliott to me "girl parts" first. I started bawling and said "ITS A GIRL!" in a high pitched crying voice. (Then I cried for about the next 2 weeks. OK, not really every day but I cried for a long time! SERIOUSLY!! I have a daughter!) Jesse cut her umbilical cord and I kept begging the nurses not to take her from me. I wanted to nurse her ASAP because they say the sooner you nurse the easier it is to nurse. She is a champion at breast feeding! Latched on right away and has been great ever since. It’s still a bit painful but she knows what she is doing.

Dr, Shappard after delivering Elli

4 Generations of ladies

Life with Elli.

Elliott is the most content baby I have ever been around. As long as she gets what she needs, she will just lay there sleeping or wide eyed looking around. JD is the greatest big brother. He is so sweet with her and asks to hold her a few times a day. When she cries he will try to calm her and will usually say "I think she needs me". He doesn't like to call her Elli, says he doesn't like that name. He only calls her Elliott, and tells people that he calls her "Ell", but I have never heard him call her that. I feel increasingly blessed every day. Jesse adores his daughter and my heart overflows when he holds her and says that he loves her. I thank God everyday for how He has given me such a happy healthy family.

Headed home from the hospital

First car ride

Home!