Lucas Andres was born on January 31, 2013 at 8:10 pm. As soon as he came out he was crying his lungs out. It's been 2 weeks and before I forget more details, I decided to share the labor and delivery experience.
I had my last doctor's appointment on January 30. The doctor seemed surprised I hadn't given birth yet (he had told us around Jan 15 the baby could come early). He checked me as always and told me everything was looking fine. He set up an appointment for February 7th for me to be induced. I didn't really like that because I had heard a few bad experiences from friends about inducing the labor.
Towards the last weeks of my pregnancy I wanted my baby to come on February 1st. I wanted him to wait
- for us to have good weather
- for mommy to get a hair cut
- for mommy and daddy to go to the Phantom of the Opera on January 16th
- And it made sense for him to come on a weekend since Andrew and I were going to be together! I didn't like the idea of my water breaking at work or the contractions to start somewhere else without Andrew there.
After my doctor's appointment Andrew told me baby needed to come "TODAY" ! He prepared a bath for me with some good relaxing music and bubbles to help me relax and maybe get me in labor. Even though that was a REALLY good way to relax (I even slept for 30 minutes in the bath tub) nothing happened. Then, he made a foot soak for me-- nothing happened either!
He gave up, I told him baby was going to listen to his momma and come February 1st :) After 30 minutes I felt some pain in my lower abdomen. I didn't really pay attention to it since it really wasn't painful but the pain became frequent; like every 5-10 minutes. I thought, "Hmm... if these are the contractions I can definitely do this without the epidural!!"
Andrew suggested that I go to bed and so I did. It was around 10 pm. On January 31, 2013 something woke me up at 3:00 in the morning: my water had gushed twice! I called Andrew's name out and he quickly called the Labor and Delivery at LDS Hospital and they said to come right away. I told Andrew, "I NEED to do my hair and at least wash my face!!!" Only 30 minutes after the pain became SHARP and PAINFUL. Oh it was EXTREMELY PAINFUL!! We arrived at LDS hospital and the girl at the front desk asked us to fill something out. What a hassle!!! I had registered long ago in order to avoid that! Andrew told her, "Can we do that after? Please give my wife a room!" I was crossing fingers that I had dilated enough for them not to send me home. They checked me and I was at 4-- they let us stay! :-D It was 4 am and the pain increased, I became pale and started to shiver-- I was feeling in such great pain that I was praying out loud-- I must have looked crazy. Embarrassing.
Either way, I asked for the epidural right away! But the anesthesiologist made me wait for 2-3 hours (thank you!) I was shivering all the time, I was hungry, thirsty... but when I tried to eat I felt like crap. I was holding Andrew's hand at all times and I am sure I was even hurting him because I was squeezing his fingers! I am so happy he was there with me. We called the front desk to see if someone could come and help me! I had no idea about the process. Nothing! Then the girl at the front desk said, "Oh, the nurse on call isn't here... we called her and she is coming." Ugh, what a pain. After an hour the girl from front desk came and we asked her about the nurse and she said, "I am the nurse." We were like, "WHAT? WHAT IS THIS?" We ignored her. Then finally the anesthesiologist came. He was talking to me (as if I could understand what he was saying) then he said, "sign this." I signed it right away and I begged him to wait between contractions so he could proceed. It looked something like this but I was hugging 2 pillows and Andrew at the same time. The anesthesiologist told me to relax-- how could I relax in such pain? -- He said, "relax your shoulders..." I did my best.
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Getting the epidural was probably one of the best decisions Andrew and I have made since we learned we were expecting. The epidural didn't hurt AT ALL. I felt so relaxed and I was actually able to even watch Hulu :) ! I felt so great. I could still feel my feet and legs-- they were numb but I could still feel them.
The only "bad" thing about the epidural is that you cannot eat anything! Only ice chips or pop stickles. And... you have to be in bed the whole time until you give birth-- even shortly after. I am so thankful for my husband because without him I am sure I wouldn't have gone through all that by myself. He was there at all times.
Another nurse came and she checked me, I dilated to 5. Then someone checked on me periodically to see if I was progressing. At noon I was already dilated to 8! Then they came every hour to see if I had dilated more but by 4 pm I was still at 8 and they were a bit concerned. The doctor said to use pitocin in order for me to get more intense contractions so I could dilate to 10!
By 6:30 ish I was dilated to 10 already and even though the baby's head was in a good position, he was facing up. The nurse and doctor were concerned and so they put me in a position that "supposedly" was going to help the baby rotate so he could be face down. The doctor checked again around 7:30 ish and he said, "It worked!!! the baby is almost face down!"
Then the nurse said, "OK, what you are going to do now is the following: we are going to tell you when a contraction is coming and then you are going to take a deep breath like you were going under water and then you start to push and you have to crunch a bit-- while you do that, either me or your husband will count til 10, once you hear 10 you stop pushing and then we do it again... 3 times on each contraction. Are you ready?" I thought, "ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU MEAN, WE CAN'T PRACTICE BEFORE HAND? is this... IT?" Then I said, "um... yeah... I--- I am ready..." Around 7:40 pm she said, "OK! A contraction is coming!! Andrew took one leg and the nurse took the other. Then she said, "Take a deep breath!!!! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7! 8! 9! 10!"
I couldn't believe it, I was already pushing and I was about to meet my baby! I started to cry, the doctor and nurse thought something was wrong but I just said, "I am just so happy and excited I am about to meet my baby!" All these 9 months and finally the time to meet him came. It was a feeling I can't really describe. After 20 minutes of pushing the doctor said, "I can see his hair! He has a lot!" When he said this I got so excited and it gave me even more strength to push harder." After another 5 minutes I felt the head coming out! and Andrew said, "His head is out!" And then I felt his little body coming out and he was born!!!
When his body came out it was like my mind went blank and Andrew's words helped me back to my senses when he said, "HE IS ALREADY CRYING!!" Then I saw him, I SAW MY SON!!! They gave him to me so we could have skin to skin time and for me to breastfeed him. This moment was so special to me and Andrew. I talked to my son and he stopped crying and was looking at me. Andrew and I cried so much and we thanked our Heavenly Father for our healthy son.
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| Lucas holding daddy's hand |
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| Our first family picture! |
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| Tia Estela |
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| Tia Aly |
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| Tio Wilo |
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| Mommy and son |
A nurse told us we need to be careful because Lucas was going to try to get some of the amniotic fluid out of his system and taught Andrew how to handle if that happened. It happened the next morning around 8 am and it was not a fun experience. Lucas was sleeping and all the sudden he cried/screamed. We thought he was being fussy and we tried to hold him but he continued to cry in a different way. Then he started to choke and gag. Andrew quickly performed what the nurse told him to do and I called the nurse. She came right away and helped us. This was our first scare as parents-- it really hurt us to see our baby suffer even for 5 minutes.
Our baby boy is a little angel. We love him so so so very much. We are so happy he is in our lives.
I loved reading about your experience! You're awesome, girl! And Lucas is soooo cute :) Keep posting pictures so we can see this cutie grow!Beijos amiga!
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