Lila's Birth Story
I am going to start this off with a timeline:
9/17 - 1:33am (Approx) - Woke up to go pee - no contractions, or any other signs of labor
9/17 - 4:44am - Woke up to go pee again. At this point, I couldn't fall back asleep, but still no contractions or signs of labor. I laid there on my left side until I heard and felt a pop in my stomach. I didn't think much of it. A few minutes later, my left hip started hurting and I got a belly ache sensation, so I turned on my right side. Got comfy, then I stretched out my left leg, and felt wetness. I knew right away that it was my water, so...
9/17 - 5:27am - I did the stand up test. I figured if I get up and more gushes out, it is definitely my water. And it was! Steve slept on the couch because Nena wanted to sleep with me, so I called him. Poor guy was awake and couldn't sleep.
"Good morning!"
"My water broke!"
"Your what? Your water broke? What do you need?" I started laughing at this point.
"A towel, honey."
He rushed upstairs, out of breath as if he just ran a marathon. LOL!
He gave me a towel and I went and sat on the toilet for a little while, as I was still trickling. At this point, I had contractions here and there, but nothing crazy. Steve took a 2-minute shower while we waited for my sisters to come and get the girls. I showered as well, and the contractions picked up. At this point, probably about 5-7 minutes apart. Got stressed, went downstairs, my sisters came, we said bye to the girls, and off to the hospital we were. We left the house at 6:30am and were stuck in traffic (story of my LIFE!) and got to the hospital around 7:30am. It's normally a 20-minute drive.
On the way, I was still contracting regularly, but it wasn't bad. I was texting back and forth with a few people, so that just tells ya the pain wasn't crazy.
As we parked, (after an hour in traffic) it took me about 2-3 minutes to walk maybe 200 feet, stopping 2 times to breathe through contractions. LOL!
We got upstairs to triage, checked in, and of course they made us fill out this stupid form for the 3rd time, blah, blah. Finally, after about 10 minutes, the triage nurse called me back while Steve had to wait in the waiting room while I got situated in a bed. As she called me, we literally stood in the doorway, waiting for my contraction to pass. The nurse sent me to the restroom to change into a gown, and I had to work through 2 more contractions. At this point, she became irritated, probably thinking I am exaggerating the pain. *Rolls eyes* She rushed me and said that I needed to make it quick, so I can get connected to the monitors, because she's afraid something may be wrong with baby if I'm really contracting as often. Ok, thanks for the scare.
So, at this point it's about 7:55am (yes, it took that long to change and get to my bed...I was hurting!) I got to my bed, she waited while I had a couple more contractions back to back, and she hooked me up to the monitors, asked 21 questions, then finally let Steve in. This is approx. 8:10am.
The triage OB came in around 8:20, checked me to make sure my membrane ruptured. Both him and the nurse said "Yep, it's your water!" OB goes: "3cm, 100%, -1 station, and we see hair!" It's about 8:25am right now and the nurse gave me an IV cath as she had to do blood work. Again, she got annoyed waiting for contractions to pass. I kept the IV cath in just in case I wanted pain meds, though I planned an unmediated/no epidural birth. The nurse said if I am not picked up by 9:15 to be taken into my L&D room, she will hook me back up to the monitors to check on baby.
At 9:30-ish, my L&D nurse finally came and picked me up. Of course waiting through contractions, we made it to the room around 9:40am. I got situated in bed while I had contractions of top of each other, with maybe 10 seconds in between, IF that.
I labored some more as Steve hugged me around the shoulders and we swayed side to side while I was also breathing through contractions. He was so amazing and I don't think I could've done this without him. He only left one time to use the restroom, and was by my side, literally embracing me in his arms the entire remainder of the time.
Steve asked the L&D nurse to check me but she said she rather not, because my water had broken. OK FINE! Lol She left and Steve and I continued to work through the contractions. Did I mention he was absolutely amazing?! :)
Right now, it's approx. 10:10am. I caved and asked for pain meds. The nurse came in with a bag of fluids, saying I had to have fluids with pain meds. However, she forgot a saline syringe so she stepped out to get it. I felt a contraction come on and told Steve to hold me (hug me). After this contraction, I told him I had to push! He said, "No, you can't push," thinking that I'm nowhere close to 10cm. Honestly, neither did I, but my body pushed on its own. He ran out to get the nurse (no, she still wasn't back with the saline flush). He said that as he walked back in the room, he saw Lila's head. The nurse rushed in with a student, and literally yelled at the student to go get my midwife. The student said she paged her, and the nurse responded "NO! GO GRAB HER NOW!" LOL
We now have a team of 7 nurses, plus the student and my midwife in the room, of which none got to scrub or put on gowns. They barely put on gloves! I was screaming my head off as my body pushed on its own. Three SUPER QUICK pushes and 3 minutes later, Lila was out. No time to disassemble the bed either and pull out the stirrups. How hectic! LOL
Lila Izabel Madruga
Born 9/17/2015 at 10:22am
7lbs 8oz
20 inches long
Steve got to catch her, though he didn't plan on it. The midwife clamped the cord and Steve cut it.
I finished the afterbirth and the midwife explained to me that I has an extremely small outer tear that wouldn't take even one stitch, and gave me the option to let it heal on its own, or "stitch me up." I chose to leave it alone.
So, I got what I wanted mostly (I wanted to labor in the tub and wanted a mirror to see the birth). I didn't think I could do it. My unmediated/no epidural birth. It was the most amazing experience.
I included a the "time stamps" cuz from the time I got into bed at triage at 3cm, to baby it was just about 2 hours.