As you may have noticed, the baby countdown calendar stopped last week. El Senor and I are pleased to announce that our little numero uno has arrived! Last week was a flurry. I won't gross you out with all the details, but will give you the basic sequence of events.
Thursday, October 15th:We went in for our weekly OB visit later in the day. My blood pressure was a higher than what the doctor wanted. After our check up, he told us to go have a good dinner, he felt that the baby would be coming within the next 72 hours. He told us to come in the next morning at 11am so my blood pressure could be reevaluated.
El Senor and I looked at each other and laughed....but felt a little panic creeping in. We still didn't have a car seat.
Following our doctor's advice, we ate that good meal and discussed the possibility of going into labor during the weekend. Saturday our friends were throwing us a baby shower. So we crossed our fingers, hoping that the 72 hour goal of our doctor was a little off. We proceeded to run to the store, grabbing batteries for the camera and a few last minute necessities. Then we called our families, putting them on high alert. Lastly, we headed to the baby store and bought the much needed car seat.
Once at home we looked at each other and nervously laughed some more. El Senor took a few pictures of my belly. I finished packing my hospital bag and we went to bed.
This is my 38 week belly. . .
I woke up with a slight back ache. Having insomnia off and on during the pregnancy I simply rolled over and went back to sleep.
7:00am I woke up and felt fine, just very, very pregnant. El Senor got up with me, helped me into the shower and asked what I planned on doing. I told him....going to work of course. I'll meet you at the doctor's at 11am for the follow up.
8:30am I made it to work. I wrote out a to-do list. Going through the list quickly, I realized that I was having some contractions. Not wanting to be the little girl who cried wolf I just quietly kept on working. After all, I was going to see the doctor at 11am....right?
9:30am I realized that the contractions were actually pretty consistent. I let Jack know that I was leaving sooner rather than later. She eyed me and asked if she needed to drive me to the doctor's. I declined and just asked that she keep it on the DL until I was sure I was in labor.
10:00am I contacted El Senor and let him know I was leaving for the doctor's office ASAP and to meet me there.
10:15am I was in the car, driving myself and calling the doctor's office, finding out if I should just head to the hospital. My contractions were now 2-3 minutes apart (consistently) lasting about 15-20 seconds each. I was told just to come to the office for a quick check up. (Sidebar, I know that sounds crazy, but the doctor's office is less than 5 minutes away from the hospital.)
10:45am: I was officially in labor. My doctor had done a quick check, and determined that I should head to the hospital. He was still concerned about my blood pressure being so high and wanted me to be monitored, even during the early stages of labor.
11:15am: El Senor and I entered the labor and delivery floor of the hospital. I was introduced to my L&D nurse, Karen. She was awesome. We were taken to a room, I was put in a hospital gown and we were off to the races.
11:30am - 2:30pm El Senor refers to this time as me being "in the dark place". The onset of my labor was fast and furious. That, or I just didn't notice that I was having contractions until they were at the 2-3 minute mark as I mentioned before. Needless to say, I continued on in the same manner for those first hours. Breathing was all I was capable of doing.
Originally I had wanted to have a natural delivery (aka, no epidural). Once we were going like gang-busters though....I had a quick turn around on the need of pain medication. I also had the complication of pre-eclamsia. I was tied to the bed by IVs, medication and a catheter. Since I wasn't able to move for relief during the contractions, I went with what my friend Laura always told me, "Being in pain isn't going to make you a better mother." With that said, I told Karen I needed an epidural ASAP. She made the goodness happen.
2:30pm-4:30pm This is were the goodness begins. The anesthesiologist had been in. After the long and scary needle was put in (El Senor's words not mine) I had immediate relief. I was still able to move my legs and wiggle my toes. I had good sensation, but the gripping pain was gone. We chatted, I tried to get the nurses to give me snacks and juice (which of course failed miserably), we laughed and El Senor was grateful the dark place was gone.
4:30- 6:00 pm I began to have the urge to push. Karen, El Senor and I began pushing every 15 minutes or so. Resting between several of the contractions. My doctor had been dropping in periodically, and returned to see the progress. Fully dilated to 10cm it was decided it was go-time.
6:15 - 7:27pm Pushing began in earnest. The epidural was dialed back a little, still not feeling pain but having the greater need to push, things continued to progress. It was awesome, like being on an episode of ER. Although a lot of people would be freaked out by having a bunch of strangers down in lady town, I was amazed by how fast everything seemed to be going. Suddenly I could see the head of the baby (yeah, I am one of those who watched the whole thing in a mirror).
7:28pm El Senor was supporting me through each contraction and helping me push like a champ. Under the bright lights of the L&D room I gave one final push before the baby's head emerged. Being told to give one more big push our little baby emerged. Gooey, red and beautiful. Although we did not find out if we expecting a boy or a girl, we strongly felt a little boy was in our near future. How surprised were we when our OB held up our baby and told us it was a little girl!
Please help us welcome our beautiful daughter, El Bambina.
Born October 16th 2009 at 7:28pm
Weighing 6lbs 14oz and measuring 21 inches
Equipped with a beautiful set of pipes
Mom, Dad, and Baby are healthy and happy.
Thanks for all your love and support.
