Baby Vicente's Birth Story

Three Months Post Partum

Hi, world! Given the fact that I haven't contributed to this blog in months, it's safe for you to assume that yes, I had the baby! Vicente Valero, IV was born on April 15, 2013 at 1:23 a.m. It's been a whirlwind of sleepless nights, poopy diapers, and breastfeeding since then, but I've loved every single minute of it. I officially went back to work this week! It's been rough, but I'm sure I'll acclimate in due time. Before "mom brain" gets the best of me and too much time passes, I wanted to record my birth story. Without further ado, here's how my perfect baby boy entered our lives...

Due Date: April 19, 2013
Actual Birth Date: Monday, April 15, 2013 at 1:23 a.m.
Weight: 7 lbs, 8 oz
Height: 20 inches
Apgar Scores: 9 and 9

Friday before I went into labor, I vowed that I'd do everything in my power to give birth before the weekend was over. I walked for miles. I ate spicy food. I drank loads of raspberry leaf tea. And yes, I got busy, too. I awoke on Sunday morning a bit disappointed, resigning to the fact that I'd be pregnant forever. The hubs went into the lab early to get a some work done, saying that he'd return in time to take me out for a late lunch around 2. I decided to rest on the sofa until then. I started watching Sex and The City on TV and fell asleep. When I woke up, it began. Here's a timeline of events:

12:45 pm - As I sit up from my nap, I feel a pop, followed by a gush of warm fluid. Lo and behold, it's my water breaking! I'm not experiencing contractions yet, aside from those pesky Braxton Hicks I've been having for months. This is literally one of the most exciting moments of. my. life. I know without a doubt that I will be meeting this baby in the next 24 hours. I call Vicente to share the good news, and tell him to hurry home. I phone my doctor's office to let them know my water has broken. Unfortunately, Dr. H isn't on call so I'm forwarded to another doc (who would ultimately deliver my baby.) He tells me to come in to the hospital as soon as possible.

I call mom, who doesn't pick up because she's in church. I send her a text:  "Call me ASAP. My water just broke!" She promptly returns my call and gets on the first flight to Baltimore.

1 pm - I tidy up the house and finish packing my hospital bag when Vicente gets home. I'm still not having real contractions, although I do feel cramping. Vicente takes Maddie out for a quick pee and throws a few last-minute items into his suitcase.

1:45 pm - We leave for the hospital, Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Still feeling crampy, but not experiencing any painful, regular contractions yet.

Checking into the hospital!

2:08 pm - We park in the hospital garage and check into the L&D ward. The receptionist was very friendly and asks me all sorts of questions about my water breaking. She insists on taking a photo of us. At this point, I want to punch her in the face, but I oblige. (I'm so glad I have this photo now!)

2:20 pm - I'm taken back to the observation area for monitoring to determine if I'm truly in labor. Once they confirm that my water did, in fact, break and I did not, in fact, pee all over myself, I'm finally admitted. I'm 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced. The monitor shows my contractions, but there's no regularity. I can definitely feel them now, but it's only at a 2 on the pain scale.

2:45 pm - I get settled in a private room where I'm expected to labor and deliver. We're there for no longer than 20 minutes when I realize there are ants all over the place and we request a room change.

4:30 pm - Since my contractions still aren't regular or increasing in intensity, I'm hooked up to a Pitocin drip to kick-start the process. Things get real pretty fast. My pain shoots from 2 to a 7 in mere minutes. My contractions get stronger and much closer together; on average, about 1.5 to 2 minutes apart. The whole experience starts to consume me and I get a little panicky for the first time in my entire 39.5 weeks of pregnancy. Real contractions, like Braxton Hicks contractions, tighten your entire abdomen. It's not unlike a Charlie Horse that might wake you up at night. However, unlike BH contractions, labor contractions are accompanied by epic pain. Before long, I can't talk through them because I'm so focused on breathing through each peak and resting in each valley. As I'm battling through each contraction, Vicente watches the Master's on TV while texting our family with updates. Sometime during these foggy hours, I spew out an Exorist-inducing, evil-laden speech at my poor husband. Looking back, I try to feel bad for him , but I just can't muster up the sympathy. He promptly rushes to my side to do whatever possible to get me through this. And he does a great job.

5:30 pm - A sweet nurse drops by to tell me my platelet level is around 94,000 and if I want to get an epidural, I should do it before 8 pm when the "good" anesthesiologist ends his shift. She tells me the other anesthesiologist on the next shift - let's call him "evil" - has a strict policy to not administer epidurals to patients with platelet counts below 100,000. I tell myself to contact the Vatican later to have this woman sainted. Her foresight spared me a very painful, mother-earth birth. Something I just wasn't prepared for. Although I applaud women who go this route. (Remember, I suffered from a condition during pregnancy called gestational thrombocytopenia...or, low platelet count. One of the unfortunate things about this condition is that it could impact one's option to get an epidural during delivery. Apparently, it increases your risk of bleeding, and some anesthesiologists get nervous about sticking GT patients with a needle if that's the case.)

7 pm - I'm given an epidural by a man who looks suspiciously like Santa.  It only takes one stick and the epidural is in. Only half my body is numb at first, so Santa has to readjust the needle until both sides are equally numb. Life is beautiful again. I can't feel a damn thing. The trade-off is that I'm paralyzed from the waist down and can't mobilize. If I need to change positions or roll from side to side,  the nurse has to do it for me from now on.

7:30 pm - I'm  3 cm dilated. The nurse continues to increase my Pitocin dosage in 20-minute increments to help the contractions progress. Mom arrives around this time.

8:30 pm - Holding steady at 3 cm.

11 pm - Despite the numbness in lower my half, I still feel contractions, only without the pain. I also begin to feel an enormous amount of pressure down below. The nurse tells me this is a good sign. It's getting close to go time. I'm now 7 cm dilated.

11:30 pm - Vicente's parents arrive.

Midnight (April 15th) - I feel a lot of pressure and now, the urge to push. I'm finally at 10 cm! The nurse goes to fetch the doctor and Vicente's parents clear out of the room so that the pushing can begin.

12:37 am - With mom on my right and Vicente on my left, each holds one of my legs as I start to push. It's harder than I ever imagined. There's nothing one can do to train for this marathon. With each contraction, I push three times while my audience of nurses counts to 10. Aside from free divers, I have no idea who can hold their breath for this long during prolonged periods of physical exertion.

1:20 am - After almost 40 minutes of pushing, the doctor asks me if I want to feel the baby's head, which has finally crowned. With a tentative "yes?" I reach down to feel a PERSON entering into the world. Talk about an out-of-body experience. Something is attached to me, but it isn't me? I can only feel the top of his hairy little head, but it gives me the motivation I need to finish the job.

1:23 am - VV4 is born! They immediately place him on my belly and dry him off. I cry along with my baby, and the only thing I can say is,  "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." I'm amazed to look at my beautiful son's face for the first time. I love him so much that its indescribable. After a minute or two, the nurses whisk him over to an incubator in the corner of the room to run his APGARs, weigh him, etc. While he's wailing in the corner, I deliver the "afterbirth" (gross), but keep my eyes glued to that pink, squirming little bundle on the other side of the room (the baby, not the afterbirth). I keep asking Vicente and my mom to describe what's going on and what he looks like. After 15 minutes of sheer torture while I wait to hold him again, the nurse brings my diapered, otherwise naked, little boy back to his mama to enjoy some skin to skin time. These moments are pure heaven.  He latches on like a pro and nurses for the next hour.

It was a wonderful labor and delivery, but there's nothing glamorous about it. I left out the particularly gruesome aspects of childbirth (aka: blood and guts and fluids and stuff) because a woman has to maintain a little bit of dignity. All I can say is that the moment you hold your sweet baby in your arms for the first time, life is never the same. And it's never better.

Here are some pics from LABOR DAY.

Almost time to push

First family photo

My sweet angel. Eye goop and all.

Weekly Update - One More To Go

39 Weeks

I had my weekly OB appointment yesterday morning. No progress has been made since last week in terms of dilation or effacement, but the good news is that I haven't gained any weight in the past week! At this stage in pregnancy, it’s the little things that make a woman happy. My doctor said I’m not “inducible” yet, but she said that if I don’t have the baby by April 19th (the due date), she will schedule an induction the week of April 22nd. Yay! It’s exciting to know for sure that I’ll be holding my baby boy sometime in the next 15 days. Little V’s heart rate was in the 140s, and he was moving all around during the exam.

Unfortunately, my blood pressure was on the high side again, so Dr. H sent me over to L&D to be monitored and have a fetal non-stress test done. This wasn't my first rodeo, having been through the same thing a few weeks ago. I was there for about two hours while they monitored my BP, the baby’s heart rate/movement, etc. I had several high blood pressure readings until the nurses had me lie down on my left side and then all the readings were normal. Doctor's advice is to "take it easy and lay down whenever possible" - a difficult thing to do when you're still working full time. Baby V was super active and his heart rate looked great. I had several contractions over the course of those two hours, although they aren't regular and are spaced out anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes apart. These contractions are still considered to be Braxton Hicks, although they are noticeably stronger than they were weeks ago and they now have definite peaks to them vs. just being an all over tightening sensation. The nursing staff checked my platelet levels again and I'm holding steady at 97,000. We're hoping and praying that my levels stay the same so that I can have an epidural as planned.

I was talking to mom this morning about how it feels to be 39 weeks pregnant. During the past few weeks I've been feeling that labor was imminent, but now, I've almost resigned to the fact that I'm going to be pregnant forever. Haha! In all seriousness, it feels like the end is NEVER going to come. Of course I know it will, but the waiting game ain't fun, folks.

T-minus TEN Days

38 Weeks, 4 Days

Only ten more days until my due date! It's getting so close I can taste it! I'm starting to get nervous about labor. Every little twinge of discomfort I feel, I automatically think to myself, "Could this be IT?" I had Braxton Hicks contractions all day yesterday. There wasn't a pattern, but they occurred anywhere between 5-30 minutes apart for the entire span of the work day. Then I woke up twice in the middle of the night with two VERY painful contractions that must be closer to what real labor feels like. So far, my BH contractions are just an uncomfortable tightening sensation across my entire abdomen. But the painful contractions I had last night were much sharper and more intense. Almost as if I had some bad Chinese food. Anyway, all is well this morning. I told myself last night if I had more than three of those painful contractions, it must be real labor, but they subsided and I dozed off.

Vicente is in D.C. today and tomorrow attending a conference which makes me anxious. With each passing day, I feel that labor could start at any moment. If I start to notice any pattern or regularity in my contractions, or if my water breaks, I'll give V a call ASAP and he can be in Baltimore in about an hour depending on the time of day he leaves. But even once he gets into city limits, he'll have a good 30 minute drive up to the hospital. So...its not ideal, but hopefully I won't go into labor in the next day or two.

It's supposed to get into the high 80s today, and I faced quite the dilemma dressing myself for work this morning. The last time I wore warm weather clothes, I was 40 pounds lighter. What's a nearly 39-week pregnant woman to do? Answer: dress yourself in pre-pregnancy clothes and hope for the best! I'm literally popping out of this outfit. I feel utterly ridiculous. Pun intended.

Parents Weekend

38 Weeks, 3 Days

Vicente and I are coming off of a wonderful weekend with our parents! Vicente and his dad had a conference in D.C. to attend on Saturday and Sunday, and V's mom came up with his dad on Thursday to stay with us and spend a little quality time before the baby comes. As it turns out, my mom and Van had also scheduled a trip to visit us this past weekend, so we had the pleasure of hosting both sets of parents in Baltimore the very same weekend! We truly had a wonderful time and I know it's something we'll always remember.

We were secretly hoping that Baby V would come early while everyone was in town. How convenient would that have been? Unfortunately, he decided he needs a little more time in the oven, so we'll just have to wait 11 more days...or maybe less?

I was able to knock out the last of my pregnancy to-dos this weekend, which included getting a haircut, having my car emissions tested, and buying video camera equipment (courtesy of our incredibly generous parents.) I'm so happy that we now have a camcorder to capture all those priceless early moments in our son's life. I love watching home movies from my own childhood and I can't wait to give this gift to our children as well. All the camera gear is charged up and ready to go whenever we finally make our way to the hospital to greet our baby boy.

I didn't take many pics from this weekend, despite the new camera equipment (and the new iPhone I was forced to buy last Thursday because I dropped and shattered my old one.) Here are a few pics I snapped in Fell's Point on Sunday before taking mom and Van to the airport. We were walking all over the neighborhood in an effort to jump start labor. It might not have worked, but at least we were able to enjoy the beautiful Spring weather!

38 Weeks,  2 Days

Me and Mese

Comparing belly bumps with Poppy!

A Wee Bit of Progress

37 Weeks, 6 Days

I just returned from my weekly OB appointment. I've gained four pounds in one week, but it's mostly due to swelling. My doctor even said I looked swollen, and boy do I feel it! I've been suffering from some brutal carpal tunnel syndrome this past week. I wake up multiple times in the night with numb, tingly hands. In the mornings, my wrists are incredibly sore. I know it's due to the swelling in my extremities, but it just sucks. Thankfully I only have to put up with it for a couple more weeks!

My blood pressure was normal (128/84) and the fetal heart rate was in the 140s. Dr. H did an internal exam and discovered that I'm 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced! Yay! She cracked me up when she said, "I can actually put my finger in your cervix. You've made progress!" I never thought I'd be so happy to hear someone say those words. It doesn't really mean much in terms of predicting when I'll go into labor, it just means that my body is finally making physical changes in preparation for childbirth. I could go into labor as early as tomorrow, or it might be after my due date. It's anyone's guess! Van really thinks its going to be this weekend while he and mom are in town with Vicente's parents. Wouldn't that be great timing to go into labor when the whole family is here?

Dr. H ordered more blood work to check my platelet count again. She's going to call me this afternoon with results.* Let's hope and pray that they stayed the same, or even went up, since last visit. I started at 94,000, and then a week later, I was at 109,000. Dr. H said if my platelet levels drop below 70,000, there are very few anesthesiologists who would feel comfortable putting an epidural in me. She said there are some that won't give epidurals if your platelets drop below 90,000, which for me, is cutting it close. I'm really terrified about not having the option to get an epidural. It's been my birth plan all along to have an epidural, so finding out it might not be an option for me this late in the game is scary. If I had known from the beginning this was a possibility, I probably would have taken some natural childbirth classes in preparation!

Oh well. It's out of my control. All I can do is pray that my platelet count comes back normal today.

*Just talked to Dr. H and my platelets are down a little bit at 96,000. She says they're "stable" meaning the change in the last three weeks hasn't been that drastic. Let's hope they don't fall any further than they are!

Surprise!

37 Weeks, 5 Days 

Today at work, while returning from my 20th trip to the bathroom, I noticed everyone in my office congregating in the conference room. They threw me a surprise baby shower! It made my day. I'm going to miss my awesome coworkers at Planit while I'm on maternity leave. It feels kind of weird to be checking out for three months, but I'll be back in July! Luckily, everyone at work has been so awesome and supportive during this pregnancy. I just hope it's not weird when I come back.

Check out some pics from earlier today!

Weekly Update - Almost There

36 Weeks, 6 Days

I had my weekly OB appointment this morning. I was anxious to find out whether or not my blood pressure had stabilized since my last visit, and of course, I wanted to know if I had made any "progress" in the past week. Here's a quick update of where things currently stand nearly 37 weeks into my pregnancy:

• I lost a pound since last week. I celebrated this fact by enjoying a big chocolate shake with my lunch.
• My blood pressure was normal (for me). It was in the high 120s/80s; I can't remember the exact reading.
• Dr. H. ordered more blood tests to monitor my platelets, which were abnormally low at my last visit. She just called to inform me that they had gone up from 94,000 to 109,000....it's still lower than normal, but it's improving! My liver enzymes were normal as well.
• I'm not dilated or effaced (damn it!), but the baby's head has dropped significantly. She said she could feel it under my pubic bone. That explains the discomfort I've been feeling lately (ie: a ton of pressure in my pelvis.) The doc said his positioning is normal and a good sign. She said for some women, the baby's head stays really high until the due date, and then the baby has a lot further to go when labor begins. Looks like Baby V has already got a "head start."
• My fundal height is measuring 36 cm, which is what it measured last week. Dr. H said this isn't because the baby is not growing, but is due to the fact that the baby's head has dropped pretty low into the birth canal.

Sorry if this is TMI for all your blog followers. I just like to record these things so I don't forget them later. Stay tuned for more news!