I spent months dreaming of life with Baby Girl and to my surprise she decided she was ready to start that life on an early Tuesday Morning two weeks before her due date. I had begun my official countdown to her arrival on Monday but I was sure she wouldn't arrive until the following week or later. I knew there was progress being made after my doctor told me I was beginning to dilate and I was almost completely effaced, but those numbers meant nothing to me. I still had a good amount of energy and felt surprisingly comfortable considering it was August and I was 9 months pregnant.
Monday evening came and my lower back began to ache a little. I assumed it was because I had been on my feet most of Sunday and I had done a lot of housework earlier in the day. I mentioned the pain and the beginning of my countdown to my mom and she casually pointed out the full moon scheduled to appear the following night. We looked up more about the Lunar Effect and laughed at the possibility that the gravitational pull would bring out Baby Girl (little did we know...). I looked in my pregnancy books for exercises to ease an aching back and attempted to do a few. After no success I decided to call it a night and go to bed. I tossed and turned and only slept a little bit until I woke up at 2:30 AM because the pain was getting worse. I honestly didn't think I could be in labor because everything I had read said the birth pains would be in my abdomen, not my back. I walked around the house hoping it would ease the pain. I realized the pains were worse at times and coming about every 5 minutes. I woke my mom up and told her and of course we decided we should go to the hospital. I still had my doubts and wanted to wait a little longer so we both showered and I finished packing my back. By the time we were in the car the pains were pretty bad and I had to ask my mom to stop talking as I needed silence to get through the pain.
We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 AM. We made our way to check in and they hooked me up to the pain monitors. I was still able to answer questions and keep my calm even though the monitors were showing very high pain levels. I was fascinated by the spiking lines on the monitor. The nurse examined me and I was a good 4-5 cm dilated and definitely in labor. They set me up in the delivery room and my mom and I made a few calls and sent a few texts to let people know Baby Girl was on her way.
The contractions were getting worse but they were still manageable. I was thankful for my pain tolerance as I wanted to have a medicine free labor. The nurse kept asking how much pain I was in on a scale of 1 to 10. I was probably an 11 but I kept saying I was a 7-8 because that is what I wanted to believe. I found that sitting and rocking on the birthing ball was more comfortable than laying in the bed. I also had a fan blowing right on me (I was sweating) and my mom massaging my lower back with a tennis ball. My doctor came in at 7 AM to let us know he was there and would be making his rounds until 1 PM. I jokingly asked him what took him so long to get there. I think my sarcasm threw off him, the nurse, and my mom off. A woman in labor doesn't usually make jokes. He went on his way and I kept breathing and rocking. The pains were progressing and I was definitely vocalizing it. At one point a contraction came and suddenly my whole body wanted to push. I yelled out the urge and the nurse quickly examined me, told me to get in the bed, and called the doctor. Baby Girl was coming and she was coming quick.
At around 8 AM I had my legs up, the doctors was putting on his gloves and we were ready for action. He numbed me "down there" and the nurse and my mom kept reminding me to breath. I just wanted to push so push I did. After each push the nurse told me to relax and catch my breath and let the contractions help me. But I didn't want to stop pushing and I made that very clear. We were on a roll, why slow it down? After only 15 minutes Baby Girl was out. It all happened so fast, I was in shock. I just stared at her in disbelief that I had made another human being. I didn't cry, I just took it all in. I took in her cries, her smells, her looks, her entire being. I took in the experience. I had just given birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl. I couldn't believe what my body has just done.
Ava Madelyn Lopez weighed 5 pounds and 15 ounces, measured 19.5 inches long, and was born at 8:39 AM on Tuesday, August 24, 2010. She is perfect.
dani, nice story. my mom used to be a labor and delivery nurse and she said the hospital always added extra staff on full moon nights because there actually were tons more births..
ReplyDelete-wheatie