Oscar Julian’s Birth Story

On a Friday night November 17, 2017 at 8:45 pm, our son Oscar Julian came into this world weighing a whopping 9lbs, 10 oz and measuring 22 inches long.

Prior to giving birth, in preparation and out of sheer curiosity, I binged on reading birth stories and I learned that no birth story was the same. I wondered how my son’s birth would be and secretly hoped it would be like one of those “ta-dah baby is here in like an hour” kind of thing, but NOPE his birth story unfolded in the span of 2 painful, sleepless and sometimes scary days!

Today I want to share my son’s birth story for any mommies, mommies-to-be or anyone who is like me, a birth story lover… or maybe just curious about how I pushed a 9 lb 10 oz baby out!

Let’s rewind so I can tell you how this all went down…

We were given a due date of November 15, however that day came and still no baby! Luckily, I had an appointment with my OBGYN that day, so we went in and he checked my cervix- I was 3cm dilated and said my cervix was thinning. He did a “sweep” to get the ball rolling (google it if you really want to know what this means) and we scheduled an appointment to be induced at 41 weeks just in case the baby hadn’t made his arrival.

Later that Wednesday evening, I started to experience these uncomfortable pains that I later realized were contractions. At first I wasn’t sure if they were the real deal so I kept googling what they feel like and let’s just say there is no explanation for these painful suckers other than you’ll know when you feel ’em!

The contractions started becoming more consistent and painful, so I started timing them per the maternity hospital tour handout that said to go to the hospital when the contractions are 3-5 minutes apart or if my water broke, obviously easier read than done. They continued to be about 10-15 minutes apart and quite painful, especially when the baby would move, so I cried to my husband in desperation that we should make our way to the hospital and see if they can admit me. He nervously agreed and off we went with hospital bags packed and car seat in the car. Since the hospital was 30-40 minutes away, I also feared that I would be one of those stories in the news delivering the baby in the car on the side of the road.

We arrived at the hospital Thursday morning around 6 am and they monitored my contractions for 20 minutes and the baby’s heartbeat. I was still 3cm dilated (boo I thought I would be farther along), they checked to see if my water had broken with a little strip (if it turned blue it would indicate it had), and it had not, plus my contractions were still not close enough so they sent us home which was a total bummer! The nurse said “I will say this baby is coming today, but just not right now” she recommended I walk around and come back when my contractions were so painful that I couldn’t speak (like really?!) or if my water broke. So we headed home, I was still having contractions and the bumps on the road were so painful I was squirming and moaning.

At this point I figured that I would get home, the contractions would get closer together and then we can make our way back to the hospital BUT the opposite happened, they started becoming inconsistent and farther apart.

It is now Thursday evening and I felt a little gush of water. I didn’t think anything of it because I imagined that your water breaking felt like a big gush or creating a puddle (a la Miranda’s water breaking on Carrie’s new Louboutins Sex and The City moment), until it happened like 3 more times.  We called the triage nurse to ask, and at the risk that my water was broken she asked us to come in to get it checked. Thank God we did because unbeknownst to me, having your water broken is a huge deal and the baby should be out before hitting the 24 hour of water breaking mark, something that played an important role during delivery.

We get back to the hospital and they do the little strip test and the nurse says “here’s your ticket in, you’re getting admitted” in other words, my water had broken! I was kind of relieved, but then there was a moment where my husband and I just looked at each other with panic in our eyes like “oh shit, this is really happening!” The explanation of the four gushes was that the baby’s head was in the way so every time he would move a gush of water would come out- go figure!

At this point it was Friday 2 am. We got checked in, and I’ll take the opportunity to say how amazing and kind the nurses and staff were! The hospital is less than a year old, so our delivery room looked very fancy and high tech. My mom showed up right away even though I knew it would be some time before the baby came out, but her motherly instincts didn’t let her sleep.
Now it’s Friday morning, my contractions were still not consistent and since my water was broken they had to induce me with pitocin and then as if I thought I was already in pain, the pain bar got raised (I felt like my hip bones were practically breaking) and I requested the epidural sooner than I thought. It was put in and literally the pain of contractions went away to the point where I took a nap. My first nap and last nap in a few days *tear*

Now we’re on Friday afternoon and this is where my story will get tricky because this is where it became a frantic painful blur, kind of like this paragraph: With my husband, sister and mom at my side the next four hours were crazy. Yes four hours!! The nurse had me start pushing, at about hour 2 I had developed a fever, they said I had an infection because my water had been broken for so long, they started putting antibiotics into my IV. Then came an oxygen mask, I don’t remember why all I know is baby’s heart was still good and they said the infection had not gotten to the baby which is all that mattered. I remember the midwives would come in to see the progress and every time I would see them leave I would get so disappointed because it meant the baby was still not close to being out yet. I remember sweating, burning up AND crying to my mom like a little girl wanting her mommy to save her from the situation. My mom and sisters were rock stars, comforting and encouraging me. The nurses did a shift change because hell, I was pushing for that long! The new nurses were more intense in a good way and I was starting to get a rhythm pushing when the contractions came. Not going to lie, at this point I was screaming like a wild woman, crying to the point that the nurses were telling me to channel the energy into pushing, I just remember thinking even if I wanted to give up I couldn’t! I was exhausted, like I literally felt the baby was stuck in the canal. Because I was getting to the 24 hour mark of the water breaking and I had run a fever, I just remember realizing there were like 12 people in the room (something that my husband says was scary). I just remember thinking, I had already pushed for this long I did NOT want a C-section. The doctor explained that she could use this vacuum thing that attaches to the baby’s head to assist and she said all of the risks involved which sounded horrible at the time, but said 80% of him getting out was up to me pushing and 20% was going to be the vacuum. We said yes out of desperation, and I just remember 2 big pushes with the vacuum and he was out- Hallelujah!!!!!!! I felt soooo much relief!

I saw him being taken to get inspected and I remember looking at my husband and cry-yelling “that’s our baby! that’s our baby!” Mom, sister, hubby and I were all shedding tears. Husband went over there to cut the umbilical chord. Then they laid baby on my my chest for skin to skin and I could not believe it.  It was sooo surreal!

After they “fixed me up” that also was another adventure that took an hour because I had a hemorrhage but I literally was numb with happiness that all the stuff they were doing to me was nothing compared to what I had just endured. At this point our immediate family had been in the waiting room ALL DAY and three by three came in to meet the baby. Our dads, our moms, our sisters, my cousin, niece, brother in law, all came in.

Once they announced how much he weighed it explained why it took me so long to push him out! All of the ultrasounds indicated he would not be that big, they indicated that he was long but could not predict his weight. My husband said it was all the ice cream I ate – eek!!

All that mattered to me was that he was healthy and he has been. As for me, I am thankful to God that I could take on the brunt of everything (the motherly duty has begun). The healing took a while, as they said I lost a lot of blood and became anemic during labor, plus the infection, so I felt like a truck ran over me like ten times, but the crazy amazing thing is somehow without any sleep in 3 days the husband and I still functioned. One of the nurses said it was that new parent adrenaline, who knows?

All I know is that a woman’s body is an amazing thing, to think of everything my body had gone through and continues to go through and how it recovers ALL WHILE producing food for my baby- a pure miracle!! We still couldn’t believe we were parents and we created this little human (which turned out to look more like me, hee hee). We are definitely blessed!

That concludes Oscar Julian’s birth story. He is our little miracle and our everything!

☮ & ♥,

Pau

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