After more than 20 pushes... with NO EPIDURAL... I gave birth to a 8.5-pound baby boy! This is Baby Rhyme's birth story.
GOING FULL TERM
Fast forward to week 36 of my pregnancy. This was also the week of my boyfriend and I's 3rd Anniversary. I really thought I would go into labor as early as 36 or 37 weeks with all the walking and commuting I've been doing going to the office. And so for our anniversary celebration, we just had a simple dinner near our place, just in case baby gets excited. But no -- no signs or anything.
It's not always what you expect
At week 37, I had an ultrasound. We're expecting a 6-pounder.
38th week was Holy Week. I asked myself, "Do I want to labor during the long holiday? Nahh." so I talked to Baby Rhyme to just go after the Holy Week but not past his April 28, 2014 due date.
Talking to baby worked!
THE PRESSURE AND ANXIETY
39th week was the deadline I've set for myself. Doctor said going up to 42 weeks isn't considered overdue yet, but we have to closely monitor the baby. I also have the option to be induced if I really wanted the baby to be out before my due date. None of which I prefer. So on my 39th week checkup, I was hoping for progress... a significant progress.
April 21 : Doctor decided to perform an IE (internal exam) as it is possible that I wasn't feeling any signs but I was already progressing. 1cm. That's it. No effacement. Baby is still "floating", as how my doctor called it.
I want my baby to go out this week.. this week.. within the 39th week!
Later that day, I tried some ways to induce my pregnancy "naturally".
April 22 : When I woke up to pee, there were streaks of brown blood. Bloody show? Or maybe just due to the IE? Hope: UP!
April 23 : Boring day. No signs or anything. Hope: DOWN
April 24 : It initially looked like another boring day not until in the afternoon when I had a mucus-like discharge. Mucus plug? Hope: UP!
It was already near the end of the week and I didn't want to spoil the excitement so I did more walking, almost jogging!
THE BIG DAY
April 25 : I woke up at around 11AM and, as usual, the first thing I did was to pee. O-oh, there's again a blood-tinged discharge, though not that much. I also felt a slight pain in my lower abdomen.
Hmm.. I don't want to assume right away and so I observed. I was getting frequent slight pain in my abdomen. I started timing it:
11:51 11:56 12:01 12:06 12:11 12:16 12:19 12:24 12:29 ...
Every 5 minutes. Whoah. Braxton Hicks? Early labor signs? Even though I REALLY wanted to give birth as soon as possible, I wanted it to be real before I go to the hospital. Maybe I've read too many posts/forums wherein they were sent back as they're just having false labor, or experiences that even after having bloody show or plug out, it still took them a week to give birth.
Enough of other people's experiences. I'm dealing with my own now. I sent a SMS to my OB/GYN to tell her about my condition. She said that if it remained consistent even after lunch time, we can already go to the hospital. So there's the go signal.
Keep calm and breathe!
I was calm the whole time.. or trying to be calm. I observed and continued timing my contractions. The pain was increasing but tolerable. Whenever I contract, I just breathe in through my nose, and breathe out through my mouth steadily. Each contraction lasted about a minute or less and so after a few breathing, I'm fine. For some prolonged and painful ones, my partner and I just danced it away. Yes, it helped that I had him with me. He was supportive.
THIS IS IT!
I tried to delay going to the hospital for the fear of being sent back. As I've mentioned, the pain was still tolerable... far from the screaming-in-pain scenarios usually shown in movies.
2:30PM : We decided to go to the hospital. Our hospital bag was ready since my 5th or 6th month so all I had to do was to prepare myself.
3:00PM : We reached the hospital and I was admitted to the Emergency Room. Typical questioning by the resident doctor. I was examined and to their surprise, I was already 4cm dilated and 70-80% effaced! Baby was still at -2 fetal station though. Ha, dilation? effacement? station? See definitions below:
Dilation is how open the cervix is and is measured in cm (0cm to10cm)The resident doctor was amazed how I managed to stay calm, even smiling, patiently waiting, even though I was already almost half-way to my delivery.
Effacement is how thin the cervix is and is measured in percent (0% to 100%)
Station is how low the baby's head is in the pelvis and is measured from -3 to +4
4:30PM : I was brought to the Labor Room. Contraction and fetal monitoring. The contractions were getting more painful. My OB is on the way. They performed enema as a preparation.
6:00PM : My doctor came and examined me. I was already 6-7cm dilated. She asked if I would get an epidural. As I could still tolerate the pain with my breathing exercise and few hip rocking, I stick to our initial discussion during my checkup -- to wait and see. The pedia and the anesthesiologist were still on their way.
Epidural? Let's wait and see...
8:00PM : The contractions were really getting painful... every 2 minutes. 1 minute of pain, another minute to recover, and so on. Breathe in, breathe out while hip rocking and pounding my lower back. It was not really my intention to deliver without epidural, but my thinking was, if I can do without it, why not?! I've read experiences where they managed to do it even if they did not intend to. Besides, I was afraid of having a long needle injected to my spine, even though my doctor assured that it is safe. I also thought that less drug would be better.
The pain is getting stronger, reaching beyond my threshold. I told the nurse, "Sobrang sakit na po... halos every 1-2 minutes na po...". I then said, "Pwede pa po ba akong magpa-epidural?". She said, "Ask natin si Doc". The doctor came to check on me. I was already FULLY DILATED. Too late for epidural. The anesthesiologist hasn't arrived anyway.
8:30PM : Time to move to the Delivery Room. The pain continues but I still try to relax. It came to a point when the pain almost became a cycle and benumbing, that it seemed it was already the peak of the pain. I was instructed NOT to push out even though I get the urge. Really tough as I cannot hold the urge. We were waiting for my baby to get to the right station and for my waterbag to break, naturally. Time was running but of no avail and so my doctor allowed me to push out but after several times of doing it on my own, she taught me another method. Deep breathe in, hold breathe and push for 10 seconds. I was doing it twice for each contraction. But it was with this way that I no longer felt the contraction pains as I was focused on pushing out my baby.
2 long pushes for each contraction that happens every other minute. Do the math!
10:30PM : Whew, hours have passed yet I was still in the Delivery Room. Doctor decided to break my waterbag. Splashhhh!! Baby has gone lower but wasn't enough. Push, push for each contraction. I was really getting exhausted... Then there's the need for fundal pressure. For each contraction, the male nurse was applying pressure on my tummy to help me push out my baby. It took 5 sets before we became successful.
11:14PM : "BABY OUT!", the doctor shouted. It was a relief, but at the same time, I was waiting... waiting for my baby to cry. I saw him being brought to the other side of the room. I was smiling to see him finally, but was also getting worried. A few minutes had passed and he was still not crying. The anesthesiologist came and injected something in my IV. He said, "Aantukin ka nito". I wanted to resist it despite my exhaustion as I was still observing my baby. Then I heard a loud cry. It was my baby. I passed out.
12:00AM : I woke up still in the Delivery Room. The doctors have left. I immediately asked where my baby was, how he was. The picture above, I never knew it happened. I wanted to experience the UNANG YAKAP, to breastfeed my baby right after delivery. But I guess those were not applicable for my case. I was informed that my baby had a single cord coil and it took 5 minutes for him to be "revived". I was then brought to the Recovery Room.
1:30AM : I tried to fight the grogginess. All I wanted was to see my baby and breastfeed him so I asked to be brought back to my room. My mom and my boyfriend were waiting. They showed me the pictures of my baby. I was happy to see the pictures but I was longing to hold him. The nurse said I can visit the baby at the nursery (which is just in front of our room anyway) at around 9AM. Waw, that's still several hours. How will my baby feed?
8:30AM : I was called to visit the Nursery Room. I was disappointed to see a feeding bottle with formula milk in baby's bassinet. (Anyway, I'll tackle this breastfeeding story in another post.) My baby was brought to my arms for the first time. I was teary eyed. Chinky eyes, chubby face, thin lips. I breastfed him finally. It was fulfilling. Finally, I was able to say,
Marco Rhythm, welcome to the outside world!
