IM NOT PREGNANT ANYMORE!
We now are proud parents to the cutest Mexican-American baby boy! I literally can’t stare at him long enough. He’s so perfect and looks exactly like his daddy.
I know a lot of people who read this do so through Facebook, but this will be my last post that I share on there. I’ll still post updates on here periodically about our lives as he grows, and if you’d like to be notified when those posts are, you can enter your email address in the “follow” section at the bottom of any post and it will update you via email when there is a new post 🙂
So! how was the last week? Well I honestly wasn’t really expecting anything to happen because of family history, but I had still been trying some natural ways to induce labor for the last few weeks leading up to his due date. I’d been walking a ton, climbing up and down stairs when I got the chance, bouncing on a yoga ball, doing squats and lunges, taking black cohosh (herbal pill thing) and evening primrose oil, and the obvious, sex. Sounds like a lot, but everyone says “if your body isn’t ready to have the baby, they wont work” so I figured it was a long shot at best. BUT early Sunday morning (his due date) I started having pretty regular but mild contractions. — I’m gonna go ahead and say this now in case I haven’t said it in a previous post.. I planned on having a natural labor and delivery. I didn’t want an epidural or any kind of pain medication and I had hired two doulas to help me through the process. — anyways, I had been having a decent amount of Braxton Hicks contractions the past few days, but they were never painful and these were (even though it was a very small amount of pain). So those stayed pretty consistently every 7-10 minutes all day Sunday but were really mild. Then they slowed down and I was able to sleep a good amount that night. Monday went pretty much the same way. They were little more painful but nothing I couldn’t handle. I texted my mom around 10:30 Monday night just to give her a heads up that we would probably end up coming over there (I planned on laboring over there because my moms bathtub is huge and awesome) at some point that night because they were progressively getting stronger. Cristian came home from work and we both went to bed and I was woken up around 12:30am Tuesday morning to some very painful (so I thought at the time…..) contractions. I waited them out as long as I could and woke Cristian up around 2 to go to my moms house. One of my doulas, Sandee, met us there around 3 and was a huge help coaching me through each contraction and reminding me to keep breathing and relaxing.
We left for the hospital around 4:45am and my other doula, Rachel, met us there at 5. I got checked in, put in my room, etc. and when they finally checked me I was only 3cm (all I was thinking was “these hurt this bad and I’m not even technically in active labor?! I’m in trouble”). They said I could go home and labor some more there, or stay in the hospital if I wanted. I ended up going back home (to my mom’s house) which was very anti-climactic and a little discouraging. All day my contractions got more and more intense and closer together and by around 4:30 that afternoon I was ready to go back. On the ride there, I couldn’t sit still during contractions and had to get on my knees and lean over the back of the seat in the car in order to deal with them so I figured I was at least 6 or 7cm. – I told Cristian I was going to be very upset if I was anything less than 6. – So for the second time that day I got checked in, taken to my room and instead of getting checked immediately, I got into the shower they had there and just stood under the hot water for a good 20 minutes at least. I got out and got checked and I was 5cm and 90% effaced. I was pretty frustrated and a little scared that I wouldn’t be able to handle the pain at 9 or 10cm if the contractions were hurting that bad at a 5.
My doctor came in shortly after that and had good and bad news. Good news: 5cm will quickly progress because I was almost fully effaced and apparently that helps dilation move along quicker. Bad news: He had been on call the past 4 nights and had been home a total of 10 hours in the past 4 days, so he was running on fumes and was going home for the night. His partner Georgia Ferrall would be delivering my baby. I had only met her once and honestly couldn’t even remember what she looked like because I hadn’t really entertained the idea that she would be delivering my baby anyways. That was a slight wrench in my plans but at the end of the day I guess it didn’t really matter as long as they got that baby out of me. So I got over it and decided to get back in the shower because it felt soooo nice. Before I got in, Dr. Ferrall came and introduced herself and said that she had had her kids naturally too so she was already on the same page as me which was a big relief and made me feel much better.
Skip to around 8pm – the nurse came in and checked me and said I was 100% effaced and was 6.5cm (only!?) and not even 15 minutes later, Dr. Ferrall came and checked me and said I was 9cm (yay!).
and then the next 3 hours happened…
The next 3-3 1/2 hours I was having the most intense and painful contractions possible. I didn’t think it was possible to hurt that much. I have no problem saying I cried through more than one contraction and was just overall miserable. Up until that point my contractions had had a starting and ending point. They would start, get really intense, and then end. But for the whole 3 1/2 hours it seemed like one contraction immediately ran into the next one and there was no break in between them. (Unknown to me at the time, My contractions were actually about 20 minutes apart but immediately after one would end, I would fall asleep and be woken up by the next one starting) Typically, this part is called transition and consists of contractions that have very little time between them, but only lasts a very short time before you start pushing. The reason my transition lasted 3 hours is because there was a small part of the cervix that hadn’t fully stretched and gotten out of the way of his head, so they wouldn’t let me push until it was gone or else something could go badly. They kept checking periodically through the hours and even broke my water (which hadn’t broken yet) to try and speed things up… – nothing. At this point I asked if there was any pain medication they could give me and they said that I was so close to pushing that they couldn’t give me anything. So finally at 11ish the nurse suggested that I turn on my side so his head got lined up with the part of the cervix that was blocking his head and when the contractions came, his head would help thin it out enough to start pushing. Soooo 45 minutes later, victory! It was finally thinned enough to start pushing.
All I’m gonna say about that is that it was the weirdest and the most painful pain I’ve ever experienced, but seemed like a piece of cake compared to the last 3 hours just because it only lasted 45 minutes and seemed like 20.
and then just like that, we had our son.
The most perfect, beautiful little human possible. Beautiful dark skin, black hair, and the spitting image of his dad. Born at 12:51am November 27th, weighing 6lbs 11oz and measured 21 inches long.
I didn’t say much about Cristian’s level of involvement through the whole process, but I do want to say, through most of active labor he was kind of hovering in the background while my doulas helped me breathe and relax, etc. but when I called him and needed to squeeze his hands or anything, he was immediately by my side. And that when it came time to push, he was my biggest cheerleader. I don’t remember very many specifics from that part, but I do remember him squeezing my hand and whispering constant encouragement in my ear. I was (am) so so soooo proud of him and how he handled everything and I’m so much more in love with him than before (if that’s even possible) 🙂
If you can’t tell, I’m kiiiiiiiiind of in love..
The timing of everything couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. I had really wanted to have the baby and be out of the hospital before Thanksgiving because who wants to spend Thanksgiving pregnant or eating hospital food? Not me. So after laboring for 48 hours and giving birth earlyyyy Wednesday morning, the timing worked out and I got wish! My brother, Stephen, and his fiancée, Sam, were driving down Wednesday afternoon to stay for the weekend. They came straight off the road to come see us in the hospital on Wednesday night and then Thursday morning we were discharged, went home and showered and went to my parents house for Thanksgiving! Stephen and Sam stayed until Sunday and got to see lots of Cristopher and both of us 🙂 I was sure that I was going to go into labor the day they left and they were going to miss seeing him as a sweet little nugget. But everything worked out beautifully and everyone got to love on him all weekend.
a very happy Happy
Coffee has been taking the new addition very well also. At first she had no idea what to think about everything and kept wanting to smell and lick him which is fine, but she was being a little rougher than I would have liked.. She’s learned now and gives him sweet gentle kisses and doesn’t push him with her nose. I can’t wait for her to become his personal body guard as he gets older 😉
So I think that’s everything? I feel like I’m missing a bunch of things, but no fruit of the week, no survery, and no portrait (though, I do want to take a final one and post that later, I just haven’t gotten around to doing it yet for obvious reasons haha) so I think that’s all!
Thank you to everyone who has followed with me through this 9 (almost 10) month journey! I love you all and I’m ecstatic that this part has ended and we can start our new (much longer) journey with our sweet Cristopher!
Much love,
Cristian, Marilee, & Cristopher (aka baby nugget)
Cordova Life 