How it Went

Well as I'm sure most of you are curious, I'll give you the details on how Maiyo came to be with us 2 weeks ago today.

It all started on a Friday night at Anastasio's team (CalGiant Berries-Specialized) announcement party. We were there for about 1.5 hours, standing around socializing when I started to feel really tired and a bit off. So we left early to go grab some grub and ended up at the new restaurant on Mission called Mamma Lucia's. Still not feeling great through our late dinner we headed home when it happened...at about 10 o'clock at night the contractions started up.

They were about 10-12 mins apart so we decided to go to bed and Ana quickly feel fast asleep. I, on the other hand, started to get anxious, so I stayed up and finally around 2:30 I began texting my awesome Doula, Dionne Ybarra, and woke Ana up since the contractions were 6 mins apart. But four hours later, and still 6 mins apart we decided to go back to bed and the contractions subsided...and that's how it went the rest of the day (Saturday.) About 2 hours on then 2 hours off. We decided to go about with our original schedule and even went to a party. Although I had some discomfort, the contractions finally stopped later that evening.

So Sunday was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we were tired from lack of sleep and lots of emotional upheaval from the prospect of having the baby! That is until about 8:30 pm when the contractions started up again. This time they were 8 minutes apart so I figured I was in false labor again so I told Ana he could go to sleep and I decided to bake some goodies to pass the time. Well by 10:30, and right after I pulled out all the ingredients for pumpkin empanadas, the contractions hit hard and started coming closer together and at regular intervals. By 12:30 I knew I was in labor and woke Ana up since they were now 5 mins apart and lasting 30-45 seconds. We called the hospital and as expected they told us to wait at home till my water broke or I couldn't handle it anymore. So we texted Dionee with the info and started pacing around. Ana got really anxious every time I had a contraction and he tried his best to help with some massaging techniques we learned in childbirth class. Some helped and some didn't but most of all it was just nice to know he was there with me.

And so it went on and on and the contractions finally got to 3 then 2 minutes apart and I was in lots of pain. I lasted till 5 am when I finally told him I wanted to go to the hospital to get checked out. So we headed out the door, made the extremely uncomfortable 15 min drive with several contractions when we finally arrived at 5:30 with our bags and baby blanket in hand.

We were shown to a staging room to get examined to see how far I had progressed...only 1 cm but 80% effaced, I almost cried cuz I was certain I was farther along after so many hours, but at least we finally knew I was definitely in labor. No drugs though cuz I wasn't dilated enough and they were almost gonna send me back home. Our nurse was a meany and kept giving me a hard time about my breathing and even took offense when I snapped at her to leave me alone. I mean come on lady, I'm in labor, stop bugging me cuz all I feel is pain and don't need the nagging! At least she left us alone after that:-) Also, Dionne came down to help coach and I started feeling a bit more at ease about the idea of labor (but still in pain), and finally, 3 hours after getting there, I was now 3 cm dilated so I was good to be admitted!

So now it's 8:30, I'm finally in my nice own labor suite where Ana & Dionne are doing a great job of coaching me through the contractions, but the hours and pain were wearing on me so we tried a few soothing techniques. First, the shower, every time I had a contraction, Ana would spray hot water on my back (where I was feeling all the pain) and it would instantly subside. We did this for about an hour and then I felt I was turning into a prune so we took a break. Then we tried sitting in a jacuzzi with hot water and jets going but the pressure of sitting or being on all fours was too much and I could only handle it for about 15 mins, so we went back to the shower until I finally had had enough and asked for the drugs. By the time I was administered the first set of medication, Fetonol, which didn't do anything, I had been in labor for 18 hours! An hour later I got the Epidural which finally numbed the pain but luckily I could still moves my legs!

So then it became a waiting game. My mom & sister showed up, then Goldi came by for a while and finally Gloria. Ana & Dionne got to take a dinner break while Goldi waited with me and that was nice (she gave me a foot massage!) Up until this point I had been progressing pretty well but at a slow pace so my doctor wanted to move things along and decided to break my water when I was at 5cm. That took like a second and both Ana & I exclaimed our surprise when it was over (I didn't feel it cuz of the epidural). A little while later I moved to 6 then 7 cm at which point I got stuck at 7 cm for 3 hours! So everyone decided to head home to sleep since we thought it was gonna be another few hours and well into the am before I'd give birth!

So then the doctor decided to give me Pitocin (the labor inducing drug) at 11:15pm and at 11:45 I had dilated to 10 cm! So they prepared the room, got me into position and at 12:34 I started pushing, and pushing and pushing. The hardest part of pushing was getting into position! But Ana & Dionne where there and helped me so I didn't have to think about anything. Then about 30 minutes later his head was surfacing and I was told to stop middle push, I wasn't sure what was going on but did as was told, then a couple minutes later, at 1:13 am, he was out, but not in my arms. Ends up the umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck and the doctor had to cut it to get him out. So then the pediatrician had to check his vitals cuz he didn't cry, but then he did and it was amazing. I saw the look on Anastasio's face and couldn't wait to hold my baby! He is so precious! Ana was asked over to finish cutting the cord and then they brought the baby to me and the three of us enjoyed those wonderful moments of introduction. Lots of pictures later, all while I delivered the placenta and was being stitched up from a tear, and after 29 hours of labor, we finally had our beautiful baby boy Maiyo.

6 pounds, 13.9 ounces, 20.5 inches long, 10 long fingers & 10 long toes on his 2 long feet and lots of hair all over. He is an amazing addition to our little family:-)

In retrospect, I actually can't remember at all what the labor pains felt like. Ana says I was miserable but the baby endorphins erased all that from my memory. All I do know is that it was totally worth it!