Wow! This post is LONG overdue… 16 months and 21 days overdue to be precise! I mentioned on this IG post a month ago exactly, that I was going to write this up before Aria joins us, so here goes nothing!
On June 2, 2016 I went to my regularly scheduled OB appointment at 38 weeks and 6 days pregnant. I was aware of a few things, the first being that I was DONE being pregnant… the second being that I was born a WHOPPING 9lb 15oz at 40 weeks exactly and managed to find a husband who too was a 10 pounder at birth! Third, I knew my entire pregnancy I was measuring 2-3 weeks ahead… meaning that at 38 weeks I was told I was measuring 40-41.
When one of my two favorite Drs walked into the exam room that day, I was determined to twist and poke and prod to be induced and had my fingers crossed he would be in a good mood and agree, though I knew as a first time mom it was a LONG SHOT. The OB practice I visit has 7 (yes, SEVEN) doctors.. and though they are ALL excellent I have a couple favorites probably just due to a personality bond.
Moving along, when the doctor walked in, my first question as I sat undressed from the waist down with nothing but a flimsy paper blanket was, “Who is on call tomorrow?” His response with that sweet smile he always carries around was, “I am actually on call tomorrow, why?” to which I said, “That’s great news! I’ll be 39 weeks tomorrow and I would like to have an elective induction”… “Whoa Whoa!”, he said… there are risks especially concerning a first time mom with induction before the due date, you have a slightly higher chance of ending up in a C-section….” I saw his lips moving but as I am the most stubborn person I know, I heard no more and said, “in another week the baby will likely be so big I’ll need a C-section anyway.” He gave me that super sweet smile again and I thought, he is going to send me straight home and tell me to walk off my anxiety haha! but no, he said he was going to perform a cervical check and that i should cross my fingers if i was 2-3cm he would possibly comply with my (insane) request… I literally crossed my fingers and wondered if i had any control of the size of my cervix (control freak much?) while he checked and he gave me a squint said I’m going to say your 2-3 its more like 2, but I’ve swept your membranes and we will schedule you for tomorrow…That was probably the moment I fell in love with my OB! Little did i know how much more would happen in the next 36 hours for me to care for and respect him as a man, as a physician, as a professional with an unparalleled vocation, and as a fellow human being.
P.S. Literally last week at my 35 week appt I found out from my other fave doctor, that I was the talk of the office and no one could believe that he was inducing a 39 weeker first time mom, his response was “She didn’t really give me a choice” (Sorry doc!)
June 3, 2016
It was business as usual, pregnancy insomnia hit at 3 am and I was waiting to get a call from the hospital at 6 am in which they would tell me what time I should waddle my way over to the hospital… When at 6:30 am no one had called I was anxious and wired and had my makeup done, so I of course called, hoping and praying they wouldn’t say, sorry we have too many people in labor, {like a chinese restaurant…thank you, come again.} Instead they just said be here between 7-7:30 am.. I rushed to wake hubby, and made it by 7:30.
The rest of this may be a bit out of sequence or times a bit off, but honestly if labor and delivery wasn’t a blur siblings would not be a thing and I wouldn’t be pregnant as I type this!
The doctor came in and broke my water, and pitocin as well as antibiotics were started (I was GBS +) by 11 am in addition to hubby and I, my mom and dad were there… this was interesting because they’re divorced and don’t really speak, but they’re both important to me and lets me real people… you did the deed and made this piece of work, who was about to deliver your first grandchild, one day won’t kill you (love you mom and dad!) They both did a great job at keeping the peace and being there for me throughout my whirlwind of a day! {Seriously, I was initially more nervous about that, than labor!}
People had asked me my entire pregnancy if I was going to get an epidural, if I was going to have the baby vaginally, if I was going to breastfeed… I always said I have NO IDEA! I mean lets be real, even me being the control freak that I am, knows better than to think such a delusion like I can control labor delivery or anything else related to it. So, when the doctor came in to check me and I felt like I was dying of pain, I was only 3cm dilated and he said I had about 7 hours to go (an hour a cm). I said “WHATTTT 7 HOURS?!… CALL THE ANESTHESIOLOGIST!”
The anesthesiologist came in for my epidural, he was great and I was happy to see him, but by about 2:30 pm I could still feel all my contractions (I could not feel my legs) and was still grabbing the bed handles for dear life, at which point I was only at 5cm dilated (halfway there) but I knew this meant about 5 more hours still so I begged they check my epidural because it was obviously not doing anything, the nurses had already tried laying me flat to get the epidural to take higher, but it didn’t work and I couldn’t breathe laying that way, so they called the anesthesiologists again. Ill never forget the skinny curly haired woman that came to my rescue, she gave me what they call a “bolus” which is the epidural med boosted in a dose instead of infused continuously (if I understood correctly). The bolus helped me fall asleep for about 45 minutes… Lord knows I needed it, because next check I was at 7 cm! The doctor gave us his best guess when asked what time do you think baby will be here and said “maybe 8-9 pm, but there is really no knowing.”
Finally at 8pm I was 10 cm, family was already in the waiting room, thinking wed have the baby in our arms between 8 and 9pm, but we still had a few hours to go!
At 8:10 I took this picture as our final “Family of 2” picture. (I was already so exhausted)
A little while later the Dr said we could start pushing, my dad (who had said he would stand somewhere behind the bed to take pictures but not see etc) said “Where do you need me doc?!” and the Dr said, “Well, grab that leg!” lol little did my dad know that morning he would literally be helping deliver his grandson and little did my mom know she would become my National Geographic worthy photographer! (She the most amazing picture of Alessandro coming into this world!)
At this point the Dr asked if I wanted to keep or pull my epidural, (it still was not working) I told him, you’re the doctor/professional, what do you recommend? He recommended pulling it because
- it hadn’t taken
- I would be able to more effectively push
- I would recover more quickly and transfer to a room as soon as I could walk.
So I pulled the trigger and we turned off my leg epidural since thats all it really even numbed -_-
By 9:25 pm they “broke the bed”. Its all blurry from here, but between pushes, there was talk about seeing the baby’s head and about how he was strong since his heart rate would go up and not down when I would push. There were also comments about me being a “good pusher” for a FTM… all the while I was nauseated begging for those green barf bags across the room! My dad held my left leg, my mom cheered me on from directly in my sight line and hubby held my right leg. I thought (and everyone expected) I would scream and curse and lose my cool, but I only threw an F-bomb or two under my breath and told the Dr I’ couldnt do this anymore, to which he replied “Yes, you can.. you’re doing awesome” (He mentioned the baby had a big head and that was the difficulty) I was given an oxygen mask and cold wet rags. My dad was so into the delivery and baby’s head that he kept blinding me with the rags and pinching my nose shut with the oxygen mask, HA! He was somehow doing great and killing me all at the same time!
The nurse said something to the effect of, this baby is going to make me have to change the dates on all the paper work, and the doctor joked telling her you should know better by now, than to date anything ahead of time… I just blurted out “Please DO NOT tell me what time it is!”
The next time I heard someone in the room say we can see his head, I said “You all have been saying that for 2 HOURS!” and my doctor looked at me, and kindly but stearnly said, “Do you want to feel it?” (OMGOSH whattttt?!)
I said yes to that of course and once I KNEW with 100% certainty, that he was right there… it was probably only 10 more minutes before I heard after a push.. “quick grab the baby, she’s going to drop him!” I was so exhausted I didn’t even realize he had come out in that last push and they had placed him on my stomach! I was just gearing up for the next push! I looked down grabbed my son for the first time and could not believe that every ounce of pain was just gone!
Alessandro was born at 11:22 pm on June 3rd 2016 weighing 8 lbs 10 oz, measuring 21 3/4″ and a 14″ head circumference. The nurses said, “Hope you don’t have too much newborn clothes!” (lol, I didn’t)
The next morning I ran into my doctor in the hall and he said one more week and he probably wouldn’t have been a vaginal delivery, I’m so glad I pushed to be induced and Im so glad my doctor went for it (and I’m so glad it worked)! Even though my epidural didn’t take and I felt every joint in my body painfully move, even though I felt like my hips and pelvis were going to crack, even though I pushed for about 3 hours, I wouldn’t change any of it. In just 3 short weeks I will be doing this all again, and I am actually looking forward to it, the reward SOOOO outweighs anything else!
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