Diaz Daily: Your birth story

Your birth story starts out pretty uneventful at first. We get to the hospital on September 19, 2014 around 300 pm. They already called to see where we were at as they were expecting us around lunch. I had to wait for your father to finish up things at work first so when he got home we were out the door pretty much.
I get to the hospital and they immediately show me my room. Huge birthing suite which is nice. I get undressed completely and they put monitors on me and give me Cervidil to help soften my cervix so that it will start to contract hopefully. I was trying to do your birth all natural with no other drugs, if possible.
First round of Cervidil is 12 hours then they will check to see how I am and either give me another round of cervidil or pitocin. So around 430 pm I get first round on Friday afternoon.

September 20, 2014
Saturday morning at 430 am they check me and nothing is going on, so another round of Cervidil it is for 12 hours. Around 430 pm Saturday they say they wanna give me Pitocin to see if that will help me.
Around 7 pm they give me Pitocin and if no labor starts then they will discontinue at 11 pm and give to me again in morning on Sunday. Well of course nothing happens and so I get to spend another night in the hospital.

Sunday, September 21, 2014
Sunday I woke up, ate breakfast, took a shower and they started the pitocin. They start slow and low and every 1/2 hour they up the dosage till you are in full blown contractions.
Our doula Kimberly Kamine was in another birth that lasted a few days, as well in the next room. She called another doula to cover her and that is how we met Paula Patton. She was amazing to come in while I was in full labor and offer her services. I was in full blown contractions when she came in and immediately put her TENS on me and it felt great while I was in contractions.
I was checked and my cervix had not opened. I was effacing but not opening. They asked me if I had ever had surgery on my cervix. Yes, I had a colposcopy almost 10 years ago! That was the aha moment. The OB/GYN was called in and had to look inside with her speculum (not fun) but they gave me a bit of fentanyl to take edge off which was nice. They didn't wanna cut the cervix for fear of more scar tissue or put a balloon to blow it up and soften it.
So they wanted to give me an epidural and go in manually and open up my cervix manually with their fingers. I was only 1 cm dilated and we need to get to 10 cm so I can push. So I had a ways to go.
So around 9 pm that night I got an epidural that took effect pretty quickly. Around 11 pm my midwife, Maria (pronounced Mar e ah) came in and flicked my cervix open to 4 cm. Just like that it was ready to go.

Monday, September 22, 2014
Every few hours the Midwife or nurse would come in and check my cervix to make sure it was opening. I kept getting break through pain with the epidural and was getting bolus doses of pain meds but the anesthesiologist was kind of a jerk with the meds after awhile.
Around 3 am I felt a trickle of something down my leg. Since I had to be catheterized with the epidural I knew I wasn't peeing on myself. I hoped! But they checked and my water broke! Yay! More progress.
Well, the epidural ran out and another anesthesiologist came and changed it and gave me a different pain med. I was slowly and surely dilating to around 9 cm that morning. But the pain med that I was given that time worked a bit to well and your heart rate dropped to low and for too long. All of sudden many people ran in and told me to turn on my other side, they had to find your hear rate and to breathe oxygen in deep with my mask to get oxygen flowing to you fast. Your heart rate came up and it was good after that. I was checked and told to labor a bit more to bring you down further into the canal so I wouldn't have to push as much.
That happened around 730/8 am.
Around 1030 am they came in checked me and said it was time to push. It was funny because your father was reading the paper and my doula was reading a book. I was just laying there with my eyes closed listening to your heart rate as music.
1040 I started to push and it burned when your head came out! But then I heard your head was out and I just needed to push your shoulders out. I did and felt a huge rush of relief and excitement to hold you in my arms. But you weren't breathing.
Your dad was supposed to cut your cord and I was supposed to have your slippery body on my chest right away. But they cut your cord right away and handed you to the nurse to be put in the isolette. I knew something was wrong because you weren't crying. I saw the NICU nurse come in and then the NICU doctor come in and I saw them lavage you and then heard your cry and only then did I feel a sense of relief that you were going to be ok.
Mind you, I am still bleeding and having my placenta taken out and being sewn for a small internal tear at this time. But that was nothing compared to the sheer fear that gripped me when I couldn't hear you cry. When you came out I immediately saw some dark poop on your bottom. So I knew you had a bowel movement and had most likely swallowed or breathed in some meconium. I also saw your two little skin tags on your ear!

Here are a few of the photos at the hospital while we were waiting for you.