Gabriella's birth story.

this is us pre-parents.  i started pushing shortly after this photo was taken.

remember when i wrote about our family baby shower here?  that was on a beautiful, sunny saturday on january 26.  little did i know that 3, yes 3 days later, i would go into labor.  close, right?!  can i also add that we had just chem-dry'd our carpet on monday january 28.  so on january 29 (the day i went into labor) our carpet was barely dry.  All of our furniture was crammed into the kitchen, and all of our baby shower gifts were everywhere around the house.

now that i was able to set the scene for all of you, i can now begin miss gabster's birth story ;-)

john and i had plans to have dinner with my cousin and her boyfriend that inconspicuous tuesday night.  they got to our house early that evening so we were all hanging out in our family room chatting away...cousin and i sitting on the carpet and husband and her bf sitting on our couch which was carefully jammed into our kitchen.  i was sitting indian style on the floor and i was getting increasingly more uncomfortable throughout our conversations.  around 7pm-ish, i got up to get ready for dinner and i felt "pressure" down there.  no contractions, just pressure particularly on my rectum making me feel like i had to go numero dos (sorry TMI).  when i went to use the bathroom, i noticed some brown, bloody discharge on the pad i was wearing.  this alarmed me because i never had this type of discharge before.  i saw my ob the week before and she confirmed that my baby had dropped and that she was very low when she checked me.  this new discharge plus having the urge to go #2, alarmed me because it is very unlike me to feel that way at this time of the day.  i knew something was up.  i called my ob's office and got transferred to the on call doc.  she told my that i should come in if the bleeding continued but if not, i could just wait until tomorrow morning to see my ob since i wasn't having any contractions.  after i got off the phone, i started to pace around my house thinking out loud and asking john and my cousin if i should just go in.  i didn't want to overreact, but i knew that this might be a sign.  i've heard from other mothers that having a bowel movement was the only thing that happened to them before they went into labor.  so john made his phone calls, we postponed our dinner date, and we prepared to go to the hospital.  john and i showered and we packed our hospital bag (as you can see we were totally unprepared).  i left the dogs in the care of our brothers thinking we would be back later that night.

once we arrived to the hospital, we went straight to the labor and delivery unit.  we checked in and were placed in the triage room.  the fetal monitor was placed on my belly and when the nurse checked me, she said i was LOW, like so low she wouldn't be surprised if i delivered soon.  apparently, i was also having contractions, but didn't know it.  because the contractions were mild and inconsistent we had to wait an hour in triage.  if my contractions didn't get stronger or more consistent, then i would be sent home.  i wasn't in any pain so john and i were just relaxing and watching tv.  throughout this time, my contractions were still mild and not painful but were definitely getting more consistent.  it had been almost an hour and i wanted to use the bathroom.  once i got up, all of a sudden i felt the pressure on my rectum increase significantly.  at this point i told john that if they were going to discharge us, i would have to refuse and demand that i get admitted.  luckily when the nurse checked me again my contractions were happening every 5 minutes and my cervix had dilated.

by 10 pm we got settled in our very comfortable and swanky room, my mom arrived shortly after that, and the nurse was finished getting us settled and admitted.  i knew i wanted an epidural but my pain was minimal at this point.  getting an epidural was my only "birth plan".  i knew i was just going to go with the flow and listen to my body as well as my health care team.  my nurses were great!  they made me feel calm and always let us know what was going to happen next.  because they knew i wanted an epidural, my nurse started my IV early (took 3 tries),  drew blood for labs, and started the first liter of IV fluids (you need 2 liters of fluid before an epidural is placed).  i love that she was proactive.  that way when i was ready for an epidural, i wouldn't have to wait too long.  once all that prep work was done, we were all able to rest and relax.

between the hours of 10 pm and 1 am, i was dilating consistently and my contractions were getting stronger.  i received a dose of fentanyl during this time to take the edge off.  by 1 am, i was dilated to 4 cm and my contractions were starting to get unbearable.  i told my nurse and she said she was going to call the anesthesiologist to give me an epidural.  he came shortly and did the procedure.  i remember 2 things about that particular experience...the lidocaine to numb me was painful - the epidural placement was not and that my anesthesiologist frequented the same vietnamese restaurant that we go to in south san francisco, ban tre.  after it was in, i was comfortable.  i was able to sleep despite the occasional shivering that was caused by the medications being infused via the epidural.  on top of the epidural, john was playing songs sung by nina, one of our favorite filipino artists.

after the epidural, i wasn't dilating as quickly.  my nurse gave me a heads up that if i stopped dilating, she would have to start pitocin.  luckily, my body naturally did what it had to do and by 3 am i was dilated to 7 cm.  it was shortly after this time that my water finally broke.  i was also starting to feel pressure, not pain, down "there" and she let us all know that we were close to meeting gabriella soon.  by 4 am i started pushing with my nurse.  my ob came at 4:30 am and gabriella arrived at 5:15 am.

i'm counting her fingers and toes here.  

pure joy/relief/happiness..

our sweet baby gabriella

i have to say that "pushing" was not hard at all.  i really think that being active and having a strong core helped a lot.  in addition, gabriella was only 6 lbs 10 oz.  having a relatively small baby helps out too.  my ob said i didn't even tear that much!  all the nurses kept on telling us that gabriella's birth was one of the smoothest and easiest births they have have ever seen.  to prove it, my mom, john, and i, along with the nurses and my doctor were cracking jokes and laughing in between my pushes.  it was a great experience...and i can't wait to do it all over again ;-)

proud daddy

proud grandma

*my new family of 3*