I can't believe we just gave birth last week. It still feels so surreal. Like, I still miss having her in my belly (which I knew would happen). Even with all the hardships this time around, I still find being pregnant such a beautiful and special experience. And it's for such a short time that I really tried my best to enjoy it as much as possible. And I think she knew it too. Cause she waited in there for as long as possible before making her debut at 39.5 weeks! Just a few days before her actual due date! What a sweet baby girl!
On the day of her birth, we actually had a doctor's appointment that morning. I had already started feeling some strong contractions the night before but it was spaced out so I tried to sleep through it until our appointment time. But I had a hunch - a big, inner hunch - that she was going to come soon. That morning, we dropped off Kai to school and I even told his teacher, "I think I'm going to pop today."
Fun side fact :: I wanted to make gift baskets for our L&D and postpartum nurses and had an inner intuition that once we finished making them, she'll come so I waited all month long and kept delaying to make the gift baskets until I felt more "ready" at end of month and then...next day, we popped!
We went to our doctor's appointment for our NST (non-stress test) and my contractions at that time were 9 minutes apart or less - and they lasted for a longggg time too. It was getting more painful and that's how I knew I was going to give birth SOON. I still went through the NST test which took about 15 minutes then saw a doctor afterwards. Our doctor checked and asked me to guess how dilated I was - I never got checked at any of the other appointments - so I said confidently, "FIVE!" (cause that's when I first felt strong contractions with Kai). She said, "nope!" Then I guessed, "seven?" She replied "nope!" I was like, "eight?" She said again, "nope!" I was like, "higher or lower?" And she said, "NINE." I was like shockingly, "NINE?!?!" Our OB doctor said, "no more walking - we're going to admit you right away." I quickly asked, "can I still get the epidural??" The hubby and I looked at each other with shocked faces like, this is it - it's happening now.
So I got wheelchair'ed over to the labor and delivery department then got hooked up to fluids. Then the L&D nurse checked me to see how far I've dilated to see if there's still time for an epidural (cause if you've dilated too far then they can't/won't give it anymore). Luckily, she said I was actually dilated at 6cm so there was still time for me to get an epidural - this made more sense because, although I was in a lot of pain, it still felt somewhat bearable (when the contractions stopped). Shortly later, the doctor came in to give me the epidural and my whole L&D experience changed after that. All my strong contractions were completely gone and I no longer felt the pain down there which was soooo nice. I am not against getting an epidural especially if you're feeling pain - why suffer?
After they gave some time for the fluids to kick in and epidural to settle, the L&D nurse wanted to do a "practice push." The epidural this time felt stronger than the one I had with Kai cause my legs were a little numb so the hubby had to help hold it. I did a practice push and then the L&D nurse said, "okay STOP - you're good, she's ready" and said she was going to call the midwife to help with delivery. The hubby and I couldn't help but to laugh because the exact same thing happened during our 1st pregnancy with Kai where the nurse told us to stop practice pushing too because they could see Kai's head already and our OB doctor wasn't there yet (he came out with 1 push later). Our midwife came in shortly after and got ready for delivery. Then, after 3 quick pushes, our princess baby girl was out in just a couple minutes!
How did your birth story go?
Everything happened OH-SO-FAST! We didn't have much time to think/process things and just went-went-went to get things moving along. Luckily, it all worked out. We are definitely feeling blessed and thankful to have a healthy baby girl! So now taking time to slow down and enjoy being "new parents again." Will share more of our journey in due time.
As always, thanks for reading and sending air hugs!
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