Labor & Delivery

The story of Mia's arrival begins on the evening of Wednesday, August 3, 2005. We had 3 days left until our due date, and had finally decided to watch a video given to us by Kaiser back in December, when we found out we were pregnant. The video was about what to do with a newborn when you bring it home from the hospital. We started watching the video around 8pm, and I started having contractions. I timed them and they were 8 minutes apart for about 1/2 hour. Then, my water broke. We called the hospital and they said to take a shower, then come in. After my shower, the contractions were about 3-1/2 minutes apart. I was thrilled! This was going to happen FAST!

We got to the hospital around 10pm, and it was then they determined that I was approximately 1 centimeter dilated. Guess things weren't moving so fast after all! :-( Our goal was to have a drug-free delivery if at all possible, so I labored for approximately 8 hours without any medication. The contractions were long and intense with very little rest time in between, but I still didn't get past 3-4 centimeters. By 4:30am, I was exhausted, and decided I needed some relief. I got a shot of Nubain and it definitely took the edge off, though I could still feel the contractions. When they checked me again at 6:30am, I had not dilated any more. Still 3-4 centimeters. At that point, I knew I wouldn't be able to push at the end if I kept going like I was, so I was given an epidural and pitocin to get the contractions moving along.

It was a lonnnnnnng day. I didn't get to 10 centimeters until approximately 9:00pm on Thursday, August 4. It was then that Rob informed me my sister-in-law was also in labor--the race was on!! I gave it my best shot and pushed until about 11pm, but apparently my pelvis was too small for Mia to get through (who would've expected that with these "childbearing hips"?!). Her heart rate shot up and my kidneys weren't doing too hot, so we collectively made the decision to go with a C-Section. Of course, I was disappointed, but we needed to do what was best for the baby.

Another lovely twist was that Mia had pooped in the amniotic fluid, so there was a chance that she had swallowed some of it, and she needed to be checked immediately after birth. Rob stayed with her through all of her newborn procedures in the NICU and the Nursery. She turned out to be just fine, but we thought it was kind of funny that she could be born full of shit already.

Oh, and for those who don't know, Mia's cousin, Eleanor Abigail Octavio, was born just three hours after Mia. One nice thing is that they each have their individual birthday.

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