Carmen's Lair and more: Birth Story of Nico Malachi

N is for NICO

"Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you... " Jeremiah 1:5

"Women who have natural births are working hard and are committed to the process! They aren't lucky, have high pain tolerances, or have easy labors! It comes from within." unknown author

Let me start off by saying, I wanted a home birth like with my Earth Day baby, but we couldn't this time around. But I want to acknowledge Touro Infirmary's L&D nurses and most of all my midwife for respecting everything on my Birth Plan. I had an excellent experience and was given top notch care. A big thanks! (note: unfortunately the postpartum nurses were not nearly as warm and friendly, sigh). But overall, I recommend Woman to Woman Midwifery to every pregnant woman. My whole experience was perfect.

Here is my Birth Plan if you are interested in reading my wishes for my labor and delivery.

Now to the story!

9/1/11 @ 4:30AM...
I woke up feeling crampy. Contractions were lasting about 10-15 seconds duration but they were still coming at irregular intervals. I got out of bed to drink a glass of water and to go pee for the hundredth time. Then I climbed back into bed to rest, but I was hot, uncomfortable, and anxious. I did stay in bed until Angel's alarm went off at 6:30AM.
At this point I let know him that I was positive I was in early labor. I told him to head off to work but to expect a phone call from me once my labor progressed.
I had an appointment with my midwife at 11AM to check my BP because it had been borderline high all week. I called my hubby to come pick me up because I was feeling too crampy to drive myself.
My daughter came along with us to the appointment. We arrived at Woman to Woman Midwifery right at eleven. They hung out in the receiving area, while I went to the patient room to see how everything was going. Baby's heart beat was fine and my blood pressure was normal, thank God. She checked my cervix and I was dilated 4cm. Contractions were still coming irregularly so she told me to head home and eat and try to rest b/c I was having my baby tonight. Carmen fell asleep on the car ride home and she stayed asleep until about 2:30PM. I tried to keep busy in the meantime.

happy... journaling for my blog, while trying to eat soup

My mother-in-law had a bowl of homemade chicken soup waiting for me when I got home. It smelled delicious but I had no appetite. I did force myself to eat some of it b/c I knew it would be a long night and I wouldn't be interested eating much later. At that point, I went ahead and called my midwife and told her I would be heading to the hospital around 4PM.Then I made arrangements with Jamie (my cousin) to be at my house around 3:30pm to take care of Carmen while we went to Labor and Delivery (@ Touro).

this is my I am having a contraction face...

Sitting on my yoga ball bouncing and swaying back and forth to ease the intensity of the contractions and my lower back was comforting at home. I didn't use the ball once at the hospital. Texting with a few friends helped the time pass, and kept me distracted while I was waiting for Jamie to get to my house. I also found an app on my phone to help keep track of my contractions.
Contraction Calculator-a handy APP that I downloaded to my phone, which simply recorded the time and duration of each contraction in a nice format by a click of a button, is the most useful APP ever... 2:47 PM...contraction = 50secs... come on baby boy... I couldn't wait to meet him!!!

Once Jamie arrived around 3:30PM, I kissed my daughter good bye and we were off to have my sweet baby. We gathered up everything and Angel, my mother-in-law, and I headed to Touro. Let me tell y'all that was the absolute WORST car ride of my life!! I sat in the back seat of my van to allow for more room for myself. However it was impossible to focus and breathe through a contraction in the car. The roads here are so bumpy and the stop-and-go of the ride was killing me. I was so thankful once we got to the hospital entrance.... I was dying to be out of the van.

Once admitted, I gave my nurse my birth plan and answered a few questions. They checked my cervix, which was 5.5cm at that point (about 4:30pm) and checked my BP and baby's heartbeat.... and from there on out it was a waiting game.

Trying to rest a bit b/c I was going to need every ounce of energy in my body to give birth.

At around 7PM my cousin brought dinner to my hubby and his mom from Subway. She also brought my 3yr to visit us for a bit. I kindly asked them to leave after about 30mins I was having trouble managing the pain of my contractions with all the distraction. Initially I wanted my daughter there to see her brother being born, but I feel like it was hard for me to focus while the she was with us. She was sweet and followed me around and asking if I was okay the whole time.

My cousin in the chair. My 3year old following me to check on my while I walk through my contraction. I love this picture bc it reflects how sweet my 3yr was the whole time. She wanted to be with me during the contractions.

I was about 6 cm for 3hrs what seemed like an eternity. I was started to get discouraged at this point. I was so tired I felt like I wasn't progressing and it was starting to get pretty intense. So I decided to get in the shower for a while which was at least an hour. The hot water really helped me give in to the contractions and let them become me. I found myself most comfortable on the shower floor in somewhat of a child's pose position (a yoga pose). I was able to focus and accepted the waves as they came and rest in between. My hubby was so awesome he stayed in the steamy hot bathroom the whole time sitting on the ground beside me while encouraging me along. He also snapped a cool photo of me while in the shower.

I stayed like this for over an hour. It was the most comfortable place for me.

After I got out the shower my midwife checked me - I was 7cm and super soft but baby was still up high . She suggested me to stand resting my body over the bed in and and letting my belly hang. I swayed through a few contractions this way while she applied pressure to my lower back. She was hoping baby boy would be able to get into a better position this way. Then she left the room to check on another mama in labor.

I knew things were coming along, b/c I was very vocal at this point. I am a noisy woman during transition stage of labor. I was grunting a lot, I sounded like Serena Williams when she plays her tennis matches. Or maybe it was more of a low deep moan. I don't know really, but being vocal really helped me through. I was moaning through every contraction now and they were coming back to back. I started pacing the room leaning on my hubby the whole time bc I was so tired. Then the next contraction came and I was puking. Swoosh, my water broke at the same time. From here on out everything happened so quickly. Another wave... more vomit... the contractions were so intense I was kneeling on the floor leaning against my husband while he helped support me. He was awesome and helped me so much the whole time. The floor was a mess and so were my hubby's shoes. It all happened so quickly... puke, water breaking, kneeling on floor, feeling pushy, baby is coming. Once I was kneeling on the floor I was ready to push. My mother in law called for my midwife to come and she walked as I was pushing, nurses were throwing blankets under me and my OB was taking photos of me birthing my son. I was so surreal. I still cannot believe how quick he came it was 3 pushes and he was here. He came less than ten mins after my water broke.