My Birth Story Part 3: The Ring Of Fire

*Originally posted September 25, 2015 on Fab . Fit . Me*

A little recap if you haven't already read my previous posts...

• I went into labor in the wee hours of the night... and didn't even know it. But we all know I was in denial.

• When I finally went in to Labor & Delivery I was already dilated 7 cm - which is totally freakin' awesome!

• I labored all the way through to 10 cm without the help of the epidural

So now we have reached the end. It's time to push and we cannot wait to finally meet our little girl. In a matter of minutes, I'll be hearing her first cries and holding her in my arms. Tada... the end, right? Ha! Right...just so you know, having a pretty easy and textbook labor does not mean a damn thing. My nurse was not kidding when she said that pushing Baby P out would be the hardest part. Both mentally and physically.

After my midwife confirmed I was fully dilated, she "broke" my water (yup, it was still in tact up until then) and gave me the go to push with the next contraction. And oh-em-gee did it feel goooood to do so.

I pushed.

And pushed.

And puuuuushed.

...For the next 4 hours.

So much for not taking the epidural when they offered it to me. This is exactly what I was trying to avoid. The pain and exhaustion of having to push for-ev-errrr! But there I was... Totally exhausted. By this point in time, I had been up for over 24 hours... since I woke up from a good night's sleep Saturday morning. I barely got an hour of sleep time when I started feeling contractions... but that was interrupted sleep so that doesn't count! So yes... I felt defeated.

We tried every position known to man to help push Baby P out but nothing seemed to work. It turned out that my contractions weren't strong and long enough for me to effectively give 3-4 pushes. It would die down in the middle of like the 2nd push, so by the 3rd push, I was pretty much doing it all on my own.

After about an hour and still no baby, they decided to give me pitocin. To help strengthen my contractions. To help me push Baby P out. I didn't want to do it, but I wanted her out of me. So I agreed. Did it work? It strengthened my contractions no doubt. But not enough for me to push 3-4 times in one contraction. Even upping the dosage didn't help. My baby just did not want to come out.

We even played tug-o-war with a bedsheet. At first with my midwife. But after she realized how strong I was and that I almost pulled her down into me, the job was then given to my hubby. While it did seem like it worked in the beginning... Baby just would not budge.

Then when that didn't work, they showed me Baby P hoping to motivate me to push harder. They brought out a huge mirror so I could see her head...especially while I pushed. In all honesty, while it was amazing to see her head that close...it was kinda weird to be looking at it trying to come out of me.

I was tired. And delirious. I remember telling my hubby that I couldn't do it anymore. That they needed to cut me open. But he wouldn't let me give up.

I was so tired that there were some contractions where I didn't even try to push. I needed rest. I know I should have continued to push but I just couldn't. By about 4:30-ish my midwife came in and threatened me with a c-section. And you have no idea how ready I was to just scream "yes! Cut me open!" My husband stepped in and firmly told me to push our baby out. Wait. No. He yelled at me to push her out. We both did not want surgery unless it was our only option. And there was no emergency or legit reason to have a c-section.

For the next 30 minutes I pushed. And just when I thought "great, they're gonna take me in and cut me open and I'm gonna hate myself for letting them," every single nurse on duty came into my room. One after the other. I wanna say there were at least 10 of them in there. One nurse, with a thick Russian accent, came to my bedside and yelled at me like a drill sergeant. She was scary. And I had no choice but to listen. She yelled to push even when I couldn't. She ordered my husband and cousin (who had shown up to help coach sometime before I was fully dilated) to hold my legs. I'm not flexible at all, but at that moment, I had to be.

The rest of it was kinda surreal. I heard the voices of other nurses coaxing me to push...to not make a sound...and to channel all that energy into pushing. I saw my midwife put on her gloves and surgical gown and pull up a stool down there. And when I asked "what are you doing?!" mid-push she said "I'm delivering this baby, what do u think I'm doing?" With all of that going on... Drill sergeant lady yelling at me, my midwife doing God knows what down there with my lady parts, and all the nurses coaching and cheering me on, I managed to push Baby P's head out. Ask me if that hurt and I couldn't tell you. I know I had an episiotomy done. Didn't feel that at all. I do remember feeling the rest of her slide out of me when I had to push again. And before I knew it, she was placed on top of my chest immediately and my husband was cutting the umbilical cord.

And I was in tears. Mostly tears of joy. But a huge chunk of it were tears of relief. I looked down at my baby and just could not believe she was finally here.

It was love at first sight

Time ceased to exist once she arrived. Hubby and I were so busy swooning over her that I didn't even notice the midwife "working" on me down there. Didn't mind the discomfort of her pushing on my uterus to get the rest of the junk out along with the placenta. I was busy admiring our creation and enjoying the skin-to-skin bonding time with my daughter. She was absolutely gorgeous. And everything - The pregnancy, the labor, the pain, all of it... Was sooo worth it. She was worth it. And after hearing stories from all my mama friends, it felt amazing to finally understand and experience it for myself.

After both Baby P and I were cleaned up, and as we waited to be transferred to our room, family was finally allowed in to meet our little princess.

Here's Ella Juliet with her Grandpa David

With Auntie Viviana and Uncle Darrell

...with her Auntie Virginia

And her Uncle Diego

While everyone visited with the newest addition to our growing family, I managed to scarf down some food.

With the exception of a glazed donut I had in the morning before I made it to the hospital, I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before. I was famished! And completely drained. I didn't know it right away, but apparently I had lost a lot of blood. When the nurses helped me up to go to the restroom (they make you pee right away for those that don't already know), I almost passed out. It felt silly to me that I had to have all this help getting to the restroom to pee and change into some fresh and clean clothes. My mental state of mind at that moment: I just pushed out a baby! I can do anything!!!! Yeah well, almost passing out was my body's way of saying "slow down!" Thank goodness for awesome nurses!

So there ya have it! Did my best to include every last detail without dragging the story on and on. The event itself was exciting but I don't want to bore you with having to read it. I could have included pics of the placenta to add a bit of umph to this post but I know some of ya don't wanna see that stuff. And I wouldn't want to scare those of you who haven't had children yet or who just can't stomach the sight of blood. But it was pretty cool to look at!

Anyway, just a current update of where Baby P and I are today. Today she is 12 weeks old, almost 13. And that means I'm 12 weeks postpartum. We are happy and healthy as can be. It's been a major adjustment having a baby in our lives but we love her to pieces and wouldn't have it any other way.

As far as my fit blog is concerned... I want to try and blog more when I can. I started working out this week. In my garage. Starting off slow and just working my way back to what I was doing prior to getting pregnant. Got a few pounds of baby weight left to shed but I'm not worried. It will happen. I'm just taking advantage of this special time with my little one before I go back to work in November - something I'm not looking forward to. But that's a whole different story.

I just want to thank you all for reading my blog posts and following along as I went through this entire experience. It's been great and amazing and I am looking forward to watching this baby of mine grow.

Until the next blog post...

Much love and aloha,

The Peedens

Tags: #firstpregnancy #postpartum #laboranddelivery #medicationfreedelivery #birthstory #naturalbirth #deliverywithoutepidural #epiduralfreebirth

My Birth Story Part 2: Early & Active Labor

*Originally posted September 17, 2015 on Fab . Fit . Me*

Here we are again! 2 months later. I've tried numerous times to try and find the time to sit and hash out the rest of my birth story but being a first time mom with a very demanding new baby, I kinda had my hands full. In between nursing, changing diapers, soothing the baby and trying to get her to sleep, I opted to utilize my little breaks to use the potty or to fix me somethin' to eat.

With that said... let's move on to the rest of my birthing story before my little monster wakes up! Just a tip for all you first time mamas and mamas-to-be out there - baby wearing is bliss! How else do you think I'm able to do anything around the house these days? My newborn is very needy and clingy because apparently this world is a scary frightening place for her and the only place that seems to keep her calm is in her momma's arms. And believe me.... I've tried everything.

So... are ya ready to read the fun stuff? You know, looking back on it now, I wish I had video recorded the entire labor & delivery experience. When I first got pregnant, I watched all kinds of Vlogs on YouTube of pregnancy updates and all that good stuff. Same with blogs. There's a girl I follow on social media that documented her entire labor on video and shared it with her followers. It's what actually inspired me to do it all natural. No joke. She was a badass. And not that I'd want you guys to see the whole thing, just this one part during my delivery, at the very end, where things got a little rough, and then all the nurses on staff that day came in to cheer me on. That was definitely a moment to capture.

If ya didn't get a chance to read Part 1... Click here to get the back story 😁.

If you remember my last Blog Post, the hubs and I had ended our night by watching Transformers on Netflix and went to bed around 11. Nothing new. At this point I didn't look forward to bedtime because for me, it meant uncomfortable and sometimes painful sleeping positions. But I was exhausted and needed as much rest as I could possibly get. So... Lights were out at 11. After tossing and turning and finally getting into a somewhat comfy position, I drifted off into dreamland.

Shortly After Midnight

A pain in my ass woke me up. Literally. It didn't last long. But it was a pain in the tailbone area. And I had no idea what it was. I didn't think anything of it. When it didn't happen again right away, I went back to sleep.

Then it happened again. Maybe about 2 more times within the next hour. By the 3rd time, I just couldn't go back to sleep. I laid there and waited for it to come again. And it did. And then a few more times. This time, a little closer together. But only in the tailbone area.

So what did I do? Got on my phone and Googled it. Found articles on how babies sometimes can be head down but "sunny side up" (where baby is not facing the rectum area like they should be) and then causing all this pressure up on the nerves in the tailbone. The remedy for it? Do pelvic tilts in hopes of getting baby to turn around so it can relieve the pressure. So there I was, at like 1 in the morning, doing pelvic tilts on the floor.

At Around 2:30am

Nothing seemed to help. The pain kept coming in waves. And getting stronger. Occasionally going up to my lower back.

It finally dawned on me. Omg could this be contractions? Yeah, call me slow. But I didn't even think those would be contractions. And even still, I was kinda in denial. Only because

I've never heard of people having contractions in that area. I expected to feel the usual contractions in the belly.

Google was my best friend that night. Even though I was advised at my first prenatal appointment to stay off the internet and that if I had any questions, I need to call and ask a nurse on staff. But nope.I asked Google EVERYTHING. And it didn't tell me I was in labor. So I just continued to do pelvic tilts on the floor.

2:45am

I finally decided to time these waves of pain. To see how far apart they were. I monitored it for the next hour. They ranged from 2 minutes to 6 minutes apart.

Still didn't think this was the real deal.

For the next couple of hours 3-5am

The pain came in consistent waves. About 2-5 minutes apart. Trips to the bathroom became more frequent.

TMI Alert - Don't know exactly when it started happening but I started passing mucous-like blood clots. I can only assume it was my mucous plug. But at the time I thought it was because of that membrane sweep from a couple days prior.

Around 7am

Still no change. Pain still happening. Still peeing a lot. Still bleeding. And still thinking this was all gonna pass.

But by now, the pain was felt all up in the pelvic area. And I finally came to terms with this being contractions. But still thinking it could also be false contractions. Yup, I was in complete denial.

So the hubs finally called Labor & Delivery for me to see what they recommended we do. I know some of you are probably reading this and thinking "I would have already gone to the hospital!" I wanted to labor at home as much as I could. So if this was labor (and it clearly was, I just didn't want to admit it), I was doing it at home.

Anyway, the nurse asked me a series of questions. She told me to take some Tylenol. 600mg of it. With about 32oz of water. And then if nothing changed within that hour, that I needed to call back.

And that they'd mostly have me come in to be evaluated.

We didn't have Tylenol so the hubs had to run out and get me some. On the way back he bought some donuts. 😁

Took the meds around 730-ish and then proceeded to wait.

From 7:30-9:00am

I ate a donut. The hubs decided to clean up the kitchen and then planned to clean our bathroom - you know, in case this is the real deal, the bathroom would be clean for when visitors came by.

And no I'm not joking.

9:30-10:30am

The hubs finally called L&D to let them know my status hadn't changed. So they told us to come in so I could be evaluated.

I took a shower, got dressed, and even put on my makeup. After my shower, the hubs quickly cleaned the bathroom.

Then I felt an intense wave of pain in my pelvic area that finally made me yell "ok Bubs, we gotta go now!" Hubby didn't hesitate. He grabbed our bags and loaded up the car.

But! Just in case this wasn't the Real Deal... We left the bags with the snacks and nurses goody baskets behind because I didn't want it sitting in the hot car. #StillInDenial

If we did get admitted, my brother in law would bring it to us since the hospital wasn't too far away.

Between 10:30-11am

Arrived at the hospital. Walked up to L&D. Was escorted into a delivery room and was instructed to change into a hospital gown.

A midwife on staff that day came in with my assigned nurse. Asked me a few questions. Then gave me a pelvic exam and lo and behold I was already dilated 7cm. Holy freakin crap!

Denial no more! This shit just got real.

The midwife smiled and said "yup we're having this baby today. Let's get you admitted." Followed by "I'm impressed. You are dilated 7cm, obviously in pain, but you're so calm!"

This being my first time, 7cm had no meaning to me. I knew I had to be dilated 10cm before I could start pushing Baby out... But any reference to the level of pain and intensity of these contractions, I had no clue. Nothing to compare it to.

As I was being admitted and hooked up to machines, I was asked about the epidural. My midwife was looking at my birth plan and asked if I wanted to get the epidural. Both she and the nurse were so impressed with my pain tolerance and the fact that I was so calm and not hysterical.

I thought about it for a split second. About getting the epidural. But then I thought to myself, I made it this far. And yeah this was painful... But not as painful as I thought this would be. When my nurse saw the hesitation, she took the time to talk to me about what I should expect from there on out. And what the epidural would do if I decided to get one. She commended me on how well I had dealt with the pain thus far. Told me that pain-wise, it could get a little bit more intense. And that it won't be that much more painful. She did tell me about the Ring of Fire. But at that point it wouldn't faze me at all. And the hardest part of all is pushing Baby out. The epidural was meant to help manage the pain. But I'd still feel the pressure of each contraction.

At the end of our conversation, I made the decision to stick with my birth plan. I turned down the epidural.. And that was that.

From 11 am - 1 pm

The next 2 hours in that room flew by. And my nurse was right. The contractions got a little bit more intense but nothing I couldn't handle. It took every bit of me to stay focused and to breathe through each one.

I managed to crack a smile in between contractions...

The great thing about not having had the epidural administered was the fact that I was able to move around. I didn't want to be confined to my bed for hours on end. Which is another reason why I chose to labor at home for as long as I could. If I had labored any longer, I might have even walked the halls of the L&D floor.

This position helped me get through many of those intense contractions:

Leaning on the backside of the bed while the hubby pushed down on my back helped relieved the pain in my tailbone.

And like my nurse and midwife said... I was quite the trooper!!!

After being there for 2 hours and breathing through each and every contraction, the moment every laboring woman talks about when telling their birth story happened, I felt the sudden urge to push. Like bad. Of course once I said that out loud, I was advised not to push till I was examined by my midwife.

My nurse went out to get her while I fought the urge to push through the contractions. She returned with the midwife a few minutes later and it was confirmed... I was completely and fully dilated.

A million emotions zapped right through me when she said I was fully dilated. I couldn't believe that it was already time to do it. After 38 weeks of carrying her in me, I was extremely excited that we'd finally be meeting the tiny human I'd been growing inside of me. And at the same time I was completely terrified of what was to come in the next phase of delivery. But totally relieved to know that this would all be over soon...

To Be Continued...

Tags: #laboranddelivery #birthstory #mybirthstory #earlylabor #activelabor #postpartum

My Birth Story Part 1: The BIG Day...And All The Events Leading Up To It

*Originally posted July 17, 2018 on Fab . Fit . Me*

Like any other mama-to-be... I tried to do as much as I could to prepare myself for D-Day. And I started early. Like as early as right after the hubs and I were married back in 2009. Even though we didn't plan on starting a family right away, I just felt it would be better to educate myself as much as possible. I mean, the thought of childbirth was scary enough. So the first thing I did was ask my friends and family members who had gone through this life changing event about their experiences. Some were reluctant to share this info with me because they were afraid they'd scare me enough to not want to have kids. But I had heard enough stories to know that every pregnancy and childbirth experience is different with each person.

And it wasn't till I went into labor myself that I finally understood just how different these experiences really were.

So before I get into specifics, let me preface this blog entry by sharing with you what I wrote down in my birth plan. It wasn't very long nor was it full of diva-ish demands. It was pretty short and simple. I specifically stated I wanted a natural birth with no pain meds. Pretty straightforward, right? And then I also mentioned on there that if I really couldn't tolerate the pain, to "forget what I said and bring on the epidural!!!" 😁. My reasons for wanting to go natural without the use of meds was because I know our bodies were made to endure this pain. And the "fit chick" part of me saw this as a challenge. And that I knew I was capable of doing it. I had heard so many horror stories of epidurals sometimes not working, or it slowing down the contractions and laboring, and also affecting recovery time that I didn't want to go through all of that. I've also heard that it can even leave you so numb and unable to feel how strong you are pushing that you could be pushing for hours! So I opted for the "no epidural" option. Because I wanted to try to be a badass 😉. But all kidding aside, any woman who has gone thru childbirth, whether it was natural with/without the epidural or via c-section, they're badass period.

Alright! Moving on! This blog post may be a bit lengthy so please bear with me.

Let's start this timeline a few days prior to D-Day.

Thursday, June 25th

This date not only marked my 38th week, but also my last prenatal doc appointment (although I didn't know it would be my last). I gained a whopping 4 pounds in the course of 2 weeks. Which brought me up to a total of 34 lbs gained. Well in between my target range of 25-35 lbs. Everything looked good. My vitals were good. Results from my last blood test were on point. Baby's heartbeat was strong and my belly measurements were on track. My midwife examined me and confirmed I was already dilated 1 cm. Of course, that didn't really indicate that I'd be going into labor soon, but knowing that I was already dilating was kind of exciting! And a little scary, too. For some reason my midwife was hoping I'd deliver soon. And while I was kinda over being pregnant because of how uncomfortable it was to do anything... I was still fine with carrying Baby P till 40 weeks if at all possible. But my midwife had other plans for me. She wanted to jumpstart the process and did a membrane sweep during my pelvic exam - which was painful by the way. Not gonna sugar coat it. I didn't even know what she was doing till after the fact because we never discussed it nor did she ask if I wanted it done. Anyway she said it would release hormones (forgive me for not knowing the name for this hormone) that would aid in softening the cervix. She advised that I would have some spotting because of the sweep and not to be alarmed. And then even advised us (TMI ALERT) to go home and have intercourse. Because apparently, his hormones mixed with mine would work magic on that cervix! Yup. Just a little sex ed for us right there 😉.

Ok so that's that.

Friday, June 26th

Knowing that I could go into labor any day kinda forced us to hurry up and get things done. Everything was all ready for Baby P's arrival - laundry washed, dried, and put away, bassinet all assembled and ready to use, infant car seat installed in my tiny car... We were ready for her! All that was left was to do was finish packing up our hospital bags. So we spent this day running errands... And getting last minute things for our bags.

Saturday, June 27th

Hospital bags were packed and ready to go. Last thing we needed to take care of was getting snacks for the hubs... So that when I'm laboring at the hospital, he'd have some food to keep him energized. Because coaching a woman in labor is no joke and requires a lot! And taking a break to go down to the hospital cafeteria was out of the question! There was no way he would be allowed to leave my side.

We also stocked up on coconut water. Best thing for hydration.

And I also put together a care package for the nurses that would be taking care of me during my labor as sort of a way to say "thank you" even before the crazy.

And they loved it. They deserved it. They were awesome.

Ok so now that everything was all set and ready to go, we settled in for the evening with dinner and a Netflix movie. Yeah we are exciting people 😁. Pregnant lady was exhausted. We watched Transformers... The most recent one. The one with Mark Wahlburg. Yeah I don't have my movie titles straight either. (Forgive me but I'm trying to write this while holding a sleeping newborn in my arms).

And little did I know that this would be the last night as just Peedens: Party of Two.

Stay tuned for Part 2.....

Tags: #birthstory #postpartum #laboranddelivery #mybirthstory #earlylabor