Jovi's Birth Story

Since I never want to loose this, I thought I would add Jovi's birth story here.   Caution, it is a bit graphic.

9/15/05 & 9/18/05

Jovi’s Birth
I went to my Obstetrician’s appointment on Thursday, Sept. 8 where Dr. Sims told me that I was 60-70% effaced and almost 1 cm dilated and that I could go into labor at any time, not that I would, but it was much more a possibility than it had been. I told him that I’d been having contractions at night that whole week, but they hadn’t hurt. He said that was very normal, which I knew, but you’re supposed to keep the doctor informed and all.
I was very excited that my body had started getting ready to go into labor because I was sooo ready to have her here and not in me anymore. The longer I was pregnant the more uncomfortable everything became, walking, doing and especially sleeping.
The only thing that I was worried about was that Jovi’s baby shower was planned for Saturday and we had already put it off once already. If she came on Friday or Saturday we’d have to cancel it again. After I got done at the doctor’s office I went to Costco to check out stuff for the party. I started feeling “bad” that night. It’s nothing that hurt, I just started not feeling good. I got up the next day and started cleaning the house for the baby shower. I still wasn’t feeling great but with Laura and my mom’s help we got the house clean. That night and into the morning I started having pretty regular, non-hurting contractions at about 10 minutes apart. I was very worried that I would go into labor during the baby shower, but after we ran some last minute errands the contractions went away. The baby shower went really well. Everything looked pretty and I think that everyone enjoyed it. Jovi got tons of cute clothes and I kept thinking that if she ended up being a boy we were going to have some problems. Juan was planning on going somewhere during the baby shower, but since I had been having contractions he decided to stay at home. I was glad he was there. The shower lasted from 2:00-4:00 and by the end of it I was exhausted. Juan’s mom had gotten to the shower a little late and was staying after with us for a little while afterwards, but I was so tired that I had to lay down. When I got up she had already left and I felt bad that I hadn’t spent much time with her and Paloma. Juan made Mexican casserole for dinner that night, which was as always delicious, and my mom and sisters ate with us. They had stayed to help clean up.
Everyone left by 6 or 7 and Juan and I were both really tired. We decided to watch Solaris, an older movie that we both hadn’t seen before. It was not a very good movie, I kept thinking that I might fall asleep through it and I never fall asleep during movies. But, we got through it and went to bed at 10:00. I woke up at 10:50 and felt a little wet. I woke Juan up and told him that I thought my water broke. I wasn’t entirely sure because there wasn’t very much liquid and I wasn’t having any contractions but, I thought I better call the doctor anyway. We got ready to go to the hospital as we waited for him to call back. He said that we should go to the hospital to get checked. We didn’t call anyone ‘cause we thought we’d wait till the hospital told us if I was in labor or not. The question was answered in the car when my water really broke. I thought that when your water broke you lost like a cup of liquid and that was it. I found out that I was very wrong when your water breaks it gushes and then keeps on gushing. I got soaked. At that point I called my mom since we were now sure that the baby was coming that night. She said that she would meet us at the hospital.
We got to the hospital at about 11:15 and knew where to go and what to do because of our prepared childbirth class. Our nurse’s name was Erica and she showed us to a room and had me get into a gown. There was meconium with the amniotic fluid which meant that the baby might be having trouble. She hooked me up to a fetal monitor and then asked me lots of questions and had Juan and I fill out lots of papers for us to get checked in. It took quite a while. She checked my progress and said that I was already 3-4 cm dilated. It was about that time that I started feeling the contractions. They were a little painful but nothing too bad. After they had me all checked in, they let my mom come back. She said she’d been waiting for quite a while.
We started a video, A Knight’s Tale, that my mom had brought and watched the contractions come and go on the monitor. They were very irregular but were getting closer together and stronger which is what was important. About 15 minutes into the movie the contractions really started to hurt. My mom started breathing with me and Juan massaged my feet. We didn’t know it at the time, but that was going to be their jobs for the next five hours. For the first couple of hours there would be breaks in between some of the contractions and We could all catch our breath and I would watch a little of the movie. I had originally planned to stay out of bed as much as possible because it was supposed to make the labor shorter and the pain easier to deal with, but because the doctor was a little worried about the baby I had to stay hooked to the fetal monitor in bed the whole time. I surprised myself by not minding that as much as I thought I would. Breathing through the contractions took so much concentration that being stuck in bed wasn’t such a big deal. At about 4:00 (guesstimate ‘cause at that point I wasn’t really watching the clock) the contractions stated coming pretty much back to back and I didn’t get that nice, even if very short, break in between.
I couldn’t have gotten through the rest of the labor without my mom and Juan. My mom helped me to focus on my breathing and Juan provided counter pressure so I could focus on another sensation that wasn’t the contraction. I worried a little bit that Juan wasn’t feeling important so I tried to make sure to let him know that what he was doing was incredibly helpful. I so could not have coped with the pain on my own. They were integral to me having a “natural” childbirth. Somewhere in there the doctor came in and checked my progress and said that I was 8 cm. At about 4:30 I asked the nurse if there was the possibility that I could still have pain medication. She said it was too late for anything but an epidural and that I was very near the end. I figured it wasn’t worth it to get an epidural at that point. In the 4:30-4:45 range I started feeling the need to push and it just kept getting stronger, but the nurse and everyone kept telling me to blow through it. I didn’t realize what useful advice that would be till a little later. At 5:00 I could barely stand it, the pain was bad enough, but it was the combination of that AND the fact that I really REALLY wanted to push and they kept telling me I couldn’t that made things unbearable. The nurse checked me and said I was almost ready and turned me on my side to see if that would complete my dialation. She said that I had to wait 15 more minute and then I could push. At that point it seemed like that would take forever. Breathing went out the window. I held onto the side bar of the bed and blew through the contractions as the only way I could keep from pushing. At 5:15 the nurse got me ready to push. She folded the bed down and put the stirrups up and had my mom and Juan help push my legs back and I got to do something. It was such a relief! The contractions didn’t hurt any less, but I was able to do something about them and the pain didn’t seem to matter anymore, it just helped me to know when to push. I pushed for 15-20 minutes with just the nurse she put a mirror up and I could see the baby’s head when I was pushing. It sure wasn’t pretty, but I could tell she had black hair I told her I didn’t really want to see anymore, like I said, it wasn’t very pretty. Then the doctor and a whole bunch of other people came in. I kept pushing when I felt a contraction or they told me to push. The doctor told me he was going to do an episiotomy to help the baby’s head through. I felt him numb the area, but it must not have been that much because I could feel the cut the next time I pushed. I also felt her head slide out and I asked if her head was out, they told me it was at to push one more time. I pushed as hard as I could and felt her shoulders tear me and the rest of her come out. They took her over to the warming bed immediately to clean her up and make sure her lungs were ok and stuff. I heard her cry and asked if it was a girl to which they responded yes. It was 6:01 am 9/11/05. I asked the doctor if I needed to do anything else and he said to just sit there. I guess the placenta was delivered, but I don’t remember it. I do remember him sewing me up because it hurt a little bit, like pinches, but overall as soon as she came out the pain level dropped to next to nothing. I remember them telling me that she was 8lbs 14oz and I was shocked that she was such a big baby. At some point they gave Jovi to Juan and he brought her over to me. She was so beautiful and wide awake with lots of black hair and a beautiful chubby face. It was hard to believe she had just come out of me. I got to hold her and nurse her a little bit. Her skin was so soft and she just stared at me and Juan. It was really cool. Then they took her to the nursery to be washed and stuff. My mom followed her with the camera and Juan stayed with me. I honestly don’t remember much after that about getting moved to the postpartum room and stuff. I remember that they brought Jovi back to me after I had been in there about 15 minutes. That’s when I got to unwrap her and look at her feet and hands and stuff. She was beautiful. By then, Juan, my mom and I were exhausted, but my dad and sisters were coming up to see us so we stayed up till they came and saw Jovi. Jovi was asleep by then and as soon as everyone left Juan and I went to sleep too.



I kept meaning to write this as soon as I came home, but things got in the way and it kept being put of. It’s amazing how quickly I’ve forgotten some of the details after only a week