I would love to introduce my baby girl, Alessia Janie Lopez. Born on September 7, 2019, at 9:57 am in San Diego, CA. My special little girl came out as a fighter as she had respiratory problems for the first week of her life. But to not jump ahead I will start from the beginning of my birth story.
As my August 30th due date came and went, I was hoping that before my scheduled induction date, I would labor naturally. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, as my little girl was very comfortable inside me. Although before the induction date, I was scheduled to see at my doctor for a stress test. When they checked my fluid levels, it was very low. I had to go to the hospital that day to get induced.
The first 18 hours were mostly spent waiting for my cervix to ripen. Then at 3cm, they did a membrane sweep to help the body to dilate faster. However, my body was stubborn and I progressed very slowly. After 6 hours of trouting the hospital, my contractions were getting worse and I was not dilated past 3cm. Contractions, as I was told, are stronger when being induced as the body is being forced to labor. The planned was to go natural without pain medication, but at around 11 pm I wanted to sleep so I agreed to the epidural. And wow was I glad. It allowed me to relax and therefore dilate faster to 5cm.
However a few hours of rest, my labor took a turn. The nurse walked in at night and said we need to change position and put an oxygen mask because my baby’s heart rate kept dropping. Also, they weren’t going to add Pitocin (medicine to make the body to contract) as I was too sensitive and could stress the baby. Then after putting a peanut (foam pillow shaped like a peanut) between my legs my water broke. After that, I was 6cm at around 5 am. I was delighted except that my contractions were returning. When I mentioned this to the nurse she told me that good sign, it meant I was progressing. She checked and I was at 8cm.
However my pain was a lot worse than at first, so she offered a hot pad on my back. When she placed it, she noticed my epidural fell off. So I can now say what 8cm contractions feel like! The second epidural was inserted to reduced the pain. And an hour later, I started shaking, throwing up and I got a fever. This was probably the worst hours of labor. The shaking was over at around 9 am and I was passing out of how exhausted I was, but I finally reached 10cm.
Finally, the nurse came in and began to instruct me on how to push as I began the transition phase. This was the easiest and fastest part of the labor. This is when working out came in handy as not only do I have the endurance but the Valsalva maneuver from squatting made the push technique easier. I pushed for 30 mins and she was out. Probably motivated too because if I didn’t hurry, with my fever, I would have to go into a cesarean section.
When my baby was coming out, I was both relieved and excited. She was born at 6lbs and 10oz. She has my husband’s face and my long limbs.
However, nothing goes as planned as she swallowed Meconium (her poop) and possibly amniotic fluid. Coupled with my high fever, she had difficulty breathing. They took her to the NICU and found out her respiratory problems. She had to stay in the NICU for 10 days. This had to be the hardest thing I been through. To see my newborn, having a difficult time breathing and not being with her broke my heart. I will write a post later on how I dealt with it. But after 10 long days, we were happy to bring home a healthy baby girl.
