October 19th, 2017

 The day I became a mother.

Where to start with my very long journey? Hmmm. Let’s start with a very impatient pregnant lady that was about 37 weeks far along. I was so uncomfortable and so ready to have this baby! I remember visiting my OBGYN and asking him what I could do to trigger early labor LOL. My Doctor was not for this and politely rebuked me and told me to relax and let nature take its course. At that point I thought “easy for you to say you are a man!!”. I was desperate to get things moving as I was tired of feeling like an upside down turtle in bed, tired of running to the bathroom every 30 minutes, tired of swollen feet and tired of being so tired LOL. Well, I did not go into early labor. This baby had other plans.

My next appointment was at 38 weeks and my Doctor noticed that my blood pressure was elevated.  It had been intermittently elevated towards the ending of my pregnancy but it was very inconsistent. However, my Doctor wanted to make sure we were not headed down a bad route since it was close to my delivery date. He wanted me to have a non-stress test at the hospital where I had planned to deliver(this was a Friday). That same day and had the test done and everything was A-OK. Thank God! Baby was doing great. My Doctor ordered another non-stress test on that upcoming Monday just to be certain that the baby was still doing OK.

I went back to the hospital that Monday to have the non-stress test done and again it was normal. I was so relieved. The Doctor then ordered lab work to be drawn before I left. I was in the hospital room just laying down watching TV ( four weddings), eating graham crackers and orange juice without a care in the world because all of my lab work has always been normal and I never anticipated anything being wrong with my lab work. I even walked out of the room and asked the nurse if I could leave already. The nurse almost let me go home but then decided I should stay just to make sure all the lab work came back normal.

15 minutes later the nurse walks in and sits by the bed next to me and takes my hand and says, “Well honey I am glad I did not send you home because your platelet count is low and we are booking you in. You are having this baby”. I was in complete shock. Like I was not ready. I did not plan to have a baby that day. I did not have my hospital bag, my husband was about an hour and a half away at work. I felt like the room was spinning when she told me that LOL. Although, I was happy to finally have this baby come I was not so happy about being caught off guard. The nurse quickly escorted me to my labor and delivery room, which was very nice with a great view! She then started handing papers and asking me all these questions about the pediatrician for the baby, vaccines for the baby, How many people in the room, etc. I was so overwhelmed because everything was happening so fast! I had to put everything on mute and just needed to call my husband. I answered the nurses questions and then told her I wanted to hold on some things until my husband arrived.

Fast forward a few hours later my husband arrived and the nurse went over the plan for the night. They were hooking me up so they can monitor the baby overnight and checking my blood pressure every 4 hours. The plan was to induce the next morning. After my husband was with me I felt a lot better but was still really nervous about potentially being a mom the next day. We were about to embark on a new journey as first time parents. Things were about to get real!

Induction day 1

Next morning arrives and its showtime! I took my last selfie in the bathroom mirror as a pregnant woman and prepared to be induced. They started my pitocin at 8AM that morning. They would come in every 30 minutes or so to bump my dosage up. The nurses kept asking me if I was in pain every time they came in to bump up the pitocin as I should have been in more and more pain. However, I only felt very minor cramping and felt great actually. I was thinking “if this is labor this is a piece of cake!”. When I told the nurses this they were like “well then that means nothing is happening. Trust me you would be crying in pain by now. ” I still didn’t believe them ahaha. I thought things were progressing. However, they checked me around 3pm to see if I had dilated beyond 3 cm’s and I sadly still had not. At this point I was at 3cm for a few days prior to being hospitalized. They called my Doctor and around 5pm they decided to stop the pitocin as they wanted to let my body rest since I was not dilating beyond 3 cm. I was so upset and discouraged. 😦 My Doctor came to visit me and told me what the game plan was for the night. He was going to try a medicine around my cervix that would hopefully help move things along overnight and the plan was to induce once again the next day.

Induction day 2

There we were once again at 8AM starting induction day #2. Mind you I was bed bound for the last 2 days already as they did not want my blood pressure elevating anymore. The nurses came in with the pitocin once again. They started my IV’s once again. Those IV’s in your hand hurt so bad!!!! -__- They also an IV along side my wrist and it hurt even worse! Not to mention that one dislodged over time and started bleeding so I had to get poked again. 😦 I felt like a pin cushion the entire time. I was having blood work checked everyday multiple times a day. Anyways, back to the pitocin. So they started it once again and this time around it was not the piece of cake I thought it was. I was starting to feel contractions and they were getting more and more intense to the point I finally reached my breaking point and started to cry around 3pm. The nurses came in and wanted to check if I have dilated anymore. Unfortunately they had bad news for me. I was still stuck at 3cm. I was so discouraged and upset. This was now day 2 of induction and still nothing was happening. I had been bed bound for 3 days at this point and I was sick and tired of laying down, sick and tired of being poked and sick and tired of not having my baby in my arms. The only good part of all of this was that the baby was completely stable through all of this. She just really did not want to come out. The nurses consulted with my Doctor and made him aware that my blood pressure was still pretty elevated. The Doctor was scheduled to come visit that evening to go over the plan since it was now 6pm and nothing was happening and I was still at 3cm. The nurses turned the pitocin off to let my body rest. I was hesitant to stop the pitocin as I still had hope that something could happen. The nurses then explained to me that my body was very tired and my uterus had been contracting all day with no results. They calmed me down and told me my body needed to rest because if we pushed it too hard then we could run into issues. The Doctor stopped by and we went over the game plan for the next day. At this point the Doctor was comfortable moving forward with a C-section as we had tried 2 days of induction and nothing has happened. He scheduled it for the next day a 3pm. but gave me the option of getting induced again for the 3rd day in a row to see if anything would happen prior to the scheduled C section. I spoke with the nurses and told them I wanted to try everything possible to have a vaginal delivery so I would try again and see how it goes. However, this next part was a very emotional stage for me as the Doctor had requested the nurses start medication for to keep my blood pressure down. With this they needed to place a urinary catheter. I was TERRIFIED when the nurse mentioned urinary catheter. For some reason I thought it was going to be the most painful thing ever. I broke down and started crying. I did not anticipate all these complications. I imagined delivering my baby via vaginal delivery and that there would be no complications. I was so tired of being in the hospital already and receiving bad news after bad news in regards to not dilating and nothing else working. I was devastated and so scared that I could potentially have a C section. It’s not what I had “planned”. Fast forward to that night when everything was finished. There I was laying in bed meditating and just thinking about how everything unraveled and how unexpected all this was. There I was bed bound, attached to IV’s, blood pressure medication that made me drowsy and a urinary catheter (which did not hurt by the way just felt funny). At that moment I cried out to God and told God to take control. Who am I to decide what happens after this point? My life belongs to you God so why am I worried? Why do am I paralyzed by fear in this moment? Where was the woman of God? Where was the prophet that God had called by name? Here I was acting like a woman who did not know God-fearing what would happen next. I rebuked myself in the presence of God and let God take control of my situation. I was crippled by the fear of something going horribly wrong if I had a C section. The thought of death crossed my mind. I rebuked all negative thoughts and held them captive to the obedience of Christ. I spoke positive words and let go and let God. The moment I did this I felt light as a feather and felt a burden lifted off my shoulders. I reassured my husband that everything would be OK. Yes, we did not plan for a C section but so what? What if this is in the plans for us? As long as we had a healthy baby who cares how she gets here! The positive prayers and messages from my Pastors, friends and family also helped me very much in this difficult time. The nurses were also so excellent and helped me out so much. I will forever remember each of them. Then I finally closed my eyes and dozed off ready for induction day 3.

Induction day 3

There we were again. Induction day 3. Day 3 of being starved because I had to be fasted all 3 days. I was ready to start my pitocin. The process was started and I was having bad contractions but when they checked me I was still at 3cm with no improvement after 3 days of being induced. At that point I made a decision to stop the pitocin at noon time if I had not advanced. The nurses agreed with me and commended me for even going this far. I was rest assured that I did everything possible to have this baby via vaginal delivery. I pushed myself and my body through almost 3 days of inductions and contractions. Noon time came by and I was still at 3cm. I told the nurses to stop the pitocin. My body has gone through enough. Why torture it more? The pitocin was stopped and I was to be prepped for a C-section at 3pm. Family members were beginning to arrive for the birth of our daughter. What made me laugh was that it was October 19th. All of our anniversaries are on the 19th and now our daughter was born on the 19th. We started dating 9/19/15, married 10/19/16, our baby shower was 8/19/17 and now our daughter would be born 10/19/17. We all started laughing. God is good and he comforted us in that moment. As the time was drawing closer and closer to 3pm i felt my heart racing. I had never had surgery let alone such a major surgery as this. The nurses came in and started getting me ready to move into the OR. I promise you that my heart was racing so much you could have probably heard it without a stethoscope haha. My favorite nurse actually stayed with me all the way through even though her shift was over. She was the sweetest and she comforted me so much. They gave my husband his scrubs and cap and placed a cap over my hair. (Shout out to my friend Leo for making sure a sister looked good. She came through and spent the day with me and even did my hair before I went in to the OR. She is the real MVP and such an awesome friend I will never forget her being there with me on the scariest day of my life. Thanks Leo!) They rolled me into the OR and my friends and family were left behind the doors and I was separated from my husband. The nurses prepped me and the spinal epidural was placed (did not hurt). I laid down on the table and waited for the epidural to kick in. I was shaking because I was so scared. The anesthesiologist noticed that I was very scared and nervous so he tried to keep my mind busy by talking to me through it. He would ask me if my legs were numb and okay…. I was terrified of them cutting me open with the epidural taking effect, so every time he asked me if I was OK I would quickly respond “MY LEGS ARE STILL TINGLY!! I CAN FEEL THEM”. HAHAHA! I was not trying to have them cut until my legs and abdomen felt detached from my body LOL. I was finally numbed from the waist down and it was show time. Of course I started vomiting like a mad woman due to the epidural. My husband was now next to me. The Doctor made the first cut and about 5-6 minutes later I took the first look at our beautiful baby girl! Everything happened so fast. She was then taken right away to get cleaned up. My husband was able to cut some of the umbilical cord. She was then brought over to me and she was precious!! I couldn’t believe that I was a mother. We came into the OR as a family of 2 and quickly became a family of 3. How great was God. There she was after 4 days of being hospitalized and after 3 inductions! She was whole and perfect with no problems. A perfectly healthy baby. My heart was full of love. Below is our first picture as a family of 3.

Thank you so much for reading this blog! Please comment/ like/share if you enjoyed this read. If you are currently pregnant my one advice is don’t get anxious about your delivery date and don’t go in with a set idea or expectation of what it will be like. Things don’t always go as planned and that is OK. God bless you all.

Love,

Eli ❤