Our Birth Story

I've said it before and I'll say it again, whoever said pregnancy was 9 months, doesn't know math. My pregnancy lasted 40 weeks and 5 days, but it was ALL worth it because I got this little guy.

At our 40 week Dr appt when the Dr told me that I had zero progress we decided to schedule my induction for Saturday, July 20th. I had been avoiding being induced, but I couldn't imagine going another week pregnant. So for the rest of the week AJ and I did all the last minute things needed to prepare for Emerson. On Friday I met up with my mom and sister to eat some lunch and then hit Babies R Us. At 40 weeks, walking becomes some what of a chore, but this day was worse than any other before. I was having a VERY hard time getting around, but I didn't think anything of it. On Saturday AJ had to work and I was planning on giving the house one last vacuum, but Emerson had other plans in mind. Friday night I woke up with extreme pains, which I assumed was a stomach ache because they didn't last long. When I woke on Saturday I had a lot of pressure in my groin, enough that I had trouble walking and standing up from sitting. Around 3:15pm I started getting cramps, but thought nothing of it since I'd been getting them for the past month. I quickly realized they were coming regularly. I started tracking them and after an hour they were coming 5 mins apart. My Dr told me not to go to the hospital until my contractions were coming 5 mins apart for two hours. Well another hour later and they were still 5 mins apart. They weren't painful so I didn't rush to the hospital.

We were scheduled to check into the hospital at 9 for an induction, but the contractions grew stronger and we decided to head over earlier at 8. Luckily it was a quit night in L&D so they were able to admit me right away. Around 8:30 the nurse checked me and I was dilated to 1.5cm. The Dr. came in around 9:30 and I was still 1.5cm, but he decided to change that. He forced me to go from a 1.5 to a 3-WORST pain ever! Once he did that my contractions started coming faster and stronger. By midnight I was dilated to a 4 and the contractions were intense and coming every 30 seconds. If it had been up to me, I would have had my epidural the minute I was admitted, but my Dr. wasn't that liberal. When he checked me at midnight he decided to break my water and that's when I demanded my drugs! Lucky for me the hospital was slow and the anesthesiologist was in my room within 10 mins. I've heard some epidural horror stories, but my experience was nothing, but amazing. The epi was in and I was pain-free within 15 mins; I was one happy camper!

At 1:30 my mom and sister decided to go home since all I wanted to do was catch some shut-eye. I slept pretty solidly for the rest of the night, except for the intermittent nurse check-ups. At one point the nurse came in to start pitocin because my contractions had started to spread out, but 30 seconds after she started the drip, Emerson's heart rate dropped so she turned it off. She wasn't sure if it was just a coincidence, but she wasn't willing to take that risk so I went the rest of my labor with NO pitocin. At this point the nurse removed my external fetal heart monitor and attached an internal monitor to Emerson's head. 

My mom and sister came back to the hospital at 5am and by that point I was close to 8cm. Although I was feeling no pain my body was still going through some very strong contractions, which left me feeling nauseous and eventually led to me getting sick once. I tried drinking water and eating Jell-O, but my stomach wasn't having it. I tried to get some more rest, hoping that these shakes would just go away. At 7am, the nurse checked me again and said I was basically at 10cm and that she needed me to give a couple of pushes to get Emerson in place. Since I couldn't feel anything, I just did what I assumed equaled pushing. Lucky for me the nurse said my pushes were great and Emerson was down and ready. My mom took this to mean that I was going to continue pushing and pop this baby out. She started texting the family to say that I was pushing, but the pushing never continued. She was very frustrated, but I just saw it as another opportunity to catch some Zzzs. Since my shakes were so bad I layered three heavy blankets on me and passed out.

A little before noon the Dr. came in to check me and got concerned that I might have a fever. The nurse took my temp and I did, but it was only 100 degrees. To be safe they hooked up a bag of antibiotics to my IV. After the Dr. checked me he let me know if was GO TIME! Originally I had only planned on AJ and my mom being in the room with me, but throughout the night my sister had been in the room during my checks and had already seen it all so I asked her to stay. Once Team Push-This-Baby-Out was ready, I started pushing during my next contraction. I tried pushing two different ways and both were exhausting! I have the utmost respect for women who go through labor and pushing with no drugs; I don't know how you do it! You are all superheroes in my book! Pushing takes everything out of you and to think of having to push after dealing with labor pains for 12-14 hours prior is just insane. Thank goodness for modern medicine!

After 2 1/2 hours of hard pushing I gave birth to this perfect little boy. I can't even begin to describe the rush of emotions I felt when the Dr put my son on my chest and I got to see him for the first time. I was instantly in love and in awe of this perfect person that AJ and I had made. 

We did skin-to-skin for two hours before we finally let all of our family and friends come in to meet the newest Jimenez family member. This boy is already loved by SO many. We have a line of babysitters just waiting to get our phone call!

Around 6pm the nurse came in to give Emerson his first bath. AJ snapped a few pics and then headed home to take a shower himself and check on the pup pups. Right after he left the nurse let me know she was concerned that his oxygen levels were low because he had purple splotches on his legs. She hooked him up to the O2 machine and his stats were 100%, but his heart rate was only 98. Apparently babies should have heart rates between 110-160 so the nurse decided to take him to the nursery to run some more tests. I immediately called AJ and told him to get back ASAP. He was back within a half hour and thank goodness he was because I was a hot mess. I couldn't control my emotions, thinking of every worst case scenario. AJ just held my hand and tried to keep me calm. Finally an hour later the nurse came in with an update. She let us know that his temp, heart rate, and sugar levels were all down. They gave him some formula, which fixed his sugar. She called the pediatrician and the Dr said to just get his temp up and his heart rate should follow; she was right! Once his temp was normal so was his heart rate. They continued to check his temp through the rest of our stay in the hospital and it was never low again. It was the longest hour of my life and it made me realize how scary it was to be a parent. AJ and I are now responsible for the life and safety of someone else and it's overwhelming, but in the best way ever! It's a fair trade when this is the life we are responsible for:

Here are couple (JUST a couple) of side effects from my labor:

Look at that sausage foot-retaining water much?

Bruised from the damn blood pressure cuff-I wanted to stab that cuff!