1 week old

Joshua's Birth Story

Entering the hospital

2:31 AM - Joshua is born

I gave control over to Javier to make decisions since he is the leader and I really needed to surrender that. He decided with the doctor, for her to strip my membranes on Tuesday 10-26(something we have never done). I was at 4 cm. I felt a lot more pressure, to the point that I could hardly walk that afternoon. Wednesday I felt better, but at 4:30 pm the contractions started consistently and were harder and of course Javier's phone was dead :). Once Javier got home, we called my sister to come over to watch the 3 little boys and the 5 big kids went with us to the hospital where we met up with my mom around 7:30 pm. My hope was that I had changed some and at least the doctor would agree to break my water.

I was still at 4 cm., so I walked for an hour with no change except contractions were still hard and close. They monitored me for 20 minutes and saw I was still contracting every 2-3 minutes, but still no change. Meanwhile, a lady they had sent home, came back in an ambulance because she delivered on her driveway! The nurse told me that they were really busy and if I didn't progress, my doctor would probably send me home. I told her, I didn't see how I could go home because this was "it" and when it is time, I go really fast. I joked with her that I didn't want to be the next one to come back in an ambulance. I walked for another hour and she came to find me saying that my doctor agreed to admit me and would be back to break my water at 12:30. I was beyond thankful!

So at 12:20 she broke my water and there was a trace of meconium which meant they wanted to keep monitoring the baby 20 minutes every hour :(. Well, it is close to impossible to lay in bed to be monitored when you are laboring naturally. So almost immediately the contractions became unbearable and they let me off the monitors to labor. After an hour I was only at 5 cm. Throughout most of this, Javier and most of the kids were sleeping :0. They monitored me and then I got in the shower. Javier woke up and helped me by spraying my back with super hot water. That always gets me through the last part of labor when I feel like giving up.

Then the nurse said it was time to get monitored and the pain was so severe I could hardly get in bed. She checked me and I was still at 5 cm!! I told my mom, "I know these are end of labor contractions - how can I only be at 5 cm.?" I would have cried if I had any energy left, but it was 2:20 in the morning. The nurse left to go get a bag of pitocin and a hot pad for me. Well, the next contraction, I felt like pushing. Then the next one came right after and we called for the nurse. I told her the head was coming out. She checked and I was at 8cm and she called for more nurses and the doctor. Right away the next contraction came and I was pushing him out with just the nurses there. I went from 5 cm to Joshua being born in 10 minutes at 2:31 am. The doctor was just down the hall and so she was there soon after to stitch me up.

It was so crazy, I was hanging off on the side of the bed rail because the back labor was so much worse than ever before. I needed someone to hold my foot when I was pushing because I couldn't lay on my back. Javier was helping, but then he started to get woozy so my mom took over and we got no videos of his birth. Also, this is the first baby that Javier didn't cut the cord because he was almost passed out on the couch. (he always gets woozy right after the baby is born - but never before :))

The afterbirth was painful, which I never experienced before and my body shook for at least an hour from the hormone and adrenaline surge. The nurse also told me the reason the baby didn't descend as quickly after breaking my water as we expected and the reason I had unbearable back labor was because the baby was face up instead of face down. This is also why his face was so swollen.

He never cried when he was born and nobody was worried about that except for me. His apgars were 9/9. He really never cried the first 24 hours. All of the kids and my mom enjoyed being there for a birth for the first time, but it was so fast and hectic, the kids really didn't see anything or know what was happening until he was on my chest. But still they had fun camping out, watching movies in my room until 2:30 AM and then being the first to hold him!

The nurses were all amazing and kind, and I stayed in the hospital the full 2 days because this hospital charges the same whether you stay 1 or 2 days and I enjoyed the extra rest and bonding time with Joshua, and we knew we had sick kids at home. My recoveries are always great, but this has to be the best physical recovery yet. We are still so in awe and praising God for working out every detail of Joshua's arrival.