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On Monday, August 10, 2020 at 9:36pm, my life changed forever.
I had a birth plan. I had a doula. I had watched all of the videos and taken the virtual classes. I had mentally prepared myself to give birth during a global pandemic. Yet, my birth didn’t go as planned.
There was no awkward water breaking moment.
There were no contractions so close together that they would keep me at the hospital.
There was no dilation.
In fact, my original due date came and went. I literally tried EVERYTHING to naturally induce myself…
I walked MILES.
I had sex.
I ate pineapples.
I did the midwife’s brew.
I drank castor oil with a little bit of orange juice.
I bounced on the birthing ball.
I curb walked.
I drove over speedbumps.
I walked up and down the stairs.
I ate spicy food.
I got a pedicure.
I went to the chiropractor.
I drank red raspberry leaf tea.
I took evening primrose oil.
I did yoga stretches.
I did acupressure.
NOTHING WORKED.
Every time I’d go for my weekly checkups, I’d pray that I’d dilated AT LEAST one centimeter, and I always left disappointed. Therefore, my doctor scheduled my induction at 41 weeks. Finally, we had a date to when the party would get started.
My fiancé and I checked into the hospital on the evening of Sunday, August 9th, and the nurse inserted Cervedil inside me to begin the process of softening my cervix. They tell you it’s like a tampon, which is the closest thing they can describe it as. Yet, it looked and felt more like a scratchy white shoestring to me. (And yes, it was extremely uncomfortable when it was put in.) That had to stay inserted for 12 hours, and then they would start me on Pitocin the next morning. The remainder of the evening into the night was fine. We watched Netflix and ordered Red Lobster from Door Dash. Then in the wee hours of the morning, my contractions started progressing on their own. I remember gripping onto the hospital bed rails for dear life trying my best to breathe through each painful wave.
The nurse came in and removed the Cervedil at around five something the next morning and allowed me 30 minutes to shower and try to eat something before starting me on the Pitocin at 7 o’clock sharp. Overnight I’d gone from one centimeter to around four centimeters dilated. Yay for progress, but that’s when things started to REALLY SUCK. I needed relief AND FAST. The Pitocin mixed with my own contractions had my body going into overdrive so bad that they had to stop the medicine to try and regulate my contractions. I happened to be one of those people who had two to three minute long contractions that would come back to back to back. On my birth plan, I wanted to try IV pain medication before giving into an epidural. Needless to say, my pain was on 1,000 and what I initially thought I wanted went right out of the window.
“Give me the epidural,” I told the nurse.
At 9:07am, I was getting the epidural and immediately felt relief. I could finally relax and try to get some rest. By noon, I was seven centimeters dilated, yet my contractions still hadn’t regulated, so they wanted to start the Pitocin again. The second go around on the medicine was even worse than the first. The baby’s heartbeat had always ranged between 146 and 165, but the second go around made her heartbeat drop to 96 and stay there for ten minutes. Our daughter was in distress and yet again, they had to stop the Pitocin. After that, we no longer wanted to do that medicine anymore. There was nothing worth risking the life of our baby. With that decision in mind, the doctor began to push for a c-section. It had been hours, I hadn’t progressed from seven centimeters and my contractions STILL hadn’t regulated on their own. We’d gone through endless shifts of nurses, and our last round even went as far as to prep my fiancé on what he would be wearing in the OR for our c-section.
Just when we thought things couldn’t get worse, my blood pressure started to rise out of nowhere AND I had spiked a fever. I was immediately put on antibiotics and the doctor told me he’d be back to check my cervix one last time before moving forward with doing the c-section.
Then, a miracle happened…
He came back in a little after 9pm and checked my cervix. He looked up at me and said, “you’re at nine and a half. Let’s go ahead and get ready to push.”
My eyes widened. My heart did a backflip. It was happening. The vaginal birth I wanted was actually happening! The nurse I had by my side gave me a crash course in pushing and it was on. After 15 minutes of pushing, my fiancé and I welcomed Yuri Corin into the world. She was 7 pounds, 3oz and 21 inches long.
Unfortunately, because I had a fever when she was born, she also had one. Therefore, she had to be put on antibiotics as well and spent two long days in the NICU. After her fever broke and she was done with all of the antibiotics, she flew through all of her tests with flying colors and was cleared to come home.
We couldn't be more honored or more proud to be her parents. She's truly a gift from above. ❤️