My Birth Story

This week I have decided to write about my little love... Gael.  I'll start with my birth story although it's 8 months later.

As many of you know, I worked for 2 years in San Antonio with an organization that allowed me to work closely with pregnant teens and women. That also gave me awesome connections in having the opportunity to not only inform myself but meet doulas and midwives. That being said, I knew that I wanted to try and go natural when having my first baby.

That's right. No meds. No induction. All natural. Thankfully, I also had a really great pregnancy. The first 12 weeks I had some nausea. And chicken would make me sick. But overall, I felt great. On my 37th week appointment I mentioned to one of the midwives that I had been itching. They had to run blood work, and because the results would take some days to arrive, I had to go in daily to have the baby's heart rate monitored. It was horrible cause I would spend most of my time at the hospital. The results finally came in on my 39th week. And my bio acids showed to be a bit high so the midwife said they were going to have to induce me. I was devastated. I called Gerson (he was in Arizona) crying telling him that this was not going as planned. However, this did mean Gerson would make it to the delivery since I was being induced.

Well, it was 2pm and the midwife asked me to arrive at the hospital at 6pm. I called my mom asked her to pack my bag and meet me at the hospital at 6. I drove myself to Houston's Galleria and walked like never before. I was sweating so much! I was going up and down the stairs. I had accepted the fact that I would be induced but still wanted to try and go natural.

When I got to the hospital my mom was there. We spoke with the midwife and she explained that she would give me an ambien so I could have a good rest. And cervidel to soften my cervix. I quickly googled cervidel cause I had never heard of it! I asked my midwife if this would help prevent induction in the morning. I so badly didn't want petocin. I didn't care so much about the epidural but I knew petocin would get to the baby and that's exactly what I didn't want. Well she said sadly it wouldn't. That I would need to be induced and they would start the petocin at 9am. Gerson arrived that night around 10pm. And my mom decided to head home and rest for the big due day.

Around 5:30 that morning, I started feeling cramps. By 6am I mentioned to the nurse that I believed I was getting contractions cause they were stronger than cramps. Around 6:30am  I had dialated up to 4 cm. I started to feel the contractions getting worst. So I asked Gerson to read me a Psalm. He had the audacity to ask which one. In my head I thought "I don't care! One that applies!"  But I calmly said "It doesn't matter" So he began to read one in Spanish. I read my Bible in English, so my Spanish comprehension in such state literally went out the window. I asked him to stop.

By 7am I was at 7cm. I remember Gerson smiling! He thought I was progressing so well and was happy that I was indeed in active labor and didn't have to be induced. My midwife was also smiling. I was the only one not smiling. I didn't care if it was 7cm, I was in so much pain!

That whole hour I was in transitional labor which is the worst. All I knew was that contractions were back to back and I couldn't catch a break. I asked my midwife for the epidural and her exact words were "You don't want it, your pain wants it. " I remember asking for music and that didn't work. I would just focus during contractions on this red little cross on the bed remote. I honestly didn't care about natural birth anymore. I wanted the meds! So they suggested I go to the jacuzzi/bath tub. That helped so much! I can't imagine going through those last contractions on the bed. I lasted about 30 minutes in the tub. But then I got too hot and asked to get out. As I got out of the tub, I felt like I needed to use the restroom. My doula said that I didn't need to use the restroom, those were signs that I was probably ready to push.

When she checked me she excitingly said "You're done! This baby is ready to come out!" Now this is when we all smiled! I was so ready for this push. I had read and heard so many stories of how pushing could take hours and all I thought was "I refuse!" I truly feel like I got this supernatural strength. I was determined! But what sucks is that you have to push while getting contractions which is horrible pain. So for the first seconds I hesitated and that's when I finally felt like crying. Through out my labor I never screamed or cried. I remained so calm that all the nurses and midwife kept telling me I had such great composure. You know, when you're feeling so much pain, you don't care about any compliments. You could  have told me I won a million dollars and I wouldn't have cared. I felt like I was going to die!

So when they asked me to push I cried "I can't! I can't!" And the nurse looked at me and said "Yes you can! Now listen, inhale, and push!" And I really did listen to her. I asked her to show me one more time and probably pushed a couple of times and my little Gael was out!  I was so happy! So so happy... that the labor was over!

I truly feel like God knew and blessed me with the desires of my heart. The nurses calculated my labor was approx. 3 hours long. It was such a fast labor. And I'm grateful that I experienced it the way I had desired, natural.

Gael Adrian Pineda was born a day after his daddy's birthday, July, 10, 2012 at 8:07am. He weighed 7lb 4oz. He truly has become the light of our home. We love how he's changed our lives!

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