Hendrix Mōsaia: A Birth Story

I really should have written this down sooner, details are already fuzzy! I hope I can get his story right and add all the details I want to remember.

If you don't like hearing about dilation, cervical exams, and all that other nitty gritty, turn away!

Lets begin the story on Sunday July 5th, 2015, baby's due date. I woke up, still pregnant! I don't know how many times a day I had to tell someone I was still pregnant. I still feel so loved and thankful for all the people who were thinking of us, but I was getting a little tired of answering that question, haha. The last couple weeks of pregnancy were very stressful for me, wondering when the baby would come, and hoping he wouldn't come while I was at work or something! I was so nervous he would come early, right in the middle of Hema's finals. I made no plans those last 2 weeks, knowing that he could come any day. I had planned to work until the baby came, and that's what happened!

due date! :/

Monday, July 6th, I went to work and lost track of how many times I heard "You're still here??". I was getting a little anxious and irritated, I just wanted to answer "obviously!". The next day, the 7th, I had an appointment. For the last 3-4 weeks I had been dilated to a 1, and 90% effaced. That morning before my appointment I had some light spotting, and mentioned it to my doctor. She said it could be a good sign that my cervix is getting ready for baby to come! She did the cervical exam and I was still 1 and 90! We set up an induction date for the following Sunday, but my doctor said she was positive that I wouldn't need to be induced. She asked if I wanted her to strip my membranes, and I said "no thanks" :)
After my appointment I drove to work, and waddled super slowly to the building in the heat, opted to take the elevator instead of the 2 flights of stairs to my office, and kept thinking about how I was so ready to not be pregnant anymore! I tried really hard to stay positive throughout my pregnancy, because I know so many women struggle with lots of health issues when they're pregnant, and I was overall very healthy. At this point, my boss had already planned for me to be on maternity leave and they had given away my desk and computer. I spent a lot of that day in my boss's office helping her with random paperwork. Around noon I started to have what felt like minor menstrual cramps. They were very mild and inconsistent, so I didn't think much of it until about 3 PM when they started to be more bothersome. I asked my boss if her contractions ever felt like menstrual cramps and her eyes about popped out of her head and she said "YES, do you want me to drive you to the hospital??". I thought that maybe I was just cramping because of my cervical exam earlier that day, so I was still just waiting it out.
At about 4 PM my boss offered to let me go home early, and within that last hour I had started to think that maybe I was in labor. My back started hurting a little more and my cramps were more frequent and bothersome. I decided to take her up on her offer and go home in case I really was in labor. I got home and laid in bed to see if my cramps would go away with rest. They didn't. I could tell they weren't 3-5 minutes apart yet, so I didn't start timing my cramps until about 7 pm. They were about 6-10 minutes apart. I told Hema we were probably going to have a baby by tomorrow. We walked around in circles in our backyard holding hands and he let me squeeze his hand when the contractions were more uncomfortable.
We loaded our bags into the car and decided to go to dinner while we waited for the contractions to get closer together. I really wanted to go to dinner as "just the two of us" before we became parents. We went to Denny's which was close to our hospital and ate. I don't really know if that was such a good idea? I was really uncomfortable! But it did give me something to focus on other than the contractions. I could tell Hema was a little anxious, and so was I, we didn't know what was going to happen or what the next 24 hours would be like! But overall, we were calm. I don't know how, but we were calm, and ready.

At Denny's! So fancy.

We got to the hospital around 10 PM, contractions 3-5 minutes apart, Hema buzzed in and said "my wife is in labor." They let us in and first thing they asked was "are you a first time mom?" I said I was. Then they paged a nurse and said "we have a first time mom here who thinks she's in labor." eyeroll. Nobody would take me very seriously, and they were taking their sweet time. I guess I should've been showing them how uncomfortable I really was? Haha.

They finally got us into a triage room at 10:30 where the nurse did a cervical exam and I was, guess what. 1 and 90!! At that point the nurse kinda rolled her eyes and said they would probably end up sending me home but we were welcome to stay for an hour and she would check me again, and she left. During that hour, I started to get REALLY uncomfortable! I didn't know what to do with myself, I was very on edge. I tried all the positions I learned in my birthing class, but nothing helped. My contractions were stronger and more uncomfortable and I was just pacing around the room shaking my hands. Hema followed me around and kept asking how he could help and giving me suggestions. He gave me a blessing and that helped me to feel more calm, and I knew I would be ok and that I could endure whatever happened. I finally just curled up in a ball on the bed and Hema held my hand until the nurse finally came back in to check on me.

I was a 3! She asked if I wanted an epidural and I said yes. The doctor said I could stay since I had progressed 2cm in an hour. So the nurse was taking her sweet time again getting my delivery room set up and I was so so uncomfortable and in lots of pain. I started to feel like I needed to push, and I couldn't help but grunt loudly. The nurse looked at me a little alarmed, she finally started to pick up her feet and hurry a little. She grabbed a wheel chair and Hema started to help me get up. I was all wet and I told them I thought my water had broke. They got me in the wheelchair and wheeled me as fast as they could to the delivery room. They checked my cervix and I was a 7!! The delivery nurse and the triage nurse looked at each other and started suiting up. I kept hearing the triage nurse saying "this isn't normal for a first time mom, this isn't normal!!" I was already pushing, I couldn't help it! I heard them saying that the doctor couldn't come because they were at another delivery, and they were trying to locate another doctor. It was about midnight at this point. The anesthesiologist came in and my nurse and Hema positioned me for the epidural since at that point all I could do was curl into a ball and try my hardest to not push, which wasn't happening. I couldn't even recognize my own voice with all the noises I was making. Then the anesthesiologist was paged and had to go to an emergency C section. Bye bye happy medicine.

The nurses told me I was probably going to have this baby unmedicated. I wasn't panicked, I just felt there was no other option and it was game time. In the meantime my awesome delivery nurse was doing her best to coach me through my contractions and help me to stop pushing since I wasn't fully dilated yet. She checked me again and I was a 9, it had only been 2 hours since we arrived. Still no doctor. Still no medicine. I felt that I was the most calm person in the room, even though I was definitely not the quietest. I could feel everyone's stress as they tried to help me. Hema was leaning over me holding my hand for I don't know how long. The anesthesiologist came back in and asked if I still wanted an epidural. I didn't know you could still have an epidural at a 9. I asked if it was even worth it since it was almost time to push. The two nurses and the medicine man explained why they thought it was worth it for me to get it, and I honestly don't remember what any of them said. Then Hema said "LETS DO IT". So I said ok give it to me, mostly because everyone wanted me to, haha. I had already switched my mind into no medicine mode, so I really wasn't desperate for it, even though my discomfort and pain is still something I can't put into words.  The two nurses and Hema held me down since I was incapable of holding still, I felt a little prick, and within minutes I felt more relaxed than ever. They also gave me a spinal block to speed up the numbing, since I was still pushing. Hema said all the veins in my neck and face were bulging and it looked like I was squatting 1000 pounds.

Once the epidural had completely relaxed me and I had stopped pushing, the nurse checked me again and found out that the baby was facing my hip, instead of my back like they like. So she had me lay in some weird positions to get the baby to turn. She turned off the lights and told us to rest while we waited for him to turn the right way, even though I was a 10 by now. We waited for an hour or so, she came back to check me and he had turned to face my back and I felt a little pop and heard a noise like a big water balloon breaking. She said my water broke. I thought it broke in triage? She said that I had an upper break in triage and then a lower break just then. Never heard of that before!

After epidural :)

The 15 minutes of rest Hema got 

She turned on the lights about 4 AM and we started pushing. The nurse held one leg, Hema held the other, so really we were all pushing! I pushed and pushed and pushed for hours!!!! At one point my contractions slowed down so they put me on the lowest dose of pitocin to speed things back up. Things were progressing, and the baby had moved down, but he just wasn't coming out. Finally about 6:30 AM the doctor made her appearance. Oh and then she left... Oh and I was throwing up all my Denny's.. Oh and I remember shaking A LOT, before and after the epidural. I was completely exhausted from pushing for so long. I would fall asleep as soon as my contraction was over. I could hardly open my eyes, I was just spent. Thankfully, the baby's heartbeat had remained stable this whole time. They had me on oxygen the entire time I was pushing so hopefully it would give the baby more oxygen in the birth canal. At 7 was when they had a shift change and I got new nurses and the best part is that my actual doctor that I had been seeing my whole pregnancy was there! She came in and that's when things really started happening. She took control of the situation and she is just amazing, I can't explain. She said "This is what's going to happen, Norma. We're gonna get this baby out vaginally with a little help from the vacuum. It'll be 99% you and 1% the vacuum and we're gonna get him out in 2 pushes." And that's exactly what happened. About 6 other doctors came in as they set up for the vacuum delivery. I remember being able to feel everything, but no pain. The weirdest thing! I'm so grateful I was able to get the epidural!

I was so tired and couldn't keep my eyes open!  I remember my doctor asking me if I wanted a mirror, and I said no. She asked if it would make me sick, and I just said that it was useless because I couldn't open my eyes anyway, haha. Everyone was chanting for me and encouraging me. I was trying my hardest with everything I had in me! I could see and feel my doctor pulling on the vacuum with all her body weight, and he was out! July 8th, 2015 8:25 AM, more than 4 hours of pushing. I just laid back with my eyes still closed till I felt them place my baby boy on my chest. It was such an unreal experience. I remember he was crying and then he looked right at me and stopped crying and we just stared at each other. I was so weak I could barely just pat him. He held my finger with his little hand and I couldn't stop kissing that sweet hand. It really was love at first sight! Such a sweet, spiritual experience.

The first time he looked at me :)

See the circle on his head from the vacuum?

They took him to weigh him and wipe him off. He pooped right on the floor on the way to the scale, so I like to think he weighed more than they said ;) He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz, was 21 inches long, and he was healthy. He was perfect and wonderful, fresh from heaven. Next we did skin to skin and I got to try to nurse him. I was so looking forward to skin to skin, but I kept falling asleep! I remember thinking how I wasn't going to be able to cherish and enjoy that moment because I couldn't stay awake!  Next, dad got to hold him. I remember looking at Hema and how big he was smiling! Even though nurses and doctors were running around the room and they were still working on the afterbirth, everything felt calm and still.

He's just perfect!

We're both cry babies

The next few weeks were such a blur. We didn't know what tired was before we were parents! Like my doctor said "never underestimate the power of sleep deprivation!" Amen, sister. There were several moments in those first weeks where Hema and I would just stare at our sweet son and cry tears of joy and gratitude. Being a mother and a parent is incredible. I am learning so much about myself, and am finding that I am capable of things I never thought I could be capable of. And it's all because Heavenly Father blesses me with what I need in order to take care of our baby.

We are so grateful for our sweet baby and the things we have experienced so far! So much love and joy. Just like we always heard- it's the hardest thing you'll ever do, but it's all worth it. I am so grateful for Hema for being my rock, he really did work sooooo hard! He was the perfect support during labor and delivery, and he is an amazing husband and father. I couldn't image doing this journey without him!!

Now I totally get the term "bundle of joy" :)