Our Birth Story

On October 19th Mike and I woke up just like any other day. But this was no ordinary day, no this was the day that he and I were going to become parents. Or at least begin the process of becoming parents.

We had breakfast and decided to run a few errands before I was to go to the hospital to start the induction process at 3:45 p.m. We came home and had a few hours to spare so I decided to double check my hospital bag and eat a snack before calling the hospital to see if they had room for me. The directions I was given via my doctor's office was, call at 3:00 p.m. and if they had room go in at 3:45 p.m. I made my phone call, labor and delivery informed me that they were all full and hoping to have 2 deliveries completed in a few hours and to call back at 6:00 p.m.

Mike and I relaxed a little bit more and I decided I would cook us dinner and since it was going to be my last meal I needed to make it full of protein and as many carbs as I could have since I knew I wasn't going to be allowed food once I got to the hospital. I called back at 6:00 p.m. and labor and delivery told me to come in at 7:15 p.m. they just had to clean up the rooms. This was it. This was the time that Mike and I were going to start our journey into real parenthood. No more pretend parenthood with just our dog, Chief. I got my stuff together and played with Chief for the last time. I gave my furry baby a kiss and told him I would see him in a couple days and I would have a present for him when I came home.

Mike and I drove the 10 minute drive to the hospital, walked into labor and delivery to check in. The nurse at the desk informed me that the rooms had no been cleaned yet but would be soon. She told us we could either wait in the waiting room or come back. Mike and I chose to leave and come back since we lived so close to home. The nurse told us to come back in an hour. So off we went back to the house. At 8:30 p.m. I called labor and delivery to make sure they were ready for us. They had just done a shift change and asked us to come in at 9:30 p.m. You would think by all of this calling and running around I would be annoyed right? No, I was actually fine with this because in my mind I would much rather go in at night and labor through the night in peace.

9:20 p.m. Mike and I said goodbye to Chief again and trekked off to the hospital again. We parked out front only to discover that they doors were locked and we would have to enter through the ER doors. As we walked through the doors we were amazed to see every seat in the ER filled, as well there were people sitting on the floor. From the look of it you would think a Greyhound bus had crashed and every single person needed medical attention. Mike and I walked down the hall towards labor and delivery only to be met with solid steel doors that were locked and had a sign reading No entry without a security escort. Are you kidding me? Where am I suppose to find a security escort? So got out my phone and called labor and delivery to find out how to get one. The nurse told me that we had to go to registration and they would call security for us. So we walked back the way we came and I went into the ER to find a registration desk amongst the crowd. Thankfully I found one quickly the ladies checked us in and called security to escort us to labor and delivery. We waited by the door for security figuring they would just open the door and let us be on our way. Nope, the female security guard truly escorted us to the labor and delivery room doors. I guess you can never be too carefully to protect babies from baby snatchers.

By this time it was now 10:00 p.m. We were greeted by the nurses of the labor and delivery unit and shown to our room. We were assigned to room 1, it was a room I was familiar with since I had been going to the labor and delivery unit for NSTs (non stress tests) twice a week for the past three weeks. We settled in for a long labor, I changed into my not so flattering pepto pink hospital gown and climbed into bed waiting to get hooked up to the monitors.

My nurse came in for me to sign the authorization forms for vaginal birth, epidural, c-section, and hepatitis B vaccine for baby. I signed all the papers but the hepatitis B, boy did she not appreciate that. The nurse got kind of snippy with us asking us why we wouldn't vaccinate our child. Stunned by her response I was speechless thankfully Mike stepped in explaining neither one of us had hepatitis B and we didn't feel that the baby needed a vaccine at birth, since we can do it a few months from now. Still annoyed she left to get my IV and file my paperwork.

She came back about an hour later (11:00 p.m.) she hooked me up to the monitors, put in an IV supply in my arm. She said she didn't think I needed the fluids yet and would hook me up to them in a few hours. So I was still free to roam about as long as if I unhooked the heart rate monitor but had to be back on the monitor every so often.

At 11:30 p.m. the nurse returned with 1/4 of a pill of Cytotec to start contractions, and to do a quick internal. I was dilated to a 1 and 80% effaced and baby was at station -2. Contractions began shortly after I took the pill, they were coming every 6-10 and were very manageable.

Since I knew it was going to take a while for me to progress I sent Mike home around 12:30 a.m. to get some sleep and check on Chief. Mike planned on coming back during the middle of the night unless I called him and told him otherwise. After he left I tried to get some sleep but that was extremely difficult since my blood pressure cuff kept inflating every hour and if I turned onto my side baby's heartbeat would disappear and set off alarms. So there I laid uncomfortably on my back having my arm squeezed by the blood pressure cuff and big velcro straps on my belly monitoring baby.

At 3:30 a.m. I was given another 1/4 dose of Cytotec. Contractions were certainly getting stronger and closer together about 4 minutes apart. I could feel the contractions in my back first and then they would wrap to the front. My nurse then hooked up my IV of glucose and 10 units of insulin. Knowing that I hadn't progressed much I called Mike and told him to get some more sleep and come by in the morning.

6:00 a.m. the contractions were still coming at a rhythmic rate and my nurse said we just need them to get closer together. By this time the contractions were lasting about 60-90 seconds so my body was certainly working. Mike text me telling me he was on his way back to the hospital and he would grab me some breakfast if I could eat. I told him I wasn't allowed to eat but thanks for the offer.

7:00 a.m. Mike had returned and we were just hanging out in the room watching the monitors of baby's heartbeat and my contractions. I knew I wasn't in too active of labor since I could still talk through the contractions and was still joking around. During this time it was a shift change for the nursing staff, I got rid of my crabby judgmental nurse and was given Dena. I knew Dena from all my NSTs I had she was very nice and had been doing labor and delivery for 19 years so I knew I was in good hands.

7:45 a.m. Dr. Lewis came into my room checked me, I was now dilated to a 2 still 80% effaced and baby was still at -2 station. I was disappointed that I had only progressed 1 cm but hey it as better than nothing. Dr. Lewis decided to break my water, he was having a hard time getting the bag to break but eventually got it to break. He also put in an internal heart rate monitor. He told me that he was going to start me on Pitocin ASAP and this baby was going to be delivered between 3 and 4 p.m.

8: 25 a.m. I was started on Pitocin at 2 intervals, contractions still very manageable but now I was standing and moving as much as possible to get the baby to drop and to dilate my cervix.

8:50 a.m. Pitocin level was turned up to a 6. Contractions were certainly stronger and took more effort to keep my body relaxed and muscles loose. Mike was a true saint he was rubbing my back, doing counter pressure techniques with tennis balls in a sock. I told him I needed to go pee, and let me tell you sitting on the toilet felt so good. There was no pressure, no back pain it was fantastic. I went back out to the room and kept working with the contractions.

9:20 a.m. Dena came back and turned my Pitocin levels up to 10. Now I could feel this was more active labor. When a strong contraction came I would hang off of Mike's shoulders and let my knees go weak. I also found standing with my back up against a wall helped relieve some of the pain but after a while that was becoming difficult. Mike grabbed me a chair and I began sitting on the edge of it to get through the contractions. I wanted to stand more and sway my hips but I just couldn't do it through the spikes of pain.

11:30 a.m. I climbed back into bed hoping that by lying down I could handle the contractions better. I was wrong. I was beginning to tremble from the pain in between contractions. It would start in my legs and travel upwards, then suddenly a contraction would hit, I would moan and claw at my bed, hair, basically anything I could hold on to. I always said I would take an epidural if I couldn't take the pain and this is the type of pain I couldn't get through without help. Mike told, Dena my nurse I wanted an epidural.

Because of my violent trembling I told Mike I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hold still for the epidural. So being the sweet husband that he is, he told Dena that I needed something to take the edge off to get the epidural but didn't want to be very drowsy or out of it. So Dena ordered a half dose of Stadol.

12:00 p.m. Dena came in and administered my half dose of Stadol. I immediately felt some relief. However I also felt very dizzy and had slurred speech. Now I just had to breath through some contractions until my epidural came.

12:20 p.m. My epidural had been administered and I was feeling fantastic. I didn't like how I was now suck in bed and could move but it was a small price to pay to escape the sharp shooting pain from the Pitocin contractions. I was also checked internal to check my progress, I as now dilated to a 7 and 100% effaced and baby was now at -1 station. Again Dr. Lewis told me I would be delivering around 3 or 4 p.m.

I was officially near transition, and boy did my body know it. I started shivering, sweating, and I was feeling very nauseous. I suddenly looked up at Mike and told him, I was going to puke. He quickly ran to the supply closet in our room and grabbed a basin for my to puke in. He made it back to me just in time. My Pitocin had been increased again but neither Mike and I noticed what level it had been turned to.

1:50 p.m. I was checked again and I was now dilated to a 9, it was getting close to pushing time. Things were beginning to feel very real knowing that this baby was going to be here in just a little bit.

3:30 p.m. Dena came in checked me real quick and said okay lets push. She broke down the bed, and we began pushing trying to get baby to turn. I pushed every time a contraction would hit, but of course now when I needed the contractions to be close together they were now about 3 minutes apart.

4:10 p.m. Dr. Lewis came in the room, and immediately told my two nurses and Mike that someone needed to turn on the game. What game you might be wondering. Oh just the Texas Rangers playing the New York Yankees. Quickly Mike grabbed the remote found the game and we began pushing again. Dr. Lewis asked Dena for the vacuum extractor. He quickly placed it on baby's head and had me start pushing again. As I would push as hard and long as I could he would pull on my poor baby. During one of the pushes suddenly there was a popping sound. Dr. Lewis was holding the vacuum but it had no suction cup on it! That meant that the cup was inside of me still clinging to my baby's head! The doctor asked for another vacuum and retrieved the first suction cup. I continued to push and he continued to pull. Dr. Lewis did stop for a few seconds to check the score of the game. I didn't notice at the time. After a few more pushes our baby was making its way into the world.

4:37 p.m. With one last big push our baby had arrived into this world. Dr. Lewis quickly clasped his hand over the baby's crotch held her up and revealed to us it was a girl! He then placed her on my chest, handed Mike a pair of scissors to cut the cord. I can honestly say this was the best moment of my life. Tears streaming down my face I just gazed at this little baby that was ours. It is an incredible feeling.

We named our Little girl Adia Jade Saenz she weighed 5 lbs 15 oz and was 20 inches long and was born October 20, 2010.

I tore slightly only needing a few stitches. In fact while I was being stitched up I gave Dr. Lewis a score update. I figured he just delivered my little angel and it was the least I could do. Plus I am use to giving score updates to Mike. It wasn't your "textbook" delivery but I like that our story has its little surprises it makes it fun.

Overall it was not the birth I had planned for, I didn't want to be induced, have pain meds, and have a vacuum used. But in the end it doesn't matter how Adia made her way into the world, it just matters that she is here with us.