The Big Day...

Well, as everyone already knows, Pablo and I had our son! He's beautiful, perfect, and has absolutely stolen our hearts. Boy did he take his sweet time getting to us though! My due date came and went and no baby boy. Which part of me was fine with as the whole going into painful labor part was beginning to get really really (really) intimidating. By that Thursday my body still showed no sign of getting started. Pablo thought it was great that our son already took after his mommy by being late, haha. To clear that up, I am not always late to everything, haha. So Pablo, our doctor, and I decided that being induced was a good idea and I checked into the hospital that night. We were so excited! 

 40 weeks and 4 days!

Pablo testing out his accommodations for the night

Now my doctor had told us that since we were being induced, labor could take from 24 to 36 hours. So Pablo and I expected to be there a while and made ourselves comfortable for the night. I was started on Pitocin around 11:30 PM on Thursday and left pretty much on my own. I woke up at 1:00 AM when my water broke and pretty much startled me out of a nice, deep sleep. That's when the contractions started nice and steady for me. I loved our first nurse because she was pretty hands-off and let me do my thing. We left the lights out and the volume on the monitors down so that Pablo could sleep and I could take the contractions as I wanted and comfortably. They stopped administering the Pitocin sometime around 4 AM since my body was contracting on its own now. Around 7 AM my nurse, Kay, came in to say goodbye and that she'd see me tonight at 7 when she reported back in. (Yeah, everyone expected a nice slow labor, haha) I did not get along with the next nurse so well. Maybe that's an understatement? Where the first nurse was a minimalist, the new nurse was, as Michael Scott would say "All up in my biz-nis". Luckily my doctor told her that everything was fine and she laid off after that.

Around 9 AM my mom showed up to hang out with us and help me through my contractions, which were getting pretty strong by the time she arrived. When the doctor checked my cervix a little after my mom arrived I was between 4 and 5 cm dilated. So I had a long way to go still and the contractions were getting closer together. It had been my plan to go through the delivery without an epidural and I was committed to that. But around 9:30 AM, I was experiencing contraction on top of contraction; with the mindset that I still had a good 12 hours ahead of me. The next 15 minutes I went back and forth with the idea of an epidural. It killed me to even think about it and I talked myself in and out of it with each wave of contractions. Finally, at around 10:00 AM, I caved and called in the anetheologist. She came to discuss the procedure. She must have thought I was the rudest girl ever because I didn't pay attention to anything that lady said. My contractions were to the point where one wasn't even done while the next was already building. So I was preoccupied. She had to see to two other girls before she could come back to actually give me the epidural. So she never actually got the chance to give it to me before our little guy made his deput.

Once the anetheologist left the room things got exciting. I felt a hot and terrible pain and gave out a loud yell. Suddenly the room was full of nurses and I knew, KNEW, that I had to push. I told the nurses and became frustrated that my nurse seemed so calm about the whole thing when I was, as it felt to me, being ripped apart. "Okay, well, let me check how much your dilated..." she said all slow and calmly. She reached her hand down and looked at the nurse who was helping me, "I can feel the head." It was just like a movie where time froze for like a second and then everything starts happening at once. The nurses told me to hold in the baby (which seems much more painful than contractions even) until the doctor came. Within minutes the doctor rushes in and the room is already prepped and ready. I had to give only two pushes and I see my son for the first time. They laid him on my chest as the doctor sewed me up and then took him to the other side of the room to clean him up. Pablo got to cut the umbilical cord, which was pretty cool. By 10:13 in the morning everything was done and over. It was a total of 11 hours for the labor and delivery. I am so grateful that I was able to experience the birth without the epidural and keep that goal for myself. No one could believe how I went from 5cm to 10cm and pushing in all of 45 minutes! It was no wonder it was unbearable there for a while.
Pablo, baby Velez, and I left the hospital the next day at 3:00 pm. I still can't believe that the little bean we've been so looking forward too is here. He is perfect, in every way, and I already love him with my whole heart.
So here he is!

 Pablo Joseph Velez

6 lbs, 11 ounces

21 inches

 

First picture with mommy :)

           

We had the baby room with us and Pablo was able to catch this precious moment from the morning.