At my ob appointment on December 5th I was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. This didn't get me too excited since I was the same with Sam for a few weeks. The doctor stripped my membranes despite me telling him I did not want to have the baby until the next weekend. I had a busy week ahead of me. On the schedule:
Monday-Isaiah's soccer party
Tuesday-Cookie exchange at book club
Wednesday-Dinner at Flemings for Santiago's work
Thursday-baby shower at Santiago's work, then Christmas dinner for the women at church
Friday-Xavier's pre-school field trip singing at a retirement home and Santiago's Holiday Gala for work
Saturday-Church Christmas Party
Santiago did not want to miss his work parties, but I told him back in November I didn't think we would make it to his gala. He was not happy when he found out the doctor stripped my membranes. Wednesday morning came and I discovered ants in Sam's bedroom. I moved around all of the furniture so that I could vacuum. Then of course I had to clean and vacuum the boy's room, and I ended up just cleaning the whole day. My mom took the kids later in the afternoon so that we could go to his work dinner. It was nice to get dressed up despite feeling very frumpy the last few weeks. At dinner, while enjoying my filet mignon, I told his boss that this should be every pregnant woman's last meal. Little did I know...
Thursday morning I was having dreams of having contractions. Apparently they weren't just dreams, because at 6 am I woke up with them. I walked around the room to see if they would go away, and when I had another one I woke up Santiago to tell him I was probably in labor. Of course he said, "Are you serious?" and stayed in bed. I jumped in the shower. If I was in labor I didn't want to wait too long to get to the hospital because of needing antibiotics. The contractions were irregular, and not too intense, but I decided to give my mom a heads up. Thankfully she didn't have a subbing job that day and was able to come over around 8. I have never had false contractions, so I knew that I was going into labor. It was a little crazy that morning, trying to get Isaiah and Xavier ready and off to school. Santiago had to pack, and I needed to get all the last minute things done. My ob said to go in when my contractions were 6 minutes apart, but by 9am they were still irregular. They were ranging from 4 to 15 minutes. I left him a message, but decided we should just go to the hospital. I really was worried about not getting my full dosage, and having to stay another day. Meanwhile, Santiago had to let work know that we would not be making it to our baby shower.
One last belly pic before leaving:
We got to the hospital a little before 10. By then my contractions seemed to have slowed down. They put me in triage for awhile, and the on call doctor decided to have me walk around for an hour before they would admit me. Soon after we were walking the halls the contractions started coming every 3-4 minutes. When the nurse checked me again just before 1pm I had thinned out more and was dilated to a 4. By this time I was in a lot of pain. They started me on the iv and antibiotics at 1:30 which meant they wouldn't break my water until 5:30. I asked for the epidural right away. There was no point in trying to be wonder woman. I knew the pain was only going to get worse. I had to wait 30 minutes for the antibiotics to get in my system, and the contractions were coming about every 2-3 minutes. The anesthesiologist was the best I've ever had. I had some good amount of shooting pain in my hip when the needle went in, but other than that it went good. The numbing felt great. From then on it was a waiting game. My ob and my nurse thought I would go fast, but when the nurse checked me about a quarter to 5 I was only at a 6. At 5:30 my ob broke my water and said I was dilated to a 8-9. Then the pain started coming again. The nurse decided to check me right before 6 and said I was ready. My ob came right in and it was go time. For some reason it seems like my contractions slowed down a bit during pushing. I was literally twiddling my fingers in between contractions. When her head was almost out my ob saw that the umbilical cord was wrapped tight around her neck and had to cut it. When she was half way he had me pull her out.
This could have been such a cool pic, if only...
Eva Rosalynn Ortega was born at 6:08 pm weighing 7 lbs 12 oz, and 19 1/2" long.
The doctor didn't think she would be more than 7 lbs, and she was almost 8, plus was 5 days early. We did skin to skin for about an hour, and she did great nursing right away. My parents brought the kids around 7:15, and they were able to see Eva get bathed and weighed.
Sam and Xavier were a little hesitant about her at first. Xavier was worried when she would cry.
At first I thought Eva looked so much like Sam when she was born. The longer we looked at her though, we weren't quite sure who she looked like. She has completely different features than Sam and Isaiah. She probably resembles Xavier the most.
1 day old:
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