Mateo's birth story

Mateo’s birth story, by his two mommies

Alayna:

The story of Mateo’s birth begins a week or so before he was born. I was approaching the 40 week mark of pregnancy and my body wasn’t showing any signs of labor. I was having an increasing number of Braxton-Hicks contractions, but they weren’t dilating or effacing my cervix. Dr. S had said all along that she would want to induce if we hit 41 weeks, and that date was approaching. We went in on Friday, October 27th for a check-up and still nothing was happening, so she told us that the induction process would start on Monday, October 30th. We were supposed to come in at 8:30 am on Monday and she would insert laminaria into my cervix to start it dilating. Laminaria are little matchsticks made of Japanese seaweed. They absorb water and cause the cervix to stretch. We would then wait for the rest of the day and check into the hospital at midnight that night to start the induction. We had been on the fence about when the induction should happen, but had agreed that we would follow the doctor’s medical recommendation.

We had a wonderful last weekend as just the two of us…although the baby and my belly were so huge that nothing was really just the two of us anymore! We went out to some movies, went to a birthday dinner and a birthday lunch for my grandma, and just had some nice time being at home and enjoying each other. I was still having a lot of anxiety about the baby being okay, just like with the whole pregnancy. At our last OB appointment on the 27th, they gave us a non-stress test, where they hooked me up to a fetal heart rate monitor and we got to listen to his heartbeat for 20 minutes. It was reassuring for both of us. We had such a strong little guy in there!

Sacha:
On Monday October 30th, we went into Dr. S’s office for Alayna to get the laminaria. Even though she was seven days past due by that time, she hadn't really shown any signs of going into labor. She hadn't dilated or anything, but at that appointment, it turned out she was 1cm!!! I was so excited! Dr. S was about to strip the membranes, and she didn't have to have the Japanese seaweed sticks inserted into her cervix - which I was relieved by. One less intervention!

That day Alayna’s mom was in town and we spent part of the time carving pumpkins for Halloween. We roasted some seeds and just tried to not get too anxious about the day. I was really excited that we were going into the hospital that night, but part of me felt really conflicted because Alayna had started to dilate, and suddenly I wasn't so sure if induction made sense. Maybe she would go into labor naturally if we waited a little bit longer . . . At the same time I knew that the best thing for Alayna was to go into labor, because she was feeling so anxious, and that was a pretty rough day. I think Alayna thought that the closer we got to the end, the more likely that something would go wrong, and so it was just a scary day for her.

Alayna:

At 11 pm, the alarm went off and we got up. We each had a bagel and then got in the car to go pick up Rachael, our birth doula. We crammed her and her stuff into the car and set off for the hospital. The first frost of the year had just happened and it was a beautiful clear night. It was so cold that I was having a lot more contractions. We got to the hospital and parked in the emergency room entrance, like they had told us to. When we walked in, we learned that I had to be wheeled up to labor and delivery in a wheelchair! I was perfectly capable of walking, but I guess rules are rules. Sacha and Rachael carried all our stuff, and we had a LOT of stuff. We ended up using almost all of it, so it was definitely worth bringing.

We got settled into our room, which was very nice. It had a bed that moved into all kinds of different positions and a pull-out couch and a baby warming bassinet and lots of space. It even had a Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom. They hooked me up to a fetal heart monitor right away, and a contraction monitor. I LOVED being on the fetal monitor. It was so reassuring. If I could have been on one of those for my entire pregnancy, I think it would have revolutionized my experience. I know a lot of women hate the monitoring, but it made my labor experience what it was. Without it, I think I would have been such a stress case. I was on the monitors for almost my whole labor, because of the Pitocin, and that was fine by me.

Sacha: When we settled in our room (566), Alayna was hooked up to the monitor, and it turned out that she was having too many contractions to get the ripening gel. I was really annoyed with the nurse that they wouldn't give us the gel, because that is why we were getting up at midnight in the first place! But, then the nurse said that they were going to give Alayna pitocin, and then I really freaked out in my head. Because I'd heard so many horrible things about how pitocin is, and here it is now 2 in the morning and they are going to give her this drug that causes nasty, horrible contractions? I was so glad that Rachael had come with us, because she had the sense to ask the nurse about if it would be painful and if Alayna would be able to sleep etc. It turned out that they were just going to give her a small amount to help ripen the cervix.

So, around 2 in the morning, the nurse left, to come back and put in the IV and then got the drip running. It seemed like we were never going to go to sleep, and it was going to take forever. Alayna, Rachael and I placed bets on how long it would take for them to get the IV in. Alayna bet that the IV would be in by 2:30am, I bet that it would be in by 2:40, and Rachael bet that it would be in after 2:50. Alayna won a baby carrot (the bet offering - although she never ate her baby carrot), but the nurse wasn't out of the room until 3am, so Rachael was also sort of won the bet as well.

Alayna:

Around 7:30 am, a nurse (we loved all our nurses, by the way, except for maybe the first one) came in and turned up the Pitocin to really start labor. We also learned that we would have 2 nurses for the day – one in training and one experienced one. They were both great. Once they got me all hooked up, I was free to get up and walk around, providing that the IV pole came with me. Sacha and Rachael and I went out to walk around the L and D unit. I started having stronger contractions fairly quickly. I could walk and talk through them for awhile and we went around the floor a couple of times. I felt a bit panicky for a few minutes because they were really getting stronger and I was having a hard time telling Sacha or Rachael about it. However, I got over that as they got stronger. They had me do some walking lunges as we walked around to try to open up my pelvis.

Sacha:
After about 30 minutes, they started to be strong enough that Alayna really needed to stop and breath or sway to be ok. Then, by 8am, the contractions were really coming hard.

Rachael was wonderful and Alayna was totally a trouper. Rachael helped us with figuring out all sorts of positions and getting Alayna as comfortable as possible. She got the birth ball out of the car and really worked on relaxing. Around 11am Alayna got into the tub and that really helped with the contractions not being so painful. Then by noon the Dr. was about to come, and Alayna started having a much harder time getting through the contractions.

Alayna:

At some point, we decided I needed a change, so Rachael ran me a nice bath with lavender oil. The bath was a great change. I stayed in for almost an hour. It made me so much more relaxed and even though the contractions were getting stronger, I felt like I could deal with them better. The jets really helped. I told Sacha and Rachael how I had started counting slowly to ten during contractions and how that was helping me, so they started counting with me. They counted sooo much more slowly than I had been! One indication of how much stronger and longer the contractions were getting was that after awhile, counting to ten wasn’t long enough, even when we counted slowly. The contractions were getting to be really strong. I had no idea I could be in that much pain. I would feel my uterus starting to clench and then it would get rock hard and I would feel so much pain that it was all I could to do just hang on through it. It was better if I started breathing as it was starting to ramp up, because if it caught me by surprise, I got lost in it. I started making more noise – I felt like I was being really loud, but Sacha says that I wasn’t. I felt kind of self-conscious, but it was getting to be impossible to get through the contractions without moaning.

Sacha was watching the monitor and said that I often wasn’t getting a break at all between the contractions – they were just running together. Sometimes there would be stretches of 5 to 20 minutes where there was hardly any break at all. Even getting me out of the bath took forever, because the contractions just kept coming. I was starting to get the feeling that I couldn’t do this for much longer. That’s supposed to be a sign that you’re in t ransition and that the end is near. The contractions on the monitor also looked like transition contractions. Instead of going up and coming right back down, they would go up and stay for awhile before coming back down again. They looked like plateaus instead of mountains. Gotta love that pitocin. We knew that Dr. S was coming to check me during her lunch break, so I tried to hold on for that.

We had thought she might be there around noon, but it took until 1 pm for her to get there. I was just holding on and waiting for the doctor. I thought that maybe if I had progressed a lot, I would be able to make it, but I honestly didn’t know. I didn’t feel like I could stand another minute of the pain, but I didn’t have much choice at that point. I was starting to freak out. There was no rest from the contractions and they were taking everything I had to get through. Even the lighter ones started to seem awful. I just wasn’t dealing with the pain very well because I was getting so worn out and because things were getting more and more intense.

Sacha:

Alayna started saying that she didn't think she could make it, and she wanted some medicine or maybe an epidural. Before going into labor we had talked about this, and talked about how this would probably happen, but she wanted me to encourage her to go a bit longer. Also, I knew that this commonly happens when people go through transition and dilate the last few cm.

Nope. When the Dr. got there poor Alayna was only 3 cm dilated (2cm impovement in 6 hours of hard labor) and she just really started losing it. At that point I just wanted her to get some pain relief right away, and so she got some IV drugs - I think it was Fentanyl - a narcotic. It is supposed to take the edge off of the contractions, but I'm not sure honestly how helpful it was. But, it was something, because she couldn't get an epidural right away.

Of course the moment she really wanted one, there was an emergency and someone needed a C-section and an epidural right then. . . so it was another hour of labor till she could get it. I tried having her count to ten out loud and breathing and holding her and everything to help her get through it. This was one of the hardest hours of my life, seeing her in so much pain, and not being able to take away the pain.

Alayna:

I decided I wanted an epidural. I had really been wanting to get one for the last hour, but had been trying to hold out and had been feeling like I would be wimping out if I got pain relief. Sacha convinced me to get a shot of Fentanyl while we waited for the epidural, which turned out to be a great idea. It didn’t help much with the actual contractions, but it made me feel woozy and sleepy and I got a bit more out of the rests between contractions. I have to say that I have never been more focused on the present moment than I was during that time. All I could do was get through the contractions and rest in between. I just didn’t know pain could feel like that, and I think my labor was really affected by the Pitocin. It made everything happen faster and stronger. I was basically going through transition at 3 cm. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I hadn’t had pain relief. I think we would have been there all night and quite possibly I would have had to have a caesarian section, because my body was clearly fighting it.

Sacha: Finally, around 2pm she got the epidural.

Alayna: The anesthesiologist was kind of an alpha male type and he wasn’t exactly the nicest guy, but I don’t think either Sacha or I really cared at that point. I had to roll forward and stay as still as possible while he tried to get the needle into the epidural space. He said that the space is about as wide as a sheet of paper, so it’s a tricky thing to do. Poor Sacha had to bend over the chair I had my feet on, so she was stuck in an uncomfortable position and I was hanging on to her for dear life. I’m glad I didn’t have to see the needle go in, because I’ve always been terrified of having a huge needle in my spine. The whole thing made me feel like I was giving up, I had really wanted to do it naturally and I think I thought I would be able to do it. It was just so much worse than I was expecting and it had gotten to (and past) the point of being unbearable. So, I did what I needed to do in that situation.

Sacha:

It took a long time for the epidural to be put in, because the spaces in her back were really small, and unfortunately, it didn't work on her left side for a good (or bad) 30 to 45 minutes. I think she had just gone way past her limit by that point, and was really anxious that it wasn't going to ever work. I actually was really worried about that, too. Once they put it in, and it didn't work on the left side, I was convinced that it wasn't going to and how was Alayna going to be able to get through this without any medication, and could they just do a C-section right now and get this over with.

Alayna:

It was the weirdest feeling, because one side was feeling great and the other side was still in agonizing pain. I felt somewhat better, but still had a really hard time getting through contractions. Finally, the anesthesiologist came and gave me another boost of the medicine and it finally started to numb up my left side. It had really kicked in by 3 or 3:15.

I could still feel the contractions sort of, but they just felt like pressure and the pain was gone. I was exhausted beyond exhausted and I just wanted to lay in bed…which was all I was allowed to do anyway! I felt so conflicted, because it wasn’t what I had wanted, but it was what I needed. I wanted to cry from being so tired and from being disappointed and sad about getting the epidural. Also, I was really scared that it would hurt the baby or that it would move up and I wouldn’t be able to breathe. On the other hand, it was such a relief to have relief from the pain and to be able to rest and relax. I laid there and Sacha and Rachael and I chatted and Rachael fed me ice chips and we actually all had a nice time. I was feeling intermittent pressure down south, which is supposed to be a sign that the baby’s moving down. Over the course of the next couple of hours, the pressure got stronger and stronger, to the point that I needed to breathe through it, although not because of pain. It just felt like something HUGE was moving down!

After I had mentioned the increasing pressure a couple of times to the nurses, they decided to check me around 4:45 or so. To our surprise, I was at 9 cm and almost complete! I think everyone was surprised and we were excited and relieved! It seems like the epidural was actually exactly what my body needed. I was trying my best to relax through the contractions, but I guess I couldn’t help fighting them. In the course of the two and a half hours between when the epidural kicked in and I started pushing, I dilated 7 cm. Amazing, considering that in the six hours prior, I had only progressed by 2 cm.

The nurse estimated it would probably take about an hour and a half of pushing, so we tried to prepare mentally for that.

Sacha:
The pushing was amazing. The baby just came all the way down through the pelvis without Alayna pushing at all, and when Dr. S arrived, you could see his head getting ready to come out. Dr. S was a godsend. I couldn't have asked for a more positive, supportive and amazing doctor. She was there for the entire pushing stage, and really gave Alayna great feedback. Alayna started pushing like a pro, and the first time started getting the babies head out. I think she only pushed for a total of seven contractions before he was born, and best of all, she wasn't in any pain and I think that helped her, and I know it really helped me enjoy the whole pushing stage.

Alayna:

They had a big mirror up and we could see the head moving down almost immediately. After hardly any time at all, he was crowning. A few pushes later, she said that Sacha and Rachael should hold my legs back for me, because I was going to need my hands to hold the baby! I pushed and then she told me to go gentle and then his head just popped out! It was amazing. Amazing. I didn’t see this, but Rachael said he opened his eyes and looked around before his body was even out. Without me pushing, the doctor just kind of eased his little body out and pretty soon there was this warm and somewhat surprised baby on my chest!

Sacha:

When Mateo’s head started crowning, Dr. S made his hair into a Mohawk, and it was the first part of his body to enter this world. He came out and one of the nurses took all sorts of amazing pictures. Once he was out, he just started screaming up a storm!

Alayna:

He was (and is) just perfect. Right away, he was moving around and making cute little noises. It was one of the most amazing and transformative moments of our lives. Sacha and I just couldn’t take our eyes off him. Pretty soon, he started screaming his little head off, just like the strong little boy he had been on the monitor throughout the whole labor. In fact, he even kicked when he was coming out! He had been somewhat quiet during a lot of the labor, but he woke up as he was going through the birth canal and kicked several times even as his head was crowning. It was so funny and so cool to feel him still moving inside me even as he was coming out.

After that, things started happening. Dr. S delivered the placenta without me even having to push it out. She showed it to us and said it looked very healthy. It was huge! Then the cord stopped pulsing and Sacha clamped and cut it. I couldn’t see that part, but was so happy she got to do that. After Mateo spent awhile on my chest, they took him to weigh him and there was a bit of commotion when they found he weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces! He was a big boy – bigger than anyone expected. We were already in love with him from the almost 10 months he spent inside me and we just loved him all the more now that he was out. They cleaned him off and wrapped him up and we had our baby!

Sacha:

He is the most beautiful baby in the world and I am just so proud of Alayna for giving birth to him and couldn't be happier.

Welcome to the world Mateo - born 5:27pm on Halloween, October 31, 2006 weighing 8lbs and 8 oz.

Bienvenido mi nino Mateo.