Birth Story

Sergio cutting the umbilical cord

Serg putting on his first diaper

Daddy holding his son for the first time <3

Our New Family

Thursday night around 11:45pm contractions started. They continued through the night between 5-10 minutes apart. I didn’t get any sleep and thought for sure that in the morning we’d be going to the hospital. Serg stayed home from work and my Mom and Dad came over. When my parents got here around 10am my contractions stopped. I got them irregularly throughout the day on Friday and was feeling pretty disappointed. At 8:00pm Friday night they started again hard and didn’t stop. By 1:00am they were coming about 6 minutes apart so Mom, Serg and I left for the hospital. I was taken up to labor and delivery and checked by a nurse. After having contractions for over 24 hours I was still only 3 cm (same measurement as my last appointment) but my effacement had increased from 75% to 90%. The nurse said she wanted to me to walk the level to see if they could get me dilated a little more and if I could that they would admit me. After an hour or so of steady contractions and walking I had dilated to 4cm. They decided to admit me and got me set up in my room. At this point, after over 24 hours without sleep and knowing that I had a long day ahead of me, I opted to have an epidural so I could get some sleep. I was terrified of getting the epidural, but it ended up not being bad at all and the relief it brought was amazing! I couldn’t feel the contractions at all, even after they broke my water! Shortly after that my Dad and sister arrived and I just tried to get some rest. By 8:30am the nurse checked me and said that I was already dilated to 8.5 - 9 cm and that they would start getting the room ready. I thought wow, I’ll be having the baby by 10! I didn’t think that my sister-in-law would have time to get there! After waiting 2 or 3 hours without hearing anything from the nurses I was checked again and informed that I had a little lip on my cervix that would prevent an easy delivery and would make me have to push for hours. They put me on pitocin to try to get the lip to shrink. By this time my epidural started to wear off and I began feeling contractions. By 1:00pm I was feeling the contractions even more and the additional medicine they were giving me wasn’t helping. I was completely exhausted with no end in sight, the lip was still there. By 5:00pm I was totally feeling the labor and was told that the lip wasn’t going down but that it was time to start pushing. With Serg, my mom, aunt, sister and sister-in-law by my side I started pushing. I felt my body starting to give up and I really felt like there was no way I’d be able to finish. I was actually falling asleep between contractions and pushing! But at 6:28pm our son, Easton Richard was born. They placed him right on my chest and immediately placed an oxygen mask on him. I never heard the big cry that every mom waits for, it was just more like wimpers. I knew something must be wrong and after Serg cut his cord they took him to the heater and were tapping his chest. I found out later that his heart was beating too fast. They let me hold him and kept him in the room as long as possible before taking him to the NICU. Sergio stayed with him and gave him his first bath. In the meantime I was transferred to the recovery room. At 10pm I finally was able to go to the NICU and see him. They had him hooked up to an IV and a few monitors. Serg said that they had to stick him twice to get the IV and he didn’t make a sound. By 11:30 he was able to come to our room and stayed with us the rest of our stay. He was checked out and was completely healthy, no problems. Apparently some babies just come out with an elevated heart rate. We came home on Monday and things have been great. On his second night home he slept 6 whole hours! He is so alert and such a content, happy baby. We really lucked out. He never cries, even during baths and night changes. We feel so blessed and are so in love. It’s only been a week but I already can’t imagine our lives without him. I just feel like our family is perfect! We couldn’t be happier with the little miracle that God has blessed us with!