mommy's delivery story.

here's my delivery story. i'll try and spare you the graphic details but i can't promise that this entry won't be wordy. :)

owen kim was born at 11:10pm on 2/23/10 @ st luke's roosevelt hospital
measuring 20in
weighing 7 lbs. 3 oz.

@ 37 weeks and 6 days-- the first sign came at 6:30am or so with a bout of cramping which was a bit more intense than the braxton hicks contractions i was getting used to having for several months leading up to the big day. i told my husband that something felt a bit different today and that it felt like today could quite possibly be the day. he wondered if he should stay home and i could already sense his nerves tense up but i knew early labor contractions could go on for days, so i sent james off to work. he left the apartment with lots of hesitation. only after a few hours around 11:30am or so, i had to ask him to head back home. while waiting for him to get back home, i finished off some last minute work stuff that didnt require heavy lifting, took a few last work related phone calls and had to stop talking a few times in the middle of my conversations bc of minor contractions... i called my dearest jorge at work to let him know it was likely that my maternity leave would start today. i will admit, it was quite emotional for me. as i was putting together the finishing touches to my hospital bag, the contractions slowly grew more intense to the point where after each contraction, it became harder to focus on what i was doing before the contraction. i also called my sister shoe at the first signs and she was already on her way over with a bag full of goodies (food & drinks) for me. my mom was overseas to help my grandfather with some business matters for two weeks so sadly for us both, the baby didn't want to wait for grandma's return back to the states.

the doula we hired arrived at our apartment shortly after my sister arrived... then james came. by the time james arrived back home, my contractions were already about 4 minutes apart and things were getting quite blurry from then on. i dont have many visual memories of what was going on that day because my eyes were closed for most of my contractions... but i do remember hearing everything.

our goal was to deliver in st. luke's birthing center which has its own set of prerequisites and rules in terms of admittance into the center. you basically have to have a pristine health record and had to have little to no complications during your pregnancy. there's also a class you are required to take which teaches you all of these things in advance. they also tell you that you should not arrive before your contractions are 3 minutes apart and 1 minute long for 1 hour. typically, doctors will tell you to come at around 5 minutes apart for the regular labor & delivery room. so we were really set on not arriving there too early because we wanted to make sure we were being monitored at the right time and that i was far enough advanced in the labor that we could be admitted to the birthing center.

once we decided it was time to get the heck out of the apartment, i really started to close my eyes. the drive over to the hospital was agony since the contractions were getting really intense and the bumps in the road and terrible congestion didn't help matters. when we finally arrived at triage, i had to be on my back on a bed and had to be monitored for 20 minutes and be checked out before being allowed in the birthing center (i really, really did not like this because i felt much better laboring standing up on my feet without being constricted to machines). not to mention, the triage nurses were probably the least pleasant people to deal with in the world. at last, after an hour and a half in triage, i was finally admitted into the birthing center. while in triage, my body must have really been pissed off.. because i literally progressed one cm while in triage. most other parts of my laboring progressed relatively quickly.

i labored in the tub for an hour or so and then had to get out of the tub to labor some more on some laboring bar thing to help the baby descend... and then i was back in the tub. at around 7cm, my water broke. i stayed in the water and labored there til around 9cm then moved to the bed when it came time to push. the nurses would occasionally come in with a handheld monitor to check for owen's heartbeat and that was so annoying. they asked me to hold up my belly above the water and stay still for a whole minute while they did this. holding my belly up above the water thru my contractions for that long was soooooooo beyond ridiculous. it became obvious to me that the nurse who asked me to perform such a feat had never labored before. holy freakin hell, the pain was mind-numbing. i think it would've been more bearable if the contractions were spaced apart. starting from the latter half of my time in triage, the contractions were back to back, and i sometimes felt three or four contractions without a break in between. drives you insane and definitely makes you second guess your ability to get thru the next set of contractions. at 9cm, i told my husband and my doula that i'd had enough... get me into L&D and give me some freakin drugs, i demanded. the doula suggested i get checked out on my progress before moving to the labor and delivery floor. as soon as the dr said "9cm" at the check point, i felt a second wind hit me and i was good to go again... little did i know that it gets no easier after 9cms!!

when it came time to push, i'd grunted away all gracefulness. at that point, all i cared about was getting the baby out. thanks to the coaching of my wonderful husband and doula and dr/nurses/midwives in the room, i pushed and pushed and pushed for an hour and a half and finally, my doctor told me to reach down and touch owen's head. i felt LOTS of hair on his head-- i guess the old wives tale was accurate in my case-- god as my witness, owen gave me heartburn every day for four months straight). two pushes later, we got to meet (and hear) owen for the very first time!

i'll always remember holding him for the first time because the rush of joy that overwhelmed me at that moment was like nothing i've ever felt before. everything changed in that split second and the only thing that really mattered to me at that point was owen. the experience is something i wish for every woman out there. it was the most magical moment ever!!

it's been three weeks and two days since owen's birth and i feel great! they say it takes a woman's body about 6 weeks to fully recover from a vaginal birth (8 weeks for a cesarean) but i feel pretty much back to normal today. right after delivering owen though, i'd done some damage to my throat. i couldn't eat or drink or talk without feeling like i'd swallowed a bunch of wood chips- credit for this goes out to the last hour and a half of pushing... :( this went on for a few days and i could finally eat and drink normally after about a week.

we were discharged from the birthing center around 6:30 the evening after we were admitted into the hospital. the early discharge was part of the commitment you had to make for the birthing center and at first we welcomed the proposition... but after being discharged, we realized we had to get owen tested for various things that are typically checked at the hospital.. this means 2-3 visits to the pediatrician after being released! another nuisance was in regards to the hearing test- owen's hearing was tested about 7 hours after he was born and at that point, they advised us that he probably had a lot of fluid in his system that would cause him to fail the hearing test but that it was very common and nothing to be alarmed about....psh...... we had to wait another two weeks to get scheduled for a follow up test so you can imagine the anxiety that would build up in parents when they're told their newborn just failed a hearing test. sure enough, at his two week re-test, owen passed the hearing test with flying colors (thank gawd)!

i genuinely enjoyed my birthing experience from beginning to end. there were a few things that happened here and there that got on my nerves but overall, i was able to get thru it without being constrained to machines (for too long) and without any intervention, just as we had hoped... so i was happy. i think first and foremost, it was god's grace of keeping owen safe and sound and "normal" throughout the labor that made it possible to get us into the birthing center... and of course without my support team (my husband james and the doula... plus my sister shoe and my mother in law who were both anxiously waiting listening to my yelps and groans for hours and hours in the birthing center family room) i probably wouldn't have made it very far. and i have to remember my sister in law, jen for passing on two books on natural birthing (your best birth by ricki lake & abby epstein and also ina may's guide to child birth). i would've never even considered going the natural route had it not been for her getting the dialogue going in my head.

now we have a whole human being to look after for the rest of our lives! the reality of it brings me so much joy yet sometimes i'm scared to death because i really have no clue what i'm doing! i suppose the best way to go about it is to trust my own intuition and to show him as much love as i possibly can.