My Birth Story

I have been meaning to write about the day I gave birth because I wanted to make sure that I remembered everything years from now, and hopefully share the story (without the gruesome details) to Matteo in the future. It's true that no matter how much you plan for the arrival of your baby, you should always be prepared for the unexpected. 

My due date was supposed to be July 13th, but I hoped to give birth earlier. I was getting impatient, and it was getting harder and harder to sleep with a huge tummy. I would wake up in the wee hours to pee and it would take hours before I can finally manage to sleep again. It was a good thing that I decided to go on vacation leave two weeks before my due date so I can get some rest and prepare for the baby's arrival, because the baby came earlier than I had anticipated. 

I got up around midnight to pee and just when I was going back to bed, I felt something wet. I wasn't sure if it was my water breaking because I expected the water to be a lot, so I chalked it up as something normal. However, I had this nagging feeling that I should at least ask my doctor, so I sent her a text message at around 5 am to ask, and went back to sleep. When I woke up two hours later, I saw that she asked me to go to the hospital immediately. I arrived at St. Luke's BGC at around 10, expecting it to be a regular check-up, but I was admitted by 10:30. I could not believe that I was in labor, but it was a good thing that I had everything packed just in case. 

I was supposed to be in a shared room because I availed of the NSD package, but apparently, a lot of women were giving birth that day so they placed me in the high risk labor room which was private. A resident checked to see if I was in labor (boy, was the IE painful!) and saw that my water was already leaking. They hooked me up to an IV and a machine that monitors my contractions and the baby's heartbeat. Except for the hourly IEs, it was relatively pain free. I couldn't feel the contractions even when they tried to induce labor and I was having strong contractions per the nurses. After waiting alone and being really hungry for hours, I was told that they needed to undergo a C-section. Since my water has been leaking for close to a day, the baby could have an infection already. They prepped me at around 9:00 PM. 

One of the photos taken inside the delivery room

Everything was such a blur after that. I remember the local anaesthetic being administered, felt the prick of the needle followed by a creeping pain which subsided quickly, then a few pinpricks of the spinal block before losing feeling at the lower half of my body. The doctors didn't tell me that I was already being cut open. The next thing I knew, my OB was instructing someone to call my husband because the baby was coming out. I heard Matteo's cry, then the doctor asked my husband if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord. Jay didn't want to, so I had to command him to do it, haha. After all, it was a once in a lifetime thing. Afterwards, they cleaned up Matteo and placed him on my chest. I was groggy at this point and I thought I would become emotional, but surprisingly, I wasn't.

One of my favorite photos - Matteo looks
so peaceful!

Jay brought Matteo outside to show him to my mom, and then when they were done with my stitches (which I expected to look gruesome but actually looks okay) I was wheeled to the recovery room where I spent a few hours to wait for the feeling in my legs to come back. Matteo's bassinet was beside my bed at all times. At around 5:00 AM, they transferred me to a private room on the 8th floor, which was pretty nice and wouldn't look like a hospital room if it weren't for the hospital bed. We stayed for a total of five days because Matteo stayed in the IMCU for monitoring. His lab results showed that he could have an infection so a blood culture had to be done, and he was started on antibiotics as a precaution. It was difficult breastfeeding him, especially since I had to go down every two hours or so to the 3rd floor, but we were able to manage in spite of the lack of sleep. Thankfully, the blood culture showed that he was negative for infection and his jaundice didn't warrant phototherapy, so were given the all clear to go home on July 10th.

Matteo with Dad and Grandma

Inside the IMCU

First family photo

First doctor's appointment

Now, 10 weeks later, I am proud to report that my baby boy is as healthy as can be. I even think we're almost ready to sleep through the night as he's been sleeping for 5 hours straight on some nights now (fingers crossed!). Two more weeks and we'll be at the 3-month mark!