Erikobby's World: Welcome Bianca Noel!

Bianca's EDD came and went with no feelings of progress in sight. To celebrate her due date, Bobby and I went out to grab mexican food (spicy food is supposed to help you go into labor). But alas, nothing.

The next morning (11/18) I headed off to my prenatal yoga class, but this morning I felt a bit different. I felt crampy-ish and just...yucky. But I ate some cereal and went on to yoga anyways! After class my instructor came up to me and actually told me that it should be soon because she's never seen me look this uncomfortable. I laughed it off, not thinking anything of it since I was so convinced she was going to be very late, even though I was SUPER uncomfortable and even had a weird cramp near the end of class.

I went home and noticed my MP peaced out and I had show...and I have never been so excited to see blood in my life LOL! (note: this is a sign that labor is coming within like 48 hours). I ran and texted Bobby, to which he replied with "Ahh! Should I come home now?" Silly boy! Then I noticed that my "cramps" were probably contractions! They weren't horrible, but I timed them all day long. They were pretty irregular, between 4-15 mins apart all day long.

When Bobby came home we "nested" some, making sure EVERYTHING was in place in case Bianca decided to grace us with her appearance that night. We ordered in some Thai food and watched Glee and by 9:30 I was really having to breathe through the contractions. They were getting more regular, 5-8 mins apart. Around 10:30 I called my midwife and she said I sounded fine and to wait at home for at least a little bit, but she would let the nurses know that we'd probably be coming in tonight.

At that point we tried to get some sleep. I couldn't, so I let Bobby sleep as LONG as possible. If this was labor, I needed a non-sleepy husband by my side! The pain would get stronger as the night went on and the contractions were no more than 6 mins apart. Bobby woke up around 2:30 and we decided we'd give going to the hospital a try - the nurses were already expecting us and I couldn't sleep anyways.

We got everything ready and were at the hospital by 4am. They put me in a room and my midwife came and checked me and I was already 6-7cm dilated! She was surprised since I sounded "fine" on the phone earlier. They officially admitted me, hooked me up to the contraction and baby's heartbeat monitor, and gave me my IV of antibiotics (which my nurse was AWESOME at doing! She numbed the skin first before sticking the needle in so I literally did not feel a thing). After that went through, they set up the jacuzzi tub for me, SCORE! That was AMAZING to labor in. I stayed in there a good hour and a half to two hours.

I got really hot at that point and I got out of the tub and off to the room at around 7-7:30am. The next midwife on call, Amie, came in and she checked me and now I was 8-9 cm dilated!!! So close...or so we thought. At that point we called my mom to give her an update before work. Then the contractions were getting more and more painful, blah! The nurses were nice though, they told me I was doing very very well with my breathing and with all the pain, which made me feel good. Bobby would rub my back and it felt so good. My favorite tactic to use was sitting on the birthing ball.

Our View

Then the pain was getting crazy and I felt like I couldn't stay in one position for a long period of time, so they suggested going into the shower. That really helped with the pain,but it also seemed to slow my contractions down (which at that point I was welcoming that LOL). I kept switching from the bed to the ball to the shower. I was checked again soon after and I had made NO PROGRESS!!! In fact, she didn't like that my contractions were slowing down since I was sooo close to the magic number of 10 cm. She broke my water for me and then suggested the nasty P word to me.........

pitocin.

Pitocin is used in labor to bring on contractions and help with dilation. Basically, it makes contractions hurt more because it's moving your progress along quicker than your body can. I trusted my midwife and she did have a good point, since I had been in this transition stage of labor technically since 7:30ish. I meekly agreed to the....pitocin. They hooked me up and soon after that the pain was pretty much UNBEARABLE!!!

Yes. I was one of those screaming ladies you see in the movies. Bobby was so good to me though. He'd TRY to get me to relax, but at one point I yelled "I CAN'T RELAX!!! I JUST CAN'T, OK!??" That and another popular thing I yelled was "I CAN'T DO THIS, I CAN'T DO THIS!!!" and "IT HURTS SO BAD...AAHHHH!" So he'd just sit there and hold me hand like a good husband haha. I swear people down the hall could hear my screaming lol! Then the contractions were coming one on top of another, and I still needed to dilate a sliver more. I told Bobby to call the midwife - I wanted to give in and get the epidural. Of course she had JUST went back to the office at that point, so it took a while for her to come (note: the office is literally next door to the hospital). She came in and talked to me and was soo nice about it all. She wasn't sure if anything was going to happen soon, so she went off and ordered the epi for me *gulp*. But luckily before she left, she turned the picocin down, so the pain was a tad bit more bearable. Stupid pitocin...

So we waited. And waited. Suddenly the pain and pressure got really bad. Amie was right outside the door with the epidural guy when I just shouted "I HAVE TO PUSH!!! I THINK I HAVE TO PUSH AHHH!" She came in and checked me and sure enough, she said I was indeed ready to push. Then she sent away the epidural. I was like "no...medicine...hurt...can't I have that??" She assured me that I would be fine and that baby was coming NOW!

They made Bobby hold one of my legs lol. He wanted to be by my head, but they had other plans for him. Amie kept telling me to pull me legs back and I was like "I'm not bendy enough!!!" But apparently I was haha. I think it only took like 3-5 contractions of pushing and Bianca was out! It was less than a half hour of pushing for sure. I was determined, anything to end the pain/pressure haha. The nurses were impressed, they said that isn't normal for a first time mom to do so well. I got to feel her little hairy head before she came out, which was odd. Bobby got to see the birth, which he said wasn't bad! Here is his take:

Bobby: There we were holding up Erika's legs telling her to PUSH!!!!, then all of the sudden we could see little Bianca's head coming out. I didn't think I was going to look, but I couldn't help it. She was out within seconds, and Erika's midwife was pulling her out. SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL! Just like her mommy! She had her umbilical cord all wrapped around her, but the midwife gently untangled her. They then placed her on Erika and waited for the cord to stop pulsing. Once it stopped pulsing, they let me cut it with scissors. It was harder to cut than I thought it would be, but I got it. I'm so proud of our baby girl!

When she came out, the first thing I said was "is it a girl?!?!?!" haha! I've been a bit paranoid that the ultrasound we got at 20 weeks was wrong, which would have sucked considering all the girly stuff we got for this little one. But she reassured me that it was a girl! Baby Bianca is here!!! She came out sucking on the midwife's finger, showing off her awesome sucking abilities. They put her right on top of me and I was just in awe. I couldn't think, breathe, or anything. She held onto my finger and I was in love.

Shocked/amazed that this was OUR baby <3

She got great apgar scores (8 then 9) and the nurse checked her weight and all that jazz. 7lbs 2oz, 20 in. Pretty decent size...don't know HOW she fit in there considering how "small" everyone (including doctors) said I was during my pregnancy. Right after the placenta delivery, I was STARVING! They got me a roast beef sandwich and I was on cloud 9 lol! Their food wasn't that bad...when they got my order right (finally on my last day there haha).

The hospital stay was actually quite pleasant! They moved us into a smaller room so that we wouldn't be doubled up and Bobby could stay with his girls. The nurses were FABULOUS! So nice :) We let Bianca go to the nursery at night considering the fact that I had been awake for almost 48 hours. She came back for feedings, which was nice because I missed her the few hours she was gone.

(Note: Despite how pretty it looks, it snowed for the first time this morning! I guess Bianca brought the snow to NY!)

Two funny stories.

1. When they gave Bianca her first shot, one would think that would make baby cry. Not this girl. It put her to sleep. If only they could all have that effect on her...

2. I was sitting in the chair behind a curtain feeding little miss Bianca when our special meals came in (yummmmm rare steak at last!). Of course the one time I'm feeding her two GUYS come in to deliver it. I just covered myself up with my arms and sat there LOL. They did NOT look at me. Then my nurse comes in and sees this and bursts out laughing. In retrospect, it was pretty funny. At the time, I had no idea what to do...and neither did the food guys lol.

We left the hospital after lunch on Sunday (so I could get an extra free meal, our nurse talked us into it haha). It took us a while, but we found her a little outfit to put her in (I packed like 6 different ones LOL), took a "family picture", and then got ready to leave!

She did NOT like that car seat. She screamed almost the whole way from our room to the car. Once she was in the car, she enjoyed herself pretty well.

We are so excited that Bianca baby is here! She is such a joy! Bobby's parents were here from that Sunday through the Friday after Thanksgiving, which was nice.

Since Bianca wakes up every 1-2 hours to eat, it was nice to hand her off to them at like 6/6:30am so I could get SOME rest. It was also nice to be able to go out with Bobby alone for a little bit, even though we just went to pick up food from places or to Wal-Mart.

She also went to her first doctor's appointment! Daddy couldn't go though. :( But Grandma and Grandpa came with me, although Grandpa almost missed it because he went on a walk (I was paranoid about driving her around alone, haha). She couldn't have the nice doctor from the hospital, but the guy she has now seems nice.