Mila's Birth Story

On Wednesday, September 26th at 5:32am our little love, Mila Marie Rodriguez, was born.  This is her story.

I worked on Tuesday, September 25th, as planned but I was slow moving that day. I hadn't slept well the night before, had a backache and my pubic bone was around an 8 on a pain scale of 1-10. I texted my mom that morning and asked her and my dad not to dilly dally on the drive out from Kansas because I was feeling a little weird and didn't know how much longer I could hold out.  She and my dad ended up leaving at 3pm, a half a day early, to begin the drive out; little did we know that Mila would arrive even earlier than expected.

When I got home from work at 4pm I was having pretty serious back pains but no pain in my abdomen; it was for this reason that I didn't think they were contractions.  I was probably at a 5 on a pain scale of 1-10 but only for about 30 seconds or so when they pain was there and then it would subside. Because the pain seemed rhythmical I decided to track them and, sure enough, the pains were happening every 6-7 minutes and lasting for 30 seconds each time.  At this point I didn't think I was even in labor or having contractions since the pain was only in my back.  Robert and I were supposed to go to dinner and a movie that night but Robert said we should probably stay home (I was still ready to go!).  We ended up going and picking up dinner together and bringing it home to eat.

By this time the pains were a little stronger but still not unbearable.  Robert was tracking a diagram that I put on the fridge that helped you determine if you were in labor or not (i.e., if you have this sign but not this, or two of the above, etc.) and at 9pm said I should call the doctor because I was having a lot of the signs. I finally gave in and called the doctor and she said to give it another hour or two and then head to the hospital and they would check me.  I was sure that it was false labor and they would send me home but Robert called his parents to let him know and they left Palmdale for the drive down.

Once we got to the hospital (at 10pm) they checked me and I was dilated to a 3 (out of 10); I asked if that meant that they were going to keep me. The nurse said, "yep, you're staying and we're going to have a baby tonight."  She said that my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and that they want them to me 2-3 minutes apart so she was going to have me walk around for an hour.  I did and towards the end of the hour I started "leaking;" apparently my water was slowly breaking. The nurse, Anna, put me in the labor and delivery room and checked and said that my water had broken but my contractions were still 3-4 minutes apart so they were going to jump start the contractions with pitocin (since my water had broke they needed to speed up the contractions to stop any infection that might occur).  She said if I was planning on getting an epidural I should probably do it now because the pitocin can be pretty painful.

The anesthesiologist came in and started administering the epidural.  For me, this was the most painful part of the whole labor process, however, almost instantaneously all the pain was gone; I never felt another contraction or even the pushing during labor. At this time Anna said that my water breaking had actually sped up my contractions so I was now having them every 2-3 minutes and I was dilated to a 6; I think this was around 1am or so.  Anna suggested that I try and get some sleep because I would need it come time to push.  For the next couple hours Robert and I dozed in and out but it was hard to sleep with all the nurses coming in every so often to check me.  By 2:45am I was dilated to a 8.5-9 and by 4:45am I was at a 10.  Anna said she called my doctor, who was on her way in, and I needed to start pushing so the baby was crowned by the time the doctor got there.  I started pushing at 5am and was fully crowned by about 5:25am or so; the doctor arrived and just a few minutes later Mila was born. (to view the video you will have to go to the blog's website, www.rodriguezfamilyupdate.blogspot.com)

Immediately after birth

 

7lbs, 7 oz; 19 inches long

with Grandma Rodriguez

with Grandpa Rodriguez

It was such a whirlwind seeing her for the first time and hearing Robert say how proud of me he was.  Mila was put directly on my abdomen and we cuddled for a little bit before Robert had the chance to hold her.  Then they cleaned her up, weighed and measured her.  She was a healthy 7 lbs, 7 oz and was 19 inches long. We stayed in the labor and delivery room for an hour or so and then we were moved to recovery. Luckily we had a semi private room and no roommate so Robert was able to stay with me the entire time; which was good because I needed the help half the time and I would've been bored out of my mind the other half.  Mila received her Hep B shot, was screened for PKU, had a hearing test (she passed) and had her billirubin count (it was elevated the first day and then returned to normal).

We were cleared as healthy by our doctors and discharged from the hospital about 30 hours after birth as per our request.  We were ready to get our new little family home.

Time to go home



Not very happy with the car seat...

Finally home <3