My Christmas miracle! (December 2012 Recap)

Happy New Year! (It's still January, so it still counts, right?)

A number of things happened this past December but right now I just want to talk about the most important one: Our baby Robert Louis was born.

On the 23rd, my sister and nephew came from Mexico to spend the holidays with us, and as we went to pick her up from the airport, I posted on my facebook page "On our way to the airport to pick up my sis and nephew!! BTW, no baby  yet, due date is tomorrow but doesn't look like is going to happen soon..."

Doesn't look like is going to happen soon?




The very next morning I woke up with a bad terrible stomach ache. We had planned to treat my relatives by taking them to lunch to Fogo de Chao, one of our favorite restaurants in DC. I love the food there, but I hardly ate. I was feeling so miserable, that on our way home we decided to stop at the hospital to get checked out. On the way there, my sister asked me to describe the pain, and I said: "Well, is like a strong stomach ache, it's painful all the time, but it intensifies like every 5 minutes" As I heard myself saying "intensifies every 5 minutes" it hit me: I was going to have a baby!

I got to the hospital and indeed I was having contractions, but there was something I wasn't expecting at all: Baby wasn't doing well. Every time I had a contraction, baby's heart rate would slow down significantly. They were planning on doing an ultrasound and wait to see how things developed, but things started to get worst so the doctor had to make a call: Get the baby out sooner rather than later. They induced me, but just with barely any medicine, because they weren't sure how the baby would react to that.

Well, baby continued to have heart rate issues, and I not only was experiencing the worst pain I ever had (last pregnancy wasn't anywhere near as painful), my oxygen was also low and therefore baby's was as well. Oh, and I even threw up big time at some point. The midwife that would deliver the baby arrived, and as she was being informed of the whole situation, she said she would try her best to avoid C-section, but we had to keep in mind that the most important thing was to deliver baby alive and well.

I had to have an oxygen mask for the remaining hours of labor. Every time the heart rate would go down significantly, the nurses would come to tell me to move to a different position to get baby's heart back to normal. I would stay like that for like 20-30 minutes, and then his heart rate would slow down enough to get the nurses back in the room and ask me to switch position again. When the midwife broke my water, we discovered there was very little amniotic fluid. She figured that had to be one of the reasons why baby wasn't doing well and why the pain I was feeling was so strong. Eventually pain got even worst and so I asked for the epidural.

I called my mom and explained the situation and she offered some prayers. So did my grandmother, who went to Christmas eve mass and asked the community to pray for all women that were about to give birth. As we were approaching midnight, things miraculously began to get better. Baby had dropped significantly, I was dilated, and most importantly his heart rate was responding well to the oxygen mask I had and the constant change of positions.

Some time after 2:00am, the midwife came to check on us, and she said baby was ready to be born and that 2 pushes would get him out. She wasn't kidding -I pushed literally 3 times and baby was born. He had the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around his neck, twice, and it took him a few seconds to show any indication of being alive. But he was alive! And once he was umbilical cord-free and was placed on my belly, he began to breath, heart rate went back to normal, and he was perfectly well enjoying mommy's arms. My boy was born on Christmas!

The midwife said that the combination of the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around his neck, and the very little amniotic fluid and our low oxygen could have been fatal had I stayed home much longer. In the end, everything turned out so great that I even escaped the C-Section. The midwife did an amazing job. She said I should call Robbie my "Christmas miracle". He is indeed, a miracle and blessing.