Luke’s VBA3C Story
January 28th, the night before Luke’s guess date. I felt in my heart that labor was coming but I had no clue it’d start out this way… I took a relaxing hot bath about 9:30pm as I knew I should relish in the days of having the luxury of a long hot bath without hearing phantom crying while the baby is sleeping in the bed t room, if you know then you know lol as I took a bath, I listened to my Hypnobabies tracks, about 10pm I got out and immediately felt some surges (hypnobabies talk for contractions) I started getting them constantly so I started timing them, they weren’t consistent though so about 11ish I laid down to try and sleep as I thought this “might be it!” I told Javi to be prepared for anything and he was more than ready. I struggled to sleep, I got surges anywhere from every 2 minutes to 1-2 per hour. I listened to my hypnobabies tracks all night long which I feel helped me get through the discomfort immensely. I had texted my doula Cristina about midnight to let her know just in case I needed her help to get through them, she texted me back immediately which was a relief since it feels so lonely when you’re in that much discomfort when everyone else in the house is sound asleep. But, I woke up in the morning and was surprised that I was able to sleep for about a 3-hour chunk. I was kind of disappointed because the surges had fizzled out and I had just read about something called prodromal labor and was wondering if that’s what I could be experiencing because they were definitely not Braxton Hicks, they were the real deal. I texted Cristina telling her they fizzled during the wee hours of the morning but we’re back sporadically, she was so encouraging and helped me feel confident that my body was doing what it was supposed to. Throughout the day we tried to rest and enjoy each other’s company as we figured our lives would change dramatically very soon! My in-laws brought food over, I sat on my yoga ball A LOT while swaying my hips back and forth, and in the evening we took a very long walk to the park with the kids to get our minds off of labor. It felt so nice to just follow the flow of the day.
January 29th (Saturday), Luke’s guess date! After coming from the park we decided on getting yogurt mill, it was a day of gluttony and the kids loved every moment lol
10pm I decided on another bath to see if it helped ease the discomfort of my surges which I had been having on and off all day, I again listened to my birthing tracks from my hypnobabies practice which helped me relax and go with the flow as much as possible. I went to sleep around 11pm but had another exhausting night of irregular surges. Joline (my oldest) offered to stay up with me through the discomfort but I told her no it was okay, so she asked me to wake her when I wanted company, I thought that was so sweet but the discomfort was manageable solo.
I kept in constant contact with my doula, Cristina, she kept giving me words of encouragement and offered to come over whenever I felt I needed her, she’s the best! I had a Doctors appointment Monday so I looked forward to that to request a membrane sweep as my labor didn’t seem like it was progressing and I was feeling exhausted. If you aren’t familiar, a membrane sweep is when the Dr. Inserts their finger into your cervix to loosen the amniotic sac from the uterus. Sometimes this helps labor progress, sometimes it doesn’t. I had also contemplated taking a “midwives brew” or as Javi called it… The witches brew 🧙♀️ this has about an 80% chance of kickstarting labor but I wanted as little intervention as possible if I could help it so this would be my last-ditch effort if the membrane sweep didn’t work. Sunday throughout the day and night was filled with my inconsistent surges and Javi helped me through them with counter pressure and lots of squeezing of my hips which was a godsend! I was so thankful Cristina had taught Javi how to do those 🙏🏽
Now we’re getting to the exciting part of our labor journey. Monday morning rolled around, rather slowly I might add but maybe it just felt slow because by this point I had been in prodromal labor for 60 hours! We got the kids off to school and then Javi and I headed to Kaiser for my appointment. Before this appointment, I had been dilated to 1cm.
Monday 9 am, I was excited and anxious to get to the Dr. They took us back quick & did the usual to me; blood pressure, temperature, and weight 🙄 lol then the fun part, a Nurse Practitioner came in and checked me: 2cm and 50% effaced, at first I thought ‘that’s it?!!’ All that discomfort for 1 cm but I reassured myself that my body knew what it was doing. I requested the membrane sweep which was insanely uncomfortable, it felt like an excessively rough vaginal exam but was quickly over. In hindsight, I wish I would’ve let my body birth my baby when it was ready and forego this intervention but we live and we learn.
That’s when things really picked up… I could barely walk without feeling discomfort or a surge. It took us 15 minutes when it should’ve taken less than 5 to get to the car because we had to keep stopping and Javi had to squeeze my hips, I’m sure we were a sight to see 😄 once we got home (10:45 am) I ate and got my finishing touches ready in my hospital bag as I knew Luke would come soon! 1 pm my surges were more consistent and more intense. (The plan was to labor at home until as late into my labor as possible because no Dr. I had seen during my pregnancy supported me having a vaginal birth after 3 c-sections. I highly anticipated having to fight for my right to birth my baby the way I wanted to.)
1:30ish I texted my doula and requested her company as I was feeling like I needed counterpressure during each surge now. I was losing track of time and trying to listen to my hypnobirthing tracks as much as possible to stay in the zone. Between this time and about 5 pm my mom, sister, brother, and brother-in-law popped by. I was grateful to see them all, my brother and Camille (middle daughter) even helped do some hip squeezing on me which was so appreciated and sweet. We also talked and laughed between surges, changed positions consistently and I was reminded to empty my bladder often to make room for the baby. I’ve heard the toilet called the “dilation station” and I think this rang true for me because all of a sudden I hit transition while sitting there and felt paralyzed with back-to-back surges. Then the shakes started, I thought I was just cold and tried to shake it off but Cristina told me to just let it happen so I surrendered to what my body was doing… side note: Camille (middle daughter) & Mateo (my nephew) colored my birth affirmations that we hung up on my bedroom wall, it was so helpful to look around and feel so supported mentally, physically and emotionally 🥰
Monday about 5 pm. As I’m surrendering to what my body is doing the topic somehow came up that we should probably head to the hospital, I agreed and Javi grabbed our bags and Cristina grabbed hers and followed us to the hospital. I said bye to all my beautiful family that was at my house, Camille had a hard time saying goodbye because she wanted me to stay so she could help me through it! That pulled at my heart strings but we left after lots of hugs and kisses. We grabbed a towel for the car (just in case) I reminded Javi not to speed and that I was okay laboring in the car. We got there in 10-15 minutes. When we arrived we had a slight hiccup with Javi having to get a Covid test before going upstairs so Cristina went with me and it probably took us about 10 minutes, maybe longer to walk the LONG hallway to labor & delivery because I was having surges pretty close together and had to keep stopping. Once inside they had me change and go into a room to be checked, the first Dr said I was 10cm and I was ecstatic! They couldn’t believe how well I was managing the surges and being 10cm so that was reassuring that my hypnobirthing was working even though I forgot my headphones to listen to my tracks 😅
At this point, they asked questions about previous births and when I told them 3 c-sections I anticipated a fight…. Nope! They said well, you’ve made it this far, let’s have this baby! I was so overcome with emotion to hear that since I had no support from not 1 Dr. during my pregnancy 😭 a 2nd Dr came in to check me and said I was 8 cm with a bulging water bag, I admit I got a little discouraged but he offered to break it when I got admitted and I agreed, I was so ready to meet Luke! I had absolutely no concept of time, I was focused on one surge at a time. Cristina and my nurse (Britta) were amazing at making sure I changed positions often. Before shift change, they came in to break my water and after that, it was game time! The surges were way more intense and closer together. At some point I felt like I had to poop and wanted to be checked, nurse checked and said I was complete. After this, I couldn’t get comfortable in any position…
So I realized after the fact that I couldn’t get comfortable because I was not in a position that was optimal for myself to be pushing in so I was going against the urge to push. I didn’t want to push on my back because it didn’t feel right, I wanted to be in a squatting position but they didn’t have a squat bar so they raised the bed as much as they could to try and accommodate me as much as possible without me getting out of bed which was annoying but at this point I wasn’t capable of advocating for myself. The staff pulled out these middle handlebars on the side of the bed so I could use them for leverage.
I told the nurse I wanted to start pushing because when I did that was the only relief I was feeling, no counterpressure was helping at that point and I felt like I was climbing the walls and losing my focus on staying calm. But the Dr made a comment saying I should teach the lady in the next room how to stay calm so I assumed I was still doing well-keeping composure even though it didn’t feel like it.
Pretty soon after I started pushing a whole team of people came into the room, all staring at my vagina haha (no pressure) but if you’ve been at that point, you know you could care less who’s looking even if you’re the most modest person 😄
While pushing they told me to push or pull the handles? 🤔 I still don’t remember, I kept asking them… I felt like I wasn’t pushing right so to reassure me, they told me his head was right there so I reached down and sure enough, there it was! Next, they brought a mirror so I could see because I still didn’t believe it. Well once I had that mirror in front of me, it was on. Even though pushing felt like forever, I was told I only pushed like 5 times and he flew out all in one push!
I cried so hard and was verbally thanking god/ Jesus for allowing me the strength to do this and if you know Javi then you know that he had to throw a comment in there. He says, “I’m not Jesus, my name is Javier” I was like this fool! Lol but he always makes the mood light 😆
I did get a 2nd-degree tear but I think it’s because I pushed so hard and he came so fast but I healed so fast from it, it’s nothing like healing from a c-section. I was on cloud 9 while they stitched me up and still am honestly. Shortly after I birthed Luke I had to birth the placenta which felt weird but slipped right out What a relief, I did it!
After Luke’s birth, I felt like I could conquer the world! So here I am, now a doula and ready to help empower people to go after the birth of their dreams whether that be a belly birth or vaginal birth. Either way, you are a frikin rockstar, it takes a lot of effort to grow and birth a human and then have to care for them while you’re still healing physically and emotionally! I’m over here cheering you on!
