Here's the story!

The "story." Let me just say: WOW! From the outset I need to say that NOTHING accomplished yesterday could have been done without the "hands on" support of my awesome husband, Lori B., Mishka, Jennifer, Christina, Ruth and even my six year old niece, Livia. All of them played a part in getting me through one of the biggest challenges I have ever had to face: the birth of Eva Isabel.

The Summary:
6:30 a.m- arrive at the hospital. Still 5-6 cm's dialated but with no contractions
7:30- Dr. R breaks my water. Hoping this will "throw" me into labor. Lori had me doing squats, knee raises as I walked from Point A to Point B (aka Mishka, Jen, Christina) and hanging out on the birthing ball. All in an attempt to get things going. But with no such luck.
11:00- They start the Pitocin drip. 2 units every 15 minutes, with the hope of staying put on a certain "level" once the contractions are consistently 2-3 minutes apart.  And that's what happens.  By the end of this hour they are coming consistently and are very painful, but with everyone's help I am getting through them one at a time. 

12:00-The nurse checks me because I have pressure and an "urge" to push.  However, I am told that I am still at 6 cm's.  But I have effaced to 90%.  I am highly discouraged but everyone convinces me that it's still progress and so we get back to work.

12:00-1:00- My contractions get unreal.  They are coming so hard and long that I am not having time to recover.  In this hour I move from 6 cm to 10 cm.  And it was very difficult.  Very painful.  With every contraction I am having the mental war of "what kind of idiot am I to think this was even a good idea?" and then as soon as the contraction was over, thinking, "alright Rachel you just got through another one.. you ARE doing it!."  By the end of this hour I was not hanging on very well emotionally and was getting irritated by not being able to be "comforted" during the contractions.  What worked one second was absolutely painful the next second.  But this was a good sign.. I was complete.  

1:00- I start hollering that I need to push.  They put me in the bed and check and sure enough I'm complete.  Time to push this girl out.  I start pushing at or around 1:10.  

1:30- Eva is born.  

Okay.. now what happened between 1:10 and 1:30 was THE MOST DIFFICULT THING I HAVE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE.  Why?  Well we knew my little angel was posterior (sunny side up).  That is why I had terrible back pain during my labor.  However what we did not know, until Eva started to "crown," was that Eva was coming down as a "face presentation."  Where most babies, even posterior ones, crown with the top of their head.. my little girl was crowning with her face.  Literally the first thing we saw was her nose and forehead.  If you just took a deep breath in then you understand what I am getting at.  Her head was arched back and was hitting the brick wall that was my perenium and was not able to lift up to get to the vaginal opening.  So I was obviously in a lot of pain as I kept trying to push her out but she wasn't going to come that way.  Then my doctor suggested a quick cut would have her out on the next push.  I obliged. And sure enough it worked and with two more pushes she was out.  Although I did this delivery unmedicated it was NOT quiet.  I was the proverbial woman yelling and screaming "get her OUT" and others in the building were thinking, "get that lady some help."  Even one of the nurses had to walk over to my bedside and say, "Rachel you are going to have to stop yelling.. you aren't breathing and pushing her out. You have to get back in control."  Eventually I did (how I have no clue) and pushed her out.  

Post delivery I found out that "face presentation" babies are very, very, very uncommon.  And normally when they do happen the labor ends in C-section.  Wow!  Unreal.  I still can not believe I delivered her with Pitocin and as the way she was coming out.  I have another post I want to do dedicated to all my helpers that were present during the labor but, first, here are some pictures to go with the summary I just gave you. 


Just getting started.  Water has not been broken yet.  Happy smiley faces.   Daddy in his pink shirt ready for his pink girl. 

Water has been broken.  Random contractions and not very painful.  Of course Im on the phone. 

Trying to do different things to hopefully turn that girl face down.  And wow does my bottom look HUGE!

One of the times that I was "hooked up" for baby monitoring.  Sweet husband massaging my feet and legs. 
this was during the 11:00-12:00 hour when the pain level was a 7-8 on scale.  I still had some relief between contractions.  

Dr. R talking to me about keeping the pitocin at the current level because he likes the pattern he sees with the frequency in contractions.  But it was during this conversation that I also started transition and the contractions were getting "worse" in pain level. 

Sooo.. then it became all hands on deck.. literally.  Massaging, rubbing, encouraging, praying.. this was the time when the pain level was 8-9 on a scale.  It was also apparent that the side lying position was not cutting it anymore. 

So we moved to the birthing ball while hanging over the bed.  Still needed all the support to get through EVERY SINGLE CONTRACTION!  Notice big Jorge providing counter pressure on my back because the pain there was unreal (because of Eva's posterior position).  However, I wasn't on that ball long when I started yelling "I need to push! I need to PUSH!"

Soo... in the bed I go. And it's time to push.  My face says it all.  it took me a few good contractions to be able to focus through the pain and feel how I was supposed to work with the contractions, breathe and push. 

Jorge reminding me that we are almost there.. just about to hold that sweet girl. 

Perfect picture to describe what I was feeling.  But with these last two pushes we got our baby girl!

Sweet Eva Isabel!

Worth every pain!

I am so glad to have experienced what I did. . but its another post entirely, for me to go into all the things I learned (pro's and con's) of a natural vs. medicated birth.  

Our little girl is doing great and we are expected to head home tomorrow sometime around noon.  Thanks for all your encouragement and I still have another post I want to do in honor of my awesome support team I had with me!