Abby, Zoë and Enzo

I started having crampy feelings Tuesday night as Chris and I were going to bed.  During the night I woke a handful of times with pains, but thought maybe it was due to a very full bladder or gas.  Needless to say I wasn't able to sleep really well and by 2:00 a.m. I was up and debating if I was having real contractions or not.  Chris came to check on me and at first I tried not to let him in on the fact that I thought I may be having contractions so that he could go back to sleep but after a while he came out again and I was in more pain.  At 2:45 I started timing the contractions as they'd become pretty regular and they were every 3 to 5 minutes and lasted for a minute or minute and a half.  After the last one I wrote down at 3:05 a.m. I went down to see if someone at the doorman station could call Dr. Eduarrdo's cell phone, but when I got down there no one was there.  I came back up and reluctantly called Richard and Irene's house, feeling so bad about waking them up.  Irene called the Dr. and he called me and told me to go to CLIM and that they would call him when I got there.  I called Irene back and she offered to take me and I'm so glad that she was able and willing.  

At 4:00 a.m. we arrived at CLIM and they began taking down my information at the front desk.  My contractions were really close and really painful and I had Irene mention the cerclage a couple of times, as I was concerned with it tearing.  Finally they took me to an exam room at 4:30 and the Dr. that was on checked me, told me that Enzo was forcing his way out and that he'd be taking out the cerclage.  Taking it out was fairly quick, and besides the contractions I was having during, not too painful.  The Dr. checked me immediately after taking out the cerclage, and said I was 3-4 cm and they were calling Dr. Eduarrdo.  The woman from the front desk was so concerned about payment and was even going to have Irene go back to the apartment to get the money from Chris, but I asked for her to stay for a bit.  At 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday I got to the infirmary that would be my room.  I didn't mind having a room with one other person and it turned out that I never did have to share with anyone anyway.  It's a good thing there wasn't anyone else in the room, because no one seemed to care about privacy.  In the exam room they just had me pull my bottoms down and when I was done they simply put one folded up sheet in between my legs and one over my legs.  Once in the room I was just standing around with this get up for a while until they brought this velcro apron of sorts and the blanket between my legs.  I was standing, as  I declined getting into the bed for a good long while, and blood started dripping down my leg and onto my foot and the floor.  When I called this to someone's attention, they just said it was normal, that I was just dilating more and then left, didn't wipe up the floor or offer to wipe me. When Dr. Eduarrdo arrived shortly after I got into the room, he said that he wasn't going to check me anyway since the other Dr. just had, that he lived close and would be back in a couple of hours.  At 7:00 a.m. Dr. Eduarrdo came back and I had to get in the bed to be checked, he said I was 4cm. and that he'd be back in two hours.  I couldn't believe that I had been having such painful contractions for two hours and hadn't changed much so I asked him when I'd get an epidural if I were to ask for one.  He told me we'd talk about it when we came back.  The contractions were so painful now, I asked for a bucket as I felt like I might be sick with every one.  Then came the big one, while I was on the phone with Chris.  I had a super bad contraction, my water broke with a huge gush and then I proceeded to get sick, but just a little.  I hung up quite abruptly with Chris and asked Irene to get someone in and they had some other Dr. come in, who determined that this baby was coming and people began rushing around to move me to the delivery room. This was around 8:00 a.m.  I remember learning from someone that Dr. Eduarrdo might not make it back for me in time.  Raissa showed up just before they moved me to a different bed, had held my hand for one second and then had to wait in the hallway with Irene while I was taken back to the delivery room.  

Ah yes, the delivery room.  I think there's a good chance it doubles as an O.R.  There were big giant lights hovered over one small table/bed in the middle of the room.  They had me get on this table and put my legs into these stirrups that they proceeded to tie me to with gauze strips and then were telling me to hold these skinny little handles during contractions, none of that worked for me.  Dr. Eduarrdo came in and untied me and told me that I could scoot up and use the stirrups for me feet if I wanted, to just be comfortable.  I told him that I was feeling like I was going to be sick, and as I was moving up on the bed, which had the head part up, and having a contraction I got sick a lot all over the floor beside me.  Dr. Eduarrdo assured me that was nothing to be afraid of, it was just from the pain.  Right, that unbearable pain.  He told me that I was now an 8-9 and he predicted that, with how quickly I progressed, that in half an hour I'd have the baby.  Next contraction he told me something about pushing, and I was confused because he had just told me that I first had to get to a 10.  So, next time I began pushing and apparently that progressed things pretty well, and had two like this that I remember resting after.  Next thing the doctor told me was not to give up, I guess these very brief rests were perceived as giving up.  I gave a big push the next time and remember that just as I felt like the contraction was over and I needed a breath, the doctor urged me on and said to keep going, keep going, the baby was right there and even though I didn't think I had anything left I sure didn't want to have to go through another contraction so I just gripped the (newly installed) handles, closed my eyes and pushed as long as Dr. Eduarrdo was telling me to.  There was also and assistant jiggling my stomach and once Enzo's head came out, and Dr. Eduarrdo was still urging on the pushing, I opened my eyes while still pushing and the rest of him shot right out as well.

They put him up on me and the feeling was so weird.  I let go of the handles and brought my shaking arms to this crying baby lying on me.  Enzo's cries subsided into little yelps and I remember pushing the placenta out, which was nothing as I was focused on this little baby.  I was so thankful for the good amount of time that they kept the baby on me before taking him to double check everything was alright and prepare for him to be brought to the nursery.  They told me that the baby would be brought to the nursery and then brought to me in my room.  I had to wait to be brought back to my room until one bottle of saline had finished going through my IV, then they hooked up another and brought me back.  As I was going into the elevator I saw Raissa by the nursery and she came with me to my room, telling me about my baby boy.  She said that he was the only one in the nursery who was moving all around, eyes wide open and alert.  I wouldn't get to see him like this though, as there is a policy of keeping the babies for two hours in the nursery... something about getting them all warmed up or something.  I asked many times about getting him brought to me and what time it would be when they'd bring him to me, and by the time they did bring him he was quite the sleepy boy.  Nursing was not going to happen for a while, however once he did wake up enough to try, he just didn't want to stop and if he did stop, he was right back on again shortly.

Chris, Abby, Zoë arrived and the girls immediately wanted to know where Enzo was.  They hadn't seen him yet so I urged them to go up with Raissa and see him.  I hadn't gotten teary eyed at all after giving birth or anything, but when Chris and the girls came into the room, for some reason then I teared up.  I guess I was happy to finally share in the moment with my family.