Malia: Labors of Love

It was long awaited, much anticipated and a pretty entertaining labor experience.

I’ve gotta say, I’m so so lucky to have had the “Labor Team” that I had.  After 23 hours of active labor (at least what I call active labor), my team of cheerleaders and experts were very much needed.  I am so, so thankful that I was surrounded by such a great group and that Malia’s first moments were with them.

But back to the labor story….

Day 1 – It all began on Super Bowl Sunday – just as I predicted – I started to experience contractions in the early hours on Sunday morning.  After about 3 hours of contractions, they started to get closer together and at the 4 hour mark, they hit 5 minutes.  So I took a shower, did my hair and then called L&D to inquire if I should come in.  I sounded calm and collected so I could tell the nurse wasn’t keen on me coming in quite yet, until I told her about my hypertension issues.  So off we went to the hospital.

We were admitted and had my contractions monitored.  Of course, after 2 hours we were dismayed to see that I only had 2 contractions.  Looks like our little honu went back into her shell.

Bummer.

But we did get to go home and catch the football game – with contractions 10 minutes apart.
It wasn’t long before the contractions started to hit us full force again though.  By 11:00 that evening, the contractions were getting stronger and much more frequent.

Day 2 –  It was at midnight when I found myself curled up in bed trying to breathe my way through the contractions again.  I gave Mike the chance to catch up on some sleep.  Not wanting to jump the gun again, I waited through each contraction and noted the time intervals on my phone.  By 1AM, the pain was starting to really affect me and they were only 4 minutes apart.  I went from walking the room to posing on all fours to help ease the pain.  I had Mike call L&D to alert them to my pending arrival.

Forget my hair, outfit or make-up.  I just wanted to go to the hospital.

I went through 3 shift changes with only a 2 cm change to my cervix.  Yikes!  My mom put her mid-wife skills to work and had me doing laps and squats around L&D to help me deal with contractions and to try and get me further dilated.  But still, it was hours before I was dilated enough to even consider an epidural.  And every time I saw my L&D nurse, I begged her not to send me home.  LOL

It wasn’t until about 2 PM (12 hours later) that I was finally dilated to 5 cm and I was put on that wonderful epidural.  By the 20th hour though, I still wasn’t full dilated and my doctor was talking C-section.  🙁  Noooooooo!  After all that time, a C-section?!?!

I slept through the 22nd hour just from sheer exhaustion.  I woke up at midnight and the nurse told me that I was dilated and she had finally dropped.  She had me do a test push and almost immediately had us go into active pushing.  5 contractions later, she was there!  Born at 1:01AM, just one hour after her estimated due date!

And she was so so so perfect!  Her small, round head had hair.  Her eyes were open and blinking at her new surroundings.  And her appetite was in place when she was given to me to breast feed.  How incredible it all was!

It was another milestone moment where I knew my life would never be the same.  She is such a blessing and I’m still in awe that 2 people falling in love created this beautiful little person.  There isn’t anything more gratifying or more life changing.