On May 22nd at 4:13 am we welcomed into this world our son Ezykiel Kamakana'opilialoha'okumaihohonukai Okamura. Absolutely by far the most beautiful baby I've ever seen in my life. I can not begin to explain how overwhelmed I currently am by all of these feelings of love and adoration.
Oh and for the record I was 38 weeks and 5 days when I had him.
The Birth Story
My original birth plan was very specific and I intended on birthing my baby boy in a completely natural way. Beyond not wanting the epidural, I didn't want to be induced, I didn't want them to break my waters, strip my membranes or even give me vaginal exams.
Starting in the 37th week I began showing signs of labor, I had the bloody show, lost my mucous plug and had contractions several nights in the week that were strong enough to get me to 4 cm dilated this past Monday. I had a whole lot of false labor that never progressed into active labor and I was constantly wondering how I would even be able to realize when I really was in labor.
On Tuesday I woke up at 7 am thinking that I had to poop but found that I couldn't really go and realized that the pains were coming in regularly. I had a feeling that day was THE day but I didn't want to let anyone know about it just yet because I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up if it wasn't going to be true labor. I sat down relaxed in the morning, had some raspberry tea and watched Iron Man 3 on my computer. After the movie a couple of hours later my contractions were already coming in regularly. They were holding steady for about a minute and were five minutes apart. By eleven my contractions were coming in every 3-4 minutes and were lasting at least a minute and a half. At that point I called my husband to come home from work and take me to the hospital.
After going into the hospital I caved to the first vaginal exam because they told me that they needed to see so that they could decide if they were even going to keep me in the hospital. I was only at 5 cm and this is about 12:30 pm.
The next few hours Alex and I worked through our breathing techniques with contractions coming in at 2 minute intervals and getting stronger. Time is already blurring to me. Fast forward to 10 pm. My water broke on its own while I was on the monitor and I was in agony. Alex held me and told me to continue breathing. (The deal was that I would be on the EFM for ten minutes than off for an hour) At this point my contractions had no breaks in between and were so strong, I was crying. At this point I caved into getting another vaginal exam because I needed to know if progress was being made. I was only 6 cm at this point.
At 11 pm I began to feel that something was very very wrong. There was no way that I could be in this much pain for this long and not have a baby already. My contractions had no breaks for over 3 hours.
My pain had shot from the bottom of my stomach and my lower back to the top part of my abdomen. At this point the medical staff began to get worried. My contractions had been non-stop for the past three hours and my baby was not handling the contractions well.
What was happening is that there were no breaks in between contractions so no blood flow to my baby and his heart rate was literally plummeting with each contraction. It wasn't until 3:30 am did the staff realize that I was in a medical emergency. The residents came in to the room and did one more vaginal exam where they than realized that I was loosing blood clots. In other words my placenta had begun detaching far before my baby was ready to come out. As of 3:30 am I was only 6 cm dilated and not progressing. At first they tried to give me a medicine to lessen my contractions so my baby could tolerate labor, it did not help.
I would like to note here that after noticing the blood clots, the doctors panicked and wouldn't really tell me exactly what was going on, and THAT was the scariest thing because I didn't know if my baby was okay and they just kept on telling me that they needed to get the baby out NOW. They were rushing everywhere trying to get me into an operating room and no one would talk to me, my husband was by my side one moment than gone the next. I remember hyperventilating because I was so scared for my baby.
At 4:02 am I went into an emergency C-section. My babies heart rate had fallen to 80 (regular is 150) and they did not have time to put in an epidural for me to be conscious for the procedure so they gave me narcotics to put me out. Alex was supposed to have been in the room but as he was prepping to come in, they didn't have the time to wait and they got my baby out in under ten minutes. He was officially born at 4:13 am.
After the fact we were told that when they opened me up my baby had a huge bowel movement inside of me and had swallowed meconium. He had been in distress since my contractions were constant with no breaks during labor and they were way to strong for him to tolerate. I had a placental abruption meaning that the placenta detached off of the uterine wall prematurely. Thankfully it wasn't fully detached and my son was able to still receive oxygen.
My birth experience was frightening but I am blessed to have a healthy little boy.
I woke up from surgery at 6:30 am. My husband was by my side and I asked him why he wasn't with out son. He had told me that they nurses had kicked him out. I was so upset because prior to labor the doctors had promised that in all situations and causes, if I wasn't able to be present with my son, my husband should've been able to have been there. On top of that, when he was in there they didn't let my husband touch him, even though skin-to-skin with my husband would've been ideal since I was incapacitated. Needless to say I was VERY disappointed about the way the postpartum care.
Long story short, I argued with the nurses and told them that I wanted to see my baby even if I was simply wheel chaired to the window. I tried to get up and fell since I was so heavily drugged. There was a ton of crying and confusion on my part, being that I had woken up with an empty stomach and no baby in sight. It wasn't until 8:00 am that I was able to meet my son. The nurse gave me my baby and I placed him on my chest and allowed him to do the breast crawl. He latched after a few minutes and I remember feeling so light and perfect, the endorphins were running crazy at this point.
Meeting my son for the first time was an indescribable moment. A time where your entire life shifts to adhere to this tiny human. He had the biggest grey eyes I could imagine and a full head of hair. That moment, was utter magic.
As a last note, one of the post partum nurses had told me while I was nursing my 12 hour old newborn not to let him "suckle"other wise he'll use me as a pacifier. Which is terrible advice. It is SO important to breastfeed on demand especially in the first three months to establish a milk supply at all. I ended up filing a complaint against her just because that type of advice could've ruined new mothers potential nursing relationships.
Day One:
Week 3-4:
