Lilian’s Birth Story

Lilian was my first child and giving birth to her was the roughest labor out of the three. If it was not for my husband’s presence, I literally would not have survived it. Two weeks before my due date I was getting braxton hicks. Some days I would get them so consistently that I thought for sure I was going into labor. I kept in mind the fact that we lived 40 minutes away from the hospital I would be delivering at and I had to be positive, so we decided to stay put. Two nights before my due date I got wave after wave of braxton hicks, strong enough to wake my very tired eyes. We packed everything in the car and then the small contractions stopped, so my husband went to work instead. I stayed with my mother that morning and she took care of me when the contractions came back. They were about five minutes apart when we decided to make our way to Kaiser Medical Center in Modesto. When we arrived, the contractions were strong and still five minutes apart but even after being in labor for most of the day I was still only two centimeters dilated. Since my due date was just a day away the midwife decided that inducing would be our best option. I wanted to wait as long as I could before getting an epidural. Unfortunately I was not aware that it can take an hour to two to get the anesthesiologist to come and place it. When I finally asked for the epidural  I couldn’t handle the back ache any more of getting one contraction after another with the Pitocin well in my system. I was still only five centimeters dilated and I had endured an hour and a half more torment by the time the doctor came in to place the epidural. After that I was so comfortable that my husband and I fell asleep for a few hours and the nurse woke me up when It was almost time to push. The nurse slowed the pain medicine so that I can feel enough to push. 40 minutes passed quickly and it was time to push. 17 minutes later my princess was crying for the first time and we felt a feeling like no other as we bonded with our first child. She was making the most adorable sucking faces and was already a pro at nursing. It was an amazing moment and we could feel God’s presence.

Postpartum is when the real pain set in for me when I started feeling contractions AGAIN. The nurse had massage my stomach to push out all the excess blood and tissue and for some reason I felt pain so sharp that it could only be compared to being stabbed with a knife. My husband asked why I had to be massaged if it hurt me so badly and the nurse said, “It just has to be done”. In the next 30 minutes I went from being in pain to having no strength and I could not keep my eyes open even though the nurse was urging me do so. My husband told me later that I had fainted three times and even though the nurse was massaging my stomach the blood would not stop filling up the absorbent blue medical chucks. Afraid for my life, my husband requested and insisted that the midwife make an immediate visit to our room. Two Midwives and a Doctor came in and saw how ill I had become. They ordered blood for me right away, seeing how much I had lost. They were now well aware that I was hemorrhaging and ordered medicine to be put in my iv to help me stop bleeding. Once I had the blood transfusion I was able to recover in just a few hours. In all I received 4 units of blood. I thank God for the medical professionals that saved my life that day, as well as for my princess and my loving husband.