Elias Shelby Diaz
August 2, 2010, 2:54am
8lbs. 5.5oz, 19 ¾ in
Sunday, August 1st, 12:00pm
Our story starts with a wives’ tale of balsamic proportions. Being reminded by TMZ that there is a salad sold in LA that is said to induce labor, for yucks, we decided to head on up to the Valley and enjoy a lunch out on Sunday, the day before my due date. When the waitress took our order, I told her I wanted to go into labor in the next 24 hours. Her response? “Do you want the half or the full?”
The baby hadn’t been moving much that morning (which was very unusual). As soon as I started eating “The The Salad,” I started feeling lots of movement. One of the entries in The Salad Journal said the same thing. The mother was hoping that baby was packing his bags for departure! Within an hour or so, I started having mild and sporadic contractions (only one every 45 minutes or so, some women have contractions for months).
Alexander’s Premonition
Sunday, August 1st, 7:00pm
By bathtime that night, my contractions were starting to get closer together, about 10 minutes apart and mild. I told Manny I thought that I might be in labor, but we were going to keep it to ourselves.
During storytime, we read “I Love My Daddy Because…”, filled with pictures of animal daddy’s and babies. Alexander pointed to a picture of a baby giraffe and said, “Mama!” I said, “No, that’s the mama. This one’s the baby.” Alexander immediately signed the word for baby, which we incorporated into his sign vocabulary a year ago, but had never used. He continued to rock an imaginary baby in his arms and then crawled into my lap and hung on. Every night at bedtime, I read the stories while Alexander sits in Manny’s lap. I then say goodnight and Manny puts him to bed. This night, after crawling into my lap, he didn’t want to let go. Manny finished the book and Alexander stayed with me to rock him to sleep. He would be a big brother by morning.
Labor
Sunday, August 1st – Monday, August 2nd
10:30pm
With contractions about 7-10 minutes apart and still mild, I knew that I would be having a baby in the next 24 hours. Since it was getting late, we notified Tonya, my midwife, my brother, and Manny’s sisters of the onset of labor. We went to bed so that I could get some rest in anticipation of a long day, my due date.
11:30pm
Within an hour, my contractions started getting stronger and I felt a pop in my pelvis. I thought it might be the head “popping” into place since there was no wetness or “broken water” (it was my water breaking). My contractions went from 10 minutes apart to about 3-4 minutes apart in about 20 minutes (this took about 4 hours with Alexander).
12:45am
We called Manny’s sisters to come and watch Alexander, woke up Manny’s mom, and readied ourselves to head to the Valley to the birth center. Upon calling my midwife, she wanted me to go ahead and labor at home for a little while more to bring the baby down. I was 3 minutes apart with Alexander for 4-6 hours.
1:30am-2:30am
My contractions basically jumped to the next level in a matter of minutes. With the Birthing Buddy app on Manny’s phone, my mother was timing my contractions. We got to a point that it was blurred when one would end and the next would start. I was having waves of three or four in a row before having a break. We called Tonya again and she would meet us at the birth center in an hour (it’s almost 30 minutes away). I was waiting for a break in contractions before moving from the couch, but that quickly never happened.
2:30am
My uterus started quivering with amazingly endless and intense contractions. This was something I was not expecting, nor was I sure of what was happening. I had a feeling that my body was starting to push. I began rapid breathing to avoid pushing as I was lying on my couch and did not know how dilated I was. There can be complications if you push and are not 10 cm. Manny notified Tonya of the pushing. She told him to throw me in the car and get to the Birth Center. My mother and Manny had to carry me to the car as I was basically incapacitated by the contractions.
2:40am
After painstakingly getting Manny, our mothers, and myself into the car, we pulled out and hit the road….the Interstate 405 to be exact.
405 Northbound at Getty Center Drive
Monday, August 2nd , 2:40am-2:54am
At 88 miles per hour, the uterine quivering only got stronger and harder to fight. I let it go every now and then to offer myself some slight relief. At one point I felt a very slight burning sensation and recalled when Tonya had told us that crowning felt like a really bad “Indian burn” on your vagina. I felt it again, and stronger. Immediately, I told my mother to pull my pants off and check for the head. Sure enough, there it was. When I had a contraction, I pushed. The burning continued, but the contraction stopped long enough for me to coach my mother through delivery. I told her to check for the cord around the neck as soon as she had an opportunity and to let her know I could only push during contractions…no matter how much it burned. I quickly had another and pushed out a head. Phew, no cord. Soon after, I had my last contraction, pushed twice very quickly, and as my mother put it, the baby just squirted out at her as fast as the car was moving. Carmen's poor Accord.
Elias came out crying, which, I’m sure, was a relief to everyone in the car. I stimulated his spinal cord and just hung on for another 10 minutes to park at the birth center.
I was in active labor for three hours. THREE HOURS. Alexander was 15 hours, and would have been 20 or more without the epidural.
Post-Partum
Monday, August 2nd , 3:10am - Morning
Tonya pulled up next to us within seconds of our arrival. Manny told her that the baby was in the car. Words can’t describe her face. She and Manny collected supplies and came to tend to us. She clamped and cut the cord, my mom continued to stimulate Elias, Tonya birthed my placenta, and took Elias inside. I followed shortly after with bloody footprints.
Over the next four hours we were tended to, checked, bathed, rested, treated, and exhausted. Elias’s first Apgar score was an estimated 8 out of 10 and his second was a 10 of 10. We headed home four hours after Elias was born in the car, back on the 405 Southbound, past The Getty. The experience of this birth was far better than my 24 hour experience at the hospital two years ago. I would do it again any day...with tarps in the car.
New Baby Brother
Monday, August 2nd , 7:30am
We arrived back home as if we had just slept through the night, but instead had a baby on the freeway and was bringing home a new brother for Alexander. Alexander had just woken up and was enjoying the morning with his Tia Karen and Aunt Veej. His introduction to Elias was actually a little uneventful. He knew there was a baby in Mommy’s tummy. He knew the baby would come out (and when!) and now the baby was here. He was happy to see him, held him and gave him kisses.
Over the last couple of days, Alexander has been gentle and sweet, excited and helpful. He has had one minor meltdown, which I think was an out pour of emotion from all the hustle and bustle in the house. I look forward to seeing their relationship evolve and watching both my boys develop into little men…but not too quickly!
TMI (read at your own risk!)
I guess I’ll start with the car. I won’t go too graphic, you can use your own knowledge of child birth to imagine Manny’s mom’s poor backseat. I think she will have to get an entirely new one, if for no other reason than bio-hazard.
Elias ended up being posterior, so his face was facing me when he came out. There are a couple results to this. I ended up tearing a bit at the top of my vagina instead of the bottom at my perineum (although I do have some superficial lacerations there) and have a strange tear between my labia majora and labia minora near the top as well. Bother were stitched, 5 stitches in total.
The average blood loss is 400-500cc’s during birth. I lost an estimated 300 and bleeding has been minimal. I probably won’t go through even a whole package of Always.
Our first night wasn’t bad. Elias slept his birth of during the day, so he was up and ready to eat at night. Hoping to nurse with my own breastmilk with this one (I didn’t produce enough for Alexander and had to supplement with formula), I did my due diligence. After nursing from each breast back and forth for two hours, Elias was still not satisfied and cried if I unlatched him. I woke Manny and we gave him some formula I had “just in case.” He downed 10ml and fell asleep. The 10ml didn’t go far, so about 45 minutes later Elias was up and hungry again. I pulled out the Medela Supplemental Nursing System or “the tubes”, and nursed him with formula for a bit and he slept satisfied. I have since fed him with the tubes when he is hungry, and will continue working on milk production without starving my child.
The End
I plan to relax now and enjoy our time home with Manny for the next month on his paternity leave. If you would like an update, don’t hesitate to ask, but only the Two Small Children Gods know when I will get another blog update out.
