Baby Luis is Here!



Our sweet baby boy, Luis Enrique was born on Wednesday, June 22nd (exactly on his due date!) at 9:21 pm.  He was 9 pounds, 5 ounces and 22 inches long.  Here is his birth story:



In the early morning hours of the 22nd,  I was experiencing painful, more intense and unrelentless contractions occurring 1 to 5 minutes apart.  I waited it out several hours at home and when the contractions only seemed to progress, I knew that this was it.  Luis looked at me and said "guess I'm not going into work today!" and off we were to the hospital.  When I arrived at 7am, I was found to be 4 cm dilated and was promptly admitted.  My mom and Luis were in the L&D room with me.  Prior to the 'action' my Dad, brother Rafi, Nina, best friend Janet and in-laws visited.   Ahead of time I decided that I would receive an epidural for pain relief.  However, while at the hospital, I was offered the epidural several times but felt that I was managing pretty well with the pain and decided to hold off- mainly because I wanted to be ambulatory instead of confined to the bed with a catheter in.  Several hours later, the pain became increasingly severe; I was vomiting with the contractions and at that point, decided that yes, indeed, it was time for the epidural! Immediately after the epidural was placed, I was examined and found to be 8cm dilated.  I couldn't believe that I went from 0 to 8 cm unmedicated; perhaps that was pushing it a bit.  Once I was 10 cm dilated, my contractions stopped regulating and the baby was not descending far enough into the birth canal.  I was then started on Pitocin to speed up my contraction pattern.  About an hour and a half later, the contractions improved some, however the baby's heart rate was accelerating rapidly and he still had not descended low enough for me to begin pushing. My Dr. elected to proceed directly with a cesarean delivery and asked for our consent.  Luis and I were most definitely not prepared for this scenario, but in a matter of minutes decided that we would move forward, as this was best for the health of the baby.





Mommy and Daddy during labor.

 



The cesarean was truly an ordeal.  It was extremely painful and like nothing I would have ever imagined, given that this is such a routinely performed procedure.  My Dr. had to extend the incision once he saw that the baby's shoulders would not fit.  He needed to use the vacuum extractor and even with that had quite a bit of difficulty removing the baby.  I had several nurses forcefully pushing down on my stomach to move the baby into position.  The pain was horrible; a couple of times Dr. asked me if I'd like to proceed with general anesthesia as he could see that I was hanging on by a thread.  I decided to continue without the general, simply for the baby's sake.  I was saying my prayers, asking God to protect our baby boy and bring him into the world safely.  I think at one point I was praying out loud.  Luis was by my side the entire time, holding my hand and helping me through.   Finally, baby Luis was removed and it seemed like forever until I heard him cry. I heard Luis say "baby he's beautiful! He has blue eyes!"  It was difficult for me to fully realize that our baby was finally brought into the world because of the extreme discomfort and the shock of what had just occurred.   In an effort to control the pain, I was given quite a bit of pain medication after the baby was delivered and became over sedated; I did not really 'come to' until the early morning hours of the 23rd.  This part was very sad for me, as I was not able to have that special bonding time with my baby after delivery.  I was unable to breastfeed him right away, which was something I was really looking forward to.  Fortunately, all ended well.  Our baby Luis is here!

Here are some photos from the hospital!!

 


Proud papa wheeling the baby to our room on the maternity floor



Baby's first bath

All bundled up, about to have his first heel stick. 



 




Baby Luis ready for his homecoming.

 

Bringing baby home!





I've had quite a difficult time recovering from the c-section, but each day I'm better and better.  THANK YOU to all of our loved ones for your endless support. What a journey!  We are simply in love with our baby boy. We thank God for him each and every day.