Oscar's Birth Day

Welcome friends and family to our new blog page. We decided to create a blog of our family to share our news, fun moments of our life as new parents, and mainly to tell you how our little boy grows and discovers the world around him.
I guess it would be appropriate to begin with a birth story since Oscar is the reason for us creating a blog in the first place. On December 9^th 2011 during a routine checkup I’ve heard the words “You are pregnant” when I least expected.  Tears ran down my cheeks and poor nurse couldn’t understand if it were tears of joy or sadness, but I couldn’t have been happier at that moment. On the way home I was thinking of all the creative ways to announce that news to Nick but chose to simply show the notice from the doctor that stated that we were already 7 weeks pregnant. Pregnancy couldn’t have been easier: no morning sickness, no hormonal shifts; our life didn’t seem any different than before the pregnancy.  The only reminder was that my belly kept growing and we anxiously were looking forward to every visit to our midwife to see how our little one is growing.

 Nick predicted that it was a boy; however, I wasn’t sure but was able to recognized our little man on the screen during an ultrasound check up before the technician could utter the words ”It’s a boy!” Time flew by and here we were awaiting arrival of our fist child any minute… but he wouldn’t come. I climbed nine sets of stairs at the hospital, went on a rigorous hike thinking I will go into labor for sure but no sign of little Oscar. And here we are one week overdue at the doctor’s office for a routine ultrasound, little did we know that our new life as first time parents is about to begin. I tell you what, you don’t want your ultrasound technician get quite in the middle of an appointment, it’s not a good sing. And so she did, while checking his heart she stopped and listened to it again and again and then said that she would run to the doctor to make sure that we don’t need to go to the hospital. What?! Hospital? This whole time we planned Birth Center birth, everything went perfect, what happened now? After she came back we were directed to the hospital with the words “It might be a baby day for you guys”. The reality of what was happening around us didn’t settle in yet. Hospital, 5^th floor, three nurses rushing around hooking me up to the monitor, fetal doctor bringing in his own monitor to watch the baby, all we can hear is that heart rate is too low… what does it mean? C-section? Our midwife arrives on the scene with a sad face explaining that baby behaves well, no sign of distress but somehow shows a  very low heart rate baseline. However, none of the doctors know what might be causing it. As the monitor hooked on, it turns out that I’m in labor but don’t feel the contractions. We are given our private room and decided to be induced. More doctors are called in to evaluate Oscar’s condition. At this point they say 50/50 % chance of C-section, everything depends on how he will react to contractions when they become stronger. Twenty seven hours, balloon induction, and massive amount of pain later it was decided to proceed with dreaded pitocin. At this point, pain is off the charts and I have no idea how I can endure any longer especially since nobody knows how much longer… I agree to epidural. Yes, we wanted it naturally and with no involvement, but as so many of us know life rarely goes as planned, so bring on epidural and let the pain subside. At that instance all of those horrible birth stories that involve epidural and pitocin ran though my mind. But there was no other option; I just wanted my baby to be out safely whatever it takes. As soon as the large dose of epidural enters my body and I feel the numbness spreading throughout I hear that Oscar’s heart beat drastically slowed down as well. Everybody started moving fast around me, trying to find a heart beat, administer more drugs to correct my blood pressure, at the same time doctor keeps explaining me over and over that he might have to stop epidural if Oscar doesn’t respond soon. But lo and behold, my pressure went up and brought Oscar’s heart beat back up. There was nothing more soothing at that moment than to hear that strong fast heart beat.  In about three hours I feel like I need to push and here the fun begins, with each push his heart rate drops and I can read nurses faces that it’s not good, I’m trying to get him out just to make sure he is ok, he will be ok when he is here next to me, I just know it. In about 45 minutes we heard a nice loud cry and he got quiet as soon as his head touched my chest and he heard our voices. 

The only way I can describe what I felt is overwhelming peace, I didn’t care about the cuts or pains, I just want to hold him here next to me, comfort him and tell him that we are here and it will be ok. The chaos and worries were over; he was here with us health and happy lifting up his neck to take a better look at his parents. Due to the history during labor we were ordered a bunch of tests and had an extended stay at the hospital. But now at almost 7weeks old, our healthy baby boy is 12lb 8oz and 23 and ½” long. It was a couple of days full of stress, chaos, worries and happiness but I know that I could have never done it without my wonderful husband who is the most supportive and caring person I know. This incredible experience brought us together even closer which I even couldn’t imagine being possible. We are enjoying our little family and discovering our son’s personality every day.