Anders Martí- Birth Story
1 week old
For each child we’ve brought home, I have written a weekly blog post for their first year of life. So of course I intend to do the same for Anders…even if I am already late on his first post!
For this first blog post, I’ll share Anders’ birth story! My pregnancy with Anders was completely smooth and uneventful for the majority of the time. Then as I started hitting the 30’s weeks of this pregnancy my blood pressure slowly started creeping up. This was not a surprise to us, as this has happened with the past 2 pregnancies as well. It’s a lot of why we were terrified to find ourselves pregnant again, my pregnancies are tough and scary at the end.
At my 33 week appointment, my doctor decided to send me over to L&D to go ahead and get steroid shots in preparation of his iminent early arrival. We were still cautiously optimistic, and as my doctor said, we hoped to be able to hobble our way across the finish line of 37 weeks. Well, that weekend, now just at 34 weeks, my blood pressure was high yet again. But for the first time in any of my pregnancies, I started having other symtoms with it. So, Sunday evening I went to the hospital just to get checked out and make sure everything was okay. I assumed they’d monitor me for a bit, do labs, and then send me home. I’ve done this many a times through the last three pregnancies where my blood pressure goes down quickly, labs are normal, and we just keep trekking. Only this time, my blood pressure wouldn’t come down. They decided to keep me overnight to monitor and to let my high risk doctor make a decision the next day.
So we began to make plans for my mom to come early. We still weren’t sure if we would be inducing soon, but at the very least we knew I’d be on some serious bed rest and would need some help. By Monday morning though, it was clear that we needed to get him out for both of our safety, and my doctor made the decision to have me induced that day.
I had been so mentally focused on trying to get to 37 weeks, I was not prepared to be giving birth already! So I spent the afternoon trying to shift gears mentally and prepare for labor and delivery. With Anders coming at 34 weeks, we also had to prepare for his inevitable NICU stay. It was a lot to take in. And while I was at the hospital, Ron was trying to purchase us a new car…
…little side story here: Our car only seated 6 people, so with Anders’ pregnancy, we knew we would have to buy a new car. In the beginning of August, we put a deposit down on a new car. We thought this was plenty of time before Anders would come, but with all of the supply chain issues, our car’s delivery date just kept getting pushed back and back. The most recent delivery date was 10/31 and it was now 10/25. We had no idea if it actually would arrive by the 31st, as that date kept getting pushed back and the dealer did not have any information to give us either. So, that’s how Ron came to find himself dragging two toddlers around to various car dealerships around San Diego on the day I was set to have our baby, in hopes to find us a car that would fit our family.
Ron did eventually find one on a lot. It wasn’t the color we wanted and we didn’t get the same deal as before, but it would work. Ron took the new car home…and then about 8 hours later, the original dealer text him telling him our car had just arrived. SIGH. Of course, we couldn’t return the car we just got, because now it was a “used” car. (I’m fine, it’s fine, everything’s fine)…
Have I mentioned yet that last week felt like something from the movies? There’s more…
By Monday evening, I was set up in L&D, and they started me on some cytotec and magnesium. Both were a first for me. Holy cow, that magnesium was so so terrible. I never want to experience that again! My mom was supposed to land about the same time, and then Ron was going to finally meet me at the hospital. Now remember, we now live in Sunny San Diego, where it rains like 10 days of the year and certainly never very intense. But of course, that evening we had one of the worst storms we’ve had since we moved here. My mom’s plane circled the airport for about 45 minutes before diverting to Palm Springs. For awhile, I sat at the hospital alone and unsure of whether or not my Mom would actually make it to SD that night. After a few hours though, my mom finally made it to San Diego, and Ron was able to join me at the hospital just before midnight.
At this point I started having some mild contractions. We both slept for a bit waiting to really get the induction going. At 6:15am, they decided I was ready to be started on some pitocin. We warned everyone that I have had some very quick labors, and everyone took note. This was our first Cali baby, so the experience was quite different than giving birth in NYC. Everything was so much slower, and no one in a hurry. I even had two nurses with me the whole time. By 7:30, I was 3cm dilated and got my epidural. My body metabolizes pain medicine really quickly, so they don’t always work super well for me, and this was definitely one of those times. I was still feeling everything, and at 8:45 the doctor came in to introduce herself. Ron mentioned to her that usually my water has been broken at this point, and could we maybe do that to relieve some of the pressure I was feeling. She agreed to and decided to go ahead and check my dilation too.
The following events happened in about 45 seconds:
The doctor assessed that I was 7 cm dilated. She broke my water. The doctor asked me how long I usually pushed for with my babies. I opened my mouth to answer, but let out a cry instead. I was feeling such immense pressure, and was dizzy and nauseous. I told them I thought he was about to come (even though in my head this made no sense to me, as the doctor had literally just seconds before told me I was at a 7 and that he was still really high up). One of the nurses was trying to help me not push, while everyone else started to scramble, but at that point, Anders was already out and on the bed! Another OB later told me that when she read that doctor’s report, it said, “while I was putting my gloves on, the baby shot out on his own.”
Thankfully, Anders was doing great and I was able to hold him while we waited for the Pediatrician to rush up to L&D. Soon enough it was a party in our room—2 nurses, 1 OB, 1 midwife, 1 pediatrician, and Ron and I. Everyone was laughing and excited by all of the craziness and adreneline.
Anders was born at 8:51 AM, weighing 4 lbs 11 oz and 17.25 inches long.
Ron left with Anders to the NICU, while I stayed in L&D and then on to the recovery side. This was my first time not having to share a postpartum room with anyone! Such a treat haha.
Soon, the adreneline wore off and I was left with the absolute worst feeling on that magnesium. My labor and delivery were so easy, but I felt so terrible on that medicine. I wasn’t stable enough to leave the bed, let alone go down to the NICU to see Anders. It was so awful not being able to be with him and only seeing him over Facetime. But on the bright side, I felt perfectly fine physically. At one point a nurse asked me what my pain was on a scale of 1-10 and I said, “0!” A 4 pound baby that births himself is not too bad on the body haha.
The next day, I finally came off the magnesium and it was like a veil had been lifted off of me, instantly the room become clear and the fuzziness left my head. I could finally see Anders, who was thriving and doing well in the NICU! Ron and I so enjoyed that day at the hospital getting to snuggle our newest boy together.
Then Ron went home that afternoon to help my mom with the kids for a bit. During that time, my mom broke her foot, to the point of needing surgery. So plans quickly changed, as Ron needed to stay home and care for my mom and the 4 kids, and I was still at the hospital until the end of the week. He was such a rockstar through that stressful week taking care of the kids and getting my mom to doctors appointments and caring for her. By the weekend, I came home and Justin arrived to help for the weekend and get my mom home.
So all in all, it was a pretty insane week, with one crazy thing after another happening. We just kept thinking, what next? We weren’t prepared to have Anders so early, let alone all of the added craziness that happened along the way! But now, nearly 2 weeks later, we are through the hardest parts and figuring out how to juggle home and NICU life.
This post has taken me many days to piece together, so I’ll wait until the next post to share more about our NICU experience and how Mr. Anders has been doing!
