Catalina’s Birth Story

Catalina Evangeline Pagán born on October 28th 2017 6lbs 13 oz.

I’m in love!  This sweet little lady finally made her appearance 3 days after her due date and I have to say that while it was a very smooth delivery, things leading up to it were a bit more difficult and emotionally draining that I remember labor being with my son.

On October 26th (one day past my due date) I was so disappointed that I hadn’t went into labor already.  I went and got a prenatal massage to help get things going and the massage therapist did pressure points on my feet that can supposedly help induce labor.

I also had a doctors appointment.  The midwife I saw that day was also surprised and felt bad for me since it was my second baby and I went into labor on my own 3 days before my due date with Brayden.  So we all assumed that Catalina would come around the same time or earlier.

I asked the midwife to do a membrane sweep (which I thought I knew what to expect but my goodness was I wrong)!  It hurt like a bitch!  She told me to relax, have sex, and eat my favorite food that night because I might have a newborn the next day.  I was very hopeful and immediately after my appointment started cramping which I was told to expect.

My husband took me to my favorite restaurant Zinburger and I started having some somewhat painful contractions while we were eating and would have to pause during the meal until they went away.  We tried to walk around the mall but I started cramping too bad and the contractions seemed to be getting closer together and a little more painful so we went for a drive instead.  The contractions continuously got really strong and were about 4-5 minutes apart for about and hour or two (we were always told to call the midwife on call if that happened).  SO we did and I could immediately tell on the phone that the midwife I was speaking to didn’t seem to believe me and acted like it was no biggie (even though as I said we were told to call if contractions were that close together for that amount of time.  They were also hurting sooo bad).

We got to the hospital and they checked if anything was progressing down in the lady region and nothing had really changed since my appointment but you could clearly see on the monitors that my contractions were very very regular and every 4-5 minutes.  The midwife tells me I should try walking around for an hour… At 10 p.m.  Then as we were about to do that she changed it to 2 hours…  I’m sure you can tell by now this lady pissed me off and wasted my time so bad that night.  The husband and I walked around the parking garage for about an hour but my contractions were hurting so bad I had to sit down for the second hour.  Then we went back and I wasn’t sure what they were going to do so I left my pants on (I was tired of basically being naked in front of people so much and poked and prodded).  The midwife didn’t leave the room when I realized I need to take my pants off so I had to awkwardly try to get undressed under the blankets…  I asked her if things can really progress very much within a couple of hours and she told me “if it’s real labor it definitely will.”  Now I’m not a doctor or anything but I am pretty sure that it is like insanely common for labor to slow down or stop all together even during active labor.  When I was in active labor with my son the midwife had told me that my labor wasn’t progressing or had slowed down so they had to start me on pitocin.  SO yeah, I don’t know what this lady was taliking about that things will without a doubt progress down in the lady region within two hours. But whatever.

She checked and told me it was the same and straight up said it wasn’t labor (even though I couldn’t even walk the full two hours because of how painful my contractions were).  I basically started crying because I was in so much pain, so tired, and just wanted to have the baby already.  SO that was super embarrassing.  I thought the midwife would at least recommend or prescribe me a good pain reliever or sleeping pill but nope.  She told me to go home and sleep and that sleeping pills wouldn’t work if it was real labor (I woke up during every contraction that night and kept waking my husband up with my whimpering).  I seriously don’t think she believed me at all.  Needless to say that whenever I go in for any checkups I will avoid seeing her lol.

Now that I’m done being pissy and complaining (I just really needed to vent).  My contractions became further apart but were still really painful when I had them so I was literally just a sad miserable ball on my couch all day and was so sore everywhere.  The husband thankfully stayed home from work for me.  That night we were watching Scandal (man season 6 is sooo good!)  my husband had his hand on my stomach and I shit you not we felt and heard what I could only describe as a pop in my stomach.  It literally made us jump.  After being weirded out for a moment I felt something odd then a huge gush (sorry I know that sounds gross) and it was obvious that my water had just broke.  I was so excited that I was now actually very close to not being pregnant anymore.

I called the hospital (thank God it was a different midwife on call) and told her what happened and asked if I should come in.  She said yes but told me “we’re kind of full tonight”…. My husband was like “so are you supposed to have the baby at home or?…”  I’ve never heard of a hospital telling someone who’s possibly going to have a baby any minute or hour that they “are kind of full” what am I supposed to do with that information?  Have the baby at home then come in?

We took our time getting to the hospital after dropping my son off with my mom.  I was terrified they were just going to send me home again.  We stopped at a gas station and got coffee since I hadn’t started having frequent contractions yet.  But let me tell you, they came quick!  We got to the parking garage and I soaked completely through a thick heavy duty pad and was dripping everywhere!  So I had to walk to the hospital and to the labor and delivery wing waddling carrying a towel between my legs.  It was a very funny and awkward sight to those who walked past us.  Then I had to stand in line to check in at labor and delivery.  No one offered me a seat or wheelchair or anything.  I just stood there having contractions and holding a towel between my legs while someone ahead of me took forever to check in.  My contractions got beyond painful and I dilated and effaced a ton since the night before when the midwife I didn’t like told me I wasn’t in labor…  They admitted me and I was a mess before I got my epidural.

As the nurse walked me down the hall to the delivery room, my water was still breaking and pooling around my feet and waves of contractions kept bringing me to a halt until they subsided.  After a contraction, I looked ahead down the hall and about 20 feet away from us someone wheeled out a bed with a body on it.  The body was not moving, just laying on the bed with feet in cozy hospital socks poking out from under the blanket.  I thought, surely they would not just wheel a dead body out into the hallway for incoming patients to see so I started searching through my mind to think of other reasons there would be a motionless body just a few feet in front of me.  At first I thought maybe the patient was put under for surgery but realized there would have probably been doctors around her and she would have been hooked up to different monitors and fluids.The body was completely by itself and nothing attached to it…  I was frozen and barely able to walk.  I was terrified of walking past it and seeing their face so I slowed down.  I have never been more freaked out in my life.  I crept slower and slower surprised that the nurse was not trying to explain what was going on (which made me even more nervous).  As we walked past the body I could not help but look at the face no matter how scared I was.  To my surprise (and relief)  it was a training dummy! This hospital seriously almost gave me a heart attack.

I had a nurse putting an IV in me wiggling the needle around, I was having a really painful contraction, and was watching the liquid go through the IV into my arm and was freaking out because I thought I saw air bubbles going into me.  I got super nauseous, almost puked and legit almost passed out.  I very rarely ever have panic attacks like that but occasionally they happen and it is so embarrassing!

Once I had the epidural though, everything was good.  I just felt so calm kept saying how good I felt (the husband says I should never try drugs because I would definitely become addicted)…

I discovered a couple of new (and super embarrassing) side affects of an epidural.  I got super itchy all over for a while which kept me from sleeping, but the worst side affect by far was the farting!  I do not remember that happening when I had Brayden but this time it was constant and completely uncontrollable.  It happened in front of so many people and I was so embarrassed the whole time!

The rest of my labor went by uneventfully (just lot’s of farting).  and before I knew it, it was time to push and the nurses and midwife came in.  I pushed for 12 minutes and Catalina was here!  I was so surprised by how tiny she was since I was past my due date and everyone was saying they estimated her to be bigger!  I was also surprised that she barely had hair and the little bit she did have was almost blonde!  Brayden was born with a lot of black hair and was really tan.  Catalina on the other had was completely purple…  They kept trying to get her to cry and couldn’t so the NICU team came in.  I thought everything would be fine and they would hand her back to me soon.  The NICU had to come in and clear Brayden’s lungs too when he was born and I got to hold him after just a couple of minutes.  With Catalina it turned into multiple minutes and the pediatrician and nurses were whispering and honestly looked a little worried.  The room was eerily quiet and I started to get worried too.  Her oxygen levels were really low and they had to put her on oxygen.  Her oxygen levels did go up but the pediatrician was still not happy with her levels so they took her to the NICU and while I was really upset I really appreciated that they invited Joel to go with them and be with her.

I never experienced this before and man it is one of the worst feelings to have just had your baby and not get to hold them or be with them.  I tried not to cry and just sat in the room by myself for an hour freaking out and texting the husband constantly.  Finally, the nurse told me they were on their way back up with the baby and I finally got to hold her!  They never actually admitted her into the NICU but mostly just monitored her for an hour.”

They moved us to the recovery room and honestly, my time spent there sucked so bad.  No one would leave me alone and I had maybe had a couple hours of sleep in the past 3 days.  We even put a sleeping sign outside the door and the freaking hospital photographer shoved her ass right in to bug us for pictures.  I was nice to her but in my head I was saying “lady, there is a sleeping sign on the door.  I just had a baby and am exhausted.  If I wanted pictures taken in the hospital I would have hired a photographer and they would have either already been in for a session or on their way for one.  Why the hell are you bothering me?!”

I also had nurses wake me up at like 5 in the morning when I was in a deep sleep.  They started pulling and tugging on me telling me to roll over so they could give me the Rhogam shot since I’m RH negative.  First of all, you don’t need the shot immediately, just within 72 hours after possible blood mixing has occurred (it had been like 16 hours)… They could have waited.  But they woke me up and stabbed me in the ass with the needle while I was half asleep and then got annoyed with me because I moved…

I honestly felt so violated and dehumanized this round in the hospital.  During actually labor, everything was great.  The midwife, nurse, and anesthesiologists were all very nice to me and seemed to actually give a shit about me and my baby.  The recovery nurses and the people who came in to ask me stupid shit were assholes and I honestly didn’t even feel like a person.  Just some duty they were annoyed that they had to take care of. It sucked and when they asked me when I wanted to check out I very quickly told them as soon as possible!  We got to leave about 24 hours after I gave birth and it was so nice to get out of there and go home.

And that was my birth story.  Sorry for all of the bitching, it was not a pleasant experience this time.  I know my experience with annoying hospital staff is nothing compared to other stories I’ve heard but man it sucked.  I am still always surprised by stories I hear and my own experiences at how shitty and disrespectfully treated us ladies are when we’re having a baby.  It feels so medieval.

What are the most annoying/ crappy things that people did or said to you while you were in the hospital having a baby?