Jada’s Birth Story

Jada’s Birth Story
12/28/2021

As of today, Jada is 25 days old… and she’s doing great! She’s quite mellow, she seems happy, she’s very healthy, and she feeds every 2.5 - 3 hours during the day and about every 3 hours during the night which is manageable. Breastfeeding is going well and her weight gain is progressing perfectly, I couldn’t be happier! It’s a shame that, throughout my whole pregnancy, I was terrified of having two children, assuming that the newborn would be insanely demanding and difficult and Damien would be a jealous nightmare… because it isn’t that way at all. Jada is a much easier newborn than Damien was, and Damien is actually very happy about his baby sister. It is a great pleasure to see him interact with her, as he seems to really care about her. Introducing him to Jada was one of the most precious moments of my life. 

We got home from the hospital in the late afternoon of December 29th, 2021, but we did not introduce Jada to Damien yet as we didn’t want to overwhelm him with excitement so late in the day. The next morning when I got Damien up, he seemed very upset and kept saying “No more! No more!”. It was disappointing that he was so upset this morning, but it wasn’t a total surprise since he freaked out 2 days before when we went to the hospital to give birth. On that day, my mom came to watch Damien and when he saw us pack the car and get ready to leave, he started screaming at the top of his lungs, which he very rarely does. We knew that he knew something was going on with me and the baby. Anyhow, when I got him up in the morning of December 29th, I tried to soothe him and let him know that everything was ok and that I loved him very much. Lorenzo had Jada with him on the bed in Jada’s bedroom. As I approached the bedroom, Damien seemed very anxious and unsure of what was about to happen. But the minute he laid eyes on Jada, all his worries seemed to melt away! He couldn’t take his eyes off of her as he stared at her in complete amazement. We introduced Jada to him as his baby sister, and although it took a few minutes for that to sink in, he became very happy!  He reached out both arms and said “Hold baby!”, which was the cutest thing ever.  We did let him “hold” her and take his time to explore her cute little face. Afterwards, we put her in her bassinet and he continued to stare intensely at her. He then said “Baby bed! … pillow for baby!”, then went and got a pillow from the bed and tried to put it on her. It was the sweetest thing to witness! He continued to do whatever he could think of to comfort her and interact with her. At one point he said “Mama happy! Dada happy! Damien happy!”... needless to say, we were absolutely filled with joy that the introduction went well and that Damien is excited about having a baby sister :)

My pregnancy with Jada was almost as easy and smooth as it was with Damien.  I did, however, feel a bit more tired in the beginning with Jada. Most people would say “it’s because it’s a girl”, but I actually think it’s because I was pregnant while taking care of a toddler!  When I was pregnant with Damien, I could rest whenever I needed, do whatever I wanted to do, and Lorenzo would cater to just me… cooking for me, massaging me, taking me out often, and helping me every step of the way. But since we had Damien, I was mostly on my own this pregnancy. Although Lorenzo still prepared dinner every night, the breakfasts mostly disappeared and the massages were rare. This was all completely understandable though since he had to take care and tend to Damien most of the day instead of me. Regardless, we were still able to thoroughly enjoy my pregnancy as we took many family vacations together, including Lake Tahoe, Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Bass Lake, Yosemite, and various other adventures. I was also able to take other exciting trips, like to Las Vegas for my sister’s wedding and Southern California to visit friends. I would have to say that the first 8 months were quite fun! It was just that final month that really got to me… If I had to describe it in just two words, I would call it a “Train Wreck”.

December 3rd, 2021

On this day, something really funny happened, but at the same time it was very disturbing. Over the previous weeks I’ve been having very frequent trips to the restroom, in which I blamed my pregnancy and Jada for squishing my bladder. This morning was no different. I took Damien to the garage to put on his jacket and shoes so that I could take him for a walk. Since he was potty training, I encouraged him to pee in his potty before we took off. Right after he finished, I had a very strong urge to pee as well and didn’t think I’d make it to the bathroom inside the house.  So for the first time ever, I plopped on to Damien’s little potty and took a piss.  Damien was SO EXCITED that I was using his potty and said “Mama on potty!  Mama on potty!”. As soon as I was done, he ran over to check out my pee… and then had a look of terror on his face. When I took a look as well, it turned out that I filled his potty with not just pee, but with blood as well. It was a very disgusting sight indeed! 

Luckily, Lorenzo was nearby and I told him that I had to call the hospital right away. After being re-routed from the Advice Nurse to the Labor and Delivery department, I was requested to come in right away. For the next 4-5 hours, the L&D department ran several urine and blood tests on me to figure out what was going on. Apparently I had a really bad UTI which could be affecting my kidneys. That would explain the frequent urination and why my back had been killing me for a couple of weeks. Thankfully, I was able to go home that night but had to take a week of antibiotics. Overall, I was happy that it was “just” a UTI, although there was still a concern about my kidneys.

December 23rd, 2021

Over the next couple of weeks, the blood in my urine went away but the pain in my back and the pain shooting down my right leg continued to increase in intensity. I assumed the pains were pregnancy related, but I remembered that there was still a concern about my kidneys. So when I pissed blood again on December 23rd, I ended up at Labor and Delivery again. This time they took more urine and blood tests and concluded that I not only had a UTI again, but kidney stones as well… yikes!  If you don’t know the pain of kidney stones, they compare it to labor pains, which is quite accurate. So here I was, 5 days before my due date with a UTI and painful kidney stones. On top of that, the doctors did not want to give me another round of antibiotics or painkillers for the sake of the baby… so I had to deal with the pain on my own :(  Needless to say, I was very fearful of how I would feel when I went into labor AND had to deal with kidney stone pains at the same time! This trainwreck of events reminded me of how bad my pregnancy was with Damien towards the end.  Apparently I tend to have great pregnancies, but dreadful births.

As the days went by, I continued to suffer with pregnancy pains and kidney pains. I was extremely uncomfortable and really just wanted to get the baby out.  I had previously scheduled an induction date with my doctor for 12/31/21 (the only date available), but then was lucky enough to get an earlier date during my last visit to L&D. I was partially hoping to go into labor naturally before then so I wouldn’t have to be induced, but then again, I really didn’t want to continue with the pain I was having. My experience of being induced with Damien (which took 5 days!!) made me quite apprehensive about it. Why did my births have to be so difficult?

To help get things going, I tried many different methods to naturally induce myself. Every day, I did prenatal massage therapy, foot reflexology, chiropractor, acupuncture, walked several miles, and even took an herbal tincture which was supposed to lead to induction. I couldn’t really tell if any of these natural methods were helping me, but I figured taking a “shotgun” approach couldn’t hurt. I regret not trying all these things with my last pregnancy since I ended up getting induced 10 days after my due date!  

December 27th, 2021

I tried to continue to be patient for my 12/26/21 induction date but my patience was wearing thin. I called on 12/26 but they said there were no birthing rooms available to accommodate me and I’d have to wait til the next day (or maybe even longer). Of course I was disappointed but there was nothing I could do. However, the next morning my wishes were answered! My water broke while I was in bed around 6:30am. I soon called L&D to see when I could go in. But my hospital of choice (Kaiser Santa Clara) still did not have any birthing rooms available… nor did Kaiser Milpitas, Redwood City, Walnut Creek, or San Leandro… my only choice was Antioch which was 2 hours away! This absolutely sucked since I didn’t want to drive so far away to give birth, and I wasn’t even sure if I would make it in time. I was stressed and upset, but started getting ready to go anyway. Then just before we were going to leave, I noticed a greenish/yellowish discharge and knew that something was not right. If I wasn’t mistaken, this was meconium (baby poop) and a very bad sign. So I called back L&D at Kaiser Santa Clara and they told me that I was now considered an urgent case and I should come in right away. Well, that was a relief!

The ride to the hospital was beyond nerve wrecking because I was concerned that the baby might be aspirating meconium, which would be a very bad thing. In addition, I noticed that Jada had stopped moving for a while which started to freak me out.  I couldn’t stop crying and thinking about the worst case scenario, but Lorenzo did a great job trying to keep me calm. At that point, I didn’t care if it was a natural birth, induction, or cesarean, I just wanted my little girl to be born healthy…

I’m very happy to say that once I was at the hospital, it was smooth sailing from there. I was admitted to the observation room until a room was available for me. Once I was in the room, the doctor wanted to start pitocin to speed up the labor due to the complication. They started me on a low dose and continued to increase it every couple of hours. The whole day, night, and following day was rather uneventful. The most interesting moments of the day were when my birth doula helped me move into positions that would allow the baby to find her way through my pelvis more easily. I had labor pains but they weren’t as painful as my kidney pains. In fact, as my contractions started to get really strong and closer together, the nurses kept saying that they were surprised that I was handling them so well! I kept saying that the labor pains were not nearly as painful as my kidney pains. Even when my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, I did not complain about them or even ask for any painkillers. I was, however, afraid that if I didn’t get the epidural and had to get a manual extraction of my placenta like last time (which was very painful!), I would be in an unbearable amount of pain and beyond traumatized. So I calmly waited for my dinner, ate my food, then casually asked for the epidural. I guess I forgot how painful getting epidural was because it hurt!! Even Lorenzo had to hide in the bathroom so he wouldn’t faint again while watching me get the shot LOL. After getting the epidural, Lorenzo and I just relaxed and waited for things to get going. A doctor eventually came in and said “at this point, I would expect you to deliver your baby about midday tomorrow, so try to get some rest”. We were a bit disappointed but of course agreed.

December 28th, 2021

A few hours passed and then shortly before 1:00am, a doctor came in and said “Your contractions are getting really strong and close together, I’m just going to check your cervix”. After a quick check she said I was at 10cm and it was ready to push! Lorenzo and I were both so shocked! I was honestly a bit bummed cuz I thought I would actually get some sleep before the baby came, and we had just sent our doula home who lived an hour away. I asked the doctor if we could wait for the doula to come back and she reluctantly agreed. Then at about 1:40am the doctor said we could only wait 10 more minutes til I seriously needed to push. I was getting nervous that our doula wouldn’t make it in time, but luckily she arrived exactly in 10 minutes. At that very moment, a team of nurses and the doctor came and it was show time!  I pushed once and they told me to stop… then they told me to push again and Jada was out! All the nurses and the doctor were so excited about how quickly and smoothly the birth went; even one nurse shouted “And THAT’S how you give birth!”.

We were beyond ecstatic that Jada was born healthy and well, but I was still very nervous to see if my placenta was going to come out on its own in one piece, or had to be manually extracted like last time. The doctor was very patient with giving me a fundal massage and trying to help the placenta come out. A few moments later, it did come out in “perfect” condition, I was so happy! My doula was even happier because we had hired her services to encapsulate my placenta so I could consume it to rebalance my hormones. This was something we really wanted to do with Damien’s birth, but since he was born 2 weeks late, my placenta was calcified and was not healthy to consume. At this point, everything was going great!

The next 24 hours entailed lots of feeding the baby, lots of poking and prodding from the nurses, and zero sleep. We were eager to get home as soon as possible. After another day or so, and verifying that Jada and I were 100% healthy, we were released from the hospital… one of the happiest days of my life indeed! Normally I would be very nervous to go home with a newborn, especially since I have a toddler who needs attention as well, but I felt fine since I had a great postpartum doula lined up (the same one who was there for the birth). She took very good care of Jada during the next 5 nights while I tried to recover the best I could, and Lorenzo took care of Damien. After this time period, Jada was actually sleeping quite well during the nights (feeding “only” every 3 hours), so Lorenzo and I felt quite good!  In fact, we were GREAT. The nights were going well, Damien was excited about his sister, Lorenzo’s parents came over to help, and everyone was healthy and comfortable with the new addition to the family… we couldn’t be happier!!