He’s here! AH! Let me start at the beginning…

My little man was due to be born on June 6th, 2013. But he had other plans. He must have enjoyed his little nest a bit too much, seeing as he was a week late! Leading up to his arrival, I tried everything under the sun to make me go into labor. I didn’t really believe that any of it would work. I mostly just tried it all to prove a point that it’s a bunch of hodge podge. (IT IS). I knew in my heart that he would come when he was ready.

My doctor suggested that I be induced on the 13th, if he hadn’t arrived before then. I said sure -trying to go with the flow, and I figured she knew what she was doing. But the process did not seem fun, so I was really hoping I would go into labor on my own. Unfortunately, time was coming closer and closer to the 13th. That’s when we realized, wait…the 13th!? Do we really want our sons birthday to be on the 13th?! We were hoping it wouldn’t happen. And even thought that if it did, maybe we could just tell him his birthday was on the 14th?? Don’t worry, his dad talked some sense into me, and I won’t be lying to my son about his birthday…

I went in on the 12th to start the inducing process, but I actually found out that I was 3cm and I didn’t need to be induced! I was so thankful. Apparently, I was having contractions and I didn’t even know it! At around 6pm that night, I started to kinda-maybe feel contractions about 5-6 minutes apart. I refused to keep track because it just didn’t seem like they were painful enough. At around 10pm I decided to get some sleep because I still had my appointment at 7am at the hospital. In my mind, I thought it would be fine to wait until then.

At around 2:30am, I woke up to contractions that were 5 minutes apart and a little more painful. I tried to go back to sleep, but after about an hour I decided to take a shower. The hot water definitely felt so good on my stomach. But I couldn’t stay in there forever. I decided to watch some television downstairs so I wouldn’t disturb my son’s dad. I knew it would be a long day, and one of us should sleep. At about 4:30am, my mother came in to check on me. I told her about my contractions, she couldn’t believe how calm I was acting. I look back now and realize most people would already have been at the hospital already – or at least called the doctor. But I kept thinking about my 7am appointment – and I could make it til then. At about 5:30am I decided to finish packing up and getting ready for the hospital. An hour later we were out the door and on our way to the hospital!

We checked into the hospital – and into this gorgeous huge room! I remember saying I didn’t want to get into the hospital bed yet. I really don’t think I was accepting that I was in labor. I, of course, had to get into the bed – as I was 4cm! WHO KNEW!? Luckily, that meant I could have my epidural. AWESOME. After the epidural and having the doctor to come in to break my water, I was well on my way! It was about 9am and I was informed my son would be here around 3pm. Great I thought!

My mother, sister and aunt came soon after…and it kind of became a party. Every so often I would get checked – 6cm…7cm. Wow. This is going by fast – I thought. Close to 3pm, I started to be able to feel my contractions. I mentioned it to the nurse – but she told me I was getting closer to push time, and I needed to be able feel my legs so the epidural wasn’t as strong. That made sense, so I went with it. I have a high tolerance for pain, so I could deal with a little contraction.

Unfortunately, the pain went from a 2 to a 10 in less than an hour. I didn’t understand what happened. I could barely breath. This was insanity. Eventually the anesthesiologist came in to check on things. He thought there was a possibility my epidural fell out. Instead of taking it out and putting it back in, he gave me a shot for pain meds. It did nothing. The pain escalated.

I am not too clear on what happened next. I do remember being told I was 9.5cm and I could try to push, in hopes of reaching 10cm. But, my legs were still numb so I couldn’t really push. It became such a stressful situation – the baby reverted back up and I was in such pain I couldn’t even open my eyes. I remember yelling at my mother to shut up, telling Chris I wanted a C-section, and repeatedly yelling how I couldn’t do this anymore.

My epidural had completely fallen out. My contractions were constant, never stopping for even a second – I threw up twice because of the pain. Not only that, I had to wait for the anesthesiologist to come back because he was helping deliver twins. After about 2 hours of feeling actual active labor, the epidural was put back in. Basically, I had to start my labor all over.

Although I had reached 10cm and should have delivered, the baby was so stressed he wasn’t in the birth canal anymore. I was also so exhausted to even attempt to push. ALSO, we had to wait for the epidural to kick in and then fade down some. It was a nightmare. After about 3 hours – and an hour and a half of pushing, he finally made his appearance! What a long journey it had been!

9:43pm

Braden Christopher Escareno

8lb 6oz

20 inches long

He is perfect.

And I love him.