Cherishing the moment: The birth of Julian

I went to the Long Beach Memorial Hospital, and it felt like they took forever to see me. It seemed as if everyone wanted to have their baby that day! Finally, they called my name and took me into a room. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors to listen to the baby’s heartbeat and record my contractions. The nurse came in, and I was 2 cm dilated! I was so excited that I was dilating because I was so scared I would end up having a caesarean.

We waited three hours until the nurse came back to check me. I had not dilated any farther. The nurse made me walk around the hospital to see if my body would open up any more. I was getting more and more pains, and I said to myself, “It’s time!” As we walked back to my room, I asked the nurse to check me again. I was not dilating. I was so scared they were going to send me home. I couldn’t bear the pain. My mom, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and boyfriend all had to return to work, but I did not want to go home alone just to have them pick me up again. I was so determined to have my baby within a couple of days. I just felt like it was time.

My family told the doctor I was there at the hospital, but that I was not dilating. My doctor and I already talked about inducing me if in fact I was not dilating enough. Baby Julian was so heavy; I could not take the back pain any longer. So my doctor said to meet him at his office, so he could start the process of “stripping the membrane.” I was confused until I Googled what that meant!

As soon as I got to the doctor’s office he checked me, and I was dilated another 2 cm! Yay! I was 4 cm in total. I was so excited. My doctor proceeded to tell me, “Go home, take a shower, go eat, and when you are all done come to the hospital—and I am going to break your water bag.” My mom, boyfriend and I were so excited! I did what the doctor instructed. I went home took a shower, rinsed off all of the goop from my tummy and washed really well down there. I ate a BLT sandwich from Panera (yum), and then we were on our way back to Long Beach Memorial.

We got to the hospital lobby, and my pains were getting so much worse than when I arrived the first time. I was thinking to myself, “If they don’t hurry up, I might just have my baby here!” The nurses called my name and took me to the delivery room. I could not wait to see my baby, but I was also a little nervous thinking I wasn’t going to be able to push. The doctor broke my water bag, and then one of the worst things happened: The baby had already pooped. I was so scared because the doctor said if the baby consumed his own poop (meconium), he would get sick. The birthing team asked me if I wanted an epidural, and I said, “Yes.” They made everyone including my boyfriend step out of the room. I was so nervous that my palms were sweating because I hate, hate, hate needles! But, the procedure was really quick, and then I just lay down. I couldn’t feel my legs, but I would still move them. The nurses also gave me Pitocin, and that jump-started my contractions. While I could hardly feel them, I could still feel pressure. I was so relieved that I didn’t feel them anymore. I could not sleep. I was so excited knowing I was going to have my baby.

Finally, it was time to push! The nurse came in, and I had told her, “I feel like I need to use the bathroom really badly!” She told me, “OK. Let me get the doctor.” My doctor was stuck on the freeway and told the nurse to start having me push the baby but not all the way. I pushed and pushed determined to get my little one out! The doctor called saying he could not make it to the hospital in time. Traffic was way too heavy to have me wait, so the nurses paged the on-call doctor because he was “only five minutes away.” (Yeah right, it took him almost 30 minutes to get there!) All I could think was, “This just might be a nurse’s baby because I can’t hold him in!” The nurse continued to have me push while she had the doctor on the phone. He was almost to the hospital. My nurse said, “I can see his head!” I wanted to see as well, but I mostly just wanted him out!

Finally the doctor arrived, and I could push to the max. I only pushed a few more times, and there he was: My little baby! When I did not hear a cry, I started to panic. Everyone was looking at each other just waiting. As soon as they put him on the table, he started to cry. They had to get a lot of the fluid out of his lungs, so I had to wait to hold my baby, until, finally, we were skin to skin. It was the most amazing thing ever!

The nurses asked if I wanted to feed him before he left, and of course I did. It hurt really badly at first! I was bawling in tears just so happy that he was here and alive. The doctor told me that he wasn’t going with me to the room just yet. He had to be taken to the NICU to get more of the fluid out of his lungs and to keep an eye on him because his breathing was too fast. I was so scared and thought I had done something wrong. My boyfriend went with the baby while I got rolled in the wheelchair to my room. I so wanted to be with my baby boy. He was in the NICU for two hours. I got a little bit of sleep because I was so drained and tired, but at the same time I could not sleep because I was constantly worrying about my baby.

They finally rolled my baby boy in two hours later, and I got to touch and feel my boy. When they came in later to check on us, they told me that they were taking him in again for a second time for another two hours. This time the baby went by himself because we were both so tired from being up and stressed. We were at the hospital for three days before getting the final OK. Now my little boy, Julian Paul Duron, is going to be 3 months in about two weeks. Time does fly, mamas. Cherish every bit of it!

Send us your birth story! Whether you had a home birth, hospital birth, 37-hour labor or emergency C-section, we’d love to read the tale of your little one’s grand entrance. Write up your birth story (click here for tips on getting started) and email it, along with a few photos, to birthstory@pnmag.com. We’ll share it on our Birth Day blog and may even print it in an upcoming issue!