Welcome Andrea Emibel Diaz

Well for those of you who dont know... our precious angel made her debut on 7/22/09 at 6:52pm weighing 6lbs 9oz at 17.5 inches long!!!

Here's my birth story:

we were scheduled for a cervidil induction on tuesday night 7/21/09 it was supposed to be at 9pm but when we arrived at the hospital they told us that we weren't supposed to be there until 11pm so i suppose the happy medium was that we finally got into our room at 10:30pm not toooo bad... anyway at that point my parents and my sister came to check on us to make sure we had gotten settled ok... when we first got into the room and i changed into my hospital gown i refused to sit on the bed lol... i know it sounds silly... i was just flooded with emotions at that point that all i could do was sit in a chair in the room hands trembling... then the nurse came in and explained that she would be starting my iv and administering my cervidil...

well... i have to say i''d been dreading the iv my entire pregnancy... i dont know why but i had the funny feeling that it would hurt like hell... and oh my was i right... im sure in a perfect world an iv is nothing... but in my world i ended up having something called valves... where when the nurse first stuck me with the needle it only went in so far before basically hitting a point in my vein that was kind of blocked... she tried to pressure her way through and ended up collapsing my vein ... sooo that one was a painful no go... then she tried the other hand.. nope not that one either... after her two failed attempts she grabbed another nurse who inserted the iv in my forearm with no problem lol!!!! anyway so that was over and done with... it was time for my cervidil which nobody ever told me would be inserted with NO LUBE!!!!! omg did i scream and cry... that was pretty painful and i wasn't expecting it so yay for cervidil lol!!

after that it was time to wait... basically the cervidil needed to be in for 12 hours at this point it was 1am after the 12 hours it would be removed and they would check me.. if i'd progressed it would then be time to start phase two which was pitocin for contractions..

so cervidil was in..fun part was that i was unable to move from laying flat on my back for the first two hours and that was painful!!! the contractions began within 30 minutes of administering the cervidil... and man did they hurt... once i hit my two hour mark... i was able to turn on my side and tried to get some sleep.. i slept maybe two hours off and on that was between bathroom breaks and some painful contractions... Gustavo was there every step of the way.. he helped me to focus to stay on top of my contractions and to breathe... he also helped me to the bathroom whenever i needed to go.. he was amazing!!! he was also exhausted so when my mom got back to the hospital around 7am he was out like a light... poor guy!! by the time mom got there my contractions were pretty painful!!! soon enough i was unable to talk through them... and i was only half way there with the cervidil!!! it was a looong day needless to say.. around 9am my sister got there and my best friend bea got there they would be with us the entire length of my birth... it was great having the moral support of those i love... it was definately very important...

finally 1:15 rolled around.. my cervidil was taken out and i was checked... i was 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced at that point.. they gave me a drug in my iv called nubane which made me kind of groggy... and they started the pitocin about half an hour later... the meds let me rest for a bit.. until the pitocin really kicked in and man when it did i was hurting!!! contractions were coming back to back!!! it was like i couldn't stay on top of the pain because they were so close... the pain was paralyzing... by 4pm i was in so much pain i couldn't breathe or think straight..gustavo proposed the epi and i remember screaming at him telling him i didn't want it... however two contractions later i definately changed my tune.. at that point i was worried i would pass out from the pain so i began screaming and crying for the epi!!! the nurse came in checked me and i was at 3 cm... but the only little snafoo was that all the anesthesiologists were busy administering epi's to the jam packed labor floor... however the director came in and saw how much pain i was in and grabbed an or anesth. to administer my epi in 3..2..1!!!

my nurse ordered everyone out of my room... at which point i didn't care but i knew my mom was really nervous about... she asked why everyone had to leave and the nurse said it was b/c she'd had people pass out and crack their heads open from watching epis being administered... so they all left.. i got my epi and 20 minutes later i was good as new... everyone came in and literally were astonished to see me calm and pain free... i have to admit it was a nice feeling... i was able to relax... i mean no matter how you slice i was able to go 15 hours in labor without the epi... i waited until the very last minute and that changed the course of the remainder of my labor and my delivery... it was definately the right choice and i'm happy i did it... i was really able to enjoy my delivery...from there i was checked again around 5 and i was 7 cm dilated... my dr came in to check me for that one.. she told me to relax...i dozed off for a bit... felt a pop and a gush... sat up and said "i think my water just broke" i looked at gustavo and i said baby did you just hear what i said... he said "no"i said MY WATER JUST BROKE!!! at that point everyone got excited... the nurse came in and confirmed that it was my water... shortly after that i felt a lot of pressure... no pain just pressure so i kept telling the nurse i feel pressure i feel pressure.. she said it was normal..but when Dr. Maslyak came in and checked me sure enough i was 10 cm dilated and ready to push... it was SHOW TIME!!!! and i was feeling great from the epi... i was ready to bring our daughter into this world... they set everything up... my family took their positions..mom on one side of me bea gustavo and my sis in front to watch the whole show!!!

i began pushing and i remember yelling COME ON ANDREA... and she was out within 2.5 pushes from the time she crowned!!! i couldn't believe it... it was so quick!! i tore inside and slightly on the outside but it was well worth it... Andrea came out and they placed her on my chest... i'll never forget that feeling... she was so warm...and started screaming immediately.. i always thought that at that moment i'd be so overcome with emotion that i'd be a weeping mess but to my surprise all i could do was smile and laugh because i was so happy to have her in my arms.. and because the delivery was so perfect...doc stitched me up and called it a night!!! and so began our journey into parenthood!!!