My Birthing Story

I wanted to log this entry so I wouldn't forget the day I became a mom. It was two weeks before my due date on a Wednesday and I was at work when my OB called me to see him right away. He said he was suspecting preeclampsia because the protein in my urine was dangerously high. In a 24-hour urine collection, proteinuria of greater than 300 mg is something to be concerned about. Mine was 3700.

The doctor told me that I had no choice but to go to the hospital right away because the only cure for preeclampsia really is to deliver the baby. I was devastated because I wasn't expecting this to happen two weeks early! I mean, granted, the baby was already full term at almost 38 weeks but I wasn't ready! The nursery wasn't done, I haven't packed my hospital bags yet, I wasn't in the mindset that I was going to give birth because I wasn't even in labor, I was still feeling good and working. But Dr. Cha told me he didn't want anything to happen to me and that I must give birth as soon as possible even by C-section. 

I started crying coz I didn't want to have a C-section. I was expecting to have a natural birth and of course I didn't want to be cut open! Anyway I called my husband (who was also at work) and my parents right away and we got ready to go to the hospital.

 I had to bring my unfinished paperwork to the hospital coz I wasn't finished. The nurses there were scolding me that I shouldn't be doing work coz by then my blood pressure was slowly climbing. They started me oxytocin to induce labor and a few hours later I started swelling up like a balloon.

Our last day as a couple. Tomorrow we will be a family!
I was induced for 10 hours during which labor wasn't really that bad, I just wasn't dilating. The nurses were seeing contractions on the monitor but I wasn't really feeling any pain. They had to give me a drug called cytotec vaginally(which a friend of mine told me they used for abortions in the Philippines) and that really hurt - but still no baby. I also got an epidural coz I had a feeling I was gonna have surgery. And I was right.

 Just after noon the next day we welcomed Bettina Camille into this world. She was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Too bad I was groggy from the anesthesia that I was seeing double. I didn't feel a thing during the surgery which was awesome.

This was our first family picture - dad, baby and mom. I'm a mom!

 My precious baby already so alert in the hospital. I was in so much pain during my recovery, I was confined to the bed for 24 hours after surgery because they had to put me on a magnesium drip for the preeclampsia. It was terrible the first time getting out of bed. My legs were like concrete and the pain was horrible. But when I look at this 5 lbs 9 oz and 19-inch little angel everything's all worth it!

I would do it all over again. But not right away :)