I’m so excited to share my baby boy’s birth story. It took me a looooong time to write this and finally post (he’s almost 4 months old now). This is going to be a little long because I want to remember every detail. When I was pregnant, I spent hours reading birth stories, can’t believe I’m finally able to share mine. 💙

WARNING ⚠️: there are some breastfeeding photos, pre-pregnancy body, and labor/birth pictures. Nothing incredibly graphic. No nudity other than breastfeeding shot.

I had a scheduled induction date of April 12, 2018 (which was exactly 38 weeks for my pregnancy). I had GD and my OB was worried he would be too big.

Night before induction:

When I originally got my induction date assigned I was excited knowing there was a chance he could have be born on Friday the 13th. I was born on Halloween and my husband was born on September 13th so it seemed like a perfect date for him to join our family. 🖤🤘🏻

My husband and I left the house at 5:30 am and went to IHOP to have breakfast together, just us, one last time. ♥️ At the hospital we were checked in very quickly. They started me on Cervidil right away to help thin my cervix since I was not dilated at all and cervix was high and long. After they start cervidil it’s a waiting game... the nurses check dilation every 4 hours from then on to monitor progress. They also started an insulin drip to help keep my blood sugar at the perfect levels.

My first dose of cervidil was at 9:30 am. By 6:00 pm I was dilated to 1 cm. It felt so great to hear that! 🙌🏻 Baby steps feel huge in the hospital lol.

From about 8:00 pm until 11:00 pm my contractions started intensifying. I walked around and bounced and rolled on one of the birthing balls but had no relief. I asked them for pain medicine around 9:30 pm and that helped for a little while.

By 11:00 pm I was dilated to 3 cm and the contractions were hitting me like waves. This was when the doctor told me I was ready to start Pitocin. About 30 minutes after this check I started shaking uncontrollably and felt extremely nauseous. When I called my nurse she advised me that I was in transition to active labor and asked if I wanted an epidural before things take off even more. I was already in so much pain that I accepted. At 12:30 am on 4/13 they started my epidural. The anesthesiologist was so wonderful and joked with me to keep me calm. I’m not afraid of needles but there is something unsettling about someone messing with your spine. When the medicine hit me I told the anesthesiologist he was a magical wizard 🧙🏻‍♂️. The epidural was incredible. I was able to sleep. 💤💤

Well... I was able to sleep until they woke me at about 4:00 am for my next check. This time the doctor came in and said he would be doing the check and most likely breaking my water. At the time I didn’t understand he meant he’d be breaking it on purpose. I thought he meant it would probably break by him doing the check. The doctor said I was dilated to 4 cm and broke my water with a hook. I realized what he was doing as he was doing it. It was a really strange feeling. I just felt luke warm water surging out of me. I tried to go back to sleep but by this point I was too excited!

The morning rolled around slowly. By 8:00 am I was dilated to 5. I felt nothing though... my legs were pretty numb from the epidural. They had to help me roll over when I needed to because the lower half of my body wouldn’t move at my command, lmao. That was the weirdest feeling. Like I knew my legs existed but I had no control over them at all. 🙃🙃🙃

By this point they started checking me every two hours. At my next check around 10:00 am they said I was at 5 and 1/2 which was a little discouraging. The doctor decided to put a contraction monitor on the baby’s head so they could gauge the intensity and frequency of my contractions and change my pitocin levels if needed. After a little monitoring they upped my pitocin levels.

Around 11:00 am I started feeling pressure, the nurse checked the sheets and said I had had my “show”. I told her something felt different (I don’t even know how I knew since my legs had gone numb from the epidural). She decided to do another cervix check at 11:30 am. We thought I would maybe have reached 7 or 8 since the process had been slow and they had upped my pitocin levels only 20 minutes before. My husband was in the lobby with my father in law at this point. When the nurse checked me she said “Where’s Daddy?” With a panicked look on her face. And I said “in the lobby, why? do we need him?” She said “Yes, call him now. You’re dilated to 10 and the baby is at zero position. You’re ready.” I was scared! 😱 I think this was my “oh shit, you’re really having a baby” moment. My mother in law practically ran out of the room to get my husband. She told him “it’s complete” in Spanish and he thought she meant the baby was born. He was in shock and thought he missed the birth. Little did he know it would be a little while longer. He cane running in like a crazy person.

I officially started pushing at 12:27 pm. They completely disconnected my epidural so I could feel my contractions. As time went on the pressure and pain increased. It was the most intense pressure I’ve ever felt. 💪🏻😫

I had the best support team possible: my husband, my mom, my stepmom, my mother in law, and my youngest sister (17). It was a huge crowd but I was grateful for each of them. My husband completely surprised me by taking control of my whole labor process. 🙏🏻❤️

Once the epidural wore off, I was miserable. The pressure was so intense. Baby boy was doing great but after my first few attempts at pushing the nurse said she saw a very tiny amount of meconium in the amniotic fluid. NICU was now required to be present when he was born in case of emergency. They also told me that it was a 50/50 chance he would have a NICU stay because of his blood sugar from my gestational diabetes. I was scared but trusted the nurses 100%.

About 30 minutes into pushing my nurse left to go on break and the nurse who replaced her was literally an angel. She was the exact nurse I needed to deliver my son. I was convinced I needed a csection and kept repeating “I can’t, I can’t” and she just kept saying “You can, you can! You are!” I didn’t feel like I was progressing and that’s when she took my hand and guided it down to feel my son’s head. 🙌🏻😇 This gave me the motivation I needed. Around 2:15 pm, she said you’re ready, I’m calling the doctor.

She called the doctor and found out she was in the middle of a csection. I felt the strongest urge to push and more intense pressure than I’ve ever felt in my life. My nurse kept asking me to push but I was positive if I pushed he would pop out. My contractions were back to back. The whole NICU team came in and there were about 8 nurses standing by.

Finally at 2:25 pm the doctor arrived, took one look at my face and knew I was ready. She rushed over and told me to push. One long push and he was out. I yelled when his head and shoulders came out. At 2:27 pm, exactly two hours after I started pushing, Alexander Kylan Ontiveros was born on Friday the 13th! He weighed 8 pounds exactly and was exactly 20 inches long. My little perfectionist.

My smiling angel nurse on the right and doctor in the left.

All I was waiting for was his cry and for them to tell me he was okay. He gave a very short, weak cry (like he was mildly annoyed but content) and then they put him on my chest. He settled immediately. The first words I said were “Mama loves you so much, I’ve waited a long time to meet you.” Everyone was crying, he is my rainbow baby.

They were concerned that he wasn’t crying enough so they took him to make sure he was alright. He was perfectly fine. My baby’s just not a crier 🤷🏻‍♀️. After a half hour they checked his blood sugar and it was perfect. I was so grateful

.

Heaven 👆🏻

As soon as they took his measurements and gave him back I breastfed him. He immediately latched, ate, and fell asleep. I’d never felt stronger in my whole life and realized I joined a new community. Motherhood. I had a realization that so many mothers had done this exact same thing for thousands of years and it was such a powerful moment for me.

Mamas to be... it’s ALL worth it!