On January 20th, 2010 at 2:40 in the morning, I woke to find that my water had broken. Because I was still groggy, it took me awhile to realize what was happening since I wasn't even conscious enough to remember I was pregnant. After realizing that my water had broken, my first thought was that I had only been able to enjoy 1 day of maternity leave before he was born. I had now lost the 4 weeks of pre-maternity leave.
Only days ago, I had gone to a child birth preparation class with my mother, and the teacher explained that when your water breaks only a little leaks at a time. She showed us her bottle of water which only had about an ounce of water left, and explained that was all the water that would come out.
WHAT A LIE! Thinking the worst was over, I thought I had enough time to stroll to the bathroom. That's when the torrential water flowed. I got up and ran to the bathroom, making a mess all the way. It continued to flow as I sat on the toilet, trying to figure out my next move. Remembering what I had learned in my class, I thought I didn't need to go to the hospital until my contractions reached 511 (Every 5 minutes, contractions lasting for 1 minute, that has been going on for 1 hour). However, I wasn't feeling any contractions yet, and had no idea what to do. I called my mother and the hospital. The doctor suggested that I come in since my water broke and I was super early. The baby was not due until February 13th, and he was still 3 days away from being considered full term.
Javier drove me to the hospital, and in true fashion the baby had chosen one of the most stormy mornings to make his debut. My mom jokingly called him "tsunami" ever since the car accident, and by the looks outside the car window, that nickname was very fitting.
I started bleeding when I reached the hospital doors, but still no contractions. I didn't begin to feel the contractions until about 8 am and they were tolerable. It wasn't until 10 or 11 that I started to feel that I would not be able to do this without the support of drugs. I begged for the Fentanyl. They doused me 2 or 3 times in the next few hours. Finally, the time had come to choose whether or not I wanted an epidural. I welcomed it with open arms. They say it's painful when the doctor injects you, but honestly the pain was nothing compared to the contractions I was feeling. Thanks to the epidural, the rest was a piece of cake. I had long been afraid of pushing a baby out, but I never thought the epidural would make things so easy! I thought to myself happily, "Every woman should just take the epidural!"
Diego Gianni Diaz was born at 7:16 pm weighing 6lbs 4oz and only Javier and my mother were allowed in the delivery room. I had to get stitched up afterwards, but again because of the wonderful epidural, it was not as bad as I had always pictured it to be.
Yes, we named him Diego. It was very difficult to come up with a name that both Javier and I liked. Once he said the name "Diego" out loud, I instantly knew that was going to be the name. However, Javier wanted to make sure that we had exhausted all our options. A few weeks prior, we took a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had dinner one night at our favorite restaurant chain, The Outback Steakhouse and Javier began a funny process of elimination to ensure that Diego Gianni Diaz was the best name for our future son.
Since he's been born, it's been a whirlwind. My mother took the week off to take care of me and Diego, and it was the best thing she could have done while I healed. A few days after being released from the hospital, I had to admit him back to the hospital because he had Jaundice. We stayed at the hospital for two nights, and he was kept in the nursery in an incubator under constant UV lights. I came in every 3 hours through the day and night when it was nursing time.
Being at the hospital helped me get a good rhythm going when it came to feeding and nursing. I had struggled the first couple of nights to get him to stop crying through the night. I found that the 3 hour feeding schedule really helped minimize his crying. I feel better about nursing, pumping, swaddling, and changing his diapers (before Diego, I had somehow managed to avoid ever changing a dirty diaper in my life). I also learned that he prefers to sleep at an inclined position rather than flat on his back. But they do such a good job on scaring you about SIDS and the whole "back" to sleep campaign that I was afraid to put anything in his crib that might be a hazard.Now that we have a rhythm down, his jaundice is clear, and I'm almost completely healed, I can just enjoy these moments next to my first son. I look into his eyes and so far still only see a generic baby. I don't recognize any facial features, except a monkey when he is feeding. My family says they see Javier, me, his grandfather, and even his great grandfather... but I just see a cute baby. I never imagined what a baby that came from me would look like, and like any other glowing mother, I've got to say that he is just simply beautiful!
