A bit different Christmas this year...

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 EVERYONE!!!!

I know I haven't posted here anything for a while. I do have a reason why I took a break. Beautiful reason... Some of you might know that I was pregnant. Some of you actually worked with me during pregnancy. It was difficult to shoot in my 8th and 9th month but I still worked as much as I could. My due date was Dec. 30th which is also my birthday. I stopped shooting around Dec. 10th as my husband and I felt it would be the best to just relax to make sure I don't harm our little one due to heavy lifting, not breathing right during photoshoot (I sometimes have to hold the breath not to shake the camera) and moving around too much. I thought to myself that I will have some quiet Christmas and then perhaps the 30th or later the little one will arrive. My whole pregnancy was great, except the first 3 months when I was really sick. Well, the end took a bit different turn.... but at the end we are both healthy and happy. I would like to share with you my...

BIRTH STORY:

Sunday, Dec. 20th I started out of sudden getting extreme pain in my lower back on the left side. It felt like kidney stones or something like that. I had a feeling it is not a labor pain. I called the hospital in case and they told us to come in. After a quick check up, they told me I am in early labor and that if the pain gets steady or not going away, I should come back. They actually said the baby would be born that night or next day.

I went home walking and surprisingly the pain stopped in the evening. Then at night it started again for about and hour, Monday nothing... until the night when it started hurting me a lot for steady an hour. Tuesday nothing again and it started hurting in the afternoon and at night. I knew something is not right and it is not labor pain but my kidney.


Wednesday morning, 23rd, at 8:45 am I saw my OB and told him all about the pain. After he tapped on my back he said, yes there is something going on with kidney. He sent me to the hospital to see a specialist and possibly to induce the labor.

I arrived to the hospital around 11am. Doctor checked me and said that I am 3 cm dialated. He checked the kidney, let me stay on monitor for some more... once he came back, he told me that he wants to break the water to start labor. I was scared and nervous. I was scared for the little one but I was releaved that I am in the hospital taken care off.

He broke my water at 11:20am and all he said...."the baby doesn't like it there, he passed his first stool inside, I am really happy we did this and decided to break the water".

Once we moved to delivery room, I started slowly getting contractions. Small, not hurting as much. At 4pm they decided to give me IV and induce the labor since it wasn't working fast enough. Once I got the chemical... oh man.... contractions came quickly, extremely strong and lasted long time. I was checked again later on and still only 3 cm dialated. I couldn't take the pain anymore so I asked for pain releave since I wasn't progressing fast enough and I didn't want to face this pain for another 8 hours or so...

They gave me epidural and it worked like a miracle. Only at that time I didn't know that I made a very good choice. As soon as I got the epi, nurse checked me and said...."wow you are 9.5cm we can start pushing". I couldn't beleive it. She said that sometimes the epi relaxes the woman and she just out of sudden opens up. Before they let my husband in my baby's heart rate was going up so they had me moving from side to side and breathing oxygen to bring his heart rate back to normal. This took about 5 min.

My husband came back to my room and was very surprised I was actually smiling, not feeling pain and telling him we are going to push. I started pushing and pushing... after about 2 hours doctor came in to see the progress... he kept asking if I have the strengh to keep going. I felt like a bull... I had tons of energy to keep going the whole night if I had to. I ended up pushing another hour and doctor offered me to use vacuum cup to help the baby out. He was big so he got stock in my pelvis. He assured me that he will be carefull and it is the best way to go at this time. I agreed and we started.

He had to cut me open as I was extremely swolen after that long pushing. Within 10 min he was out. Totally I pushed for 3.5 hours which is long. I couldn't beleive when doctor allowed me to touch his head as he was coming out. I couldn't beleive it when I saw him first time. I was crying heavily and my husband as well. We were holding each other as we were watching the nurses to taking care of our little one.

Tomas was born Dec. 23rd at 23 hours and 23 min at 39 weeks of pregnancy. He was 55cm long, weight almost 9 pounds. Healthy and beautiful.

I had to stay in the room for another 2 hours as doctor was working on my episiotomy . He said he hasn't seen anything like it and he hasn't done that many stiches... oh well.....

Once I was ready to go to recovery room they wanted me to go to bathroom first. Well, as soon as I got there, I got dizzy and almost passed out. They quickly took me back to bad and gave me another IV as my blood pressure was really low.

So, the labor was quite interesting, nurses kept coming to me afterwards saying "you are the one who had the hard labor". I just smiled back happily.... I did it. I cannot beleive I did it.

It was absolutely the best feeling in the world I ever experienced to see him come out and having my husband on my side.... just incredible.

And.... hopefully, if everything goes well... I'll do it again soon.....









So here you have it. We returned home Dec. 25th early afternoon. I have to admit, I found the return be too early for me. I still couldn't walk, sit, move around and was not ready to take care of little one without help of nurses. First 2 days were a bit hard but then things got better. We are home now 18 days and I must say it is great. Tomas has his own schedule now and things are getting organized.

What else can I say? It is the truth about what they say... You don't feel as a complete woman until you give birth. It is the best feeling in the world.