Nico's Birth Story

In mid-December, we were on pins and needles waiting for Nico to arrive. I didn’t have any idea what to expect and I spent the last days of my pregnancy reading the final chapters of Expecting Better and every Internet forum I could find trying to anticipate what would happen. Would my labor be long or short? Would my water break on its own or would I be induced? Should I eat something special to kickstart labor?

Lucas was super prepared (he read parenting books, he scoured Amazon product reviews to find the best stuff, he looked into not-so-fun topics like wills and trusts), but for some reason I had a hard time prepping and wrapping my head around having a baby for most of my pregnancy. Maybe it was out of fear of actually going through labor, or maybe it was because we chose not to find out whether we were having a boy or girl, which made the entire concept of having a baby almost abstract for me until the end. The final month, though, brought nightly kicks, bouts of baby hiccups, and intense heartburn, which made the baby feel like such a little human and it all became super real.

I am lucky to have really great maternity leave and benefits, at least by American standards. I was on paid parental leave starting 1 month before my due date, so that gave me some time to finally prepare myself and our house for a baby. I definitely started to feel the nesting feelings that new moms describe (even if it took me a while to get there), so I spent that last month finishing up the nursery, washing all of the clothes, ordering tons of stuff from Amazon, lining up dinner dates with all of my friends, and taking spin and pilates classes to physically and mentally prepare myself for labor. 

My parents arrived a few days ahead of my due date and that really made labor feel imminent. My due date arrived, but I was still only having small contractions here and there. I went to SoulCycle every day to try to kickstart natural labor, since induction carries some small risks. I had an OB-GYN appointment the day after my due date. I was only 2 cm dilated, so my doctor suggested doing a membrane stretch to induce natural labor. 

My last pregnancy pic, snapped after a SoulCycle class the day I went into labor. My belly was huge and super firm at the end.

We set up an induction for the next morning, Wednesday, December 20th, just in case the membrane stretch and exercise didn’t kickstart my labor. My doctor was heading out on vacation a few days later, and the hospital doesn’t schedule inductions on weekends or on holidays, so my next opportunity would be more than a week later. Since my mom and dad were there to help us out and I really wanted my doctor to be the one to deliver the baby, I opted to go ahead and induce, despite the small risks. The baby was super low in my pelvis, and since I was already 2cm dilated, that lowered the chances of any complications.

It ended up being a moot issue because my water broke that night while I was hanging on the couch waiting to eat dinner. At first I thought I peed my pants a little (an unfortunate reality of being almost 10 months pregnant), but then realized what happened (duh). I called my doctor’s after-hours line because I wasn’t really having major contractions. The nurse on call advised me to head in to the hospital anyway, because my amniotic sac was no longer protecting the baby. 

My mom and dad finished making dinner right before my water broke, so after speaking to the nurse, I sat down for dinner before gathering my hospital bag. I’m so happy that I ate, because once they started me on Pitocin later that night, I wasn’t allowed to eat again. I packed my stuff (side note: I had no idea that once your water breaks, it keeps leaking, and I had absolutely no pads on hand, so I had to send Lucas out to the corner market…) and then my dad drove us to the hospital.

We checked in to an empty waiting room (I’d heard horror stories of this hospital filling up all of its delivery rooms and being sent home until one opened up), and they immediately took me back to an intake room. They hooked me up to monitors, put me in a hospital gown, and inserted my IV. My contractions were still only 8 minutes apart, but they sent me upstairs to a delivery room anyway. At this point it was around 11:00 PM and we were all pretty tired (especially my parents, who were still on east coast time).

My parents left for the night and Lucas and I settled in to sleep. The doctor on call advised that I start Pitocin around 1:00 AM, so my nurse added it to my IV and we went back to sleep. I woke up around 3:30 AM with some contractions, and my nurse offered to go ahead and start my epidural. I was debating whether or not to get the epidural or start with some minor pain meds (like Tylenol) when the person in the next room over went into labor. It honestly sounded like an exorcism - like her fingernails were getting torn off - so I decided to go ahead and get the epidural. :) 

The anesthesiologist inserted the epidural and I felt immediate relief. A few minutes later, though, I started feeling really short of breath. We called the nurse and anesthesiologist back in, and they did a few tests with an alcohol swab to see if I felt a cold sensation, and they determined the epidural anesthesia had expanded too high in my chest, so they spent the next few hours regulating it, until it was finally under control.

We got a few hours of sleep and then my parents arrived back to the hospital. I remember feeling so relieved to see them, and especially my mom. It was just really comforting having my mom there, who has been through birth 3 times and the only person there who could really sympathize with what I was going through.

From there, it was basically a waiting game. We watched Jeopardy, my nurse checked how dilated I was every few hours, and my doctor came by to see me. It took me a while to get from 2 cm to 4 cm dilated, but once I reached 4 cm dilated in the morning, it progressed pretty quickly. 

By around noon, I was 8 cm dilated, but I started feeling some pretty painful contractions and it almost felt like the baby was coming out and I wouldn’t be able to stop it. They tried to adjust my epidural levels, but the pain was getting stronger, so the anesthesiologist suggested that they may need to replace the epidural altogether. He was about to go into another patient's C-section and was unsure whether he’d have time to do it, but I was pretty adamant (Lucas later told me I was basically yelling at him to replace it…whoops). The new epidural a little too strong and I couldn’t feel my legs anymore, but that was better to me than the alternative of feeling all the pain. 

Before I knew it, it was time to start pushing. I was pretty naive going into the hospital, and had no idea how it worked. I started pushing with the on call nurses before my doctor arrived. The monitors I was hooked up to showed when I was having a contraction, which signaled that it was time to push. During each contraction, I pushed 3 times for 10 seconds each. 

Every time I pushed, the baby’s heart rate dropped. My doctor arrived and it became apparent that she was pretty concerned about the heart rate falling, and she switched into emergency mode. She quickly outlined a plan where I’d push a few times, and then if that didn’t work, she was going to deliver the baby through vacuum suction or emergency c-section. I kept pushing and the crown of his little head was poking through; my mom and the nurses kept commenting on how much hair he had. The heart rate was falling too quickly, though, so my doc ultimately performed an episiotomy because my perineum was too tight to deliver the baby and she needed to get him out quickly. It turns out the umbilical cord was wrapped around his little neck 3 times and his body 2 times, which was causing the complications. 

Hello, world!

My doctor told me to push as she performed the episiotomy, and he was born 5 seconds later. They laid him on my chest, and the next few minutes were a complete blur. I remember crying and just looking down at him and up at Lucas. It was so overwhelming that I didn’t even think to look or ask whether it was a boy or girl for a few minutes. He started latching on and feeding right away, and I kept asking “Is he okay? Is he okay?” because he was so teeny and quiet. I just pictured him screaming more, but he was so calm and thoughtful looking. I don’t even remember delivering the placenta or being stitched up, because I was in a complete daze. I later realized that thanks to our doctor’s expertise and quick decision-making, everything ended up totally fine with Nico. Thankfully, all of his measurables and tests (including his oxygen level) came back completely normal, but it was really scary for a few minutes. I guess that was my first time experiencing true worry as a parent.

My first pic with our little guy.

Our little guy, Nicolas “Nico” James Puente, was born on December 20, 2017, named after his paternal uncle and his maternal grandfather. He weighed in at 6 lbs 7 oz and was 20” long (long and lean, just like his Papa).

I’ll never forget the wave of emotions I felt that day - overwhelming love for my baby and my husband, such a strong appreciation for my own parents and how much they must love me, and just being in a total state euphoria from the entire experience. Nico, we all love you so much, buddy. 

Here are a few more snaps from our magical few days at the hospital: