At around 2-3AM on July 12th, 2021 I woke up with what felt like cramping and a mild sensation to go use the bathroom. I thought it was Braxton Hicks or just gas. The pain went on consistently for about an hour, and I was falling in and out of sleep. I finally woke RJ up and let him know I was feeling pain and we called the L&D triage line. They asked me if this was my first pregnancy and I said yes, so they told us to wait until contractions were at 2-1-1. When we called, I was already around 3-1-1. After we called, I was able to fall back asleep until around 7AM. I had my pre-scheduled appointment with by OBGYN at 9AM on the 13th, so I thought that I might as well just ride out the pain and see what my OBGYN had to say.

When we got to my OBGYN, I was still having the pain so she did a check and her first response was, “Oh wow, he is definitely there. I would say you are about 4-5cm so we should get you to the hospital.” I was in shock. The pain wasn’t what I imagined it to be, or what I saw in the movies. It was mostly bearable, with the occasional strong pain but nothing that was making me think I was already in active labor. So, after we left the OBGYN’s office, we headed home and started getting our things ready to head to the hospital. I let my friends and family know our plan, and we made our way to Los Gatos Hospital around 11AM.

When I arrived at the hospital, I checked in at the front desk and they put me in my room, I changed into a hospital gown and laid down. They connected me to the monitors to track my contractions. It was amazing to see them happen on screen. After about 45-minutes, my OBGYN came in and asked me if I wanted her to pop my bag, which would help move things along. When she did that, it was this very warm rush of liquid and I remember my heart racing as I knew this would really speed things up.

After about another hour, I ended up dilating to another 8 cm naturally. My doctor waited another hour to see how much further I could get on my own. After those two hours passed, I was still at 8cm to which I opted for Pitocin per my doctors recommendation and that really kicked up the contractions. I got the epidural around the same time and was able to take a nap. The epidural process was something I was nervous about, but the experience was really straight forward and not painful. Ultimately, I’m glad I got it because I think it helped save me a lot of energy that I needed after the baby was born. Plus I got to take a nap during the experience and it was nice having that break.

After a few hours, I was still dilating slower than earlier so we pumped it up once more time and that’s when I really started to feel the contractions. I remember telling the nurse that I needed more of the epidural so the anesthesiologist came back, I think 2 or 3 times.

At around 9PM, I was having intense side pain and I kept telling my nurses that something wasn’t feeling right. I remember them telling me that it was almost time to push. They were speaking to each other in Tagalog saying to call the doctor because I was going to start pushing soon.

I think I pushed for a total of 20-25 minutes and it went by so quickly. I was able to feel Remy’s head as I was pushing. I honestly don’t remember all of the experience because it felt like so much was happening. But when they finally placed him on my chest I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of joy – I had to grasp for my breath. 🙂

The experience was something I will never forget. And I could not be more grateful that I was blessed with a healthy 7lb 4oz, 20inches baby.

More to come on my postpartum experience.