labor day

For prosperity's sake, here's an account of how labor went...whew! Hard to believe that was over a week ago already.

Wednesday, Nov 17
Uncle M and Auntie A were in town visiting. There were a lot of hints dropped to the baby to come a little early in an attempt to get them to extend their stay. Baby has proven to be a good listener, though her reaction was a bit delayed. Vi started to show potential signs of early labor.

Thursday, Nov 18
More signs of early labor. What Vi thinks are the onset of contractions begin at that night. Despite being advised to sleep during this early stage, she can't quite settle down in anticipation of what's to come. She downloads a contraction tracking app on her phone.

Friday, Nov 19
Mike decides to stay home from work since Vi's contractions are mild but seem to be somewhat regular (~10 minutes apart). We sprung out of bed around 5:00 and began the final nesting and packing for the hospital. Then we walked down the street to grab a bagel breakfast and run into a friendly face from birthing class. After that, Vi's contractions become more sporadic. Labor feels further out of reach! To help speed things up, we feasted at Rangoli Indian Restaurant's lunch buffet (more spice, please!). After that we somehow found ourselves in the Carter's store...a dangerous place for expecting parents (or anyone who's a sucker for cuteness). We picked out a Thanksgiving outfit and some gifts for family. Contractions continued to come and go, and Vi found it amusing knowing she would be in mid-conversation with someone when one would come and go. Feels kind of bad ass. We then went to the movies and watched Unstoppable with a good family friend, Denzel Washington. The suspense wasn't quite enough to scare the baby out, though.

Saturday, Nov 20
AM: Contractions continued throughout the morning but were still 10-15 minutes apart. We decided to go for breakfast at Stack's...a place where it would be loud and busy enough that Vi wouldn't attract attention to herself with her heavy breathing and gentle rocking to get through contractions. During breakfast we decide the time has come to finalize a name. On separate napkins we wrote down our top 3 names (which turned into top 5...it's hard to narrow it down!) to see which names overlapped and finally decide on Rosa Lê De Sousa (see earlier posting).
Noon: By the time we got home Vi's contractions were getting more intense and more predictable. We hung out at home and rested.
2pm: We called Kaiser's Labor and Delivery hotline to let them know that Vi was definitely showing signs of early/almost active labor. We were told to wait until contractions stayed 5 minutes apart for a whole hour. At this point, time seemed to go by more quickly. Contractions quickly escalated to 4 minutes part, and we began to perfect the contraction dance: swaying together to help easy the pain.
3:45pm: By the time we get to the hospital contractions are 3 minutes apart and we're told Vi was already 6cm dilated. We had wanted to try and labor as long as possible at home so...success! Vi's definitely not talking during contractions at this point and Mike is working hard to help her cope with the pain by synchronizing breathing, massaging, and applying pressure on her lower back. Our choice of names has been confirmed because we were greeted by two Kaiser employees, one with the last name Di Rosa, one with the first name Rosa. A sign? I believe so. We were then moved into our Labor & Delivery room which is pretty huge. All the amenities for mother and baby are in the room. We had decided to try to labor with the fewest interventions, including anesthesia. Vi worked through the contractions, trying to focus on her breathing and trying different positions that might relieve pain.
6:45pm: Contractions got to be pretty intense, and we decided to opt for an epidural knowing that labor could continue for hours more. This turned out to be a great decision for us and quite a relief. After feeling more at ease, we were able to peacefully wait for Rosa to arrive and even sat with Rosa's cousins M, A, and A who came to support us. Since we didn't know how much longer it would be, we convinced the cousins to go back to our house and rest until she arrived.
11:00pm: Doctor checks Vi and declare 10cm has arrived and it is now time to begin pushing! At first this proves to be tricky because Vi still can't feel much down below so she is coached by the nurse on when and how to push. But slowly she regained feeling and was able to rely more on instinct. Turns out pushing is a workout for Mike as well since he helped Vi by holding on to her leg and also applying pressure on her back...so he was essentially doing major crunches during each push. He also quickly realized synchronizing his breath with Vi's was not the best tactic out of fear of passing out from holding his breath too long!

Sunday, Nov 21
12:31: Baby Rosa Lê De Sousa is born (!) and place immediately on Vi's chest. Deep breaths are taken, smiles are ear-to-ear, and tears roll down cheeks. She is beautiful. Her eyes are wide and curious, looking around at the new world around her. After absorbing her environment and mommy and daddy, she quickly starts to root for food with the sweetest, plumpest lips puckering around.
For the rest of the early morning Rosa and Mom are tended to and then soon after moved to a new room in the Mother and Baby department down the hall. Rosa's cousins, bearing gifts of freshly-baked sweet potato blondies, are her very first visitors.
4:00am: Road to recovery really begins for Rosa, Mom, and Dad.