birth story...

Since I was supposedly “due” on July 14, and he still hadn’t come, my doctor decided to induce me. As many of you know, my doctor was also expecting and had the exact same due date as me. So it was not "my doctor", but a new doctor. She was really nice, but a bit odd to have only met her once before my inducement.

I was scheduled to be induced on Saturday July 19 at 8 am. Never having been induced, I thought I would be having Bryant on Saturday, but this was not the case. When I got to the triage, I asked to be placed in the Birth Center. The Birth Center is usually for people who want to experience “a natural birth” with a midwife. But I choose the Birth Center because it was a large room. I really didn’t care if a midwife or a doctor delivered since my doctor was not going to be delivering the baby anyways, as long as I could get an epidural.

The midwife wanted me to walk around and see if the baby would come since I was getting contractions and was 2-3 cm dilated. I tried to tell her, that I had been about 3 cm dilated for two weeks, and I had been walking with Phil and Tri from my condo to Marine Stadium daily and several times even walked to 2nd Street. She gave me the more conservative drug to ready my cervix in the morning but had me wait until around 6pm before I was given the medication to induce the labor.

My contractions were manageable until my water broke at 2:30 am. After my first "real" contraction I was yelling for the epidural. I assumed that I was having the baby within seconds. After the nurse checked on me, I had only dilated 5-6 cm, I still had hours to go. It took the anesthesiologist about an hour to give me the epidural, although it felt like a lifetime. After the epidural, I feel asleep. The nurse woke me up around 5:30 am to check on me. I was fully dilated, so she had me try to push. Because my lower body was numb from the epidural, I was not able to push effectively. The doctor decided for me to wait an hour for the epidural to wear off. Around 6:30am I started pushing, and continued until his arrival at 8:28am.

Phil was great. He helped me stay calm and relaxed especially when my water broke and when I had to push. He held my hand through everything. And no he didn’t faint during the delivery, but helped me out so much. On a funny note, the nurse that helped me during the delivery was Korean, and she was telling Phil to splash some water on his face to wake up, since his eyes were half open. Of course, Phil responded that his eyes were open, and that he was just born that way.

HE'S HERE!!!

After waiting and waiting, Bryant Gerald Hernandez made his appearance on Sunday July 20, 2008 at 8:28am. He weighed 7lbs 10 oz. and was 21 inches long. He is fine and healthy. Here are some pics. I will hopefully get some time this evening to get into more details, but I have had little sleep this week. We have a doctor's appointment at 10 am and another at 3:30pm, so on top of no sleep we are busy.

I just started checking my e-mails today, so I have to catch up with sending back replys to everyone but I wanted to show everyone at least some pictures. These were taken minutes after he was born.

This picture was taken a few hours later, you could tell he looks all cleaned up.

Bryant with Grandparents Castillo.

This was taken last night.

inquiring minds...

Thank you for everyone calling, e-mailing and texting. I am doing fine, but I am still pregnant... This little guy is just cooking in the oven ;) I think he is like his grandparents Castillo, and will be late for everything, which drives me crazy. No need for me to mention all the important events in my life I have been late to because of my parents.



In case you are wondering what I look like. The picture was taken on Sunday. It is of my cousin Monica and me at her baby shower. She is due in August, but doesn't know if she is having a girl or a boy.

baby classes

Last week I was so busy...I know I am not working, but I have so many classes that I have to take before Bryant's arrival. I had been working until recently, so I didn't have time to take any of the traditional baby classes until last week. I seemed that I was the only one due this month taking the classes.

I am just happy that I was able to take the classes, my sister was not as lucky. She worked until the end of tax season. She signed up to take the classes after tax season, but she was not able to take the classes. Within days of tax season ending she had to stay at the hospital two and half months before her due date because she was a high risk pregnancy. She was considered a high risk pregnancy because she had had previous miscarriages, and she was carrying twins. Everything turned out fine with my nephews, but she (and I) did not know what to do. We never babysat, changed diapers, etc. It was a huge learning curve.

Phil and I did attend the lamaze classes for several weeks. The classes were on Monday nights, so I waited until Gamma Chi finished for the semester so I could take the lamaze classes on Monday nights. We didn't know what lamaze was about, so we did not know why we would need to take 6 weeks of classes to learn how to breath. I am really happy we took the classes especially because our instructor, Maria Phillips, was so excited to teach us different techniques and answered so many of our questions. She taught us more than just how to breathe.

Last week I attended, Baby Basic class, Breastfeeding class, and took the tour of the hospital. The baby basic class was helpful, but I have been helping take care of my nephews, so changing the diapers of a doll is not the same. If it had not been for my nephews I might have believed that changing diapers would be easy.

I was not sure what to expect with the breastfeeding class, but I was hoping to receive a lot of information. My mom and my sister did not breastfeed, so I really did not know anything about it. The breastfeeding class was not about information. Most of the women that attended knew that they were going to breastfeed and for at least a year, so the class was more of a pow wow. I also felt odd, because it was the only class that Phil did not attend with me. Although, I did not want Phil to attend, because I knew that he would be like the other men in attendance in the class, i.e. not taking the class seriously.

The tour of the hospital was interesting…it was very informative to know where I was going to go, and what was going to happen. I was a little surprised that was not as hectic as it is on TV. I also expected there to be many women screaming bloody murder. However, this was not the case, there was a lady yelling/moaning/screaming (not as loud as I would have imagined), and one doctor strolling to her room (just one doctor not a team of people running to her). It actually calmed me down, especially since the head nurse giving us the tour gave us apple juice, and talked about the staff, and the rooms.

I still have another class to attend tomorrow - Labor and Delivery. Actually I also need to attend a CPR class, but that class isn't offered until August.

***Update, I am getting "fake" contractions, although they feel real and strong. I went to a doctor’s appointment today, and he is really low. This means that he can come at any time. The doctor, of course, would not give me any predictions or expectations other than he could come at any time.

Phil was really hoping that Bryant would arrive on the fourth of July, but it didn’t happen although my friend delivered a beautiful girl on the fourth of July.