{A Milo Story}

It was the day before the due date. My mom and I were at a birthday party for my cousin’s daughter’s birthday. My aunt, who is a nurse, was telling me how crazy it was that the due date was the next day. I told her that based on what the doctor had told me, baby wouldn’t be coming for at least another week. I told her I was trying so hard with my mom's help to get baby to come by walking the mall, going on walks at the park with the hubby and my mom, and eating pineapple and drinking pineapple juice. My aunt continued to tell me to try using clary sage essential oil on my pressure points and see if that would help. Later after the birthday party, my mom and I went back to my place. I asked Marc to go get some oil from the grocery store so we could try it out. Oddly enough, we didn't even have any clary sage even though Marc worked for Young Living Essential Oils and we have a plethora of them. Haha!!

Later that night, my mom, Marc and I were all sitting down watching the movie. The oh joyous, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” kind. Marc was applying the clary sage oil on my pressure points on my hands and ankles when I started to contract a little bit. We started getting anxious as this was the first of the contractions I had ever felt! We started timing the contractions but they were still about eight minutes apart. My doctor told me that my contractions needed to be four minutes apart or less for me to start really paying attention. We watched our movie while simultaneously timing contractions. The movie ended and we went to bed around 11 PM. I was still contracting but thought that maybe by sleeping, the contractions would wear off and I would just wait to see what happened the next morning. We all went to bed and everyone fell asleep...except for me! I tried my best to go to sleep but I was still contracting and they were becoming stronger and stronger. I woke up Marc after a couple of hours of not being able to sleep explaining that I wasn’t feeling well and I needed to go into the hospital. He then went and woke up my mom and she said that I should call the hospital to see what they thought I should do because I felt that I was just cramping and not necessarily contracting. I called the hospital and they explained that since it was just cramping, I should take a hot bath or shower and see if it would go away on its own. If not, I was welcome to come in and they would check me. I told Marc and my mom what was going on and then they tried to get some more sleep while I took a hot shower. The pain didn’t seem to go away at all. I got out of the shower, got dressed, woke up them both back up and told them I needed to go in.

We drove to the hospital and arrived around 1:30 AM. When we got there, I was really starting to feel it. They hooked me up to a monitor to check my contractions and baby's heartbeat. They checked my cervix and said I was dilated to a two at that point. They would watch me for an hour and see if there was any progress. If there wasn’t, they would send me home with some pain killer meds and see if that would help. My mom sat in the waiting room while Marc and I were in another room watching TV to keep us somewhat distracted from what was going on. I don't even remember what we were watching on TV at all to be honest. That hour seemed like it lasted a lifetime as I struggled through some really strong contractions. All three of us were extremely exhausted at this point just hoping that something would happen for the better. The nurse came in after an hour and checked me again. I had already jumped up to a four! They said I could be admitted and we would be having a baby really soon! We were both so excited that our little boy would be coming soon. Aaaand lets be honest, I was super excited to have what I learned later on, 10 pounds off my stomach. 

At around 2:30 AM, I was moved to another room where I would later give birth and recover in. I was in so much pain at this point I wanted an epidural as soon as I could. I informed the nurse of my request and they said they would get the anesthesiologist there as soon as they could to administer the epidural. I had the shakes so bad which is normal from the trauma my body was experiencing but it was so intense! The anesthesiologist finally arrived after what seemed like forever. He numbed the area and administered the epidural. The meds went more into one leg then the other so I had to lay on the opposite side so the medicine would reach both sides of my body. Eventually things went well with the epidural and the pain subsided thanks to the beautiful epidural!! After that, we all tried to get some rest as best we could with all of our mixed emotions we shared.

The nurses came in periodically to check and see how things were going and to check to see how baby was doing. At around 9 AM the nurse came and checked my cervix once again and said that I was dilated to about 9 ¾ at that point. We just needed to wait for the doc to get there and then I could start pushing for baby to come! Of course she needed to take a shower before she could come so that’s what we were waiting on. The doctor was on her way and allowed the nurses to have me start pushing to try to get baby down into the birth canal more. I was so exhausted at this point and it was hard to feel any pushing from having the epidural. Once the doctor got there, I really started pushing. Baby was so big that the nurses could see I was having huge contractions but they couldn’t feel them on my stomach. I was feeling a sharp pain on the left side of my groin so they assumed that must be a sign of a contraction. They told me to push once I could feel that pain. I pushed in increments of 30 minutes and then I would need to rest from being exhausted and also because there wasn’t enough progress. There was about five or six of these pushing sessions before the final 15 minutes before baby finally came. In that last 15 minutes, I kept thinking in my head how in the world was I going to do this? Could I take it anymore? Was this ever going to end?

The nurse told me I just needed to tell myself I wanted to have a baby within 15 minutes and it would happen. I pushed as hard as I could, more than I ever did before. They told me to bare down and give it everything I had. I felt this enormous pressure on my chest like it was being crushed. The nurses could see the head and a ton of hair on it! I kept pushing and the nurses were trying to get the head through. All of a sudden, I felt this huge relief of pressure being released from my body once the head came through and then even more pressure and weight being lifted from inside me as his whole little but big body came out. As I opened my eyes, there was a huge beautiful whaling babe lying on my chest. So many emotions rushed through me. Was this baby actually mine? He just came from his only home inside me? Was I prepared to be the parent this child needed in his life? It was all so amazing and so perfect. They cleaned baby up, weighed him and checked his vitals. He weighed in at 10 pounds 2 ounces and 22 inches long. They then placed him in my arms after the doctor stitched me up from tearing a little. There was this moment where the world felt like it stood still as Marc and I admired our newest addition. He was such an amazing miracle and truly a manifestation that he had just come from his heavenly home. He was just perfect in every way. Our little Milo was finally home.