The Birth Story

So I am now Mom to a beautiful baby boy!  Castiél Ramón Flores was born on May 15th at 11:18 pm.

It all started on Saturday afternoon when we met a close personal friend at River's Crossing Mall to walk, walk, walk!  :)  I started having contractions on Saturday night, and then they got more frequent on Sunday morning.  However, they weren't incredibly painful.  We went to the hospital just in case at about noon on Sunday afternoon.  I was dilated to 3 cm, and was having contractions consistently every 5 minutes, even though I couldn't feel them much.  My doctor happened to be on call, and since I was a day away from my due date, he admitted me.  He broke my water at about 2:10 pm, and it was THEN that I bagan feeling the contractions.  DEFINITELY!  They were coming about every 30 seconds to 1 minute and were incredibly painful.  Luckily it only took about 30-45 minutes for me to get an epidural and then I was feeling no pain!  That anesthesiologist became my new best friend!!!  :)  I did, however, get sick several times throughout the day, and the vomiting quickly turned to dry heaving as I had nothing but ice chips in my system.

I continued to progress throughout the afternoon and by about 6:30 I was dilated to 8 cm.  And then I stopped.  I was still dilated to 8 cm at 10:30 pm, so my doctor decided to prep me for a "c"-section.

Once that decision was made everything happened pretty quickly and Castiél was born at 11:18.  We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl (although Carlos was pretty confident it was a boy), and we heard the cry first.  As soon as I heard the baby cry, I started crying - I just couldn't help it.  Then they said, "It's a boy!" and Carlos said, "YES!!, I TOLD you so!"  :)

Carlos then went to be with the baby as they finished my surgery.  (we had decided beforehand that this is how we wanted to do it)  The worst part of the surgery was the medicine they gave me that dried out my mouth.  I never realized just how uncomfortable dry mouth was!!!!  I ate nearly a whole cup of ice chips in the recovery room!

Carlos then came back with Castiél and I was able to begin breastfeeding.

My parents then came to say goodbye and we were off to my post-partum room.  Everything after that is kind of a blur.  We had lots of visitors yesterday, when I looked and felt like crap.  Today, when I'm up and around, it has been kind of quiet.  We will go home tomorrow, and that is when the REAL adventure begins!!!