Happy 2nd Birthday Mia! – A look back on our birth story

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Today our baby girl, Mia Grace Tanigawa, is turning two years old! I know this is the most cliche saying, but it’s so true…THEY GROW UP SO FAST! I thought this would be a great time to share our birth story since we never have before and show you a few photos and a short video of the whole day!

Mia’s due date was April 2, 2016, but when that day rolled around and there was still no baby, we went in for a doctors appointment to make sure everything was moving along good. Since my cervix was no where near being dilated at this point and Mia was already pretty big, the doctor said I had the option to schedule an induction and we chose to do so. I know we probably could have waited another week or two, but I was too terrified that if she got too big it would cause complications and I would have to get a c-section (I know now that probably wouldn’t have been the case, but give me a little break, I was a scared first time mama). We scheduled Mia’s induction for 10pm the next day (April 3rd) because that was the only day our doctor was available that week. We immediately headed home and got all of our stuff prepped and ready for the hospital!

 

I took this photo right before we left for the hospital.

 

One good thing about getting induced, is that you have time to prepare, get yourselves ready, and take a nice shower! We headed to the hospital around 10pm on April 3rd. We were told they usually schedule inductions late at night because it takes around 12 hours for the dilation to begin. I strolled in to the hospital with two small suitcases full of stuff, and yes, I way over-packed! I think that’s pretty standard for first time mamas, since you have no idea what to expect. I honestly only needed about half of that stuff, haha. The nurses got us all set up in our room and didn’t waste any time getting the medicine inserted in to my cervix to start the dilation process. I say “medicine” because I’m going to be honest that I don’t exactly remember what it was they inserted in me HA. We were told this “medicine” usually takes 12 hours to kick in and if after 12 hours it still had not worked they would continue the process with Pitocin. So the nurse said “sit back, relax, and just wait”, yeah, the relaxing part was easier said than done!

 

 

After a couple of hours the nurse came in to check my cervix, and in order to check it (warning, graphic explanation) she had to insert her fingers WAY up in to my cervix and at this point the medicine was softening my cervix so it literally felt like she was sticking a knife up me! The nurse said I wasn’t dilated yet, so she would come back in another couple of hours to check again. When she came back in this time I was starting to get small contraction pains, nothing unbearable, but definitely uncomfortable. She checked my cervix again and HOLY MOLY it hurt 10 times worse this time! I was literally screaming when she was feeling around my cervix! She said I was only 2 centimeters dilated so we needed to wait a little longer. I should also add, when I got to the hospital, I knew without a doubt that I wanted an epidural. I wasn’t trying to be a superhero or prove anything to anyone, I was terrified and knew the epidural would help ease the labor pains! They can’t give you an epidural until you are at least 4 centimeters dilated so we had to wait. I was starving at this point as well because I didn’t eat before we left for the hospital since I was so nervous and I wasn’t allowed to have any food once I had the medicine inserted in me, so lesson learned ladies, eat before you go to the hospital if you can! I was basically living off of ice chips for the next 20 hours!

It had now been 12 hours since I had the medicine inserted in to my cervix and my parents had finally arrived to the hospital all the way from Napa. The nurse came to check me again and yes it hurt like hell this time too, but she said I was still only 2 centimeters dilated. I just started crying because I thought this was going to take forever and the thought of her having to check in my cervix again made me want to die! She removed what ever it was that was in my cervix and told me to rest for a little bit and she would call the doctor to see what steps to take next. 30 minutes had passed and out of no where my contractions went from a 1 to a freaking 10! I was in a crazy amount of pain, I was sweating and screaming. My mom called for the nurse and when the nurse came in to check me I was 6 centimeters dilated! I just kept screaming for her to please get my epidural and she ran to page for the anesthesiologist. Unfortunately anesthesiologists aren’t just waiting around at the hospital, so the nurse came back in to let me know it would be a little while before he arrived. Hearing those words made it feel like the world was ending, I needed the damn drugs now!!! Cijay and my mom did a great job at trying their best to help keep me calm and ease my pain, but no matter what they did I just wanted to scream from the pain! All of the sudden I felt a rush of wetness in my bed and I honestly thought I peed myself, but when my mom looked, she said “umm I think your water just broke” and let me just tell you, once that happened, it was like the worse kind of pain was released through my body! I was seriously shaking and screaming. My mom ran to grab the nurse again and when she came to check me she literally said “holy crap, you’re 9 centimeters dilated!”. I immediately went in to panic mode because once your dilated passed a certain point you can no longer get the epidural and I was at that point. I will say, that if I had prepared myself for the option of no epidural and done a lot of meditation practice, I think I would have been able to handle this situation a little differently, but I didn’t, so I wanted to die.

 

This was the moment my pain sky rocketed and I was bracing myself for death.

 

The anesthesiologist finally arrived but since it was too late, he was only able to give me a mild version of an epidural (again, I don’t remember what it was called). It was still inserted in to my spine like a normal epidural and let me tell you how hard it is to stay still for that shot when you’re in so much pain that you keep shaking! The nurses literally had to get in my face and tell me when to breath because I wasn’t breathing properly due to the pain and they were afraid I was going to pass out. The medicine was inserted and I attempted to lay back down, it did ease my contractions, but it was still an intense amount of pain. I immediately began yelling at the nurses that I was pooping but they kept assuring me I wasn’t pooping and it was my body naturally trying to push the baby out. The nurse said, “THIS IS IT!” The doctor arrived just in time and the pushing began! I only pushed for about 20 minutes and then at exactly 5:40pm came the most perfect 7lb 10oz baby girl we could have ever dreamed of! She came out perfectly healthy and I finally got to take a big sigh of relief and finally relax my body (well kind of). I didn’t know that after I pushed out the baby I would still have another round of pushing to get the placenta out! Once I pushed that out, I still had to be stitched up a little bit (and as you can imagine, that doesn’t feel good either).

 

The first time I held my baby girl, just minutes after birthing her!

 

 

It was an incredibly exhausting day but the MOST amazing and emotional experience! I could continue our story on for pages and pages, but I won’t drag this on for too much longer ha. We only stayed in the hospital for one more night while we were woken up every hour by the nurses to feed and take care of Mia. It was a nice feeling to finally make it home safe with Mia, but as we sat on our couch with this new tiny human in our arms, Cijay and I both looked at each other and thought “well crap, what now?”… and that’s when the real adventure began! Maybe I can continue that story on for another post 😉

Below you can watch the short video we put together of our birthing experience. We didn’t get very much footage, which is why it’s so short. We got so caught up in the moment that we forgot to record most of the time and also, the hospital was pretty strict about when you were allowed to film. It still gives you a glimpse in to the day Mia Grace Tanigawa entered the world and hopefully you will enjoy it!