Our Darling Daughter's Birth Story

As our toddler turns 18 months old today, I would like to finally share the story of her birth.

October 30, 2012 | Wednesday. It was two weeks before my due date. I was sitting outside my OB's clinic after my office, waiting for Cholo and for my turn to be checked. Ava, like the impatient baby that she is, was kicking and somersaulting like an olympic gold medalist inside my tummy. I was not complaining because any movement was always a good indication for us during that time. Cholo arrived around 7pm and not too long after, it was our turn to be checked. During the ultrasound, our OB told me that she can't seem to scan any movements, apparently Ava fell asleep right before we went inside. She instructed me to turn to my left side so we can wake Ava up. Still scanning, our OB told me that she's gonna send me to the ER if she didn't see any movements so we can have a stress test. A few minutes later, Ava twitched. What a good girl! :) My cervix was also checked via IE, I was already 1cm dilated. But we were allowed to go home since I was not experiencing any contractions yet.

After our checkup, while having our dinner, Mr. T and I were even talking about the possibility of Ava being born on November 1. And we thought we were just kidding. I still have a little blood discharge when we got home, thinking it was from my IE earlier, I went about my nightly routine and prepared to rest for the night. My discharge, though small in amount, seemed to be more than just an effect of my IE so we decided to message our OB. She immediately instructed us to proceed to the ER to be checked. So I took a bath (because if this was really it, who knows when's the next time I'd be able to get a full bath. :P), got our stuff ready and went straight to the ER. When we got to the hospital, the residents immediately checked on my cervix. I was admitted at around 11pm, 3cm dilated. It was a long night.

October 31, 2012 | Thursday. The long night extended into a long day. I was monitoring my contractions and I could see when the next one's coming up because I was staring at my contraction monitor all the time. I didn't understand what the numbers were for but mine would start at a really low 0-10 then they spiked up to over 140 when the contractions happened. It went on the whole day. Deep breaths, inhale, exhale. Our OB told us that if no progress still after the night, we were going for a CS the following morning at 8am. We waited for Ava to progress but looks like the little girl got a wee bit excited and decided to move, more like tried to turn around, despite me being in labor (induced) already. Apparently, Ava was lying oblique that's why she can no longer progress down. It means her head was somewhere in the direction of my hips instead of my cervix. 

November 01, 2012 | Friday. A little before 8am, I was wheeled in the OR. My awesome team of nurses, residents, pedia, anaesthesiologist and our OB, prepped me up for the operation. The next thing I remember, they were already announcing that baby's coming out and I saw Cholo above my head eagerly looking. A few seconds later I heard her cry, loud, really really loud. :)

Ava was placed on my chest for our Unang Yakap. I watched her as she cuddled above my chest, and tried to latch on me. I saw how her skin changed in color from being pale to a rosy glow. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced in my lifetime. She was there for a good 20 minutes, till I can handle because I started having difficulty breathing. Little girl was heavy. :)

They took Ava and prepped her for the Apgar assessment. Cholo watched and listened as the Pedia explained each step of the assessment. Our darling daughter passed with flying colors.

Did I mention Ava was crying really loud? Like really, really loud? Even our OB, while closing me up told me, "Alam mo Arvi, sa lahat ng pinaanak ko, baby mo pinakamalakas umiyak." It got me a little worried because I was wondering why she was crying that loud. Then Cholo came back to me and told me she was ok. He quickly showed me the video and the photos of Ava. Our baby girl, finally.

Ava Caelin was born on a beautiful morning of November 01, 2012 at 8:18am. 6.8 lbs. heavy and 47cm long. Our lives were never the same. :)