Aliyana’s Birth Story

Jul 12, 2017

Family and Home

5 months later, I finally have the courage to look at all the photos from Aliyana’s birth. They’re real, raw and simply breathtaking.

Wow! It’s been a really long time since I’ve updated my blog and what a better way to kick it off again then to write about Aliyana’s birth story. Now that this little bean is sleeping earlier, I get an extra 5 hours to myself every night.

Get ready, it’s a long one!
WARNING: some of the images below are pretty graphic.

On January 30th, I went for my usual daily stroll at the mall (only because the last time I went out for a walk outside, I slipped on ice and nearly had an injury or even an early labour YIKES!) For some reason, I had a feeling that today was going to be THE day. Later on that night, at around 11PM as I was getting ready for bed my water broke. Did you know only 10% of women experience their water breaking? I was extremely nervous but SO excited to finally meet our little bean and plus I was already 3 days late.

1AM / January 31, my contractions finally started, they came quick and I didn’t expect it was going to be so intense right off the bat. All the pain was on my backside, let me be more specific – my ass!

5AM / January 31, my doula and midwife showed up at my house to check my dilation but told me I was at 2cm! WTF! So much pain and only 2cm. At that time, I also found out that our baby was in a prosterier position which meant her head was facing my back so every time I had a contraction, I felt like she was going to shoot out of my butt. The only way to release a little bit of the pressure was having someone apply counter pressure (right on my ass) every time I had a contraction. Talk about awkward situations but at that time, I no longer cared what they were doing to me.

 2PM / January 31,  I called it quits at home and wanted to get to the hospital even though I knew there was a chance they would send me home. I didn’t want to be at home anymore and I didn’t want to get stuck in traffic so we grabbed our hospital bags and made our way there. The car ride was terrible…. I sat in the back seat facing the back of the car, clinging on to the headrest screaming all the way to BC Women’s Hospital. A little dramatic but it was the truth.

We arrived at the hospital and my midwife checked me, I was at 3.5cm. Still not enough to get admitted. I had to two things to-do at this point, get to F&*%! 4cm (so I can at least get some laughing gas to ease the pain) and try to turn my baby naturally through movement. My doula tried to turn her using some of her doula tricks but that didn’t work, then the next thing they told me to do was walk up and down the stairs. Can you imagine having contractions, sweating, feeling like you need to shit all while trying to climb stairs (a gazillion times). I remember turning to mike at one point and saying “I think I’m going to die today”…..

5PM / January 31,  I was able to officially get admitted (HOORAY) BUT there were so many babies being born that day that I wasn’t able to get into a room until 11PM and only at that time was I allowed to get the epidural.The epidural was magic and it took all the pain away and I was able to get in a little snooze and Mike ordered pizza to the delivery room. All was fine again.

5:30AM / February 1, the nurses woke me up to bring me some bad news. The heart rate has plateaued and there could be complications. Baby girl was either super tired from the 30+ hours or she wasn’t getting enough oxygen. They gave me two options… option 1, poke the baby’s head to draw some blood for testing or option 2, proceed with a c-section. They then reiterated that the poking of the head isn’t just a one shot deal, they would have to come back every 30 minutes to poke her head. No parent-to-be would want their baby’s head poked that many times. After discussing the pros and cons with my midwife, I opted for option 2.

I’m so glad I had a midwife, she was there to calmly explain everything to me and we took all the time we needed to make our decision. On the flip side, the OB just kept telling me that I needed to get prepped for a c-section – it just felt rushed, frazzled and I wasn’t ready! 

They rolled me down to the OR and gave me more anesthesia that froze me from the chest down. Because of all drugs, my body was on overdrive and my arms started shaking uncontrollably and I was freezing cold. Everyone told me this side effect is normal and not to worry but seriously how could I not? Mike was sitting on my right side trying to hold my arm down while my midwife stood beside me on the left. My doula was also present and stood off to the side… my entire team was there and I felt ready!   Within 10 minutes (which felt like forever) of the anesthesia kicking in, baby girl was out and I heard the first cry! Mike told me afterwards that my entire body was moving side-to-side on the operating table as they tried to wiggle her out of this little incision. That is insane because I felt absolutely nothing at that point.  My doula snapped a lot of photos of the birth and at first I wasn’t sure how I felt about them because the images were too raw for me to handle. I never looked at them until last night but now looking back I’m really happy to have every single one of them because as women we tend to forget this experience (as I’ve been told).

There came a point where I didn’t care about anything anymore – my hair was in a disgusting sweaty knot,  I was completely naked, high off laughing gas, swearing at my husband for trying to pat my back, random strangers shoving their hands in me to check my dilation and my husband changing my disgusting hospital pad. Giving birth whether naturally or via c-section is such a vulnerable yet powerful feeling I’m so lucky to have experienced.

6:28AM / February 1, we welcomed our beautiful and healthy Aliyana Rae Teixeira  weighing in at 6lbs 15oz.

I want to thank my midwife, Fallon Cooper from Main Midwifery Group, my doula Raquel Feswick and Mike for being my people during this entire pregnancy and labour! 

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