Arwen Symone

This is the birth story of our newest addition, Arwen Symone


I had sorta made peace with the fact that we were going to be induced on September 7, since Arwen's estimate due day came and went.  My mind was set that she's going to come that day.  At 1:10AM Sunday morning. While asleep, I felt this funny drizzle feeling, kinda like I was about to wet my bed.  I got up to the restroom and there's a small gush of water came down.  I thought, "hrmmm, does this mean my water just broke??"  When we had Noelle, my water didn't break until I was well into labor and having lots and lots of strong contractions.  My water broke when I was lying in the hospital bed and it felt like a water balloon popped.  So I was very confused with this one.  I called labor & delivery.  They told me to wear a pad and walk around for 30 minutes.  I did and nothing else happen.  No more leakage nor any sorta contraction.  So I called again.  And they told me to keep an eye on it and that's it.  I decided to go back to bed.  Just then I felt another small gush of water.  I knew it had to be my water.  So I called the hospital and they told me to come in.  Actually the rep told me the hospital may be full.  After checking with someone, she told me as long as no one else show up before me, I should have a room (eeek!).  I've never heard of hospital being full!! We quickly woke up my mom, so she can go watch Noelle for us and we headed out.  As I was walking out the door, I had another small gush of water, it was rather interesting.   Anyway, so off we went.  I had no contractions at all.  Got to the hospital checked myself in.  They sent me to the observation room.  They basically did some tests to make sure my bag of water did break and we'll go from there.  A few hours later, I was admitted.  They moved me to one of the birthing suite with me lying in bed.  We waited and waited, I didn't feel any contractions.  A doc came in and told me that they usually give the patients 6 hours from the moment her water breaks.  If no contraction starts, they suggest using Pitocin to get things going.  Or I may run the risk of infections.  So I was like, "Let's go for it!" I was tired of waiting anyway, lol.  They gave me Pitocin around 7AM.  I started to feel little bit of painful contractions, nothing major tho.  The nurse at the observation area found out that I didn't get to use epidural with Noelle because it was too late for me. So she highly encouraged me to ask for it as soon as I feel anything or feel uncomfortable.  Same with the nurse in the birthing suite.  So I asked for epidural right away.  The anesthetic team came very quickly (they told me sometimes it takes 1 hr to get someone, so I should ask early) and the head doc was very smooth.  I got my epidural in no time and it felt sooo weird, but in a good way. I then felt asleep and when I woke up around 11:30AM, they told me I was already 9cm dilated.  I didn't feel a thing! That was the best part, lol.  


The doc who checked me told me that I should be fully dilated soon.  She was going to check on me again in 1-2 hours, but told me to speak up if I feel any pressure or have urge to push. I felt something pretty soon right after, so I told the nurse, Michelle, who was our fav birthing nurse.  She asked if I want to start trying (was fully dilated), of course I said yes.  I want this kid to be out, lol.  We pushed for about 1 hour, nothing happened.  They said the baby was still pretty high up.  So they suggested me to take a break and try again later.  30 minutes later, we started pushing again.  Still nothing, but at least the epidural helped me not feeling any pain.  Around 3:30, the nurse changed shift, we were sad that Michelle didn't get to see our baby being born.  And this time, we had Carol as our nurse.  She's an older lady.  We pushed some more, still nothing.  They found out that the baby's head was not in the right or ideal position, which was also why all this pushing didn't progress much.  Her head was sorta "stuck" behind the bones.  Then Carol suggested that maybe we should turn off the epidural, so I can push more correctly and have more urge to push.  At first I didn't want to do it, I meant that's why I chose epidural, to not have to go thru the awful pain.  But Carol said that if I don't give up temporarily on epidural, I may have to have c-section.  Since she put it that way, I agreed to turn off the epidural.  She did say that we can turn it back on so I won't feel too uncomfortable.  The epidural was off and pretty soon I started to feel the real deal.  At first they weren't so unbearable.  We tried different pushing positions and it seemed to work to my favor.  The pain started getting real strong tho, and they had to give me oxygen because I had been pushing for so long and baby didn't like all these pushing too much (her heart rate dropped every time we pushed).  So the doc asked me to push every other contraction.  It's not that easy to do.  When I had those strong contractions, it's a lot easier for me to push, if I don't, the pain was excruciating.  But I had to follow their lead to keep Arwen safe, so I gave my best.  I guess the doc and the nurse really knew what they are doing, all these things we tried brought Arwen down and soon her head started to show.  I had to stop pushing for them to get the doc (Dr. March) in to deliver the baby.  The final step was the worst.  They had already turned the epidural back on, but I don't think it kicked back fast enough for me.  My energy was pretty much drained at that point too (close to 4 hours pushing).  I had to use every last drop of strength that's left in me to push this kiddie out.  I was this close to ask for help, to have them suck her out or something.  I really didn't think I could make it.  Finally at 5:33PM, I felt this baby on me and that's how I first met our newest addition, Arwen Symone. When we had Noelle, she decided to poop while still in me.  so as soon as she was born, they had to take her and clean her up, be sure she didn't suck in anything.  Cuz of that, I didn't get to hold her until much later and Dave didn't get to cut the umbilical cord.  This time around, I got to hold our baby the very moment she's born and Dave got to cut the cord.  It was awesome.  After a few minutes, they took Arwen to get her cleaned up and measure her size. We saw some black poo-poo on her baby butts and then I realized she had poo-pooed on me!!!!  What the heck?! My 2 kids, one pooed in me and the other on me :-P  Arwen was 8lb 2.8oz and 18.5 inches long.  She's 1 lb heavier than her big sis' birth weight, but also 1 inch shorter.  We've got one short and chubby kid, lol. 


We are so thrilled to finally have her in our lives, our family is now complete :-)