If you read my post about my water birth you know how much I emphasized on the fact that I did not experience pain and if you are in disbelief, I really didn’t. Up until the moment that Cataleya was born, I was concentrated in breathing and relaxing my body. She literally came in like a wrecking ball! It was not one of those peaceful and cute water births, it was fast, too fast…and messy. I believe I pushed so hard because I did not informed myself on how to actually push. I know many midwifes coach you to be able to push slowly and prevent tears but I just kinda pushed as hard as I could as soon as I felt the urge lol. She was born at 1:40pm 8 pounds 2 oz and 20.25 inches long. I was asked by my midwife to get out of the pool to deliver the placenta.
I had to push again and this time I was already in awe and so surprised by how fast and pain free everything was. As I’m laying there with baby in my arms, I pushed. It was not comfortable. I had the biggest placenta both of my midwifes had ever seen, even for twin pregnancies. I was bleeding a lot, but I knew this would happen since this happened with my miscarriages and Sofia. My midwifes were so good at controlling the bleeding and they were prepared with 3 different medicines to control it. I kept asking my midwife if I tore since I felt it, and I did. Luckily only the upper layer skin and not too bad but I did need some stitches. Now that my dears, that was PAINFUL. There were no breathing techniques that would help my case haha. I was applied a numbing injection but I’m one of those people who need so much of it that it didn’t quite work. I felt every single one of those pokes and pulls, it hurt like hell. But since I already had my baby in my arms and the “hard” part had already happened, I just bit my lips and took the pain like a champ. I had to get massages to help with the bleeding for a few hours after baby was born. While this was going on I was enjoying my mom’s arroz con leche she made for me right after giving birth and taking pictures of relatives as they came in the room to congratulate me.
I had some sort of adrenaline rush right after having the baby, for some reason I was not tired. I was walking around the house, took a shower and was greeting people as they came. When my midwife came to check on me at night she was mad at me for not resting. I had the same rush for days. Unlike at the hospital, at home I wasn’t forced to feed my baby every two hours or log the dirty diaper, Cataleya slept a lot during her first days and she was pretty much following her schedule she had in my womb. If it wasn’t for the horrible hemorrhoids I developed, I could’ve ran a marathon right after (I know tmi).
But the joy of a happy and sleepy baby was short lived, then came acid reflux! I will write a separate blog about our experience with that, stayed tuned.
XO,
Karla Marquez