Hello Everyone,
An update!!! Baby Ariya is here (just in time for Easter!) and I can’t be more thrilled to have our newest member in our little family. We are so blessed to have so many people who love her already!
I still remember the day before she was due (April 15, 2017) I was telling my husband how I don’t feel any different. I was so paranoid that I would have to get induced. Week 37 – week 40 was the most uncomfortable 3 weeks of the entire pregnancy. My stomach was still pretty high and so many people were telling me she hasn’t dropped at all. I could barely breathe because Ariya took up my entire stomach space, I ended up living off juice the last week of pregnancy. My stomach felt like it was just growing every hour, I was beyond uncomfortable – there are days where I’m just crying because I really want to eat and breath again.
This was pretty much the last pic of me at week 40. We went to the park so I can do some walking and hopefully get my contractions to start. Didn’t walk a long time because I was so huge and I was pretty tired from walking after 15 mins. As you can see – I look MASSIVE.
I was told by so many people when I start to nest around the house and re-cleaning everything that’s when you know your baby is coming. Honestly, for me – the last two weeks I’ve been napping. I took two weeks off work before my due date to mentally prepare myself. But in reality, I got so huge all I did was nap. Sometimes I took 2 naps a day. I was so lafagic the last two weeks. I remember saying to my husband, baby is never coming because I have zero energy.
My “nesting” properly kicked in a month in advance. I got the baby room, living and car baby ready pretty much ready a month ago. The last two weeks, I was finishing off my orders for my shop, even then it was a struggle. The amazing thing was that I actually finished everything before baby Ariya arrived! Could this be the mother instinct? Who knows!
That was the last of my energy. Making orders!
Welcoming Ariya to the world
I went to bed not realizing Ariya is about to come into this world. I remember waking up around 1:30am needing to go pee. I went back to bed but couldn’t really fall asleep, then I started to feel menstruation cramps, thinking…. could this be it? It’s kinda mild, but I timed it anyways. They were roughly 13 mins apart and pretty mild. But by the 3rd one – I was no doubt having contractions, they were about 8 mins apart lasting about a minute each time. By 5am it was getting more and more painful, it was about 5 mins apart lasting 40 seconds each time. Thinking to myself – ok I should shower and wash my hair before heading to the hospital because I keep hearing everyone telling me, it’s going to be a LONG labour before you actually give birth….. so I hopped in the shower and I notice the contractions are not 5 mins apart but more like 3 mins apart – I was in pain. Made my husband dry my hair got dressed and told my husband. HOSPITAL NOW. Thank god, Markham Stouffville Hospital is literally 1 min away so it’s really not that bad of a drive.
When I got to the hospital around 5:30am I was in so much pain I could barely walk at this point. You know how they tell you “walk it off”. There was NO WALKING IT OFF. I could be on the floor rolling if I can. I went through the emergency doors, the two security guards were like…. ummmm she needs to be in the birthing room asap. My husband was worried about the car being towed, and I remember yelling at him be like I NEED TO GO, who the f@#$@#$ cares about the car. So the security guards took us up to the birthing room and a couple of nurses saw me dying in the wheelchair and they were like let’s examine her and see how far along she is.
Nurse: Oh! You’re 7cm dilated – no wonder you are in so much pain
Me: YES I am dying
So, they wheelchair me to the birthing room and checked me again, within that 15 mins I was 9cm dilated. I remember asking the nurse, CAN I PUSH?! I feel like I need to pushhhhh. Even at 9cm, my water didn’t break, so the nurse actually manually broke my water for me. The moment she broke my water, I felt like I was in a pool. There was SO MUCH WATER. So, thankfully after she broke my water, she told me I can finally start pushing.
Nurse: You need anything?
Me: Laughing gasssss
So, they gave me laughing gas which got me really high in between contractions. But it all went away when I started to push, no amount of drugs can make that pain non-existence unless you did epidural I guess.
It was a long 45 mins of pushing. They have this GIANT clock there which I stared at. My husband was actually really helpful, I had him a head lock. I couldn’t curl like the nurse told me curl while I was pushing so I held his neck and he lifted my leg up while I was pushing. He was helping me count to 10 when I was pushing which really helped. The nurse was great too because she kept telling me that I was doing good and I’m almost there (now, I don’t know if she was lying but it worked). I made a lot of noise when I was pushing.
Finally, they called the doctor in. Turned on all the lights, the nurse was prepping everything and at the moment. I knew I was crowning already.
There was so. much. pressure.
I can’t even describe just how much pressure there were down there. I thought I was about to explode. I just pushed as I was taking a giant dump. But… more painful. Everything was kinda of a blur to me – I just remember the doctor said, ok just one more push to get the shoulders out. So I pushed as hard as I can and according to my husband she “flew” out. I pretty much screamed her way out. My throat actually was sore after birth. That’s how loud I was screaming. I think I remember at one point the nurse told me not to scream to save energy.
Oh. My. God. I just gave birth.
The nurse actually plopped her on my stomach which with my lovely “mother instinct” I yelled out – OFFFFFFFF. My stomach was in so much pain I couldn’t handle the weight on my tummy. I know right, most mother would be crying tears of joy. I was like non-emotional. My entire body was shaking at that point, I was just shocked I guess? I was shaking so hard when my doctor was trying to stitch me up he had to tell me to stop shaking like 4 times. He had to cut me a bit because well. Ariya was a whopping 8.3lbs baby and 51cm long. That explains why she took up my entire stomach.
So, overall. My labour was a total of 5 hours. I started at 2am, got to the hospital and 5:30am by 7am Baby Ariya came to the world.
I would not change a thing with this whole experience. It was perfect and she was perfect. Despite it never crossed my mind that she would be 8.3 lbs!! I’m pretty tiny, and my husband is not that big either…. so I don’t know how I got an 8 pound baby. I was telling my doctor must be all the chocolate cake I was eating…. he told me it’s has nothing to do with that, I would just get fat. haha, He said it just depends on how rich my placenta is.
Markham Stouffville hospital
What an amazing facility, I would give birth again here if I ever get preggo again. I was so lucky that I gave birth when they weren’t too busy, so we were able to get a private room! I’m so glad we did, I wouldn’t know what to do without my husband with me all night. He catered to me to no end, handing me everything I need.
I’m a mom!
I still can’t believe I did it all natural (well it was fast I didn’t have a choice) but it was my number choice anyways. I’m officially a mother…and I can’t be more thrilled.
How can I end the post without baby’s 1st snapchat?!
Hope everyone is doing well and have a lovely Easter weekend. As for me, it’s healing time. I am beyond sore, everything hurts.
Thanks for reading!
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