We have welcomed another baby to our small family! Merek Leandro Velez was born on June 30th, 2015 at 2:36 in the afternoon. He weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and was measured 20 1/2 inches tall. He is a tall and skinny little baby!
I had him at Methodist Women's Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska and it was a total turn-around from Pablo's birth experience! We arranged for my mom to come to the house at 6:30 in the morning so she would be there when Pablo woke up and JPablo and I headed for the hospital to be there by 7:00 am. We were checked-in, changed, settled in our room (which happened to be the one we were shown on our hospital tour the week before. Crazy!), and sipping Gatorade in no time.
They started my Pitocin and contractions started about 9:00. Pablo and I must have walked around the halls of the labor and delivery wing for an hour and a half to help with the contractions and move the labor along. We made good friends with another lady in the same boat, since you cant help but run into each other every five minutes, haha. "How are your contractions coming along?" "good, about 3 minutes apart" "Good, my last one was a doozy! Had to stop walking!" and so on. Pablo and I passed the time playing silly games like counting the number of refrigerators and how many of them had popsicles in the freezer.
There came a point that the contractions became to much to continue walking so we headed to our room for the last time and they pulled out a bouncy ball for me. That ball felt so good and Pablo was amazing at helping me through the contractions with his hands putting pressure on my back.
This whole time we had an amazing pair of nurses in charge of me: Beth and Kelsy. Beth came and went to check that things were running smoothly and while we were walking around the halls Kelsy would come find every so often to tell us how it was moving along on the monitors. Once we moved back to the room though, Kelsy stayed with us pretty much the whole time- which was great because the three of us (Pablo, Kelsy, and I) got along so well! We talked about the best place to get cheeseburgers and Kobe Steakhouse versus Genjii (She voted Genjii, so now Pablo and I have to try it;). It was a great way to be distracted and let the time pass.
Once I reached 7 centimeters, they started filling up the whirlpool for me to help soothe the contractions- which were getting very painful by then. The whirlpool was awesome! If it weren't for the mind-numbing contractions that were coming in full waves by then, haha. It was relaxing enough that Pablo had to tell me that I was actually drifting to sleep in between the waves of contractions, haha.
It was in the whirlpool however that I decided to get the epidural. We got me out and dried me off and sitting on the edge of the bed, with my head on Kelsy's shoulder and the anesthesiologist at my back. Umm, can i just mention that getting stuck in the back HURT- very much. Not to mention I was also heavy into my contractions at that time.
Well, the story gets interesting from here because I did, still, end up having a natural birth- again. The anesthesiologist had finished the initial dose in my back, which is step 1 of 3 as I understand it, and the next steps would include me laying on each side, him sticking me some more, and then i would be hooked up with an IV that would feed me more as needed. I didn't make it passed step 1. Just as I was laid onto my side, came that feeling that every woman knows- the baby is coming out NOW. Seriously, RIGHT NOW. The nurses had to literally close my legs to keep the baby in as they called for my doctor. My awesome Pablo was right next to me, coaching me and giving me encouragement. Boy can my doctor because I only had to wait through two contractions to push and she was there. Three more pushes and out came our own little Merek boy:) He was beautiful! That's when I started to feel a sort of mild numbness in my legs, which was that initial dose of the epidural kicking in. Yeah, the baby's already here, thanks, haha. But the afterbirth and everything afterwards I didnt feel a thing and I actually rather enjoyed that.
They let Merek lay on my chest for a good hour while things were logged and cleaned up. Pablo and I ordered some food and when it came our nurse Kelsy started to measure and weigh Merek.
Then we were made comfortable and happy before being wheeled up to the recovery rooms on the next floor. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to our delivery nurses- we had had a lot of fun with them.
The next 24 hours Pablo and I spent eating more food (that was me more than him, haha), watching Travel Channel and FIFA Womens World Cup, and fawning over Merek. Pablito and my parents came over the next day to meet his little brother and their newest grandbaby. There was nothing sweeter than seeing Pablo love his little brother right away.
Pablo and I were anxious to get home so once Merek had his 24 hour newborn checkup we packed up and drove our little bundle home:) My mom stayed with me the first couple of days to help with those harder days right after the hospital and I couldn't have been more grateful for that. We just love having Merek with us. He seemed to just fit seamlessly into our lives. Welcome to the Velez family little man!
