Saturday I was nervous because Tristan was going to be gone all day - from 7am until 5pm - and he was going to be 3 hours away so even if I called, it'd take him a long time to get here if I went into labor. So I was praying a lot that day to not go into labor. My mom arrived also on Saturday! We spent a nice evening hanging out and went to bed as normal. I woke up at 1am from the baby moving a lot and I thought I was having some cramping...but after getting up and walking around and changing positions, by 2am I convinced myself that it wasn't labor because the contractions weren't consistent... and since I've been having braxton hicks for a long time, I figured it was that. So I feel back asleep a bit disappointed...only to be awakened at 3am by my water breaking!! :) I felt such a surge of adrenaline knowing that it was beginning! I woke up Tristan and told him my water broke...first he thought I said I spilled my water bottle (ha ha -half asleep!) and then he asked if I was sure...well yes I was positive :). But the odd thing was that I wasn't having any contractions or pain so I wasn't sure what to do...do we rush to the hospital or wait around for a bit (but my adrenaline was going so fast I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep again). I called my clinic and they said to wait until I feel pains. So we kinda stalled and rechecked the hospital bag and cleaned up the room (we were staying at El Ayudante) and woke up my mom. Unfortunately Maddy woke up from the tension in the air as well and started to cry and scream inconsolably. Both Tristan and I spent time trying to get her back to sleep but to no avail. By now I was starting to get contractions and even pause what I was doing to focus on relaxing through the pain. We left for the hospital at 4am - by now with consistent contractions every 4 to 5 minutes lasting 30 seconds or so. We left Maddy sobbing screaming my name in Granny's arms (the rest of that story is Sigel got up and rocked Maddy for a 15 minutes which calmed her down enough to go back to sleep - he saved the day!).
It took 35 minutes to get to the hospital and by the time we got there I was in intense pain and the contractions were 3 minutes apart lasting 45 seconds. The DR on duty checked me out and I was 9 to 10 cm's dialated - so he called my DR to come right away. They kept needing me to lay down to check things and that was the most painful for the contractions so I was fighting them on it. They also didn't allow me to have water and my mouth was like cotton. :( they finally gave me a cotton ball of something to suck on - and it was disgusting - so I stopped asking for water lol.
As they were taking me from the exam room into the delivery room the DR met us in the hall and told the nurse Tristan could come back with me (it's not custom for the Dad to be in the room so they stopped him at the door and both Tristan and I were trying to tell her to let him in!) As they were still prepping me and the room and the instruments I knew it was time to push! And truly, pushing is an involuntary act (partly) because the urge to push is so strong! I had a hard time mentally with the pushing this time because I was in such pain and knew that every time I pushed it would hurt more...so why would I want to push!?! But knowing the faster and harder I push the sooner it would be over with, I pushed with all I had once I talked myself into going with the natural urge I'd been fighting! Alessandra came out with her hand on the side of her face, making her head and her shoulders a lot harder to birth as she was that much wider - i felt like we were stuck at both the head and then the shoulders for a long time (but the entire pushing was probably less than 5 minutes).
Alessandra's apgar scores were 10 and 9 - what a healthy little girl! She is 8 1/2 pounds and 20 inches long with a very round face and super indented chin. She has a bit of darkish hair covering her head and was born with super long fingernails! Her eyes are deep gray (Tristan says he sees a hint of blue in there - we're hoping :) ).
As soon as we settled into the room all three of us took about a 2 hour nap and then we woke up and started calling people. My mom brought Sigel and Maddy to the hospital a few hours later - Maddy came in her new "I'm a Big Sister" shirt that my sister sent down and Sigel very unsure and not too happy about having another loud baby in the house. Maddy was adorable - saying 'aahhh' and scrunching up her face when looking at Ali. Maddy examined the baby and commented on how she has a nose and eyes and made sure that she had 2 ears. She climbed right up to kiss her sister and rub her head (we're working on the "gentle" part).
Alessandra's first night was rough - she woke up at midnight and insisted on being walked from then until 4am - she didn't want to eat and didn't want to be sitting down with me - which left Tristan to walking a marathon in a very short hallway for 4 hours! :( Finally she was ready to eat and sleep at 4am! We left the hospital mid morning Monday to come home - and it was so nice to be home!
I had felt for most of my pregnancy that Alessandra was going to be a strong girl with a big calling on her life - which is why I love the meaning of her name: A defender of her people. She also has a very calm and gentle spirit about her - that combined with JOY and yet being strong will be such a great combination. I'm excited to see what God has in store in life for my second daughter!
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