My baby shower was scheduled for July 12, 2009. My crew put in a LOT of work, because they love me. I am so blessed to have such good friends! God does answer prayers. So that week, we had been doing a lot of last minute prep and what not. We were also getting ready for the Dove Awards at the church. This was our first annual "Grammys". Everyone dressed up, there was a red carpet, awards were actually being given out. Fun times. So all week, Me and KL were shopping for a dress for her daughter J. On Monday or Tuesday, I started having a weird, very thin discharge. I googled it (of course) and had lots of conflicting info. I ignored the obvious (amniotic fluid!) and settled on it being just a general discharge. So I went on as usual. My plan was to deliver in Providence's Alternative Birthing Center so I could do it naturally. Yeah right. I also knew that I could not deliver there if I was early. The baby was not due until August 8. All week long, I just kept ignoring the moisture. I was really trying to get to this shower!
That Wednesday, my cousin braided my hair. I couldn't be caught looking like a boogerwolf. She and her husband kept saying "I don't know, Yo. You look funny. You keep making noises! I don't think you're gonna make it till the 8th!" I'm like whatevs, I got things to do. But, all day as I was shopping, I had a headache, and just felt generally weird.
Fast fwd to Friday. I'm on the phone with Tiff and she keeps asking me what I feel like. She's like "You keep saying ooh and making noises!" I'm like"Yeah but it just feels weird." She goes on to tell me that I'm having contractions, and she has been timing my oohs and they are exactly 3 minutes apart. I wasn't hurting though, so I thought I was ok! She jumps on the freeway and is here in a few hrs. She looks at me and says "are you sure you don't hurt?" I'm like bah! I'm cool! Saturday rolls in, and I really didn't have an appetite and was just generally feeling strange. So, we are at the grocery store and as I'm walking to the car, I felt some extra wetness. I'm like oh, what the heck?? We get back to the house, I get out of the car and look at my pants. They look a little wet. Again, I'm thinking this is just discharge! We get dressed and go to the Dove Awards. Here's my red carpet pic.
So, we're chilling in the award ceremony. I was nominated for singer of the year! My homie HW got it, which was cool with me. So I'm sitting there, and I just feel damp. I felt a small gush...I get up and I'm kinda speed walking to the bathroom. Pastor Fellicia asked me why was I running and I said "I feel moist." I go to the bathroom, and I don't really see anything worse than I had been seeing all week. However, I was noticeably damp. I went and got Tiff and that's when it all hit the fan. I'm like ok, we gotta go. My crew is surrounding me, I'm trying to eat salami and cheese off of the refreshment table, Quida is keeping me calm as usual, Tiff is like LET'S GO, P is like what are you gonna do, KL is doing her Doula voice (google it), Indi is eating fruit, Cita is fussing, it was chaotic. All I could think about was the shower. We leave, I call the dr, she's like "take your butt to the hospital and let me know what they say. Or they will call me and let me know." I go. Well, first we went to Target. Then I went home, and we left.
I'm admitted somewhere between 9 and 10. I get up to the ABC and the nurse was a jerk. So she's like, how long has this been going on? I'm trying tell them it started the day before or so...They're like, I don't know...let's call your dr, our swab test says it's definitely amniotic fluid. She calls me back and says "I need you to go over to regular labor and delivery right now." I go.
So apparently, I've been in labor for like 3 or 4 days. The nurse says "I talked to your dr. She's on her way. You are having this baby today. I'm going to give you a little Pitocin, because you are leaking amniotic fluid. We have to get the baby out for it's safety."
Prior to her getting there, another dr comes in to check me. She looks familiar. We are both looking at each other and say "I know you." I think about it, and it's one of my customers from Chase, whom I took care of VERY WELL. She recognized me and we did the whole screaming/hug thing. She was about to CHECK ME.
*Let this be a lesson, treat everyone well. You truly don't know whose hands you might end up in. LITERALLY.*
So, she checks me and is like "oh yeah, you're gonna have this baby." The nurse brings the Pitocin up and adds it to my IV, and tells me she's only gonna put it on 1 to start, and we'd see if it needed to increase.
We're all chilling in the room: P, Bren, KL, Donna, Tiff, Ma. Ma leaves, Donna is in and out, we're watching Dance Your Ass Off, and chilling. I'm talking smack as usual and at 3:40 am I said "yeah cause that was AAAGGGH!!!" The first major contraction hit. It felt like a Mack truck driving through my body. At that point, I still hadn't decided whether or not I was going to get an epidural. It had felt like I was just having cramps before, but this was something far greater. It was almost an unnatural kind of pain, probably because of the Pit. I really think I might have been able to do it naturally, or at least go for much longer without the epi, because I had been having contractions all that time and didn't know it. Like I said, it really just felt like cramps. So the contractions keep coming, enter Betty K, she does the check and says I'm ready for the epi. It's about 5 am. Now I'm waiting for the anesthesiologist. I'm irritated. I don't like pain. I ask the nurse How much longer before he gets here? She says 10 minutes. I angrily say I don't have 10 minutes. I pray. He comes. He does it. I'm good. I go to sleep.
Around 7:45 - 8 am, I wake up, it's time. At least that's what they tell me. P and Dr M suit up. KL is doing her Doula thing, talking all soothingly and trying to get me to breathe and be calm and all that. Now everybody is trying to amp me up, like you can do it, get ready, come on you can do it, yada yada. I'm somewhere in lala land in my mind because now I'm scared as hell. At 8:20, I start pushing. Part of the problem is this epidural, because I can't really feel below, but I'm being told push from here, push from there. This is where mind control comes in, because I really couldn't feel clearly. I'm trying to have this baby out in 20 minutes. I couldn't even really feel when I was having a contraction - again, this beautifully flawed epidural. Finally Dr M says "Yolanda. Stop watching the clock. You can't time this." So I stop. I push. I rest. I breathe. I'm annoyed. KL is telling me to get angry at the pain. I told her I couldn't, because I was too tired. There was water everywhere. I felt gross. I wanted it to be over and I was having a hard time getting over the mind barrier. Once he's out, he ain't going back. Life is officially changed. At that point all I could really do was pray. I shifted my mind frame, and pushed. P was "push! I see the head! Aww baby I see hair! Push him out! I can see the hair, you're almost there!" Bren was holding my legs on one side, KL was on the other side, and I pushed and pushed, and P pulled him out.
Our baby boy.
He delivered our baby boy.
At 9:03 am, PLC Jr. entered the world.
I officially became a mother.
It was the strangest feeling in the world.
P cut the cord, they gave him to me, and I was kind of somewhere else. KL was on the job, we had told her exactly how we wanted things to go, and she made it happen. Everyone should have a Doula. If nothing else, they make sure things go like they're supposed to and they fight for you. But I digress. When he came out, the first thing I did was touch my stomach so I could feel it flat again. They bathed him and gave him to P, and he brought him over to me, and the rest is history.
Obviously, I didn't make it to the shower! He came that day. I said he was coming July 20. He came July 12. He was he baby I saw in my dream. My son. Our son.
So, we're chilling in the award ceremony. I was nominated for singer of the year! My homie HW got it, which was cool with me. So I'm sitting there, and I just feel damp. I felt a small gush...I get up and I'm kinda speed walking to the bathroom. Pastor Fellicia asked me why was I running and I said "I feel moist." I go to the bathroom, and I don't really see anything worse than I had been seeing all week. However, I was noticeably damp. I went and got Tiff and that's when it all hit the fan. I'm like ok, we gotta go. My crew is surrounding me, I'm trying to eat salami and cheese off of the refreshment table, Quida is keeping me calm as usual, Tiff is like LET'S GO, P is like what are you gonna do, KL is doing her Doula voice (google it), Indi is eating fruit, Cita is fussing, it was chaotic. All I could think about was the shower. We leave, I call the dr, she's like "take your butt to the hospital and let me know what they say. Or they will call me and let me know." I go. Well, first we went to Target. Then I went home, and we left.
I'm admitted somewhere between 9 and 10. I get up to the ABC and the nurse was a jerk. So she's like, how long has this been going on? I'm trying tell them it started the day before or so...They're like, I don't know...let's call your dr, our swab test says it's definitely amniotic fluid. She calls me back and says "I need you to go over to regular labor and delivery right now." I go.
So apparently, I've been in labor for like 3 or 4 days. The nurse says "I talked to your dr. She's on her way. You are having this baby today. I'm going to give you a little Pitocin, because you are leaking amniotic fluid. We have to get the baby out for it's safety."
Prior to her getting there, another dr comes in to check me. She looks familiar. We are both looking at each other and say "I know you." I think about it, and it's one of my customers from Chase, whom I took care of VERY WELL. She recognized me and we did the whole screaming/hug thing. She was about to CHECK ME.
*Let this be a lesson, treat everyone well. You truly don't know whose hands you might end up in. LITERALLY.*
So, she checks me and is like "oh yeah, you're gonna have this baby." The nurse brings the Pitocin up and adds it to my IV, and tells me she's only gonna put it on 1 to start, and we'd see if it needed to increase.
We're all chilling in the room: P, Bren, KL, Donna, Tiff, Ma. Ma leaves, Donna is in and out, we're watching Dance Your Ass Off, and chilling. I'm talking smack as usual and at 3:40 am I said "yeah cause that was AAAGGGH!!!" The first major contraction hit. It felt like a Mack truck driving through my body. At that point, I still hadn't decided whether or not I was going to get an epidural. It had felt like I was just having cramps before, but this was something far greater. It was almost an unnatural kind of pain, probably because of the Pit. I really think I might have been able to do it naturally, or at least go for much longer without the epi, because I had been having contractions all that time and didn't know it. Like I said, it really just felt like cramps. So the contractions keep coming, enter Betty K, she does the check and says I'm ready for the epi. It's about 5 am. Now I'm waiting for the anesthesiologist. I'm irritated. I don't like pain. I ask the nurse How much longer before he gets here? She says 10 minutes. I angrily say I don't have 10 minutes. I pray. He comes. He does it. I'm good. I go to sleep.
Around 7:45 - 8 am, I wake up, it's time. At least that's what they tell me. P and Dr M suit up. KL is doing her Doula thing, talking all soothingly and trying to get me to breathe and be calm and all that. Now everybody is trying to amp me up, like you can do it, get ready, come on you can do it, yada yada. I'm somewhere in lala land in my mind because now I'm scared as hell. At 8:20, I start pushing. Part of the problem is this epidural, because I can't really feel below, but I'm being told push from here, push from there. This is where mind control comes in, because I really couldn't feel clearly. I'm trying to have this baby out in 20 minutes. I couldn't even really feel when I was having a contraction - again, this beautifully flawed epidural. Finally Dr M says "Yolanda. Stop watching the clock. You can't time this." So I stop. I push. I rest. I breathe. I'm annoyed. KL is telling me to get angry at the pain. I told her I couldn't, because I was too tired. There was water everywhere. I felt gross. I wanted it to be over and I was having a hard time getting over the mind barrier. Once he's out, he ain't going back. Life is officially changed. At that point all I could really do was pray. I shifted my mind frame, and pushed. P was "push! I see the head! Aww baby I see hair! Push him out! I can see the hair, you're almost there!" Bren was holding my legs on one side, KL was on the other side, and I pushed and pushed, and P pulled him out.
Our baby boy.
He delivered our baby boy.
At 9:03 am, PLC Jr. entered the world.
I officially became a mother.
It was the strangest feeling in the world.
P cut the cord, they gave him to me, and I was kind of somewhere else. KL was on the job, we had told her exactly how we wanted things to go, and she made it happen. Everyone should have a Doula. If nothing else, they make sure things go like they're supposed to and they fight for you. But I digress. When he came out, the first thing I did was touch my stomach so I could feel it flat again. They bathed him and gave him to P, and he brought him over to me, and the rest is history.
Obviously, I didn't make it to the shower! He came that day. I said he was coming July 20. He came July 12. He was he baby I saw in my dream. My son. Our son.
