[pao]

It was a week from last Monday(2/25) . I had just gone to a prenatal yoga class. I was all 'open'and contractions had been happening for weeks , So by Monday night I was 4 cm. Then the weirdest thing. I get to the Roosevelt Hospital, 2 am, in the room they have this BEAUTIFUL KHOLER Jacuzzi and I had brought this amazing "Clarins" all natural "relax" aromatherapy soap and suddenly I felt like I was in some resort and literally my contractions STOPPED.
So Joel, my husband slept on the floor (he didn't like the chair), while I luxuriated in the tub and in bed and at 7 am the MD comes in and says I can go home I was in false labor. I was having contractions but they were super sluggish and every 10 minutes. So she said "we could give you Pitocin." Joel said no, " Paolina remember you told me don't let them give me pitocin, you said "I want to do it naturally", what if the baby isn't ready to come out?" and I said to myself: " enough already, I've been in the latent phase of labor for four weeks, I mean I had been working, going to see the Jasper Johns art show at the Met, basically doing my life, all the while with contractions that were effective to get me too 4 cm. Plus I was 39 weeks and had been having contractions 3 min apart before going to the hospital. So I said bring it on. Put me "on the PIT" as the doctors call it.
Once you are on Pitocin you get really intense contractions. I was limited in movement to about two feet next to my bed. (you have constant monitoring)So I was sitting on the big ball bouncing and breathing and when a contraction would come, Joel, who is 6'5" pushed into my PSIS's with his thumbs and it was VERY nice. Actually doable. But then I realized that I had had enough, so I got the epidural. I guess I was at about 5 1/2 cm,
The needle was a bit weirder this time. I actually felt my right hip flexor cramp up suddenly and pain shoot through the ilium. So I think they skimmed the nerve root. Also because I was numb and paralyzed on my right side the whole next day after the birth, which was weird and scary, they said it is rare but no big deal. Plus the morphine made me itch a lot, during labor, so I felt like a junkie. Regardless, the paralysis went away( after 14 hours!).
The point is that I had the baby. It was really fast to dilate to ten cm. Then she turns off the Pitocin, which wasn't even a large dosage according to the MD, so that the baby would naturally descend to station +2 1/2 past the ischial knobs ( I forget what they are called, up from the sit bones) Then my husband leaves the room to go smoke and get a coffee. So we are literally waiting and the MD says "he may miss it" "We have to start the push phase" she tells me, and she can "see the head IN THE AMNIOTIC SAC."
Finally he comes in after three pushing contractions and in seven more the baby is out. It as so fast and that last contraction,#10, in which I did three pushing breaths, made the head then the body slip out. But what was so auspicious was that he was born in the amniotic sac. I looked between my legs as she is lifting part of the clear membrane away from his body. WILD.
Basically as the head crowned, the sac opened and he came out in a woosh of water. It was so smooth and I suffered no tearing, no nothing. His head was not molded nor were his eyes puffy, he had no squeezing or slamming as he descended the birth canal. Basically he too had a beautiful beautiful massaging jacuzzi, but he was in a moving bubble massage the whole time. In fact he was asleep and had to be coaxed into breathing ( maybe also the morphine). It was really smooth and gentle. I put him to the nipple right away and he started breast-feeding and it is going really well. He is very beautiful and I feel really good.I'm eating a lot of Kale for the calcium.

Thank you so much in advance for taking the time to read this birth story. By the way, the nurse was very moved that my son , LEANDRO, came out in the sac. She said it was auspicious and that it is one of the qualifications to be a dalai lama. Hmm, he certainly is a serene baby, he hasn't cried yet, he just "cooo's."

Landro born Tuesday 12:24 pm, on 2/26, 7 lbs 4 oz, 20 inches