Henry's Birth Story

Four years and four months later I figured it's probably time to write Henry's birth story. Better late than never right?

My pregnancy went by smoothly, I didn't have any issues. It wasn't until around 36 weeks when my blood pressure began increasing. Nothing too high but higher than normal. It continued to increase at my 37 week appointment and was even higher at my 38 week appointment.

My MTV crew had arrived in town on Friday September 10th to film my baby shower. I was going to be put on "labor watch"the following week. (This means that a camera person would be stationed in my town at all times incase I went into labor). I had my baby shower on Saturday September 11, 2010. I was big and swollen but it was fun. Little did I know that was my last weekend without a baby.

On Monday September 13th I had my 38 week appointment and my camera crew accompanied me. The crew was planning on leaving that night since they had already been in town for three days. Well my blood pressure was high so my doctor wanted me to come back the next day to check it again. So I did. We knew this could mean the baby would be coming soon so the crew couldn't risk leaving but they had only been scheduled to stay until Monday. So the crew left, except for my director and one camera operator. I went in to the doctor again on Tuesday September 14th accompanied by my little crew and my blood pressure was still high so my doctor decided to induce me that Friday, September 17th.

Since I knew my birth was going to be filmed by two camera operators I was very specific that I wanted two women to film my birth. I was also specific about who I wanted there. There names were Jen and Carrie. Well luckily Carrie was already with me because she had come to film my baby shower and she was the camera operator that stayed when the rest of the crew left. So then we just had to get Jen. Well Jen was out on another shoot for a different 16 & Pregnant girl at the time so my director, Phil, said that it would have to be someone else. I refused because these were the two people I felt most comfortable with and labor and delivery is a personal moment. So they made it work. They pulled Jen off of her shoot and she came to Utah.

My doctor put me on bed rest for two days in hopes that my blood pressure would not get any higher before I was induced on Friday. I remember those days dragged by. I was so excited to meet my baby boy! On Thursday night my mom helped me create my belly cast and painted my toe nails. I synced my iPhone to my computer to put music on it to listen to during labor (which never happened by the way). Somehow this sync didn't transfer my pictures to my computer, instead it deleted all of my pictures on my phone. This was all of my pregnancy pictures because I hadn't transferred them to the computer in awhile. I was so mad. So to this day I only have a handful of pictures of my pregnant belly.

Finally it was Friday. My MTV crew (which consisted of Jen and Carrie thank goodness) showed up at my house around 5:45 am because I had been instructed to call Labor & Delivery at 6:00 am. My mom called in and we were told to be at the hospital at 7 am. So we finished gathering our stuff. I helped Jairo do his hair. (This can be seen in my episode and I think a lot of people find this humorous). Then my mom, Jairo and I drove to the hospital. We stopped at McDonalds on the way so my mom and Jairo could get breakfast. This was torturous because I hadn't been allowed to eat or drink anything since midnight the night before since I was being induced, and I had loved McDonalds breakfast while I was pregnant.

We arrived at the hospital at 7 am and I was hooked up to an IV and filled out paperwork. My hospital was very supportive of MTV filming. They even set them up in a room next to mine so the crew had a place to be while I was laboring. (Thank goodness they did because it was a long day). It was also nice because they had a monitor set up in there that was basically a live feed of the cameras so my dad was able to watch my delivery from there in a very modest way.

My pitocin was started just before 9 am. I was about 2 cm dilated at the time. The first half of the day was relatively uneventful. It took me the longest to get to 4 cm. During this time MTV brought in food for my family and, sometimes the nurses. They brought in Starbucks and Cafe Rio. If you know me you know this was torture because these are two of my favorite places and all I could eat was nasty flavored ice chips, but everyone else sure did enjoy it!

I labored pretty slowly. I was having pretty heavy contractions but I wasn't dilating hardly at all. I finally made it to 4 cm around 5 pm and this is when I got the epidural. It was so painful. I remember the anesthesiologist telling me that I should feel equal amounts of pain in both sides of my body. When I told her I only felt it on the right side she was slightly concerned but she told me it would correct itself. Well it didn't. At first my epidural wasn't even working. I was still feeling the contractions. So my nurse called in the anesthesiologist but apparently she had gone home so this time it was a guy anesthesiologist who came in. He fiddled with my epidural a bit and upped the flow of the medicine. It still took awhile to kick in. Then around 7 pm I was 5 cm. My doctor came in to break my water around 7:40. They thought I was progressing really slowly. But after my doctor broke my water the contractions came on even stronger.

The next 50 minutes were killer. At 8:30 pm I was 9 cm dilated. I went from a 5 to a 9 in less than an hour. The anesthesiologist had to come in again during that 50 minutes to try to get my epidural to help. Finally it kicked in when I was a 9. But then it was awful. My whole right leg went numb, from my pelvis down. Yet I still felt everything in my left side. It was the most awkward, awful sensation I have ever felt. It took me another hour to get from a 9 to a 10 because the baby was facing the wrong way. (They are supposed to be face down and he was face up). I finally made it to a 10 around 9:30 pm. That's when I started pushing.

The baby's face was still posterior instead of anterior and my doctor said it needed to be anterior (face towards my spine) in order to deliver. So he manually tried to turn the baby around with each push. I can't even tell you how painful this was. My right leg was completely immobile but I had a sensation like my hip was popped out of place. (I kept complaining to my mom because she was holding that leg.) I felt every contraction in my upper abdomen and through my entire left side. With every contraction I would push and the doctor would manually spin the baby's head around.

Two and a half hours passed this way. I am convinced that if the cameras weren't there filming my doctor wouldn't have been trying so hard to turn the baby. He even told me afterwards that I was so close to having a c-section. But the cameras were there and my doctor worked very hard to spin the baby's head around to the anterior position (face towards my spine) in order to deliver him vaginally.

Finally at 11:56 pm on September 17, 2010 I pushed for the last time and my sweet baby boy was born. He barely made it on the 17th. If we would have waited one more contraction he would have been born on the 18th! That moment was pure bliss. I had spent 17 hours in that hospital bed before my baby was handed to me, but it was so worth it.

Our precious Enrique (now called Henry which is the English version of Enrique) was 6 pounds 12 ounces and 19 inches long. Poor guy had the worst cone head I have ever seen since he spent over two hours in the birth canal being twisted around.