The Highlight of 2019: Jun’s Birth Story
It’s been quite a while since we last updated our blog. Just to give you a rundown of what we’ve been up to since the last time. We moved to Orlando, Florida after traveling for three months in South America and a month visiting family. Here are just a few highlights from 2019:
5. Randy and I are both now working for large global Vista Equity companies.
4. We visited three countries (partly thanks to a work trip) – Sweden, Norway and Denmark. And according to google I visited 54 cities and 207 new places!
3. Samindra turned two and is developing so much mentally, emotionally and physically. She’s talking a lot, singing songs like the ABCs, telling stories and doing a great job potty training among many other things.
2. We signed a contract to build our first house!
1. The highlight of the year was welcoming our baby boy into the world! This is the story of Jun Vo Pulayya’s birth and as I said for Samindra’s birth story, it’s not for the faint of heart. You’ve been warned.
Every Pregnancy is Different – Or At Least Partly Similar
They say every pregnancy and baby are different. That’s completely right. Right after I had Samindra, after I could finally speak, I said, “I’m not doing that again without an epidural.” With that said, I was very interested in getting an epidural for this labor and delivery but still open to going as far as I could without it.
They also say that pains you get from your last pregnancy could come sooner and that labor and delivery are typically faster. Well, that was right for me, too. When I was pregnant with Samindra, I was still running and exercising quite a bit and at around six months while on a run, I started having pains near my groin/pelvic area. I looked it up and I found it could be my pelvic bone already separating because of the weight I was carrying. They call it Symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD), or pelvic girdle pain (PGP), which is a fancy way of saying your body is getting ready for labor and delivery. The pain is supposed to go away after you have the baby. And it did.
It came back much earlier with Jun, probably at around four months. The pain would randomly hit sharply. And sometimes it was a strange butt pain or cramp where you couldn’t do anything until it went away. I wasn’t able to exercise as much during my second pregnancy, not only because of this strange butt/pelvic pain, but also because I was commuting an hour to and from work and taking care of a toddler. Anyway, the pain subsided after Jun was born.
Photos taken by Anna Shastie.
Preparing for Labor with a Toddler in Tow
I felt much bigger during this pregnancy. But I tried to be as active as I could with a toddler and trying to get the most out of our Disney Annual Passes. There wasn’t a whole lot of time to prepare. The only thing I worried about for this labor and delivery was where would I actually labor if it happened like last time when I labored for several hours at home. I didn’t want Samindra to hear me in pain (as well as the others in the house since we’re staying with Randy’s mom until our house is finished being built).
Samindra is very empathetic. One time, after hearing and watching to music video Do you want to build a snowman song from Frozen, I was telling her about what happened to Anna and Elsa’s parents and she started crying. Another time, we were playing with boats in the bathtub and I was pretending there was a storm and the animals were falling over and she started crying. The last thing I wanted her to see was her mom in pain and to start crying. But she was in good hands as her Aji (grandma) was going to take care of her while we went to the hospital.
This time my water broke so we went to the hospital immediately at around 2:30 am. I didn’t know what it was at first. I thought it was just urine. But it trickled a few more times. We called the hospital and of course they said they we should just come in to be seen. So, thank goodness I didn’t have to labor at home.
We opted out of getting a doula. Randy has always been a great partner and considering we weren’t getting a doula this time, he made sure he was ready with cans of Starbucks espresso. We were going to deliver at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies. It’s rated number two in the nation for women and babies. But it wasn’t as close to us as George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC, which was only seven minutes away from our apartment. We’re about 30 minutes away from Winnie Palmer in Orlando without traffic (and trains).
To Feel or Not to Feel
Of course, we had to wait for a train to pass on our way there. We arrived at the hospital after 3:00 am and then things progressed pretty quickly. I was at 1.5 cm and 50% effaced in triage. They sent me to another room where they were going to give me Misoprostol to soften my cervix, but by the time they checked again, I didn't need it. I was already at 4 cm and 80% effaced. This room was very calm, and they even had a nice pull out bed for Randy. I started to feel the contractions and Randy had to start massaging my lower back.
Then, they moved me into the labor and delivery room at around 5:30 am or 6:00 am and things started to feel more like the last time. I wanted the yoga ball to bend over it. I wanted to try everything I could to relieve the pain. But it was too much. The nurse took note that I didn’t have an epidural last time and how long I was in labor. She asked if I wanted the epidural and I said I would like the walking epidural. Then the nurse and the anesthesiologist noticed I may have the 9 cm shakes and asked if I wanted to go ahead and get the full dosage. I hesitated a bit, but then said yes because I didn’t want to have to wait for the anesthesiologist to make her rounds. It took some time to get the epidural in properly. The anesthesiologist said I have a bit of scoliosis, so it wasn’t as easy to get the needle in straight. But once she did, the epidural took only about 20 minutes to kick in and then I couldn’t feel anything.
After resting a bit – yes, I could actually rest – the nurse checked me, and I was at 9 cm at around 7:00 am. So, she gave me the peanut ball to give room for the baby to come down. I was on my left and right side for about 30 or 45 minutes each. The nurse said Dr. Jose Llinas Messeguer would be my delivery doctor and by coincidence, he was the doctor I had been seeing for my prenatal appointments! It’s a one in 10 chance of that happening. By the time he arrived at around 8:30 am or so, he said I would be ready to push any minute. He had to delay a planned c-section and said we were delivering the baby very soon! I think I went through four maybe five contractions of pushing and this experience was much different.
GW University of Hospital was a learning hospital, so there were a lot more people in the delivery room. At Winnie Palmer, it was just me, Randy, the doctor and the nurse the entire time. The pushing phase was much calmer, probably because I couldn’t feel a thing. The nurse had to feel my tummy and look at the monitor to make sure contractions were coming. Then they would count down and tell me when to push. It was a bit odd waiting to push because the four of us were just waiting in between contractions and everyone was looking at you know where. LOL. My legs were so heavy and had so much dead weight that Randy had to literally lift or hold my leg and place it back in the stirrups. And this time, he said he saw everything!
Meeting Our Sweet Boy
After only seven hours (instead of 17 hours) of labor, we met our baby boy! They handed him straight to me after cleaning his skin a bit. He was so sweet. Randy cut the cord and I had that special one hour of skin-to-skin time with my baby boy. I tried latching him then as well. After that hour, the nurse checked his weight and height.
Jun Vo Pulayya was born at 9:18 am on October 26, 2019 weighing 7 pounds and 13 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.
Randy had some skin-to-skin time with Jun as well. Jun’s temperature wasn’t high enough so the nurse wanted to do everything she could to get his temperature up, which was more skin-to-skin time and putting him in underneath the heater. He was fine by the time we went to the postpartum room.
Since Jun was born in the morning, the nurses said if everything is fine and we all feel okay, then we could go home after one night. Typically, parents stay for two nights after having a baby. The first day was sweet, even though we were so tired. Randy’s mom and her husband brought Samindra to the hospital to meet her brother. She knew she was going to have a brother. Throughout my pregnancy, she touched my belly and always said, “that’s my brother.” When she came in the room, I didn’t hold Jun. I let him stay in the bassinet. The rooms were beautiful with big windows so Samindra started to tell us how she went through parking lot and so on. Then we showed her to him. She was very, very sweet to him and even said, “I love you.” They exchanged gifts. And the start of another chapter in our lives began as a family of four.
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