Introducing #4! Baby Miguel

Hey y’all!

It’s been a quiet few months over on the blog, mainly because being a pregnant, full-time teacher with 3 little ones at home is just downright EXHAUSTING. 🙂 But here recently, the silence has been for a more fun reason- Baby #4 made his grand entrance a month earlier and we’ve just been basking in his perfection ever since!

Baby Stats

I’d like to introduce you all to Miguel Ignacio Rodriguez!

• Born January 28, 2020 (35 weeks and 4 days)
• 11:23 am
• 6 pounds
• 20.5 inches

Birth Story

So, here’s how it went down, for those of you that like birth stories! As you all probably remember, I have had Intraheptic Cholestasis of Pregnancy with each of my sweet babes, to varying degrees and warranting varying induction dates. This time around, I was lucky enough to avoid the itch for 31 weeks!

Starting at 31 weeks, I began itching. At first, it was tolerable and my Bile Acid levels were low (12, with the threshold being 10- so mild). It stayed like this for a few weeks, but by about 33 weeks got really, really bad. By this point, I was doing bi-weekly NSTs and ultrasounds, and each and every time, the baby would have to be zapped to get him to move. I became uneasy and started to worry about each and every decrease in movement. Then, at 33 weeks, my levels went from 12 to 18. At 34 weeks, they went from 18 to 32. And at 35 weeks, they went from 32 to 63. This almost-doubling each week had me in a panic, because 40+ is considered Severe levels, and anything over 100 warranted immediate induction.

When I went to my NST at 35+3, I was itching to the point of crying laying in the bed. I was beyond anxious about my numbers doubling, and to top it all off, baby moved 3 times in an hour and was not having heart decelerations and accelerations like he should have been (which is called a non-reactive NST). The doctor came in and said she didn’t like what she was seeing, and was sending me to L&D. She couldn’t get ahold of the Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist, who would have to approve an early induction, so she wasn’t sure what the plan was once I got to the hospital- either extensive monitoring overnight, or induction.

So, I had Anissa with me, so I had to go drop her off at my mother-in-laws, grab our bags, and pick up Cele. When we got to the hospital, I checked in and they confirmed I’d be heading in for induction! It was BABY TIME!

I got checked in around 7 p.m. and headed into my delivery suite. Filled out paperwork, talked to the nurses, yada yada. Around 9 pm they came in to do my IV and we started the induction with a Foley bulb and low dose of Pitocin. My labor and deliveries have always been 24+ hours, so I thought I’d be in it for the long-haul, and since I was only coming in at 1 cm dilated, I figured it would be the same this time. So, we left the Foley bulb in for 4 hours, and before they could come take it out, it came out on it’s own while I was using the restroom (fun fact- same thing happened last time!) When they came to check me, I was at 4 cm! This was around 2:30 a.m. At this point, they upped my pitocin and just waited for it to kick in a little more. They said the midwife would be in at 5 am to break my water. Well, my contractions started to get serious around 4 am, so while I was waiting on the midwife, I decided to ask for my epidural. Well, 5 am came and went without anyone coming in to break my water, and by 6:30 am they still weren’t there but anesthesia was, so I went for the epidural anyway. It is honestly such a WEIRD feeling, but it was pretty instant relief- although I must say the contractions weren’t HORRIBLE- I wasn’t crying or writhing in pain or anything, but the relief was great!

Right after anesthesia left, my midwife came in (FINALLY) to break my water- and right before she did, she checked me and I was at 8 cm!! WHAT! I totally could have gone the whole way without an epidural I think- and I’m a little ticked that I wasn’t checked before I had the epidural to make that choice. And I’m only saying that because of what came next… Anyway, everyone was super positive and said I’d be pushing in an hour!

Once I got the epidural, it started making my already low blood pressure bottom out, causing baby to have lots of decels. They stopped the pitocin and moved me all over, gave me 4 doses of bp meds, oxygen, the works. It was super scary and I was nervous it would turn into an emergency c-section. They ended up saying if we were patient and waited on baby to be happy with the contractions, I should have no problem delivering vaginally. So, we waited…and waited…. until about 11 am (so a solid 4ish hours of just waiting, no progressing, no contractions, nothing). At 11 am I told them I felt like I had to poop (the tell-tale sign it’s go time!), and my mom and sister who had been keeping us company headed out! The midwife came in to check and I was finally at 10 cm and ready to push! I pushed for 15 minutes and he popped out! Usually my kids just fall out (HAHA, it’s the truth!) so it was weird to actually have to push- HARD! Cele said it looked like my face was going to explode, so props to those women that push for hours and hours.

When Baby Miguel finally made his entrance, they laid him on me but it took a while to make him cry and he was having a hard time breathing and keeping his lungs open, so they took him to the NICU and admitted him. For some reason, I took it a lot harder than I did with Andres, I guess because with Andres I was naive, thinking he’d be out in a few days, but when he had to stay for 11 days it was hard. This time, Miguel ended up busting out after 6 days, and has been happily home with us for over a week! We are so blessed to be his family and to have this sweet nugget of love forever!!!