† LoveToLive|LiveToLove †

11 / 6 / 15  -  4:00am  -  Tenea Intriago, my wife and best friend begins laboring on the 39th week of her pregnancy.

Because we intend have the baby naturally, we labor at home for as long as possible, until 4pm.

8:00pm  -  After arriving at the hospital, Tenea is 4 centimeters dilated. It is recommended that we take a walk around the hospital for a couple of hours to see if this progresses things; She needs to be 5 centimeters to be admitted by the Midwife, Kathy.

We do this, she is now 7 centimeters dilated and is admitted into her birth room with a large, warm tub.

Our friend Teri, who has the warmest energy about her, joins us as a sort of stand-in Doula, an extra pair of hands, as all of our family is out of state and can’t be here with us immediately.

11:00pm  -  After laboring in the tub for a few hours, she is now at the 9 centimeter mark, only one more centimeter to go…

11 / 7 / 15  -  4:00am  -  Approaching the 24 hour mark of labor, Tenea has been stalling at 9 centimeters for a little over 5 hours now, pushing constantly, little to no break between contractions, and the baby is not budging one bit. 

Tenea begins to lose all strength, I’m hurting for her, looking into her eyes, she looks utterly desperate. 

Unable to move forward any longer, needing a rest, she finally asks for an epidural.

“Sorry” she tells me; I’m not sure what for so I tell her “Don’t be”, though I’m angry for her. I know how badly she wanted to get through this naturally.

I kiss her goodbye as they make Teri and I leave the room for this.

We wait for 45 minutes when they said it’d be 15 and my head can’t help but go to the worst, most irrational places.

5:30am  -   Teri goes home to rest. Tenea has slept, I couldn’t, but it’s time to push again. She’s like a warrior in battle.

We take small breaks in between. 

She’s now at the full 10 centimeters.

9:00am  -  After pushing for several more hours, the baby has not progressed any longer. The pushing is beginning to become a significant stress on the baby, his heart rate dropping during each push.

Kathy, our Midwife tells us that a vaginal birth is no longer seeming like a possibility. “We could continue to push but it would likely be for several more hours and would cause more stress on the baby.”

She reluctantly recommends a C-Section, our worst fear.

She promises it’s the best option at this point, and says “When you see your baby and hear him crying, you’ll forget about how he got here, it won’t matter.”

We cry together, but know what has to be done.

They take her away to the OR, I wait several minutes alone in our room, dressed in my sterile attire as a cleaning crew comes in and begins to clean our room. 

I send out a message to the parents to let them know. My mom is already on her way, she left Florida around 5am.

10:10am  -  Kathy was right. Our son, Llewyn James Intriago, is pulled from a small incision in my wife’s abdomen and begins to cry out, and I forget everything that’s ever happened, except for what is right now.

I look at him, bewildered in a surreal moment. “Where did he come from?” I think to myself. 

A few weeks prior, I had a dream our son had blonde hair; A strange thought because Tenea and I both have very dark brown, nearly black hair. He did indeed have blonde hair, dirty though it be.

I hold him and Tenea kisses his cheek as they sew her back together.

They need to leave the room with him to get him cleaned up but Tenea has to stay another half hour or so. She’s so strong, I want to be in two places at once, she tells me to go with him, “I’ll be fine”.

We stay two nights in the hospital.

11 / 10 / 15  -  12:00pm  -  We leave the hospital to go home. 

Home is where the light is.

Llewyn  -  White Lion or Source of Light.

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