Joshua's Birth Story

His first picture of the day on his one month birthday!

I've finally finished it!!...and it only took me a month to do it :) My baby is officially 1 month old today which is really weird and amazing to me. He's already growing out of his little newborn size clothes and this kid is super strong. I just want to bottle up his cute-ness right now and save it forever.

Anyway, on to business! I have written 3 different versions of the birth story. For those of you who don't really care but want to be nosy and read the highlights of what happened this first version is perfect for you. For those of you who want to hear about what happened from start to finish but don't want to read any of the details involved in childbirth this second version will be fantastic for you. And finally for those of you who are interested, who don't mind details and enjoy hearing about the exciting adventures of a woman in labor the 3rd version is all yours for the reading!!

Enjoy :)

Version #1-The Shortest Version

Went into labor at about 4:00 a.m. Left for the hospital at 11:00a.m. Got to the hospital and in our room at 11:20a.m. Had the baby at 11:40 a.m. Cool fact: he was born in the water sac! Joshua Allen Sioeli Tuutau weighed in at 8lbs 3oz- 19in long- 13in head… Good times!

Version #2-The Shorter Version

I went into labor at about 4 a.m. on Sunday August 1, 2010. I woke Daniel up at 6 a.m. and the real fun began. At about 8:30 we sent John off to church with one of our neighbors and things started to get a little harder. At 10:45 I was in the shower and realized that his head was starting to descend. I knew it was time to go to the hospital and told Daniel to get everything together. We left our house at 11:00 and arrived at the hospital at 11:15. There was a labor and delivery nurse in the ER (luckily) that noticed I was in labor and immediately took me up to the Labor and Delivery room (11:20). They checked me and said I was complete and tried to get an IV in my arm. They tried both arms, couldn’t get it in and finally gave up. The doctor came in and the nurse told him to hurry and get his scrubs on. Before he even reached the door I felt the baby coming out and told the nurse. The doctor walked back over and Joshua’s head was already coming out. The doctor barely had time to get his gloves on and a sheet under me before Joshua came right out. He was born in his water sac (which turned out to be a major blessing because I tested positive for GBS and since he was born in a sterile environment he was completely protected). Joshua Allen Sioeli Tuutau was born at 11:40 a.m. weighing in at 8lbs 3oz- 19in long- 13in head. We had a really great experience. The hospital food really did taste amazing and we ended up getting to go home the next afternoon.

Version #3-The Long Version

The last 3 weeks of my pregnancy I experienced a lot of “warm ups” ( “false labor” or Braxton Hix contractions as most people know it by). I never knew if I was coming or going! At times they would get to the point where I would think it was the real thing but after a few hours (sometimes longer) they would suddenly stop and I would be fine for a few days before they would start back up again. On the last day of July (Saturday July 31, 2010) Daniel and I decided to go out on a date. For Daniel’s birthday this year his brother gave him a gift certificate to Chili’s so we decided to finally take advantage of it. I ordered their Cajun Chicken Pasta (which tasted amazing!) and joked with my husband that I would soon have the baby because that was the same thing I ate at Chili’s a day or two before I had John. Sure enough the next morning (Sunday August 1, 2010) I went into real labor at about 4 a.m.

I was doing considerably well on my own for while then at around 6a.m. I woke up Daniel to help me out. When I gave birth to John I was in labor for 27 hours and actually in the Hospital for 20+ of those 27 hours. I did not want to have the same thing happen so I decided to stay at home as long as I possibly could handle it before heading to the hospital. At about 7:30 my body started to purge itself of all its contents and I knew this was it. Things started to get a bit harder but I was still holding in there pretty well. When Daniel realized this wasn’t another set of “warm ups” he called one of our neighbors to come and get John. He was just getting out of bed so Daniel got him dressed and ready for church and sent him off with his cute little bag of clothes and food with our friend. At 8:30 I started to hit the point where my hormones started to go a little crazy and I started getting that overwhelmed “I can’t do this” feeling. I tried to stay positive but I started to sound a little like a crazy person and I started to cry. Thank goodness I have the sweetest most patient husband in the whole wide world and he helped keep me going and kept me breathing.

From that point on I spent most of my time in the shower. The water helped A LOT and it felt really nice to let it hit my stomach and back. After a while the hot water would run out and I would be forced to get out and continue my birthing journey on either my giant exercise/birthing ball or the huge pile of pillows on my bed. My husband would massage my back with some oils (Clary Sage and Serenity) while I waited for the water to heat up again. I kept doing all of this for a few more hours each time checking myself while I was in the shower to see if I was progressing any further. Finally at about 10:45 I was in the shower and I checked myself and knew I was either complete or pretty dang close to being complete. I could tell his head was descending and called out to Daniel to get our stuff in the car. I threw on a pink summer dress and my shoes and went out to the car. We left our house at 11:00 and arrived at the ER entrance at about 11:15. The car ride was no fun at all but at least we made it!

They pulled over a wheelchair and helped me into it. The guy wheeled me into the entrance while Daniel grabbed our stuff from the car. The lady at the check in desk tried to ask me a bunch of questions but I really was in no mood to answer everything. Thank goodness one of the Labor and Delivery nurses happened to be down there as they wheeled me in and could tell that I was not joking when I said “The baby is coming right now!” She told the check-in lady that she would take care of me whisked me off as fast as she dared go. She had the check-in lady call ahead so they could start preparing a room for me so by the time I got up to the Labor and Delivery floor (about 11:20) everything was ready. The nurse waiting for me was named Mimi and she just so happened to be our nurse when John was born. She was very sweet and calm and has this amazing ability to help keep the room subdued. I tested positive for GBS (Group B Strep) this pregnancy so they wanted to put an IV in to get the antibiotics started. When they laid me down on the bed Mimi checked me and said I was complete and it wouldn’t be long until the baby was here. They paged the on-call Doctor immediately and attempted to put in an IV. The nurse (her name was Nicole and she was super nice too) missed my vein and so decided to try on the other hand where she couldn’t get it in and ended up forgetting about it. The funny thing is this whole time I just kept breathing. I tried to focus everything into breathing and didn’t make a sound until they tried to put the IV in…twice! Daniel tells me I let out a few loud “Ouch”es then went back to breathing. When they finally gave up on putting in an IV I asked them to be put in a different position because my back was killing me. Mimi pulled up the back of the bed and I turned around onto my knees and held onto the back of the bed. It felt SO much better being like that than any other position I tried. The doctor came in (Dr. Green) and I briefly remember him asking how I was doing and talking to Daniel about how he delivered 700 babies in Samoa! The whole time that was going on I could feel the baby coming down and I knew he was on his way out. One of the nurses told the Doctor he should hurry to get his scrubs on and as he walked to the door I told the nurse that the baby was on his way out. She turned to the Doctor and said “Doctor come back. When the mother says ‘the baby is coming’ that means the baby is coming right now”. Dr. Green walked back over looked down and said “Whoa there’s the head!” He barely had enough time to get his gloves on before I could feel his head coming out. A few seconds later (11:40 a.m.) he was completely out. I was shocked that it happened so fast. I turned to the nurse and said “Is that it? Did I have him?” She just started laughing and said to turn around and look for myself. I had Daniel help me get my dress off (I didn’t even have time to change into a hospital gown) and I turned around as they handed him to me. They were still trying to clean this weird stringy white film off of him which seemed a little weird to me. When I asked what it was they told me that my water sac didn’t break until after his head came out. He was born in the water sac!! I was so amazed by that. It turned out to be a huge blessing because he was born in a sterile environment so they didn’t even have to worry about him getting affected by the GBS. They were never able to get the antibiotics in me so it was a miracle that he was born in the water sac!

They cleaned him up, put a warm blanket around us, Daniel cut the cord, my placenta came out, and the doctor told me I was completely fine and there were no problems. I didn’t even need a single stitch. For the next hour we took a few pictures, called a few family members, and I was able to enjoy some wonderful bonding time with my beautiful baby boy. The nurse ordered lunch for me and once Daniel took the baby down to get weighed (he was 8lb 3oz and 19in long) and cleaned I was able to enjoy food and brag to my sister and mom about how everything went. The nurses were so impressed with the birth. They were so sweet to me (especially Mimi and Nicole) and kept telling me how amazing I was and how strong of a woman I was. It made me feel really good because I started to feel like a pathetic baby!!

In the afternoon Daniel brought John over to meet his little brother which was fun. He didn’t really care about him for the first couple of days but after that he has been all over him all the time (mainly wanting to hug and kiss him!). John was more fascinated with the TV remote than he was with Josh. Daniel took John home to sleep while I tried to get a few hours of sleep here and there. One of the best parts about being in the hospital was the food! They serve the best food at Cottage Hospital. The next day after getting all of our check-ups and testing done we were given the option to go home which I immediately took. We were only in the hospital for 20min before Josh was born and a little over 24 hours later we made our way home. It turned out to be a great experience which I will forever be thankful for!