After 9 months and 2 weeks my life was changed within minutes.
On Tuesday June 30, 2020 at 2:26 p.m. I became the Momma of a healthy 8 lbs 5 oz baby boy. His name is Ayden Clement Marta and he's the best thing I've ever done and have ever had in my life. Of course there's always a great story to tell in this adventure I call life, and here is his.
I went in for my 38 week doctor's appointment on June 30 at 9 a.m. I wasn't feeling well that morning, in fact, I had been feeling extremely lousy the day before as well. I was nauseous and had radiating back pain from the top to bottom. I wasn't able to sleep anymore and I was hardly able to walk due to some harsh pelvic pain. I woke up with my head in the toilet that Tuesday morning before my doctor's appointment and ended up throwing my hair up in a bun and driving myself to the doctor's office five minutes before my appointment. The nurse came out to call me back and checked my vitals. My blood pressure was 161/103 and my nurse looked at me concerned and said, "Hun, I think you may be having this baby before next Tuesday!" July 7th was the day the doctor had planned my c-section so when my nurse told me this I thought to myself, "okay, maybe she'll want to deliver him tomorrow or in the next couple of days."
I went to the exam room and my doctor walked in and said, "Well, your blood pressure is as impressive as your baby's weight!" (At the time Ayden was weighing in at 10 lbs 8 oz in my womb). I said, "are we thinking these are signs of preeclampsia?" My doctor replied, "I'm afraid so.
How do you feel about having a baby today?" I can only imagine what my face looked like after she said that. All I could sputter out was, "um, today?" She said, "yes, I highly recommend we deliver him today. I do not want to wait and put him at risk of getting ill and put you at more risk." I said, "okay, lets do this." After that she instructed me to go home and get what I needed and get back to the hospital as quickly as possible.
As left the hospital I called Luis and told him, "Babe, we are having a baby today!" He responded, "What! Do I need to get home?" I said, "Yes, as soon as you can!" After I hung up with Luis I called my mom, who went into freak-out mode with me. She asked, "What do you want us to do?" This is where my heart broke a little because I then remembered my birth to Ayden wasn't going to be a normal one. My family wasn't going to be able to come to the hospital and wait to meet him or see me after my c-section. They were going to have to wait a couple of days after he was born to be able to meet him because of COVID-19. I told my mom, "There's nothing I need for you guys to do. We will keep you updated throughout the entire process." She said, "Okay, I will call your dad, Damian and the rest of the family."
I got home and all I could think about was what a mess the house was because I didn't get the chance to pick up the day before because I was feeling so sick. I needed to take a shower and pack up the last minute stuff for the hospital but all I wanted to get done was to wash the pile of dishes in my kitchen sink. I knew if I left them dirty I was going to stress about that while I was in the hospital. (I know, I'm a nut!) A few minutes after I got home Luis walked in and one of the first things I told him was, "babe, could you do me a favor and get these dishes washed while I take a shower?" He gave me an odd look and I said "I'll stress about them not being washed if it doesn't get done before we go to the hospital." He laughed and said, "okay, babe." So Luis washed the dishes, I got showered, we loaded up our suitcase and headed to the hospital.
We got to the Children's Hospital around noon and right when we walked in it was like a whirlwind of events that left me spinning and a baby in my arms in the end. We checked in and the nurses started wiring me up with an IV and monitors. I wasn't too sure what time my doctor was planning on performing my c-section so I asked the nurses and they told me, "we have to do a COVID-19 test on you and we get the results back, in about an hour, we will be ready to go." They shoved two long swab sticks way up my nose (which is not a pleasant feeling at all and will automatically make you cry), sent them off to be tested and an hour later the results came back negative.
I facetimed my mom at some point right before my anesthesiologist came in. We were both in tears because all we both wanted at that moment was for her to be in that hospital room with Luis and I. I had to say goodbye as the anesthesiologist came in to give me his spiel on what to expect from him during my c-section. After he was done I was led to operating room where I was given a spinal, which was probably the most painful part of the whole procedure ... he had to puncture into my spine twice because he didn't get it right the first time. After that my whole lower body was numb, they laid me down and Luis was let into the operating room.
The anesthesiologist told me that once we began the procedure my blood pressure would probably drop and I would feel nauseous and light headed. He said I could let him know if I was feeling sick and he would pump in meds to make me feel better. He said he already had two other women throw up while on the operating table and he was hoping I would be his first of the day to hold my cookies in ... sadly, I didn't make it out of the operating room without vomiting. I asked how long the c-section would take and he told me about an hour from open to close and said, "but you'll have your baby here in about 2 minutes or so." I thought he was being sarcastic, but by the time I knew it I started feeling some pressure on the lower part of my body and then I heard the most wonderful crying screams! I looked at Luis and asked, "he's already out?!" Luis was looking over the curtain covering my body and taking photos with his phone and said, "Yes! He is!"
After that a nurse took Ayden to a table not to far from where I was laying and saw him for the first time ... so tiny and beautiful and loud ... I've never believed in love at first sight, but at that moment I knew it was real. Luis held his little hand as they cleaned him off and the nurse took picture of them. She then brought him to me and laid him on my chest and we both locked eyes and a sense of peace and joy seemed to fall upon us. No one else in that room existed except for him, Luis and I. I was in complete awe of this little human being I had wrapped in my arms. I couldn't believe that after nine months we made this precious little boy and he was ours to cherish and love for the rest of our lives. I was so in love with him, and in that moment I had never loved Luis more than I ever have.
The doctors were about done with closing me up when I started to feel lightheaded and nauseous and before we could tell the anesthesiologist I puked my guts out and apologized to him for not being his one out of three that day. My blood pressure rose and instead of taking us to our hospital room I was told we'd have to stay in the recovery room for 24 hours so I could be monitored every hour and given magnesium to help prevent possible seizures due to my preeclampsia. After we were settled into the recovery room I facetimed my mom and introduced her to her first grandchild. We were so happy and excited to finally have him with us.
The rest of our stay at the hospital was exhausting, to say the least, and there were times where I had a couple of breakdowns. One in particular, that we can laugh at now, happened our second night at
the hospital. We were running on very little sleep from the night before due to nurses coming in and out every hour to check on Ayden and I. Ayden had started to cry around midnight so I got up to check him and realized that his diaper was half off his booty and he had pooped everywhere and on everything. I had to wake up Luis to help me get him cleaned up. The look on Luis face was one of, "I can't believe that I am doing this baby-stuff again after 12 years." (For all of you who aren't aware Luis has two other children who are 12 and 11). My heart broke for him because I could see how exhausted he was and what possibly could be going on through his mind at that moment. We got Ayden cleaned up and Luis went back to sleep and I got back in my hospital bed with Ayden in my arms and started to cry and I whispered to Ayden, "Your dad is going to leave us. But we'll be okay." I was a mess at that moment and extremely emotional ... Luis isn't going to leave me ... I hope, lol.
We were discharged Thursday afternoon. It was so great to be home and so weird to be home with a brand new infant. I showered and then I napped on our recliner chair in the living room. As I napped I heard Luis on the phone with who sounded like my mom and I heard her say, "I have some bad news ..." I instantly woke up and asked what's going on? My mom let us know that Damian had called her to let her know that he had just found out he was exposed to COVID-19 by an employee at his job. We were devastated. Our happy day had turned into one of anxiety. It hit me then that our precious little one had been born into such an unhealthy world, and how the hell was I going to protect him now that he was out of the safety of my womb? Damian called me a little after we got off the phone with my mom. I asked him if he was okay and he responded, "I was until I heard your voice." We both cried over the phone and I reassured him that he would be okay, that he needed to go get tested so we would know for sure if were dealing with anything and then go from there. He told me that he would keep his distance from us in order to keep Ayden safe and I thanked him.
Lauren, Damian's girlfriend, showed up to bring us Roxie's dog food (she did us the favor of dog-sitting while we were in the hospital). She was the first to meet Ayden. I told her to tell Damian when he got home from work he could come by and meet Ayden through our front glass
door. A half hour later Damian was knocking at our front door to meet his newborn nephew. I put on the bravest face I could and kept it together while Damian looked at Ayden from the other side of our glass door. Damian later told me he cried all the way home and told Lauren, "I didn't want the first time I met him to be behind a glass door." Damian went and got tested the next day and was negative for COVID-19. He still did not want to come meet Ayden, just to be on the safe side, but I told him since he tested negative we were okay with him coming to meet him in person. He offered to wear a mask and wash his hands before they met.
Later that Thursday night my mom, dad and two step-kids got to town. My excitement of my parents meeting their first grandchild was probably on the same level of me becoming a mom. They were overjoyed and overwhelmed when their eyes fell upon Ayden. They came in and never let him go. We spent the rest of the weekend obsessing over our newest family member and enjoying his first new days together. We learned those first few days Ayden loves to be sung to and likes noises and being around his loud family. He loves to be outside and feel the warmth of the summer days. He had the cutest little cry when he was days old, I called it his little velociraptor-cry.
Ayden is three weeks old now, and it feels like just yesterday that we brought him home into our lives. To be honest it's been very stressful becoming a mom during these uncertain times and I've struggled on not over-stressing on how I can keep Ayden as safe as possible from this virus in our world. I've also struggled with the fact that I can't let him meet all of his new family and friends all at once, in order to keep him safe and healthy, and that's been the most difficult part. I pray over Ayden each night, and its the same prayer each night, that God will protect us and keep us healthy and that He helps us keep our faith and trust in Him. I am sure God has an amazing plan to heal our world and bring us health and peace soon. Until then we will be here loving, protecting and watching our newborn grow.
On Tuesday June 30, 2020 at 2:26 p.m. I became the Momma of a healthy 8 lbs 5 oz baby boy. His name is Ayden Clement Marta and he's the best thing I've ever done and have ever had in my life. Of course there's always a great story to tell in this adventure I call life, and here is his.
I went in for my 38 week doctor's appointment on June 30 at 9 a.m. I wasn't feeling well that morning, in fact, I had been feeling extremely lousy the day before as well. I was nauseous and had radiating back pain from the top to bottom. I wasn't able to sleep anymore and I was hardly able to walk due to some harsh pelvic pain. I woke up with my head in the toilet that Tuesday morning before my doctor's appointment and ended up throwing my hair up in a bun and driving myself to the doctor's office five minutes before my appointment. The nurse came out to call me back and checked my vitals. My blood pressure was 161/103 and my nurse looked at me concerned and said, "Hun, I think you may be having this baby before next Tuesday!" July 7th was the day the doctor had planned my c-section so when my nurse told me this I thought to myself, "okay, maybe she'll want to deliver him tomorrow or in the next couple of days."
I went to the exam room and my doctor walked in and said, "Well, your blood pressure is as impressive as your baby's weight!" (At the time Ayden was weighing in at 10 lbs 8 oz in my womb). I said, "are we thinking these are signs of preeclampsia?" My doctor replied, "I'm afraid so.
How do you feel about having a baby today?" I can only imagine what my face looked like after she said that. All I could sputter out was, "um, today?" She said, "yes, I highly recommend we deliver him today. I do not want to wait and put him at risk of getting ill and put you at more risk." I said, "okay, lets do this." After that she instructed me to go home and get what I needed and get back to the hospital as quickly as possible.As left the hospital I called Luis and told him, "Babe, we are having a baby today!" He responded, "What! Do I need to get home?" I said, "Yes, as soon as you can!" After I hung up with Luis I called my mom, who went into freak-out mode with me. She asked, "What do you want us to do?" This is where my heart broke a little because I then remembered my birth to Ayden wasn't going to be a normal one. My family wasn't going to be able to come to the hospital and wait to meet him or see me after my c-section. They were going to have to wait a couple of days after he was born to be able to meet him because of COVID-19. I told my mom, "There's nothing I need for you guys to do. We will keep you updated throughout the entire process." She said, "Okay, I will call your dad, Damian and the rest of the family."
I got home and all I could think about was what a mess the house was because I didn't get the chance to pick up the day before because I was feeling so sick. I needed to take a shower and pack up the last minute stuff for the hospital but all I wanted to get done was to wash the pile of dishes in my kitchen sink. I knew if I left them dirty I was going to stress about that while I was in the hospital. (I know, I'm a nut!) A few minutes after I got home Luis walked in and one of the first things I told him was, "babe, could you do me a favor and get these dishes washed while I take a shower?" He gave me an odd look and I said "I'll stress about them not being washed if it doesn't get done before we go to the hospital." He laughed and said, "okay, babe." So Luis washed the dishes, I got showered, we loaded up our suitcase and headed to the hospital.We got to the Children's Hospital around noon and right when we walked in it was like a whirlwind of events that left me spinning and a baby in my arms in the end. We checked in and the nurses started wiring me up with an IV and monitors. I wasn't too sure what time my doctor was planning on performing my c-section so I asked the nurses and they told me, "we have to do a COVID-19 test on you and we get the results back, in about an hour, we will be ready to go." They shoved two long swab sticks way up my nose (which is not a pleasant feeling at all and will automatically make you cry), sent them off to be tested and an hour later the results came back negative.
I facetimed my mom at some point right before my anesthesiologist came in. We were both in tears because all we both wanted at that moment was for her to be in that hospital room with Luis and I. I had to say goodbye as the anesthesiologist came in to give me his spiel on what to expect from him during my c-section. After he was done I was led to operating room where I was given a spinal, which was probably the most painful part of the whole procedure ... he had to puncture into my spine twice because he didn't get it right the first time. After that my whole lower body was numb, they laid me down and Luis was let into the operating room.
The anesthesiologist told me that once we began the procedure my blood pressure would probably drop and I would feel nauseous and light headed. He said I could let him know if I was feeling sick and he would pump in meds to make me feel better. He said he already had two other women throw up while on the operating table and he was hoping I would be his first of the day to hold my cookies in ... sadly, I didn't make it out of the operating room without vomiting. I asked how long the c-section would take and he told me about an hour from open to close and said, "but you'll have your baby here in about 2 minutes or so." I thought he was being sarcastic, but by the time I knew it I started feeling some pressure on the lower part of my body and then I heard the most wonderful crying screams! I looked at Luis and asked, "he's already out?!" Luis was looking over the curtain covering my body and taking photos with his phone and said, "Yes! He is!"
After that a nurse took Ayden to a table not to far from where I was laying and saw him for the first time ... so tiny and beautiful and loud ... I've never believed in love at first sight, but at that moment I knew it was real. Luis held his little hand as they cleaned him off and the nurse took picture of them. She then brought him to me and laid him on my chest and we both locked eyes and a sense of peace and joy seemed to fall upon us. No one else in that room existed except for him, Luis and I. I was in complete awe of this little human being I had wrapped in my arms. I couldn't believe that after nine months we made this precious little boy and he was ours to cherish and love for the rest of our lives. I was so in love with him, and in that moment I had never loved Luis more than I ever have.The doctors were about done with closing me up when I started to feel lightheaded and nauseous and before we could tell the anesthesiologist I puked my guts out and apologized to him for not being his one out of three that day. My blood pressure rose and instead of taking us to our hospital room I was told we'd have to stay in the recovery room for 24 hours so I could be monitored every hour and given magnesium to help prevent possible seizures due to my preeclampsia. After we were settled into the recovery room I facetimed my mom and introduced her to her first grandchild. We were so happy and excited to finally have him with us.
The rest of our stay at the hospital was exhausting, to say the least, and there were times where I had a couple of breakdowns. One in particular, that we can laugh at now, happened our second night at
the hospital. We were running on very little sleep from the night before due to nurses coming in and out every hour to check on Ayden and I. Ayden had started to cry around midnight so I got up to check him and realized that his diaper was half off his booty and he had pooped everywhere and on everything. I had to wake up Luis to help me get him cleaned up. The look on Luis face was one of, "I can't believe that I am doing this baby-stuff again after 12 years." (For all of you who aren't aware Luis has two other children who are 12 and 11). My heart broke for him because I could see how exhausted he was and what possibly could be going on through his mind at that moment. We got Ayden cleaned up and Luis went back to sleep and I got back in my hospital bed with Ayden in my arms and started to cry and I whispered to Ayden, "Your dad is going to leave us. But we'll be okay." I was a mess at that moment and extremely emotional ... Luis isn't going to leave me ... I hope, lol.We were discharged Thursday afternoon. It was so great to be home and so weird to be home with a brand new infant. I showered and then I napped on our recliner chair in the living room. As I napped I heard Luis on the phone with who sounded like my mom and I heard her say, "I have some bad news ..." I instantly woke up and asked what's going on? My mom let us know that Damian had called her to let her know that he had just found out he was exposed to COVID-19 by an employee at his job. We were devastated. Our happy day had turned into one of anxiety. It hit me then that our precious little one had been born into such an unhealthy world, and how the hell was I going to protect him now that he was out of the safety of my womb? Damian called me a little after we got off the phone with my mom. I asked him if he was okay and he responded, "I was until I heard your voice." We both cried over the phone and I reassured him that he would be okay, that he needed to go get tested so we would know for sure if were dealing with anything and then go from there. He told me that he would keep his distance from us in order to keep Ayden safe and I thanked him.
Lauren, Damian's girlfriend, showed up to bring us Roxie's dog food (she did us the favor of dog-sitting while we were in the hospital). She was the first to meet Ayden. I told her to tell Damian when he got home from work he could come by and meet Ayden through our front glass
Later that Thursday night my mom, dad and two step-kids got to town. My excitement of my parents meeting their first grandchild was probably on the same level of me becoming a mom. They were overjoyed and overwhelmed when their eyes fell upon Ayden. They came in and never let him go. We spent the rest of the weekend obsessing over our newest family member and enjoying his first new days together. We learned those first few days Ayden loves to be sung to and likes noises and being around his loud family. He loves to be outside and feel the warmth of the summer days. He had the cutest little cry when he was days old, I called it his little velociraptor-cry.Ayden is three weeks old now, and it feels like just yesterday that we brought him home into our lives. To be honest it's been very stressful becoming a mom during these uncertain times and I've struggled on not over-stressing on how I can keep Ayden as safe as possible from this virus in our world. I've also struggled with the fact that I can't let him meet all of his new family and friends all at once, in order to keep him safe and healthy, and that's been the most difficult part. I pray over Ayden each night, and its the same prayer each night, that God will protect us and keep us healthy and that He helps us keep our faith and trust in Him. I am sure God has an amazing plan to heal our world and bring us health and peace soon. Until then we will be here loving, protecting and watching our newborn grow.
