apple tree: The day Olívia was born

The day Olívia was born was supposed to be a normal day: get up, go to work, come home.

That morning I was precisely 39 weeks pregnant. Pedro left Ana at daycare and I took a bit longer to get ready. I needed this baby to come out and so I turned on the old wives'tales mode. Some lady on a motherhood blog explained the fail proof thing to do was a belly rub followed by deep walking squats. She said: "if you do them in the morning, your baby will be born that afternoon". Say no more and 20min of this ritual I did!

The morning of the day Olívia was born I drove myself to work and trained the person who would substitute me during maternity leave. At around 11am I started feeling a tingly sensation in my belly, but didn't think much of it and carried on. Fifteen minutes later, that feeling came back. And then again another 10 minutes afterwards. But still, I carried on work.

The day Olívia was born my coworkers started timing the contractions and getting startled every time I would ohh and ahh at what I did not yet consider to be a contraction. I decided that 5min apart was a good enough time to call the obgyn clinic: "I think you should stop by to check your dilation, would 1pm work?"

In all fairness, everyone at The Iron Yard offered to drive me, but the day Olívia was born I decided I was fine to drive myself. At around 12:30 everyone wished me the best and I cheerfully left work to go birth Olívia with a Jimmy Johns sandwich at hand. By now I was certain these were contractions.

The day Olívia was born I asked Pedro to call Elena so she would pick Ana up from school. I called my family from the car and swallowed the sandwich whole with the anxiety and realization that this was it, we were going to meet Olívia. As a famous grey haired wizard once said: "Things were now in motion that cannot be undone."

The day Olívia was born, the midwife at the clinic checked my dilation... then paused... then laughed and said "You are 6cm, you need to go to the hospital now!" How was I still walking around and having nearly painless contractions? By the time I left the clinic to drive myself to the hospital, the pain kicked in and it began to hurt.

But not too much, cause the day Olívia was born, I somehow parked the car in the wrong parking lot at the hospital and walked into the first door asking for help: "Excuse me. I'm in labor. where is the maternity ward?". I don't think the lady believed me when I said I was having contractions cause even though by now I was nervous and worried, I was still walking around. It took my about 5min to get to where I need. It was 2pm by now and Pedro was waiting for me at the reception desk of the maternity ward.

The day Olívia was born, I was asked at the desk if my name, address and race where still the same! Visibly in labor by now, breathing heavily and swaying from side to side, I had no plans in morphing into an african-american and walked myself into the delivery room. I alerted the nurses to my 6cm dilation and that I tend to birth fairly quickly.

The day Olívia was born we came prepared! I had Pedro and Sarah by my side, my sisters on messenger cheering me on and Elena taking care of Ana. The perfect support group. All I wanted was to be naked and focus on the breathing while holding tight to Pedro's hand.

Olívia was born after about 20min of active and intense labor, and with 2 huge pushes she was out. No tears, no stitching, just minor swelling. Born at 4:23pm, with 50.8cm and 3.230kg with a full set of hair. She was immediately placed on my chest and I cried of a overwhelming feeling of joy and relief that she was perfect and healthy.

After looking at the raw photos Sarah took, birthing a child is such a primitive, messy and uncontrollable experience. What an adrenaline having those natural birthing pains and full body contractions with no drugs to ease them away. It's so empowering!

The day Olívia was born Ana joined us to meet her sister and then we were four!