We just celebrated Mateo's first birthday! I was hoping to honor him by re-sharing my original post from the day he was birthed, but it was removed from Facebook for some reason... So, I'll just post it again! :) Also, here he is today at (one of) his favorite restaurants!
Happy First birthday little man!
On March 11, 2019 at 7:37 PM, Mayra gave birth to our first son, Mateo Froylan Manzanares via emergency caesarean section.
We originally went in on Sunday evening as Mayra was supposed to receive a cervix softener. We learned that she had been having minor contractions all day and most likely Saturday as well. The nurses and doctor decided to not proceed with the softener as Mayra's body was doing everything great and all had been progressing perfectly. She had an amazing pregnancy with no morning sickness and very little issue doing anything aside from bending over
On Monday morning at around 5 am, our Dr saw us and recommended that she begin a medicine that induces her. The reason behind this was that Mayra had high blood pressure and it wasn't going down at that point.
Male friends of mine... holy shit contraction pain looks INTENSE. It does NOT look fun and there is nothing you can do about it but watch. Mayra held out for a while, but eventually requested the epidural. That came within the hour and it eased her pain, but she still felt some kind of pain.
Long post, I know, but I'm going somewhere with all of this.
As the day went on, the nurses had her do some practice pushing. She looked like she was doing great and I felt pride overcome me. However at the end of the practice sessions, baby's heart rate would go from ~130 to about 70-80. The nurses called in the Dr after rolling Mayra around on different sides to get the heart rate back up.
After a few of these attempts, our Dr of about 6 years told us that Mayra had to have the emergency c-section as babys heart rate was dropping too low when she was pushing and it didn't feel like he was coming down/dropping.
Mayra cried, but this was what had to be done. I wanted to cry with her (but I couldn't! I had to be her rock) because I know how important having him vaginally was to her and how good she was doing pushing. So they scrubbed me up and took her to get even more numbing stuff epidural + something. After what felt like a while, the nurses came back and told me that they had to put Mayra under as she was still feeling things. She could feel the Doctors touch her belly, and was still in pain from labor. Apparently the hospitals protocol is that I can't be there when she goes under, so I had to wait.
Eventually the Nurses came by with an update to let me know that baby Mateo was born and Mayra was still asleep. Eventually our Dr came and got me and told me that he had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and that every time Mayra pushed, it was cutting his blood circulation off. She took me to see Mayra, whom was still out, but being monitored by 2 dòctors and let me know that our nurses that had been there since 7 AM with her didn't leave until she delivered (beyond the end of their shifts). She then took me to see Mateo and that's where I took this picture of him.
I'm so very PROUD of my wife, Mayra. I love her so very, very much. I'm very proud of everything she went through and being able to witness almost all of it first hand really was an incredible journey!
My boss told me that I was going to be changed man after this, and he couldn't have been more right!
