I am excited to share the birth story of Giulietta Rose with you today!

You can read Dominic’s birth story HERE.

I hope you enjoy reading the birth story of our little girl, Giulietta Rose.

Giulietta Rose Aratari was born on August 9, 2019 at 2:31 am. She weighed 6lbs 10 oz and was 19” long. She is absolutely perfect and we could not love her anymore! She is such a sweet baby!

I love sharing birth stories because I love reading them! I also like to share them on here so that in years to come, I can come back and reread their stories in full detail now that it is still fresh in my mind. As I write this, know that tears are forming as I think back on such a happy day for us!

EARLY CONTRACTIONS

During the early morning of Wednesday, 8/7, I was woken up by some contractions. At first I didn’t think anything of them and got up to use the bathroom to see if they would go away, thinking they were just some Braxton Hicks contractions. Well they never went away and I started timing them. They were about 5-7 minutes apart so we decided to call my doctor to see what she thought. She advised to go to the hospital to get checked out.

Luckily, my MIL happened to be in town visiting my SIL so she came over at 4am to stay with Dominic and we headed to the hospital. We grabbed a bite to eat thinking we were going to have a baby that day and I learned my lesson from Dominic, eat before you go to the hospital so you have sustenance for labor.

We got to the hospital and they put me in a triage room to get checked out. I was only contracting 7-10 minutes apart at this time and I was 4cm dilated which is what I was on Monday at my doctor’s appointment. They consulted my doctor and she told us to go home and come back when contractions were either closer together, stronger, or my water broke. Needless to say, I was a little bummed, thinking we were going to get to meet our baby that day, but I also didn’t want to sit in a hospital bed all day if nothing was going to happen.

That day, I took it easy and hung with Dominic and tried to walk around a lot to get labor moving. We took a long family walk, I ate lots of pineapple and drank raspberry leaf tea! Still contractions were the same as before and my water had not broken.

I showered that night and went to bed. Again, in the middle of the night, I was woken up my some painful contractions. I started timing them and they were not consistent until around 5am. I called the doctor back and she said go get checked just to be safe. After hanging up, my contractions became irregular again so we decided to wait to go into the hospital as we didn’t want to get sent home again.

Later that day around 11am, my doctor called asking if I had gone to the hospital and I explained why I had not gone in. She advised me to go in to get checked as I had a previous C-Section and if I was having these contractions, but not dilating, it could cause a uterine rupture which would be very scary for myself and the baby.

John Paul had gone to work that day so I quickly got myself ready, got Dominic ready, and packed up our toiletries to head to the hospital. I dropped Dominic off at my SIL’s house so he could hang with her and my MIL. I still wasn’t convinced I would be staying in the hospital, but we wanted to be on the safe side and get looked at.

BEING ADMITTED

When we got to the hospital, they put us in a triage room to be looked at and evaluated. They set up the monitors and tracked my contractions. They were about every 5 minutes now and they said I was almost 6cm dilated!!!! I was hopeful we would be admitted! Sure enough, my doctor had me stay and I was being admitted to have the baby!!!

I had to stay in the triage room for almost 3 hours before getting into a labor and delivery room because there were lots of babies being born that day! Once I finally got into a room, they started me on Pitocin at a low dose as to avoid any uterine rupturing. They told me they didn’t want to break my water and would not check me very often because they didn’t want to disrupt anything and wanted my body to do everything naturally.

I was in the room around 5:30pm and the Pitocin started. Shortly after I was given a birthing ball to bounce on and a popsicle. I was feeling really good! The contractions were steady, but not super painful. I decided around 10pm to get an epidural so that I could get a little sleep and I didn’t want to wait too long and be in tons of pain.

The epidural definitely hurt more than I remember it hurting with Dominic, but it was a success and I was able to sleep for a couple hours. Around 12pm, they had checked me and my water had broken and I was 7cm dilated! We were getting closer to meeting our baby!

Around 1am, I felt tons of pressure in my bottom and could not get comfortable. I called in a nurse and she tried moving me to a different side, but it wasn’t helping. She decided to call the doctor in to check me out. They wanted to be extra cautious that nothing was rupturing. I was checked and was told I was fully dilated and it was time to push!!!!!!

TIME TO PUSH

By 1:30am, it was time to push after everyone had set up the room for delivery. The nurses and doctors were prepping the baby items, the table for their supplies, and my bed. It was crazy to watch it all unfold and how organized they are.

My nurse was amazing and really explained how to push and where to push. I felt a lot more confident this time having her coach me and cheer me on!

I was in a much better headspace this time than with Dominic. I kept telling myself I am doing this, I am going to push this baby out, and I have the strength. Things were slow moving at first, but I finally got the hang of things and they kept telling me how much hair she had!

I kept asking John Paul if he could see her head and he said yes, keep pushing and get her out. He was a great support to me! Since I kept asking if she was close to coming out, they offered to bring in a mirror so that I could see her head when I was pushing. It sounds nasty, but I am a visual learner and being able to see her and where to push helped me out A TON! I truly believe that is one of the reasons I was able to push this baby.

They wheeled in a big mirror around 2am. From then on it was go time! I had a new found confidence and things started to shift. I could see her head which made me excited to meet her and get her out. I was told that if I can just get her head out, they will basically do the rest and help me get her body out.

I kept pushing on each contraction and she was slowly moving down more and more. Around 2:15am, things really started to change. All of a sudden, my doctor came in the room, they fixed my bed so that it would be easier to deliver the baby, they put the stirrups up so that my legs had more to push off of, the table was transformed into all of the items the doctor would need after Gigi was born, and the baby nurse came in! I remember being in awe of how they all worked so seamlessly to get the room ready for delivery.

Finally, it was time to get this baby out! Right before 2:31am, I gave a push that got her head out!!! My doctor called it a super crown as her head was sticking right out and waiting for the next round of contractions to get her body out. Next round of contractions and she was out and placed on my chest for skin to skin!!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!!!

She was so peaceful and cozy laying on my chest. They let her lay there the entire time they were finishing my delivery. She started to nurse right away which was so cool how she just knew to move where the food is! Our bodies are truly incredible!

I only had a 1st degree tear which was great so I only needed a couple stitches. Everyone was so impressed and my doctor said she was so happy I advocated for myself to try a VBAC.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of myself! I wanted a natural birth in the worst way so that I could experience it. Obviously, if I needed another C section, I would have been totally open to that as I just wanted a healthy baby.

AFTER BIRTH

After stitching me up, skin to skin time, and a shower, I was wheeled up to the recovery room. Gigi spent a little time in the nursery under the warmer to bring her temperature up a bit. This gave us a chance to snooze for about an hour and a half.

That day Dominic came to visit and meet his little sister! Precious moment for us as he got to kiss her and love on her. He was interested for a bit and then quickly was ready to run around and eat some snacks!

We spent 1 night in the hospital and were sent home on Saturday afternoon. We could have stayed another night if we wanted, but we were ready to get home and be together as a family.

Our little girl is now a week old and what a fast week it has been! Such a whirlwind in the best way possible! We are head over heels in love with this sweet baby and she has been such a joyful addition to our family. We are still figuring out how to manage 2 little ones plus a dog, but each day we learn new things!

I hope this brings you a little bit of happiness :)

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XO
-LA

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