It’s storytime!! Here’s a recap of my last trimester, getting COVID-19 while pregnant, and labor & delivery during a world pandemic. I tried to make this short but there are so many details I didn’t want to leave out that it was impossible. I hope you enjoy this prego’s experience.
My last trimester was pretty uneventful despite the fact that the world got hit with a pandemic. I spent most of my days home and then quarantine went into effect in New York so I had no choice but to continue being home. If you read my previous post then you know that I did not have a babyshower planned so, unlike other expecting moms, that was one less thing to stress about. My biggest concern during the last months of pregnancy was laboring in a hospital alone. At one point, the hospitals in NYC had banned expecting mothers from having any support with them during labor. If you know me, then you know that I rather give birth in the car on the highway than walk into a hospital by myself with no advocate or support by my side. I was so stressed, I even ended up speaking to a midwife about having a home birth but didn’t have the guts to actually go through with it. I have a lot of confidence in birthing a baby and trust midwives but I was too scared of bleeding to death in my bathroom. When I had the twins, I lost so much blood (which btw I learned could have been avoided) and it was just something that I could not get out of my head to not stress about when I was in labor. Nevertheless, I continued seeing my OBGYN and the hospital reduced the number of sonograms to avoid exposing us to the virus during visits.
“Cuando te toca, te toca”. Translation? Basically when it’s your turn, it’s your turn. I still ended up getting COVID-19 when I was 32 weeks pregnant. One morning, I woke up with an intense migraine that would not go away. I spent the entire day sleeping, eating, and drinking water. Then I started to feel like crap, as if a cold was coming in, so the only thing that made me feel slightly better was taking a bath. I didn’t take any medication and decided to ride it out with just food and rest. I woke up the next morning feeling normal but with a mild headache that eventually went away throughout the day. At that point, I just assumed it was pregnancy hormones. Two days passed and my husband asked me if one of the boys had pooped because the living room smelled bad. I didn’t smell any bad odor but decided to check anyway and that’s when I realized he did poop and I couldn’t smell it. I then tried smelling coffee grounds and even Vicks vapor rub and nothing. My nose wasn’t congested, I just smelled clean air. It was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced so I did what everyone else does, I googled it to see what could possibly cause me to lose my sense of smell.
The virus was still new in the US so the only reported symptoms were fever and trouble breathing which I didn’t have either. A couple of scrolls later, I found an article about Wuhan patients reporting loss of smell and taste. At that point, I assumed I had the virus because I had never lost my sense of smell before and it was just so strange. Where or how did I get it? Most likely the grocery store. Who knows? Anyway, a few days later my husband started having the same initial symptoms as me but with body aches. Also the news started reporting new symptoms and lost of senses was one of them. Since he’s an essential worker, we were able to get tested right away and it came back postive for COVID-19. We quarantined in our home for the required 14 days with my kids which didn’t affect them. After 9 days, we both got our sense back.
You truly don’t appreciate something until it is gone. For those 8 days, I had to visually check my food to make sure it wasn’t burning or my kid’s diapers because again, I could not smell. Thankfully that’s all we experienced from COVID-19 and I’m honestly glad to have that over with. Like many, we got mild cold symptoms and my kid’s did not get Kawasaki disease or anything from it.
Labor & Delivery Day:
Time could not go any slower during my last month of pregnancy. Everytime I thought I was getting contractions, it was just cramps or lightning crotch and that’s it. I hit 39 weeks and no baby then 40 weeks and nothing. I even got annoyed at people asking me if I had given birth yet and began to ignore their calls or text. On my 40th week and 2nd day, I decided it was a good idea to vacuum my couches, mop the floor, and even clean the bathroom before going to bed. This sounds like nesting but to be honest, I’m a procrastinator and I waited till late that day to start doing chores. After I was done, I took a bath, laid down and started feeling period-like cramps. I didn’t put much thought into it because I had given up on the idea of it being “the day” to not continue to be disappointed. I tossed and turned all night in bed and had the usual uncomfortable sleep of a prego. At 5am my constant cramps turned into waves so I started timing it to see if there was a pattern and there was. I was having contractions 7 minutes apart lasting one minute each. It didn’t affect my movement so I got out of bed, made breakfast, curled my hair, and texted my husband who was about to get out of work. By 10am, my contractions were 2 minutes apart 30 seconds long and they stopped me in my tracks. Now I know there’s a 4-1-1 rule on when to go to the hospital but since it was so early and my previous pregnancy took allll day, I didn’t think it was time to go. I hopped in the shower to ease the pain and that’s when it intensified. As soon as I got out of the shower, my contractions made me get on all fours, moan loudly (aka scream), breath hard and just hate everything about it. I was convinced it was time to go but my dear husband was trying his hardest to wait till last minute. After a few more contractions and cursing at him, he got the memo to head to the hospital. The car ride was the most uncomfortable ride ever! I didn’t care about wearing a seatbelt and I had to get on my knees when I was “dying” every 2 minutes.
We got to the labor and delivery registration desk at 11:30am and after attempting to get my insurance information, they realized they weren’t going to get anything from me and that I needed to be placed in a delivery room asap. My husband stayed behind at the entrance registering his name and quickly joined me afterwards wearing a mask. I also got a mask but no one was concerned nor enforced it on me and I was to busy screaming through the pain. As soon as I got to the room, I was tested for COVID-19 and it came back negative for an active virus (obviously I wasn’t going to have it two months later).
The first nurse to check me said I was 5cm dilated then about 10 minutes later the doctor’s assistant walked in and said I was 6cm dilated. About three contractions later, some more screaming and moving uncontrollably, I was given a low dose of epidural. My doctor walked in right after and confirmed I was 8cm dilated. I was dilating so fast that I figured that’s why my contractions were more ridiculously painful than when I had the twins. The epidural didn’t work right away and laying in bed was not helping ease the pain. I still felt everything for 15 minutes and about 30 minutes later, it was time to push and Esmi was born.
Esmi was born at 12:57pm weighing 7lbs 15oz.
I always joked about wanting a fast labor but never really thought it would happen. I guess the two boxes of red raspberry leaf tea and the dates I ate during the last weeks of pregnancy actually helped my labor as promised. My doctor delayed the cord cutting and they left her in the room with us for some skin to skin bonding for about two hours. After that, they checked her weight and did all the routine newborn checks in the room with us.
This experience was so much different from when I had the twins(click here for that story) and despite giving birth in the middle of a pandemic it was 10x better than my first time. My labor was faster, the after birth was peaceful, and we were discharged from the hospital 24 hours later. Now we are home enjoying the remainder of quarantine with the fresh smell of a new baby and the twins are obsessed(a little too much) with her. The end 🙂