Victoria Claire Vallette was born on Friday, March 15, 2019 at 7:30 in the morning.
Her birth story reminds me alot of Maria’s birth.
I was exactly 39 weeks pregnant. I had a doctor’s appointment on Thursday afternoon. I was 2 cm and 60% effaced. I had been having prodromal labor (random –but real–contractions) for over a week at this point. I was starting to get really uncomfortable and even though I had alot of fear surrounding this birth, I was ready to not be pregnant any longer.
At my doctor’s appointment Dr. Brown did a membrane sweep. The membrane sweep was….. intense. I’ve had my membranes swept for each of my kiddos but this one was probably the more aggressive. I asked for it, though. When he was done, Dr. B said, “Ok, I swept those membranes really good so we’ll see what happens.” To which I replied, “Yes, I know. I was there.” He laughed and gave me a hug and apologized. I was glad he really…. got in there, though because my body was done being pregnant.
After my doctor’s appointment I went to Planet Nutrition to pick up a protein shake. That was my third trimester craving and I was obsessed. I had two pretty intense contractions on the drive to Planet Nutrition. Contractions were not a new occurrence at this point so I didn’t get overly excited or anything.
After I got my smoothie I decided to go walk around Wal Mart to see if gravity would help the membrane sweep “stick.” I walked around Wal Mart for about 10 minutes and instantly got exhausted. My body was tired, I was tired. I didn’t care anymore about kick starting labor. I wanted to go home and take a shower and sleep. It was about 4:00 at this time and Marvin and I were supposed to go to our Domestic Church circle meeting that night.
I had not been tired like this the entire pregnancy and I knew there was no way I could make it through our meeting. I told our circle we wouldn’t make the meeting, went home, showered and finished binging “Working Moms.”
Marvin got home and he watched basketball and rested. I was so incredibly grateful that I had decided not to go to the meeting. I was so tired. I could not get up from the couch.
I was having contractions still and they were painful for sure, but not anything I couldn’t handle. They came probably every 10 minutes or so. I wasn’t timing them so I’m just guessing. I kept waiting for them to fizzle out, but they didn’t.
At this point Marvin decided to mow the 2 acres surrounding our house. After about 20 minutes he came in the house and asked if I could help him.
Marvin: “Hey, can you help me for a second?”
Me: “Help with what?”
Marvin: “I got the lawnmower stuck. It’ll only take a second.”
I looked at him as though he was the most annoying person but he did not seem to notice. I threw on pajama pants and boots and trudged outside through the mud. I had no bra on, no glasses on and my ethnic hair was wet and frizzy. I had to sit on the lawnmower and steer while he tried to pull me out with his truck. I was in pain and tired and contracting and hating everything.
Eventually non-pregnant male neighbors came out of the woodwork to help him so my braless self slunk back into the house to do nothing and rest.
Eventually Marvin came back inside and we hung out.
Around 9 PM I asked him to make me some ramen noodles because I was hungry and hadn’t had dinner. He did the annoying thing men do when they don’t want to do something and pretended like making ramen noodles was as hard as open heart surgery. He asked me dumb questions like “how do I make ramen noodles?” and “where are the pots?”
Those questions would’ve annoyed a non-pregnant Diana but pregnant Diana almost blew a gasket. I told him I had faith in his 34 year old self figuring it out. He said something about not being “good at cooking ramen noodles.” I said nevermind my 9 month pregnant self would just starve.
Eventually he figured out how to master the impossible skill of BOILING WATER AND THROWING NOODLES IN AND WAITING.
I was still contracting and I told Marvin I could not handle another week of contractions at this level. I googled “how to make prodromal labor active labor.”
A few women said that they tried this thing where you hold your stomach up during a contraction. I tried it through about 5 contractions before bed time. We got into bed at about 10:30.
Marvin said, ” If you want to get that baby out soon we need to have sex.” Very romantic. I had no desire of having sex at all. I was so tired. I told him we’d give it a shot in the morning because I was tired. He said he had an early morning appointment so it was now or never.
We had sex. Marvin fell asleep. Diana fell asleep. About an hour later I woke up with painful contractions. Nothing new. I got up to pee and kept shifting in bed to go back to sleep but I couldn’t. I got up and started timing the contractions at about 12:30. I freaked the freak out when I saw they were 2 minutes apart. I tried to pack the hospital bag, but it was almost impossible because every 2 minutes I had to move and breathe through the contractions. I started worrying that the baby was going to be born in our house because 2 minutes apart is crazy close.
I had contractions 2 minutes apart lasting about 50 seconds for an hour before I decided to wake up Marvin. He woke up and helped me pack the bag and get the bags into the car. I told him once we had finished packing the car that I wanted to sit on the birth ball for a bit and just concentrate on the contractions. I sent him to the store to get me an extra large ice water. At this point it was about 2:30 AM
When he came back I told him I was sorry, but I think it was a false alarm. My contractions slowed down to about 8 minutes apart when I was sitting on the ball. Any time I stood up (to use the bathroom or walk) the contractions moved to about 2 minutes apart again.
We decided around 4 AM to head to the hospital. When we got there no one else was there (because it was 4 AM). I asked Marvin to snap a picture of me in the ER lobby.
This picture below is that picture:
I walked around the empty lobby and had intense contractions every 2 minutes.
Every time I stood up the contractions were STRONG and came often. Every time I sat down the contractions slowed way down.
I’m sorry to share with you that this is where this birth story ends. Yup. That’s it. You see, Victoria is our fifth child and she is currently 10 months old and I wrote the above portion shortly after her birth and now (10 months later) I remember nothing else. I’m sorry.
I know some of you only read my blog for the birth stories and this really sucks. Apologies.
She was born. She is here. She’s my fifth child. The end.
Diana Divulges 