Julia's Day

October 7, 2011

10.07.2011

9:00AM

We started to get ready to proceed to the Asian Hospital near Alabang, where my wife was scheduled to give birth. Prior to this day, we were contemplating if we will proceed with the October 7 or October 12 delivery date; though it was going to be a normal delivery, my cousin who was our OB-GYN, mentioned that we can have the delivery on either days.

Not to rush things, but the hospital was a long drive from the house and when we saw the final ultrasound last October 6, Julia was really cramped inside the womb already and a portion of the umbilical cord was hovering a bit above her neck.

That's when we decided to just push through with October 7. Aside from it being the feast of the Holy Rosary, which I felt was a good blessing to be born on that day, we didn't want to risk that umbilical cord tightening around Julia's neck.

12:00PM

My wife officially started labor at around noon with just a 3 centimeter opening of her cervix, and we were hoping for a safe and smooth delivery at about 8 or 10PM. around 5PM, she was at 5 centimeters; a bit slow and it kinda got us worried already. Then at around 8PM, she was still at 5 centimeters, then we really had to decide to go with a C-Section already.  (As explained to us, there should be an increase of at least 1 centimeter per hour)

9:00PM

When she was brought to the operating room at around 9PM, I started praying the rosary, still asking for a normal delivery. Suddenly my cousin bolts out of the door at about 10:15PM and said that we might have normal delivery instead.

They were literally about to initiate the procedure (my wife even signed a waiver for the C-section and the medical supplies for the C-section was paid for already, so there's really no refund for it?) when my wife mentioned that she felt like taking a leak, that's when my cousin checked and was surprised that my wife's cervix was already at 10 centimeters! They didn't have time anymore to switch rooms and had to do the delivery immediately as the head of Julia was about to pop out already.

So at 10:35PM, little Julianna Kassandra was born.