Ramon Jose Melo

AKA-Peanut, Ram On, Little Joe, Ray J, RJ and whatever other names we come up with for him...

He was born on March 19th, 2010 at 7:14PM. He was 20 and 1/2 inches long and 8lbs 3.5 oz. Here's his birthday story:

It's a long one...

We were scheduled to be at Paradise Valley Hospital at 9am on Friday, March 19. We got up and got the kids ready to go to the babysitter's house, dropped them off and we were on our way. While on the way, the hospital called to say they were really busy and asked if we could come at 10:30am. No choice really and we weren't in a big hurry so we said, "No problem!" Of course, we weren't about to head to the hospital without eating anything so we stopped at Village Inn for breakfast. Forgetting it was Friday, Juan had Chicken Fried Steak and eggs and I had French Toast. I didn't remember it was a Friday during Lent either but, hey, it happens. So we enjoyed our breakfast together, talked about a new baby coming home, talked about his mom not being there, got a little teary eyed, laughed and had a good time for a little while. We paid for our breakfast and went out driving around for a bit. We still had like 45 minutes. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts to get Juan some coffee and we sat outside for a bit while he drank it. I had Juan take one last picture of me with my prego belly for my mom and we headed to the hospital. I was a little on edge just because it was my last child, last pregnancy, and there's a lot of "stuff" that goes into having a baby.

We were waiting at the light at 40th St to turn left and it started to sprinkle. It wasn't supposed to rain that day but there was the possibility of sprinkles here and there. What are the chances that it sprinkles at that moment in that spot? I say it was Sylvia. I say she was there the whole time and as I get more into this story, you will understand what I mean.

We walked into the hospital and they put me in my room. It was LDR4 or Labor and Delivery Room #4. It was a tiny room, no way even close to big enough for my family to comfortably fit. The nurse assured us that if a bigger room opened up, we would be able to move into it. So, I was started on the medicine that induces contractions, playing Solitaire on my phone, had my parents, my father in law, my comadre, Kika, and of course my hubby and we waited....

I started to feel the contractions and was dialated to about a 4. The nurse came in and said that LDR7 was open and we were going to move into that room. This was AWESOME!! Why you ask? My son Juan Diego was born in this room at the same hospital. Sylvia. I was happy they were moving us to this room.

After we got into this room, I was getting a little more uncomfortable with my contractions but still not horrible. I mentioned it to the nurse to have the anesthesiologist come in to do my epidural when he gets a chance. I figured it would be 15 or 20 minutes for him to get there. She came back in and said that they had an emergency C-Section and he would be about 30 minutes or so if all goes well with that. I was perfectly ok with that. I could wait if it meant someone else's baby being ok. So, the contractions got a little worse but still not unbearable. He finally got there around 6:30pm got the epidural in and said that it should kick in within 20 minutes. I got really shaky and they had me lay down. My blood pressure shot through the roof and she couldn't get the baby's heartbeat at first. I got scared so that didn't help either. But she got it after what seemed like forever! So I waited for the contractions to get easier. I waited and waited...looked at the clock...it had been 10 minutes...it should have gotten a little lighter...I waited 5 more minutes. They were getting WORSE! AHH!! I had never felt a pain like that in my life!! The nurse called the anesthesiologist back in and he said the tube slipped out and that he would need to do it again. Just when they were getting ready to do it over, Juan walked in and I just shook my head "no" and he knew to walk back out. I felt bad that I couldn't tell him what happened...

So he puts the epidural back in. It was even more painful to get in there this time because I was having contractions every minute and a half or so and they were mean contractions. And I had to stay still!

Rewind to 8 years ago when I was having Brianna. Sylvia was there with me and I was going to try and have her with no epidural. I was a wuss and gave in to the medication. Sylvia tried and tried to tell me not to have it. My mom did the same. They were both telling me to just breathe them out and be as calm as possible. I couldn't do it so I had the epidural. I know Sylvia wasn't happy about it and my mom was worried about me having it.

Back to Ramon -- The epidural is in! It should take effect within a few minutes. I thank the doctor again and he's out. I think to myself, only a few more contractions and I won't feel it again. Then "a few" came and went and I could still feel them. Sylvia. She wanted me to feel it. The epidural didn't work.

They came and put a monitor on the baby's head instead of the one around my tummy because they couldn't keep the heartbeat on the monitor since I was moving so much. They checked me and I was already at 7 or 8 and progressing fast. They had called my doctor to come out around 6:40ish and he said he was 30 minutes away. I could still feel every bit of it. It was torture. I started to feel like I needed to push and the nurse said I could push a little to help make it feel better until the doctor got there. Another doctor came in and said, "If you need to push, go ahead, I can deliver your baby if the doctor doesn't make it." I was thinking, BULL$@#*!! I didn't come all this way and have my doctor care for me through all this to make him drive 30 minutes to get here to let some lady I didn't know deliver my baby. I WAS HOLDING IT, pain or not!! And I didn't care that she was his neighbor!

Between every contraction, I looked at the clock. It seemed like it took him an hour to get there. He finally got there and I asked him, "Where were you? Playing golf?" He just responded with, "What's golf?" LOL! Gotta love my doctor.

I saw him and I started pushing. I pushed REALLY hard about 4 or 5 times. I pushed hard enough that I broke blood vessels in the whole right side of my face, neck and chest. I had Juan at my head, my mom in her usual spot on the right leg and Kika at my left leg. At 7:14PM I heard my little boy's first cry. My mom got to cut the cord and she got to hold him first. I was happy about that.

Holy crap! It was painful. That's all I can say. But let me tell you, an hour after I had him, I FELT GREAT! (For having just had an 8lb 4oz baby) Not a lot of pain, no stitches, no having to stay in the bed until the epidural wears off.

So all in all, the 30 minutes of excruciating pain was worth what I got from it. My family is complete. All the people I needed there, were. I have a beautiful, healthy, big, baby boy.

Sylvia was there the whole time.