My Birthing Story: Nicole Hernandez-de los Angeles

Nicole Hernandez-de los Angeles, 31 years old
Model and consultant designer
Wife to Jaime, mom to Alonzo, 1 year old

SP: Tell us your birthing story.
Nicole: When I was pregnant, I never really had a problem sleeping, but on one particular night, out of my entire pregnancy, I didn’t know why, but I slept sitting down, propped up on pillows. At 6:30 am, I thought I was dreaming that I either swam or peed on the bed, so I jolted forward, surprised, and my husband woke up, too. Immediately, by instinct, I jumped out of the bed, walked to the bathroom, went into the toilet, and then my water burst.

When my husband saw me, he panicked. He was the one who was nervous. I told him, “Just relax, call the driver to come to work early.” The night before, our dog Pablo slept with us on the bed and I guess he got startled, too, so he started getting angst-y and needed to go out to poo. So what my husband Jay did was make Pablo poo on a piece of newspaper, but he missed catching it, so he ended up cleaning the dog’s poo. He was so harassed. All this time I was in the bathroom, relaxed, waiting for my water to gush out.

When all the water had come out, I stood up so calmly and took a leisurely shower. At this moment my husband enters the bathroom saying “What are you doing??!” so I got out of the shower and blow-dried my hair. I didn’t have any contractions -- or maybe I just didn’t feel it because my tolerance for pain is high. I did my skin regimen, put on some blush, lined my brows, because my husband might want to take videos or photos of me. I wanted to be prepared (laughs). It may sound vain, but hey, it was 6:30 in the morning, the driver wasn’t there yet, and I wasn’t gonna give birth on the spot, so I relaxed. Doing all this was very therapeutic for me. I was excited and nervous, so I knew I had to keep myself busy with something, which, in this case, was to put on make-up. There was no point in stressing out.

When we got to Asian Hospital, they were offering a wheelchair, but I said no, I’ll just walk. At this point I was only 1 cm dilated, so I asked my doctor (who is also my Tita) if I could still eat. I ate a heavy breakfast at 8 am, and at 10 am they did a scan. Then they had to induce me already because my bag was ruptured and I was more prone to infection. That’s when I felt the contraction.

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My Gyne said that if you have a ruptured bag and they induce you, it’s even more painful. I wasn’t trying to convince myself that I could do it [without pain relievers], but if I could, I would do it. But I knew my limitations. At 1 pm, that’s when I asked for an epidural. After that, wow, it was smooth-sailing. I was joking around and I even made a bet that I would give birth at 5:30 pm. Everyone was saying no, you would give birth later.

They wheeled me in to the birthing room at 4:30 pm, they told me at 5:10 to start pushing, and I gave birth at 5:20. It’s like I clocked in – went to the office at 8 am, and clocked out at 5:30. It was so easy. I was told that when you push, just be quiet, don’t shout, so it honestly felt like I was just doing ab exercises. At one point they said I could stop pushing already – he was already out. On September 12, 2012, I gave birth to my son Alonzo de los Angeles, who weighed 5.6 pounds. I was not due until the third week of October, though.

The next day, I was walking already. I needed to go to the bathroom and I didn’t want to pee in a pan. The next morning, I showered, and my husband was so nervous.

I also didn’t want the baby roomed in immediately because for sure I was going to have lots of visitors since he is the first apo from both sides, and I didn’t want to risk his health. The baby was prone to infections. I just went down to the nursery to feed him.

I guess I was lucky, but in reality I also had to trust a lot of people, and believe that I was in good hands. I just let them do their work. There was no point for me to worry also.

SP: How did you manage to be so cool through it all?
Nicole: During my pregnancy and while giving birth, I programmed myself to be just flexible, and not pressure myself to perform a certain way. Of course there’s nothing wrong with having a birthing plan, but when you pressure yourself to stick to it so much despite all the other variables, and you don’t meet your own expectations, sometimes you feel disappointed with yourself. I didn’t want to put myself through that. I approached my whole pregnancy with flexibility – whatever was best for the baby, we do it. Easy-breezy. With my husband, it was a different story. I had to calm him down between pushes (laughs).

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SP: Did you breastfeed right away?
Nicole: I tried to breastfeed right away but he didn’t latch. That was the difficult part – he would latch only when I would use a breast shield. Then, exactly 6 weeks after he was born, he latched properly without the breast shield. Nonetheless, I pumped because I was determined to increase my milk supply.

When he was almost 3 months old I had to mix-feed because I believed I wasn’t producing enough milk. I would feed him but he kept crying because I guess he couldn’t get any more. I supplemented with 2-3 bottles of formula a day for about three weeks. At that age, a normal baby would consume about 24 ounces of milk a day; Alonzo was taking in 45 ounces. That’s why he tripled his birth weight at 7 or 8 months.

But I didn’t give up. After I breastfed, I would pump for 10 minutes no matter how tired I was. For the first three months, I would set an alarm every two hours to either breastfeed him or, if he was asleep, to pump. I would also take Natalac malunggay capsules to help increase my milk supply. I also drank a lot of water. After every pumping session, I finished one glass. On the fourth month, I had so much milk that at one point, I could actually give some away. Breastfeeding wasn’t easy, but it’s worth it. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

As with my pregnancy, I approached breastfeeding with flexibility. I told myself, for as long as I have milk, I’ll continue breastfeeding Alonzo. It became three months. I was barely producing milk, and some would already quit at this point, but I persisted because I saw that my baby was getting bigger. Then wow, I reached five months. Then six months. Maybe I’ll try to go for 10 months. And then one year na pala. I took it one day at a time.

Recently, I stopped breastfeeding already for several reasons: one, I think I’ve given as much as I could – breastfeeding takes a toll on you emotionally, physically, and I wanted to move on. The bigger reason is because I want another baby already.

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SP: How much weight did you gain during pregnancy?
Nicole: I gained about 35 pounds during pregnancy because I indulged! I enjoyed it. But because of breastfeeding and pumping every two hours, by December I could already fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans, without exercise or diet. Plus, I didn’t have a yaya for 5 months so I did everything.

SP: Was there any special reason why you had Alonzo circumcised at birth?
Nicole: My pediatrician’s (who is  my great-grand-tito) advice was to do [the circumcision] as a child, because they’re more prone to infection when the process is done as a grown-up. My husband also agreed because he didn’t want our son to go through what he went through.

SP: How do you like being a mom?
Nicole: When I got pregnant, I think I became more chill, and my husband said I became nicer. My pregnancy really changed me. I enjoyed it so much! I never saw myself as being a hands-on mom, but here I am. I want to have 4 or 5 kids.

SP: Got any tips for new moms?
Nicole:
1. Don’t pressure yourself. Take it a day at a time. You’ll know what to do by instinct. You can read all the books and prepare, make skeds, but you also have to be open to the possibility that your baby will not fit in that mold. Just learn to accept it and adjust.

2. Do research on products you will be buying for your baby. I’m proud to say that the things I bought, I really use them and I love them all. Nothing was a waste of money.

What's in Nicole's baby bag? Click 'View slideshow' above to see!

Photos by Pia Puno

Makeup by Carmel Rivadelo-Villongco for Shiseido