Cruz Ryder Cash Valenzuela's birth story and diary of the days that followed

Cruz Ryder cash Valenzuela birth story

Sunday night June 6th. Around 10. I started having some little contractions more like Braxton hicks, that I could time. They were about every 6 mins apart. I slept on and off that night some were uncomfy but nothing big at all. I had been having these on and off for days now. Well that morning I got up and they had gotten closer together but still no big deal in the pain department! It was weird for me to not know if this was labor or not. With my last three kids I knew I was in labor. So I went on with my morning. Picking out the kid’s clothes and cleaning up a little. My little baby contractions were about 2-4 mins apart. Even though they were this close I still did not know it was labor cause they weren’t very strong. That is until I went to the bathroom and noticed bloody show. And was like ok this is it!

At this point I would just pause with each contraction and focus and breath. But on a pain scale they were about 2 so no big deal. So Gabe hopped in the shower and we got the kids ready to go to a friend’s house. We were going to drop the kids off then and go to my parent’s house and wait to go to the hospital till things picked up more. It was around 9:45am I think when we left the house. They were starting to pick up at this point and I was having to breathe pretty good through them! That car ride seamed like forever long when it was only 15 mins we got to the babysitters house and at this point I told gabe we need to go straight to the hospital these are getting really strong. So he called my mom and told her change of plans and come straight up to the hospital!

Poor Gabe was trying to drive as I squeezed the heck out of his hand and breathing like a train. We pulled up to the front of the hospital and Gabe got someone to wheel me up to L&D while he parked the car. So I am being wheeled up and holding on to the wheel chair for dear life trying to focus. These contractions went from 0-60 soooo fast!

We make it up to L&D and I hear my mom behind me say I’m her mom. Im thinking thank God and I said yes I need her!! the lady pushing me told the front desk she needs a room now!! I got back so fast. I get in my room and couldn’t even change I just dropped my pants and go on the bed lol. They checked me and I was at 4cm 80% effaced and 0 station. I was getting really fuzzy my arms and legs were getting tingly and numb from breathing so crazy. So they gave me oxygen and that helped me stop hipper ventilating. I think it was 10:15 am when I got up there. Gabe got back from parking the car. My grandpa and grandma made it up there along with my best friend and my daddy. Some where in there they got me my iv and hooked me up to the monitors…I do a no drug labor but I do like to have fluids in a iv. I always feel better after my labor with them. I also in past labors after I give birth have had to have pitocin to stop the bleeding. (On a side note, I had been taking red raspberry leaves and evening Prime rose oil and alfalfa for a month now. They help your labors go faster. I was downing tons of these each day! The alfalfa helps with bleeding after birth.) And some point after that maybe like 30 mins they checked me again and I was 6cm 100% effaced with bulging bag of water. And the pressure was crazy like I wanted to push. Contractions were insane! But my mom who couches me was amazing. My head on her head breathing crazy hard. I squeezed her fingers so hard I popped a blood vessel. Every now and then I would hear her say ouch. Oops ☺. My wonderful hubby and Camille got me my soaking wet freezing washcloths. I had a great support team! All of them helping me and praying for me.

I was def at that place where you say im done now I don’t want to do this anymore please help me! I was asking if they could just break my water. They checked me again a little after that I was an 8 and my water broke while she checked me. I think that was maybe 11am or so.


I wanted to push! My doctor had just came in and go the table broke down. I was a 9 with a tiny lip. I started to push and with one contraction our baby Cruz was born at 11:29 am.



It’s the best feeling ever right after you have a baby in my opinion. Your done and get to see your baby and now the fun begins. I had done a lot of research on the test they do after babies are born. And was saying no to all of them besides the hearing test and blood sugar test. As long as the birth is normal and good. I wanted the cord to stop pumping the blood before they cut it to make sure he got all the blood he needed, no vit k shot and no eye drops. Well after he came out there rushed a bunch of green water. Which I know is meconium and not good. So right there they needed to cut the cord early and get him over to the table to watch him. He was screaming but still really having hard time breathing. As my doctor sewed up the tear I was just so excited to be done with labor. I kept looking over there at Cruz wondering if he was ok. I think a few mins had past when they wrapped him up and said they needed to take him to the nicu. So they held him over to my face while I gave him a kiss goodbye. Gabe headed over there with him so he wasn’t alone. I didn’t really think too much about it as far as being serious. I was so wrong!

(This was my first labor I didn’t have to have a shot or bag of pitocin after birth. I must say that has to be because of the alfalfa I took. I am also anemic this time so the alfalfa helped a ton with not bleeding to much. Also the other stuff I took seemed to help in the fast labor part!)

So the next parts are kind of blurry. they got me all squared away and some of my family was saying goodbye and great job. Now it was just my mom and Camille in there with me. Well I have no idea how long had pasted but the nicu doctor and the head of the nicu came in the room and in a very serious voice said she needed to talk to me about my baby and if I wanted her to ask them to leave. WELL that scared the crap out of me! I said no they can stay. So She starts out by saying, “your baby is very sick.” He breathed in A LOT of muconium and his x-ray is really bad he needed to be inhabited and put on an oscillator to help him breath. He needed 100% oxygen and his body was really acidic. They needed to also put in lines through his belly button cord that would go up near his heart. They could get blood with it and measure more accurately his blood gas levels and Because of this they needed to give him a vit k shot so he would not bleed more.
they would sedate him for all of that and in a couple hours I could go see him.

After about 3 hours I got to go see my little boy.





Oh I almost forgot he was not so little he was 8lbs 14oz 20 ½ inches long. He was all hooked up to everything and looked so big in there compared to all the other babies. I could only stay for a little bit cause I was so sore and needed to lay down. I was actually doing pretty well with it all considering. I def. felt all the people praying! And I was in a stat of shock. Like, wait I just had a really fast labor and now my baby is not in my arms what just happened, kind of state.

That evening was very weird not having the baby in there. My favorite part after having a baby is in the quiet of the night holding the baby and just enjoying those little first moments together. So that was sad. they started me pumping and that helped cause I had something to do. And felt like I was contributing Gabe also started to feel sick and coughing that evening. He even felt chilled so he couldn’t go in to see cruz anymore. This was not good timing at all!!

The next morning the nicu doc came in and said his lungs were looking a little better and that the x-ray yesterday was impressive they were so grungy. He was looking a lot better than all his tests were showing. He was pink and everything. His body seemed to be doing the work as he rested and getting rid of the muconium. He was born with a temperature and had been having one on and off. So they put him on 3 different antibiotics to cover their bases. They had also sent off for a blood culture to see if there was infection from the muconium. They did an echo on his heart to see if there was any pulmonary hypertension. They got that back and there was a tiny bit. That second night our three kiddos came to visit us in the hospital it was so great to see them. they had been having a blast with family friends! The boys were wondering where cruz was so we told them and explained to them what had happened and that he pooped in the water and breathed it in so he needed to be watch real careful and have a machine help him breath. well being boys that they are the poop part they got a kick out of and started cracking up hehe.

On the third day the culture came back neg for a bacteria infection. He started to be able to come down on his oxygen and other settings. All was looking pretty good just really slow going. I also had to go home on that day. That was very hard and weird to be loading up the car and just leaving your baby there. Well on day 4 I think he just platoed and his numbers for infection went from 3 to over a hundred. They were thinking about putting him on a 4th antibiotic but then found out it was not bacterial infection it was a viral infection. The doctors asked us so many questions trying to figure out what kind it was. Well since my daughter Isabella was sick and Gabe and Diego had been sick also but was well now. I had also had a little cold thing going on. They thought maybe he had the viral thing we all had. It also came up that a month ago fifth disease went around my kid’s school. None of us ever got it but had been exposed to it. Well Cruz was getting a rash pretty bad. So they isolated him from the rest of the nicu and just incase we had to gown up glove up and mask up. He also only has one nurse all to him self.
I’m not sure what days stuff happened on with some of this stuff it all runs together. I know on the 11th I got to see him lying on his tummy and it was my first time seeing his back. It is so fuzzy with black hair hehe. He stayed at a stand still for days with his infection numbers going up to 140 and his x-rays coming back a little more grungy from the viral infection. He also was becoming anemic. When he was born his numbers were 18 for hemoglobin it then went down to 14 then 10 then 9.5. They were about to have me sign papers after giving me the low down on a blood transfusion. When Doc Jain looked at his labs from that morning and said oh wow they went up to 10.2. She was shocked. So she said we could wait off on the transfusion. This was all the morning of the 12th. That is when he started to improve from the viral infection slowly but surely. The 12th was a good day! They started giving him my milk I had been pumping. They feed him through a tube starting with the culostrum. I also saw him open his eyes for the first time that day.

He had been so sedated but was able to go longer in between doses.Its amazing the little things that you hold so dear when you have not been able to experience them yet. On the 13th thing were looking even better his numbers were coming down for infection and his vent levels got to go down. And doc jain said he is getting better and soon we should be able to take him off his vent. i also got to change his diaper for the first time. it wa sso special to be able to do more that just touch his foot.

I remember one time the nurse asked me to put my hand on his head and his feet to try and calm him down since he couldn't have his meds yet to calm him.. it was great i got to touch him and he calmed right down.
On the 14th his infection numbers went down to 23 they were at 140. Everyday I had been going up in the mornings with my mom and then at night with my dad or mom. Well that night I went up but by my self and I got there in time for the nurse to get him ready for the night. They had switched him over to a new ventilator that let him breath on his own it just gave him oxygen and kind of pushed a little to help him. The other ventilator was an oscillator that was breathing for him 580 times a min at one point. It helped to massage his lungs as well as breath. Because of the new vent and him breathing on his own they could not sedate him anymore. So I helped hold his little arms down as she cleaned him up. He was mad! And was silent crying. But it was so nice to see his be feisty. She weighed him and he was at 8lb 12oz. a couple days ago he had gotten up to 9lb 7 oz from all the fluids. But was loosing that now and not as puffy. I got to kind of lift him up off the table for a sec so she could put a blanket under him. Buy the time I had left he was calm had been fed 30 cc of my breast milk via tube and swaddled up lying on his tummy. I said goodnight and that mommy and daddy love him.

The next day the 15th gabe went to work he was feeling much better. He was not able to see him since he was a day old. I don’t know how he handled it! We werent able to hold him but at least I could see him. Normally I go in the mornings but instead I called and let them know we would be coming in at 1:30 cause that’s when we have a sitter and that gabe gets to come to since he is feeling better yay!! They also tell me they extabated him and he is no longer on a vent! We can hold him!!! He was just on forced nose oxygen. He was at 23% oxygen and room air is 21%. He was so close to being able to handle room air. The nurse said he seems to really like not being on the vent as I can imagine! We got sitters for the kids and went in at 2 pm. We got all gowned up. I sat down on the black swivel office chair with a pillow under my arm ready for this monumental moment! The nurse got all his tubes moved around and I scooted close to the table so the iv and his tubes would not pull. My face was one big smile. He was kind of fussy for a min, which made his heart rate go up, and so all alarms went off. So I got him to calm down and he was just wide-awake looking at me and all around. Gabe was snapping pictures and caught this most wonderful moment. I didn’t cry I think I was to focused and nervous on making him calm and so happy! :) Its so weird to me cause its not that I had not bonded with my baby yet. But after I held him a whole new bond happened!


That night I got to come back with gabe and my son Judah. None of the kids had seen Cruz yet. It was so sweet seeing Judah get to hold him for the first time.

I also got to help give him a sponge bath he was so mad about that but it was good to hear him. His voice was all hoarse from having the vent in so long. Poor guy. But hearing him was just wonderful! Then he got to have a little outfit on.

Judah went out to wait with dad in the waiting room. The nurse told me when you hold him if your boob just happens to fall in his mouth that would be our little secret ;) I was so excited I would get to try to nurse him!!! Well he latched on right away with no problems at all! It was a perfect moment just me and him ☺ …well and the rest of the nicu ;) I had the nurse take a picture. ☺


The 16th I got a call from the nicu at 8 and said they had orders from the doctor that we could have a go at nursing for real ☺. He was now on room air. No more nose oxygen. So I went up there and got to nurse him for real this time and burped him then changed his poopy diaper. Which is very hard with his pick line being in his foot and not being able to take his outfit of with out unhooking the pick line haha. He likes to be snuggled which I love! He likes to be held upright and lifts his head up to look around. He was also not in isolation anymore.

The 17th I went in at 12 to nurse him and the doctor was reviewing his charts and realized he had been on antibiotics for ten days now so he orders a blood draw to check his levels and if they go under 10 then he can come of his 3 anti. The blood test comes back 9.5 so yay no more meds and the pick line can come out! And the mystery viral infection is still a mystery but it's pretty much gone. He still had a little lingering rash from it. His doctor was very please with how he was doing and nursing. Because he was on a vent for so long they were expecting him to maybe have difficulty because of his throat hurting and his ability to suck. But he has had no problems with that. His oxygen levels have been doing great at room air so they took him off that monitor also. He wants to eat more than their 3-hour schedule... I told them yeah my kiddos tend to eat about every two hour or less :) so they are letting him eat whenever he wants now. I went in later that day to feed him and they said to me the words I had been waiting for…”as long as nothing goes wrong tonight you could take him home tomorrow”.…..they said to call the next morning and they would tell us for sure. I also got to give him his first real bath since he was free of all the tubes and lines. He wasn’t that happy with it. But i was so happy I got to give it to him.

So june 18th came I called first thing when I got up at 8:30. They said nothing went wrong and we could come get him in 2 hours!!! Yay!!!!! I was so elated! So my mom came to watch the kids and we left to get our little man. We got up there and scrubbed in for the last time. I fed him, signed papers and packed up all his stuff. He weighed in 8lb 14 oz ☺ his birth weight. The manager of the nicu came over and said bye to us and how happy she was Cruz was going home so soon and that it was a privilege to have him in there. He surprised all of them with how fast he got better for how sick he was. some other nurses said bye and we took some pictures.

Gabe went to get the car and the nurse walked Cruz and me down stairs. We loaded Cruz up in his cute car seat. And this time got to drive away with our baby boy in the car.

We left the hospital around 11:30am. We got home and all the kids greeted us at the door. Diego just had a solid grin on his face and Bella was just so sweet touching his toes, Judah wanted to hold him and they kept asking who gets to hold him first. They all got there turns holding him. It was a wonderful moment!! Now we are all together and a family of 6 ☺


judah had a cough so he had a mask :)


here are a couple i took on his two week birthday :)