The Daily Denim
- Feb 9, 2021
- 5 min read

Sofia Loren Contini

8/19/20 (36 weeks)

At 36 weeks, I went in for a check-up to see if baby girl was head-down. Prior to the appointment, I kept telling Nick that I was worried she hadn’t flipped yet. Being the optimist that he is, he reassured me that everything was going to be fine and he was sure she’d flip. But something just didn’t feel right to me.

Sure enough, my doctor confirmed at my appointment that she had not flipped yet. She told me we had two options:

1. I could go in for a procedure where two doctors lube up my belly and attempt to manually flip her (doesn’t that sound like fun)

or..

2. We could wait it out and pray for the best.

As we discussed the “manual flipping procedure,” she explained that it would likely be a painful experience and, more importantly, there was the possibility that there was a reason she hadn’t flipped on her own, like maybe the umbilical cord wasn’t long enough.

If this were the case, the procedure could put the baby in distress, and I would have to have an emergency C-section right then and there.

Because of Covid, Nick hadn’t been to any of my appointments at this point and he wouldn’t be allowed at this one either. If the procedure did send me into labor, there was the possibility that Nick wouldn’t be present for her birth.

I went home and we discussed the options and we both felt confident that the best plan was to wait it out and pray that she flip on her own.

8/26/20 (37 weeks)

A week later, I went in for another check-up to see if anything had changed. I had some pain in the middle of the night and was praying that meant she had flipped.

Unfortunately, this little girl had another plan. She had not flipped so we scheduled a C-section for September 9 (original due date was September 18).

During this appointment, I told my doctor that I felt like my water was going to break any minute. I had the same feeling right before my water broke with Vinnie (who came 10 days early) and I felt like she was hanging by a thread.

My doctor looked at me with concern as she explained that because the baby was still breech, if my water did break, the umbilical cord could potentially come out first, which could cut off air flow to the baby. She told me that if I even felt like it was about to happen, to rush to the hospital immediately. This was concerning to me since I was telling her that I felt like it was going to happen at any second!

I begged her to push the C-section sooner because I didn’t think I would make it to 9/9 but they were fully booked and that was the earliest she could get me in.

8/27/20

The following day, Nick was supposed to go to Palm Springs for my brother’s bachelor party. It had been planned for a long time and I insisted he go. I assured him I would take it easy and I would be fine, but I also warned him not to drink too much just incase…

That same night, just a day after telling my doctor I was going to burst at any moment, I was awoken to the sudden feeling of my water breaking at 2 am. My water broke in the middle of the night with Vinnie so I knew exactly what was happening.

I jumped out of bed yelling, “No, no, no, no!” I couldn’t believe this was happening. The one and only night that Nick was out of town and I was going into labor! What are the odds?

I ran to the bathroom and immediately started calling Nick. If you know my husband, then you also know that he is the heaviest sleeper you’ll ever meet. He can sleep through alarms, earthquakes, and even newborn middle-of-the-night feedings. When he’s out, HE’S OUT.

I called him over and over with no answer. I started to panic.

With Covid being at its peak, we were warned that Nick wouldn’t be able to come into the hospital if he didn’t arrive with me. All I could think was, “there is NO way I can do this by myself!”

After calling him about 10 times, I tried calling my brother, but he didn’t’ answer either. Finally, I called my cousin, Aaron, who thankfully answered his damn phone!

I sent him into a full panic attack when I told him my water had broken and he needed to wake Nick up immediately.

Half asleep, Nick jumped in the car and made it home in record timing.

In the meantime, I had called my parents to come over and stay with Vinnie who was still fast asleep and none the wiser that his little sister would soon being joining our family.

We made it to the hospital around 4 am and they admitted me and started prepping for an emergency C-section.

I just want to pause for a moment to acknowledge HOW SCARY A C-SECTION IS! Everyone preps you for how scary a natural birth is, but not enough people talk about how freaky it is to have MAJOR SURGERY WHILE YOU’RE AWAKE!

When they took me into the surgery room, I was shocked at how big it was. As they prepped me for the spinal block, I watched a nurse count what looked like metal ladles (you know, the thing you scoop soup with). There had to be about 10 of them in all different sizes and all I could think was, “What the hell are they going to use THOSE for?!”

Tears started running down my face. I have never been so scared in my entire life.

They finished the spinal block and laid me down on the table and strapped my arms downs. Meanwhile, Nick was still outside of the room waiting to be let in. As the doctors got ready to cut, I managed to whisper through the tears, “What about my husband?”

“Oh shit! The husband!”

They had forgotten to bring him in.

The nurse rushed out to get him.

The tears were pouring out of me at this point. He immediately grabbed my hand and squeezed. In that moment, I felt such comfort. In my hardest moments, Nick has always been there to remind me that everything is going to be okay. That squeeze gave me everything I needed in that moment. We were a team, and we were about to meet our baby girl.

I won’t go into the gory details of how my whole body rocked back and forth as they cut and push and moved things around inside of me because none of that matters now.

At 7:20 am, the most beautiful baby girl was placed on my chest and I knew right then and there, we were complete.