"This is the time we are all looking forward to our baby's arrival in this world with huge anticipation. We long for the day when we can finally physically carry her in our arms and look at our baby in the eyes."Labor at Pregnancy Week 44 had Started!
At this point I was having contractions and was in pain. The “contractions” that I thought I was having a couple days earlier were nothing compared to these. Those must have been Braxton-Hicks contractions instead. (And it has to be said that everyone is right – You will just know when the contractions are the real thing. I promise.) We made it to the hospital around 9:30 am and went to check in with labor and delivery on the 1st floor since I requested for an epidural because I have low tolerance for pain. We were brought into a room and I was told to lay down for a minute so that she could get my blood pressure, stats, and baby's heart rate. ('just making sure it's not a false alarm!) After the nurse IE'd me, we found out I was at 4 cm dilated. She put a belt-like thing across my belly to monitor the contractions and one to monitor the baby’s heart rate. I immediately asked her to turn the baby’s heart rate down so that I couldn’t hear it as much. Even though nothing was wrong with her heart rate, it just overwhelmed me to think about hearing it go down or for something to be wrong. She turned it down. Then, she puts a liquid on my ass to help me go to the toilet and remove all the food I ate... amazing... just for few seconds, I already felt the effect! I stayed inside the toilet for 30 minutes. I feel like I'm having a diarrhea. Then the nurse showed me the room where I'll be giving birth. She told me that I can eat anything I want. Geir and I just sat on the couch in the room and hung out throughout my contractions. Around 2pm, nothing happened. So Geir convinced me to go out the room and walk up and down the stairs so I can start giving birth.
At 3:30pm, still walking non-stop, I already start crying everytime I have my contractions because the pain is stronger. I told my hubby to call the nurse and request for an epidural because I can't handle the pain anymore. When the nurse IE'd me for the 2nd time, she found out I'm already 7cm dilated. The nurse was convincing me that I don't need the epidural anymore since I'll be giving birth any time and I already handle the pain that long. Geir, the nurse, and I talked about it. I had a thought balloon, “It’s not like I get an award for seeing how long I can wait. If I'm in pain, I should make myself comfortable.” I struggled with the whole getting-the-epidural thing. I have said all along that I wanted the epidural. I knew that no one was going to give me a gold star for not having it. I felt like I wanted to be so strong and bear out the contractions, but they hurt. Really bad. And yes, I am a big baby when it comes to pain. I had tears in my eyes, but was fighting the urge to give in to the epidural. Then, I closed my eyes for few seconds and prayed. After that I just agreed on what the nurse said. I made the decision to go ahead and give birth naturally without epidural. Instead, she gave me an oxygen mask and told me to breathe in to ease the pain.
Labor And Delivery: The True Stories Of Pushing
Around 4:30 pm, the nurse said I'm already 10cm dilated. Thankfully everything was about to happen so quickly so I didn’t have time to start thinking things through. She taught me how to push. She said that her and Geir would each hold a leg during a contraction and that she would count down from 10 to 1 while I pushed. There was also a midwife inside the room. I felt like it was my first time to give birth. I had to take a deep breathe in and then push. I officially started pushing at 5:00 pm. While I was pushing the nurse had my right leg and Geir had my left leg. I had a washcloth on my head because I was feeling nauseous. She said that they could start seeing the head and Gier was like “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh." It was like one step forward, two steps back with each push. She would say, “Here’s another contraction. Bear down, bear down, push, push, push” I liked her because she was really helping me. She was good at her job and at motivating me. Finally around 5:30 pm, the midwife said that our baby would be born after just another couple of pushes. At this point that was music to my ears. I was ready to be done with pushing and ready to meet my baby girl. I will also admit right now that pushing is a lot harder than I ever thought. It really takes a lot out of you and just when you feel like giving up, your cheering squad convinces you that you are this close and to try just one more time. You naturally give in because you have to – You have a bowling ball appearing out of your vagina and there is no sucking it back up and making it disappear. For real. At 5:51 pm our little princess came into the world. During that last push I remember Geir holding my left leg, kissing my forehead, and saying, “She's coming out!” and he had tears in his eyes. I had tears in my eyes. We both knew, without saying a word, that our life changed at that moment in time, that it would never be the same. We saw our little girl being born and were both filled of excitement and massive amounts of love for this little being.
Hearing my husband being so vulnerable at that moment is my favorite memory of the day. I saw him in a different light; as a dad now full of love for his wife that just birthed their baby. I feel his love and concern. He was sweating too much after the delivery and I said sorry to him after I gave birth because of all the hitting he received from me. He never complain! He stood by me in my hour of need. Our daughter was placed on my chest right after she was born and I think I was supposed to help wipe her off, but I just stroked her foot. And cried. A lot. After 9 months of growing her and wondering what she would look like, it was my reality now. I wanted to take in everything and totally be in this moment. She was so perfect, even though she was full of fluids and other things. I fell in love with her immediately.
Geir cut her umbilical cord shortly after and then our baby was taken to a table in the room to be weighed and get her APGAR score. She weighed 3975 grams and was 51 cm tall. After giving birth, I felt really nauseous. I don't understand what happened after I gave birth. Everything happened fast. The nurse took my baby and gave her to Geir. Then suddenly, a group of nurses and doctors went to my room. I just heard that the nurse said, they need to bring me to the surgery room because I had too much bleeding. The last thing I remembered was when the nurse told me that they will put me to sleep because the doctor will check something inside me just to make sure. After I said okey, she told me to breath on the oxygen mask then I passed out.
Around 11pm, I woke up. I was so sleepy and was just about to knocked out again. When I would wake up, I wondered what was wrong with me – Could I really be this tired from pushing? I don't understand what just happened. The nurse told me that they will transfer me on my hospital room where I'll be staying for the next couple of nights. The room where I got to enjoy meal after meal of the hospital food – which wasn’t too bad actually. My husband and baby are waiting for me there. She also said that the bleeding already stopped. Geir went home around 12 midnight. There's no extra bed for him in the room.
I had a really good experience. Most importantly, I have the cutest, most perfect baby girl to hold in my arms… and that’s what it’s all about! I feel truly blessed and am so in love with her. Thanks for reading my birth story and labor and delivery story, even though it was super long. I can’t wait to blog about everything that’s happened over the past week.
What a crazy roller coaster it’s been, complete with emotions running wild, hardly any sleep, lots of love for this new little life, and falling deeper in love with my husband, but I would not change a single thing! :)
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