Anika Josephine

Those Last Days:

I was getting awfully impatient to meet my baby-girl, but the due-date passed and nothing seemed to be happening. No contractions, really, except for the occassional insignificant cramp..... I was still comfortable, walking around with my modest belly, and it was making me very antsy. Baby-Zus followed in her older sister´s footsteps indeed, as everyone had predicted...arriving 5 full days after the due-date (thankfully, not 12 days, as Ari did, but still on the late side).

The Birth Story: (for a short summary, skip this rant and check the end of the entry).

Ari had been sickly for a few days, but woke up active and cheerful on Friday (Dec.18) morning, so we carried on as usual. I convinced Daniel to accompany me and Ari on a trip to the mall, for some last-minute Christmas shopping. We didn´t buy much of anything, but had lunch at Burger King. Daniel bought Ari a kiddy-meal (miracle of miracles!), he ordered a huge burger for himself, and went to the Kebab-place to pick up a chicken-durum for me.
(yes, this is all beside the point, but I want to remember the details... so bear with me!)
Anyway, we returned home on the bus, and Ari had another spell of fever. High fever. So, at 6 o´clock, we were on our way to our health-clinic with Daniel´s mother. That´s where it all began.

I felt the first hint of a contraction at 18:00 exactly. It caught me by surprise. Then, a prompt 8 minutes later, I felt another one. So, I looked at Daniel and said something might be happening... I smiled. The "contractions" continued while we took Ari to her appointment, but they were so mild that I felt no need to stop what we were doing. Instead, I was very excited and cheerful, and told Ari´s pediatrician that I thought my baby might be coming soon.
At 20:00 we headed to my in-laws´house. We discussed the situation with Susie and decided it might be wise for us to stay with them, just in case the delivery was really going to start that night. We put Ari to bed in their attic & had some supper. I called my personal midwife & advisor ( :-) ), Melanie, and she said things would have to start hurting a whole lot more before I´d need to head to the hospital. It couldn´t be that serious yet if I was just sitting there, chatting with her.

Nonetheless, the contractions were so regular, and the intervals so short. I called my mother at around 22:00 and decided to take a shower. Meanwhile, Daniel and his father drove to our house to pick up the hospital-bag and everything Ari would need. By the time they returned, at around 23:00, I was starting to struggle. It became more difficult to talk during a contraction, and it felt like my lower body was being ripped off my upper body. I kid you not, labor is no fun. I had forgotten just how painful it was.
I tried to rest for a while. Ari woke up and cried out for me. I couldn´t even respond to her, I was so concentrated on the contractions. The pauses between contractions became so short so fast.... 4 minutes, and then 3. It was time to head to the hospital..just in case.
Daniel´s father drove us to the hospital, and we arrived at a few minutes before midnight. I got into a wheelchair and my legs were shaking, trembling. Daniel and his dad talked me through the breathing-techniques.... I don´t think I did so well. I am just not a skilled breather.

We had to wait in the cold hallway for a while. Then a nurse summoned me and I was put on the monitor. Daniel was told to wait outside, for a stupid reason (because there were other women in the rooms around there... getting checked for dilation: but that was ridiculous, because it´s not like any of them were in sight, but whatever), and the nurse prepared my hand for the mandatory IV-drip. She told me I was 4 cm dilated, and officially "de parto". She had to wait until a contraction had passed so that she could do the pinching. Then, I had to change into the hospital-robe. Then (and this is exactly the sort of thing I was expecting and dreading) they were processing my paperwork, forcing me to suffer through my contractions in the drafty hallway, without a chair for support. Oh, and could I please give them some fingerprints in the meantime? No explanations, no "we are going to do this, just wait one second". No encouragement of any sort.
The waiting didn´t last long (it can´t have, considering the baby was born within an hour of our arrival at the hospital), but minutes seem like hours, nay days, when you are in labor. And I thought it was all pretty ridiculous....the way they were not taking care of me! Daniel was still outside, so I didn´t have him to support me, either.

I was parched. Parched. I wanted water, or chapstick, or something.... and they refused.. Not even a drop of water.

Anyway, I was taken to the dilation-room. This is where the fun began. They gave me an enema, but it was too late.... I started to feel the need to push.... I told them to go get my husband, and they complied, thankfully. Daniel arrived just in time. While the 5 midwives were standing around, chatting, I was going through the worst of my labor-pains, and Daniel summoned them, saying "she needs to push!". They were very aloof throughout all of this, but they said I could push if I needed to, so I did. And there she was, at 00:51 on December the 19th. They handed Anika to me, and I loved her immediately. She felt like "my own", and I held her and forgot all about the agony of having to push her out of my body.

All the clichés are true. Seeing your baby´s face, after such a long wait, takes your mind off the pains of childbirth. All you can think is, "here (s)he is....my very own".

The fact that the midwives paid so little attention to me probably worked in my favor, because I ended up having as natural a birth as was possible in the hospital-setting. It was too late for any type of medical intervention: I just had to let it all happen, and that is great. The pain was overwhelming and intense, because I went from being 4 cm dilated to being fully dilated in about 20 minutes.... but then it was over. (so, I might be complaining about the lack of guidance on the part of the medical staff, but I guess that allowed me to do this the natural way.) I wasn´t forced to follow a particular set of steps, I wasn´t forced to wait....I just pushed & that was that.

Then they took Anika to be cleaned and dried, and Daniel went with her. I was back on my own, and it was back to "labor" for me.. (a woman´s work is never done!) I had to deliver the placenta, which went fine. However, then the membranes (the bag: the baby´s home in the womb, in other words) didn´t come out well. So the midwive started pressing on my belly, trying to push them out.. It was very uncomfortable. She seemed to press my belly down into my back, repeatedly.... until every piece of membrane made it out. A necessary procedure, because leaving them inside could cause bloodclots, etc.

Daniel and Anika returned to the room, and the three of us waited there for about 2 hours before we were finally taken to our recovery-room. During those waiting-hours, I phoned my parents and my sister, Anika nursed, and another woman in labor screamed dramatically & incessantly....... It was very surreal.
The midwives seemed to have abandoned us. Finally, a guy came to roll me away. I had Anika in my arms & Daniel beside me, and I felt giddy with excitement. The hospital hallways were so cold. Anika came into the world in the cold of winter, just like her sister....greeted by the frost outside.

The rest of the hospital-stay was quite uneventful. To sum things up: the bathroom was filthy, the room was drafty (if you had told me we were in, say, Russia, I would have believed it), and no one gave us any directions, no one told us what was going to happen. The nurses took Anika to the "nido" (the nest: or nursery), to get her warm on some type of thermal plate. We wanted her back....it was taking too long. They must have kept her for close to two hours, but gave us no indication that it would be so long.

Our roommates arrived at 6 that morning. And with them (several hours later), a lot of loud visitors... No one paid attention to visiting-hours, of course. Anyway, I recovered quickly. No stitches, which made everything a lot more comfortable. The first night & day were rough, but Anika turned out to be very calm. She only really cries when she is hungry, and she sleeps a lot. When awake, she is very alert, but she just stares at everything and rarely fusses. She gives us no trouble at all.

Next: a family of four....how have we adjusted.... (be on the look-out.)

Anika´s Birth in a Nutshell: *born at 00:51 in the dilation room of the hospital, less than an hour after our arrival at the hospital. no complications. *weight: 3345 grams *length: 51 cm