Psalm 30:5b
• We arrived at the hospital at 9pm.
• I came to the hospital 6cm dilated.
• The nurse said (in Swedish, a language I'm still trying to master) that she wanted to induce the labour so that the contractions would be more 'effective' (a.k.a more painful).
• Around that time, I was feeling a little exhausted from the contractions, also because the night before I wasn't able to really sleep well.
• I had enough! I wanted the epidural; although I said that I would have a natural delivery. The pain was getting to be a little bit to annoying and to prolonged and I wanted to have that baby NOW!
I told the nurse that I wanted an epidural, to which she agreed and started to get things ready to do so. But I heard the Lord tell me not to and that I didn't really need it as things were progressing and He was taking care of me. He told me to move my hips like a see-saw with the next contractions, so when the next contractions came, I leaned over slightly supporting myself on the bed and did just that .. I told the nurse that I didn’t want the epidural anymore, then I asked the nurse to check me to see how much I dilated in that space of time which was only 15mins. She did .. and I dilated 2cms!!! She was so shocked as was I! Thank the Lord I listened to Him.
• I went on having contractions for another hour.
• Then I heard those words that you long to hear when labour first begins
“Oh Wowie!! This is great!” I thought. Then we tried getting me in a comfortable position to push. We tried the squatting with a little “u” shaped bench wood underneath me. No, that’s not it! Tried on my side .. still not it! I did not want to give birth laying down on my back! So we tried standing .. the thing with standing (and I regret I did it!) was that I would hold on to the support but then whenever I would try to push my legs would cramp up and then I would be left supporting my whole body weight with my shoulder muscles .. so after all that. It was on the bed, on my back, for me to have the baby. I didn’t want my legs in the stirrups (my legs would have been far to stretched to reach the foot holds anyways), so the mid-wife and her aid held my legs, they propped me with a big pillow and with Jane on one side and Maria on the other, I puuussshed!!!
“Oh wait a minute! This is the part where Jonathan is supposed to be with me.” So they traded places, and Jonathan would help say/shout “Puussh!” when it was time to push. I was doing two pushes per contraction, so I wasn’t making much progress.
The midwife checked to see how far the baby was away from crowning then encouraged me to try doing more pushed per contraction, so we (as in my coach [Jonathan]) agreed and when the next contraction came, I pushed four times. Whew! Whatta work out. Don’t get to excited reader .. the baby is still in the birth canal, hasn’t even descended fully yet.
So the pushing went on for about an hour, I was having to push the baby through the birth canal (Something I wasn’t expecting, after reading the CCHB on childbirth >:P). After that, the head finally showed, and then came the actual pushing part, the part of pushing out the head.
Someone told me that when you think you just can’t bear it, that when it [the baby] comes out. So after an hour of pushing, I felt that that was the end of my rope and I couldn't do it anymore. So I was thinking, that the baby would like come out like pronto, cause I couldn’t push anymore cause I was to tired. But the Lord knows me better than I know myself is all I can say, cause the head of the baby kept playing peek-a-boo with the nurse for about half an hour more till it came out, in the meantime, Jonathan was an excellent help and encouragement in helping me push the baby outta me.
He held me and my hand in his, and would literally push alongside me, even scream with me. Ahh, the memories! From watching youtube, I learned that sometimes it’s the shoulder that the hard part of pushing out and not just the head. So I prepared myself mentally for that, so after the head came out, I gave my last ounce of strength in one final push.
I then experienced the weirdest feeling I have ever felt in my life, kinda like one big squishy jelly bean coming out of my very own birth canal.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
And that's exactly how it happened, I looked at the clock and it seemed to be taking forever and I wanted the baby to be born right away, but then I thought ... whenever his birthday would come and if I ever wanted to do the whole wait till you were born till we pop the champagne tradition, we would have to wait sooo long. (I know its fanciful thinking.)
So I thought maybe in the morning would be nicer along with having back contraction instead of having the contractions in the front ... and I got what I asked for! But first let me share with you a bit of my labor story, here is how it went.
• We arrived at the hospital at 9pm.
• I came to the hospital 6cm dilated.
• My contractions continued at approximately the same intensity for about 2 close to the 3 hours (some of which were spent in a tub of warm water, very nice, but I think I stayed in the water a bit to long which resulted in me being extra tired later on) .
• It took a whole 2 hours for me to dilate 1cm.• The nurse said (in Swedish, a language I'm still trying to master) that she wanted to induce the labour so that the contractions would be more 'effective' (a.k.a more painful).
• Around that time, I was feeling a little exhausted from the contractions, also because the night before I wasn't able to really sleep well.
• I had enough! I wanted the epidural; although I said that I would have a natural delivery. The pain was getting to be a little bit to annoying and to prolonged and I wanted to have that baby NOW!
I told the nurse that I wanted an epidural, to which she agreed and started to get things ready to do so. But I heard the Lord tell me not to and that I didn't really need it as things were progressing and He was taking care of me. He told me to move my hips like a see-saw with the next contractions, so when the next contractions came, I leaned over slightly supporting myself on the bed and did just that .. I told the nurse that I didn’t want the epidural anymore, then I asked the nurse to check me to see how much I dilated in that space of time which was only 15mins. She did .. and I dilated 2cms!!! She was so shocked as was I! Thank the Lord I listened to Him.
• I went on having contractions for another hour.
• Then I heard those words that you long to hear when labour first begins
“You can push now!”
“Oh Wowie!! This is great!” I thought. Then we tried getting me in a comfortable position to push. We tried the squatting with a little “u” shaped bench wood underneath me. No, that’s not it! Tried on my side .. still not it! I did not want to give birth laying down on my back! So we tried standing .. the thing with standing (and I regret I did it!) was that I would hold on to the support but then whenever I would try to push my legs would cramp up and then I would be left supporting my whole body weight with my shoulder muscles .. so after all that. It was on the bed, on my back, for me to have the baby. I didn’t want my legs in the stirrups (my legs would have been far to stretched to reach the foot holds anyways), so the mid-wife and her aid held my legs, they propped me with a big pillow and with Jane on one side and Maria on the other, I puuussshed!!!
“Oh wait a minute! This is the part where Jonathan is supposed to be with me.” So they traded places, and Jonathan would help say/shout “Puussh!” when it was time to push. I was doing two pushes per contraction, so I wasn’t making much progress.
The midwife checked to see how far the baby was away from crowning then encouraged me to try doing more pushed per contraction, so we (as in my coach [Jonathan]) agreed and when the next contraction came, I pushed four times. Whew! Whatta work out. Don’t get to excited reader .. the baby is still in the birth canal, hasn’t even descended fully yet.
So the pushing went on for about an hour, I was having to push the baby through the birth canal (Something I wasn’t expecting, after reading the CCHB on childbirth >:P). After that, the head finally showed, and then came the actual pushing part, the part of pushing out the head.
Someone told me that when you think you just can’t bear it, that when it [the baby] comes out. So after an hour of pushing, I felt that that was the end of my rope and I couldn't do it anymore. So I was thinking, that the baby would like come out like pronto, cause I couldn’t push anymore cause I was to tired. But the Lord knows me better than I know myself is all I can say, cause the head of the baby kept playing peek-a-boo with the nurse for about half an hour more till it came out, in the meantime, Jonathan was an excellent help and encouragement in helping me push the baby outta me.
He held me and my hand in his, and would literally push alongside me, even scream with me. Ahh, the memories! From watching youtube, I learned that sometimes it’s the shoulder that the hard part of pushing out and not just the head. So I prepared myself mentally for that, so after the head came out, I gave my last ounce of strength in one final push.
I then experienced the weirdest feeling I have ever felt in my life, kinda like one big squishy jelly bean coming out of my very own birth canal.
After 17 hours of labour, my baby boy was born at 3:26am on September 15, 2007.
So far his name is Raphael .. still not sure of spelling.
Maria and Jane. The two angels who helped me during this monumental time.
Jonathan, proud Father & the only one who could calm Raphael in his first hours of life.
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