Some Hospital Pics

Visitors

Here is a wee collection of some of Jonathans family when they came to visit.


























Some more people came to visit but I wasn't able to catch it on camera.

Pops & Bar

Lets go Dutch!

Over the next couple of days, I began to regain my strength, and I was able to getup and go to the bathroom by myself without a nurse standing by to make sure that I was going to be ok. I was also able to carry the baby for short amounts of time slowly but surely the progress made it's way up and up till I was pronounced "ready to go home".

Something special that happened during my stay at the hospital was that my Dad was able to visit from Holland along with Aunt and Grandmother. It was very enjoyable and it was sooo good seeing them again!

They brought me some Indonesian snacks that I was super craving and having that was a taste of my youth without the blemishes that sometimes accompany one when they walk down memory lane.

Even though their stay was short it was filled with laughs smiles and good times. Below are some pics from their visit .. enjoy!


Sleeping like an angel


I have made you a Grandpa.


Home at last!


Four Generations!!

P.D.T

Yup! Thats muah! Completely knocked out of my mind. PTL!

.. And all the nurses in the hospital that day rejoiced cause they delivered another soul into the world safe and loud! I don't have permission to share the lovely video clip of him being weighed and all that other very sweet & endearing footage of him in the first wee hours of the morning.

After giving birth to my dear boy, I was trying to figure out how to calm the dear lad, I tried giving him suck from my bossom and .. nothing! He didn't know how to suck, either that or he was to angry about er, well something I'm sure. I'm not very enlightened as to what babies get mad at, so we shall leave it at that. So then I asked Jonathan to try holding the baby and after telling the baby that it was Daddy holding him, he right away calmed down and became at rest.

The nurse aid put a towel that she had just dosed with warm water and put it on my, umm birth canal area, ahem! And oh my, did that ever feel so good, such relief from pain! And after that, I had to get ... yup, you guessed it! Stitches!! Well, this will probably only take 10-15 mins max, I comforted myself with that (ahahah, little did I know) and settled back down to rest, as I had been doing in between contractions during the last stage of childbirth, everyone else excused themselves from the room so that the procedure could begin.

I took a little walk down memory lane and remembered when the nurse said she was going to cut me, I remember thinking, "Oh that person said that I would be so happy when they say that, so .. I thought, ok now I'm supposed to be happy" .. and happy I was! (The mind is a very powerful thing, indeed!)

On with the stitches, they had to cut so that I wouldn't tear but tear I did, and in such a way that it took the dear lady doctor (I'm still thankful that it was a lady doctor and not a male one) about 1 whole hour and a few long minutes to finish up (that's why!). They had to use about two bottles of 30ml of pain killers on me as well as four big needle injections.

The stitching up wasn't so painful, thank the Lord! Due to the pain killers and also the fact that I was so tired and numb feeling after the whole thing. I was able to sleep during most of that long hour, I was so thankful for that. I would only jerk and stir a little bit when I'd start to feel the needle and thread .. thus the amount of pain killers that they used on me

My upper back was shot out with pain because of the standing position during labor, so I could hardly stand upright much less carry the baby. But the Lord was very much in control, and sweet Maria and Jane helped to carry him for most of his first day.

Next thing was that I was going to move to another section where new Mommies stay after delivery, but first I needed to take a shower, so with as much help from the nurses as they were able to give I was able to get up from the bed and was wheeled to the bathroom, where I then proceeded to shower.

I was really worried about using the bathroom, but they (the nurses) were very reassuring and helped to alieve the fear by saying that if I let some warm water run on me while I go/use the bathroom, the pain wouldn't be so intense, they also reminded me that I was still under effect of pain killers so that it wouldn't hurt so bad. And God be praised .. it didn't hurt one bit.

After the shower I started to feel a bit faint, I hadn't eaten anything since the birth (mistake no.2), and I had the water a bit to warm in the shower (mistake no.3) so as I came out of the bathroom, I said to one of the nurses (I asked one nurse to stay with me because I didn't feel very strong, one of the few things I do admit to doing right, thanks to Jesus and my spirit helpers) that I felt a little dizzy and might faint.

She was an understudy and probably thought that people say this all the time but nothing ever happens, so she sorta just stood there feeling awkward then to add to the awkwardness I limped over to her and sorta leaned/hugged her for support. She muttered something squeamishly and kinda looked around embarrassed at having a brown naked and bleeding lady holding on to her, poor thing, I hope it wasn't her first day! LOL

Anyways, BLAAM! It hit! The black out over came my consciousness and I blanked out, my knees had buckled and I hit the floor and landed on my butt. The poor girl nearly joined me in my semi conscious state as she called and rang for back up, when the nurse came it happened to be one of the head nurses and she right away took control of the situation, while the poor understudy whimpered and wailed out the story of woe.

Thank the Lord (and I really do mean that) that my stitches stayed intact and that there was no damage done .. to me. Not so sure how the other girl took it, she remained very apologetic and extra caring for the rest of her time of taking care of me.

They then took me in my state of nudity to the room where I was moving out from, at that point in time I really didn't mind who saw me, not cause I thought I looked great, I just wanted things to get rolling and moving so that I could catch up on sleep.

I got to the ward and had something to eat, still couldn't carry the baby so Maria and Jane continued to help me with that. And the nurses would help me to the bathroom. This state of needing that type of assistance continued for three days. I had only packed for 2 days and I ended up staying 8 days.

Here is a nice blurry pic of me and the baby. I'm sure you understand why it has to be blurry .. definitely not one of my finer moments but for sure one of the most monumental ones.



After the night of being at the hospital, I woke up shivering and shaking, and had to have help going to the bathroom. The next day when the nurse came to check up on me, she saw me shivering and shaking so she right away took my temperature and saw that I had a fever of 39.7 so she asked me if I was sore in my breasts or anywhere else, I told her that I felt like I was carrying a 10 kilo weight with the muscles that are a tad bit lower down than the lower abdomen muscle.

She said that was normal and usually doesn't cause a fever, so she came back with some anti-biotics that rung alarm bells in me, stories of my Mom's near death experience ran through my mind as she prepared the needle and and the sacs, I was also asking what kind of side effects could arise if I took this medicine, she didn't really know and said that this medicine was pretty safe, but I still wasn't sure so I asked to wait while I quickly tried calling Jonathan but there was no answer, I then rang my Dad and he said that he would be praying for me and to trust the Lord.

So after putting it in the Lords hands I complied to what was happening, after she put the needle in me and hooked me up. I right away started tuning in to any weird and not normal feelings, but thank the Lord, the only thing I felt was something cool running into me. Not an unpleasant feeling altogether.

This anonymous infection along with the blazing fever lasted for 4 days, I had all these kinds of tests taken for the doctors, from samples of my insides to taking x-ray pictures of my lungs and still nothing showed up. I was getting slightly fearful by this time and had everybody I could contact at that time praying for me. After all that time, they found out what this infection was that was making me almost delirious with fever and my sheets wet from sweat breaks.

Through out this whole time, I wasn't able to carry the baby so for everything and anything I would have to ring for aid. I want to say thank you to Jane & Maria for carrying my baby for me as well as visiting me.

Jonathan came everyday to visit me at the hospital. He changed his diapers and walked around with him in the hallway so that I could catch up on sleep and eat my food so that I could fight the infection and fever I had.

The infection that I felt was so ominous at the time was only a urine infection, after that I felt confident that I could beat this thing, from feeling like I would be a sickling all my life it changed to I know I can get better in a day or two, by drinking water and other kinds of liquid at every awake moment that I could.

I still can't go home until I get healed and stay that way till the next day. Here are some pics of Jonathan and the baby.

Sleeping happily with Daddy

Sitting up for the first time

In hospital garb

P.D.T = Post Delivery Trauma

I T is done!

Psalm 30:5b

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.

The big I T starts ..

Last night, try as I might to get some sleep. I couldn’t! I tried switching positions and tried different angles but couldn’t quite find my niche. So I tried to catch up on some sleep, Jonathan had to go out early to get some more legal work and other business things done, so I figured I would have a lovely indoor day making up for the rest that I wasn’t able to get some short 8 hours ago.

“Just a short trip to the rest room, and I’m set” I thought. But to my shock when I got up from the toilet, I saw something that meant .. NO SLEEP! I called Isabelle (who thankfully was home at the time) to ask her what ‘that’ was, she said that ‘that’ could mean that my labor was going to start.

I first felt shocked then happy, giddy and excited. I didn’t know what to do, so I started walking around in excitement, then I was told that maybe I should rest, so I tried but felt so happy that laying down didn’t my emotional state justice so I continued walking around.

I also noticed that walking around brought on the same back pain (but stronger) that I felt last night. (Looking back it's like .. duh!!!) Anyways, another sweet miracle that the Lord did was that Suzanna and Lisa were online at the time, so I was in contact with them about how far apart my contractions were and they were both loving and encouraging, my Mommy (a.k.a Mary Meek) called and we talked and she was very supportive.

I also called Jane (Jonathans Mother) and she said that she would come over after she was finished doing some chores and business. I sms-ed Jonathan, and because of the little scare I had earlier, he didn’t seem too alarmed.

So I continued walking around happily feeling the peace that only comes when you’re about to go through something very magnificent and almost humanly impossible.

Around that time, Peter and Isabelle had to go out to do some work on the car, which meant that I was home alone. I started to wonder what would happen if things all of a sudden escalated but those thoughts were kept at bay by the constant communication between Suzanna and Lisa, who at the time were busy with some drilling and work on the new house that the Lord provided for them.

I called Jonathan after making sure that my contractions were coming in a steady flow, it was around 10am that I saw that I was going to have the baby within the next 24 or so hours, and the contractions after I saw the light were approx 10-15 mins apart, but in only a few short hours; at around 12:30ish I was went down to 10 mins apart. During the effacement and beginning of the dilation period I was estatic and on cloud .. I don’t know.. all I know was that I was soooo happy that the baby was coming.

He didn’t believe it at first until I told him to expect his baby within the next 24 hours, then he got the point and said that he would be coming home ASAP. He came home around the same time as Peter and Isabelle did from their work on their car.

It was so funny, I can still remember hearing him come home and hearing his footsteps come to our room door, anyways, he comes in the room while I’m pacing slowly and happily and is like, complete with hand motions, stern expression, and a slightly raised voice. “Calm down, everything is going to be ok!” I started laughing, and tried to calm him down while reassuring him that I was ok and that I wasn’t scared or freaked out.

Hrmm, I know, it should have been the other way around, but what can I say .. us women have God given strength in times of peril and distraught.

I still hadn’t eaten anything and was quite hungry, so (mistake no. 1) I ate a little something instead of following counsel of sticking to liquids. Anyways, we had heard different things about girls going through contractions but that the contractions weren’t able to or could open the person like they’re supposed to. We were determined not to have that story in my book, so we went out (in the cold) for a nice brisk walk up a 70 degree hill. I wasn’t able to walk brisk, so I just did what I could while my coach [a.k.a Jonathan] coached me with my breathing whenever a contraction came.

The transportation to the hospital was quite confusing, first our midwife said that we would have to pay for the taxi, that the Government pays for that, then when we called the hospital they said that we would have to pay for the taxi.

Peter and Isabelle just got their car service so they offered us their car, and Isabelle’s brother, Jackie offered to drive us to the hospital after he got off from work which at that time was around 4pm.

After walking for about .. not really how long but it felt like a long time. We went back home and I tried to pack a bag to take with me to the hospital, I thought I would only be staying there around a day or two so I decided not to take so much, just the bare essentials.

At around 8:30pm Jane arrived.

Now we are off to the hospital.