As you probably know or realized by the length between posts, Alessandro is here!! He was born December 5 at 7:23 AM, and is very happy and healthy! After just 8 days, the memory of all that happened that day is already starting to fade, so I wanted to take the opportunity to tell the eventful story of his birth. Just as a warning, childbirth is a messy thing; so if you don’t want details, don’t read!
It started the morning of December 4, at my daily doctor’s appointment. As you may have read in the last post, my fluid levels were dropping, and that day they had dropped to just 30 ml, so they told me I had to be induced. Like that day. I panicked a bit at first, but then persuaded them to let me go home, shower, eat, and finish packing last minute things. So fast forward to that afternoon. Around 4, they inserted my IV thing into my arm, which at the time, seemed like pain. I had no idea. At 5:30 they induced me via swab of prostaglandin on my cervix. They seemed skeptical that it would even work, and told me it would take at least 24 hours. I had to spend that night in the hospital, in the maternity ward, which is separate from the labor and delivery area. Paolo was not allowed to stay, as fathers can only come between 11 AM and 9 PM here. Also, here there are two people in each room. My roommate happened to be a 36 week pregnant woman who was hospitalized for severe vomiting after eating too much McDonald’s. So that was pleasant.
Anyways, around 10 pm, I started having contractions. They monitored me for a while and said everything was fine. I was only dilated 1 cm. 30 minutes later, I was having intense contractions, so I called them back. They monitored me again for longer, and still nothing. This went on and on until I was finally 2 cm, then 3. Then finally around 1:00 AM, my water broke. I thought for sure then they would move me to the labor room, and give me the dang epidural. Nope. Also, though I was begging, they wouldn’t let me call Paolo to come there. So I labored alone, until about 3:30 when they finally let me call him. I was finally dilated to the magical 4 cm. It took a while from then to actually admit me to the labor area (which I had to walk to btw, and it wasn’t that close). My contractions were one after the other and incredibly intense. Apparently, the prostaglandin had overreacted on me, and I had more contractions than a normal person would. Lovely. By the time Paolo got there, I literally could not see straight and was about to pass out. But as I’m learning more and more each day, the human body is capable of amazing things.
So I finally moved to the labor room, and when I got there I was experiencing the overwhelming urge to push, which I had been strictly instructed not to do. It was horrible. I can’t even explain what it feels like to have your body adamantly tell you what to do and have to refuse it. And at that point, the feeling of any slight bit of caring what anyone thought of me left, and things got messy. I won’t go into detail, but I did not have the glamourous birth experience some people seem to have where my makeup was intact and my hair fluffy. I was gross. Sweat was the least of my problems. Anyways, the doctor came in, and I begged for epidural. So he checked me and told me that I was fully dilated and if I needed to push, go for it. It was unbelievable! I went from 4 cm to 10 in no time at all. He said at that point it was stupid to take an epidural because it would slow things down and make pushing harder. So yes, I gave birth au natural. At that point, I didn’t care. Also, if anyone was wondering, for future reference, he told me that laboring on your back is the most painful way to do it. Sorry if it’s TMI, but if I can help someone else, getting on all fours on your bed is the way to go. Seriously, try it. Once he told me I could push, I was so relieved. That meant it was almost over, and I didn’t care about epidural. I didn’t think anything could be worse than what I already experienced. And in my case, I was right.
So fast-forward, I pushed for around 45 minutes, partly in the labor room, partly in the delivery room (a room with a big, scary chair in the middle and lots of operating equipment everywhere). Just when I thought I couldn’t do any more, I felt this burst of pain, and simultaneously, energy, and Alessandro made his way into the world. It was amazing, really. I am in total amazement and awe over how perfectly the human body was created and how everything comes together perfectly in the childbirth process. To be honest, crowning was not the worst part of the pain; to me it meant relief and a baby was here.
The moment he came out was surreal to me; I was utterly exhausted, but when they placed him in my arms, I became so aware of this tiny little stranger that suddenly felt so familiar. Even now, 8 days later, I am still in awe of him. Sometimes I can’t help just staring at him, wondering at the perfection of God’s creation.
Anyways, everything after that was downhill, the placenta came out, blah blah, his head was huge, so I required some stitches, which are now the bane of my existence. The first thing the doctor said when he came out was that his head was huge. Duh, I just pushed him out of me, I know better than anyone. He was a perfect 7 lbs, 14 oz, 19.3 cm, at 7:23 AM.
When he was cleaned and dressed, and I was able to leave the delivery room, the 3 of us got to spend some time together, which was really sweet. Paolo held his baby for the first time, which was also the first time he held a baby. Alessandro took to nursing immediately, making my life immensely easier. He was so alert and awake the first day, not at all what I was expecting. After everything, I can say that it was all worth it, we are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Ciao for now,
Kathleen
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