Yay!

[raino]

As you can see, I gave birth to a wonderful baby girl! She was born 24.7.2010 around 9 pm, weighing 4404 gr and was astounding 54 cm tall. Now we've been home over a week already and things are going fine. I don't know if this is a honeymoon period or if I got a unusually easy baby, but so far baby life has been quite easy. She eats well (started sucking right away at the birth room), I ooze milk like some sort of milk river and while 8 hour uninterrupted sleep is not possible, I've gotten two 4 hour sleeps on several nights. My darling has taken the main responsibility on nappy circus so I can concentrate more on the fun stuff. And there's so much joy just looking at her and holding her.



Birth went well. It was an interesting experience and not horribly painful even without anaesthesia (I'd say at the worst 8 out of 10) - again, I was lucky, my body seems to be made for making babies. Hot shower and a hot heat pillow on my back were sufficient to go through the opening stage. And making chanting noises and walking slowly in a circle, like a hippie mom. But that really helped. Also, the waters never broke, and the midwife said that makes contractions softer.

Only at the very end things got a bit complicated, just when I should have pushed the baby out the contractions stopped and I started falling asleep on the birth chair! I had been awake for something like 20 hours at that point already. I was given a medicine to start the contractions again but even so the contractions were quite weak and I did not get the "urge to push" everyone's supposed to have. AND at the same time in 3 other rooms moms went into pushing stage, and in one room the baby was getting weak. So my midwife had to dart from room to room helping other moms and people kept popping into my room asking if she could come to help or if she knew where some bowl was (at that point I would have liked to tell them off but I was in some mental deep birth stage and not able to talk). At some point me and hubby were just together and he started seeing baby's head coming out... luckily I had no clue about the weird situation, I was so immersed in my own world. Well, finally the crisis in other rooms was over, my midwife got some assistance and with doctor pushing my tummy, midwife pulling the baby, two other nurses holding my legs and hubby holding my head I got the baby out. Yippee!



Damage received: they had to make a small incision because doctor was planning to use suction cup if I could not push the baby out by myself. But it hasn't been that painful - I needed to take painkillers afterwards, but that was because I somehow wrenched my neck really painfully and got a headache for staying awake over 24 hours and eating just 2 cups of yoghurt and a bite of bread the whole time. If not for the incision, I could have gone rowing a wood-bench boat the next day. Yes I know I'm really lucky, not everyone gets off this easily! and by now I can sit normally without the swimming ring. It seems the longest-lasting problem is going to be my neck, I'm going to have to get it massaged soon.