I still can’t believe that it has been now 6 months she came in our life. Since then, she is giving us every day her smile and chirping that I love.
September 17th 2019, she arrived so quickly, as an arrow (I hope you see what I mean). She was supposed to be here, in this world on September 23rd and I have always known that it would be earlier, but not exactly 17th. I wanted to film the event, even if Kriss didn’t want to. I just wanted to have a souvenir and be able to watch it after. The thing is that I consider we forget some things because of the adrenaline and thought it would be great to watch our reaction after that.
Well, as she arrived very quickly, we haven’t had the time to film anything. He almost missed the arrival because there weren’t a lot of park places for the car. Well, I think it will be better to start the story from the very beginning.
Sunday, September 15th
I am bleeding a little bit, but it doesn’t seem to be something dangerous compared to the moment I lived on August 9th and because of which I spent one night at the hospital. Doctors even told me that there may be a chance to proceed to a caesarean, if the baby doesn’t go well. Fortunately everything went well, even if they weren’t able to find the reason for the abundant bleeding. So, on Sunday, September 15th, at 7pm we go to the hospital, just for a check. After an exam, they told everything were ok. I asked if there were a dilation and if baby would be soon here. She said baby is not ready to show her face yet and it will take a week before meeting her. It is now 11pm and we are going home.
September 17th, at 1:30 am
I am not able to sleep because my belly hurts. I am turning to the left then to the right, trying to sleep and thinking that my body is just preparing itself for the delivery that will take place in one week, according to doctors.
2:00 am
Still turning from left to the right and still impossible to sleep because of the pain. I tell Kriss that it will be better for him to go in the other room to be able to sleep. He says that it is not a big deal and stays at the bed. I was thinking that it would be better that I am going to the other room so I take the pillow and move to the living room.
3:00 am
It still hurts and it is like I am having my period. I think it is important to say that when having my period I used to feel a horrible pain. I even lived two very important crisis because of that, 12 years ago, being on the floor and not able to walk because of the pain. So, I sleep for around fifteen minutes but pain is waking me up.
4:30 am
I am starting to moan because the pain is quite strong, even if it wasn’t something new for me, being experienced this kind of pain before. He enters the room and gives me some drugs that the midwife has prescribed on Sunday. No result, pain is still there. At 7:00 am I am taking another drug, with yogurt because I am still no able to swallow it. Twenty minutes later I vomit.
9:30 am
I call my mother and explain to her that it hurts from time to time. She said that she will be here soon, in the next hours. Still a bit difficult to believe that. I still think that the pain will disappear in the next several minutes and that this is only a phase of preparation for the body.
10:00 am
Kriss calls the hospital and explains the situation, but he doesn’t mention that it hurts for the last nine hours. So, they said it was normal and that contractions should be taking place every five minutes before going to the hospital. I wonder how to check that. I decide to have a look in internet and found a very useful app called “Contractions”. It helps you check the level of pain and the time between two contractions. At that stage, my contractions are every eight minutes. So, we can stay at home at that stage.
This app is really very useful because you can check the level of the pain and the time between two contractions. I really recommend it. I still can’t imagine that will give birth soon. And that because of some of my friends. The shared their experiences with me. They said that they went to the hospital thinking they will give birth, but doctors told them to go home because their bodies were not ready yet. So, I resist the pain, hoping it will disappear soon. I hope I will have several days more to finalize everything.
Midday
Pain is getting stronger. Contractions are there every five minutes. And I am still calm because I was thinking that once contractions are taking place every five minutes, you have to wait two hours before going to the hospital. Later on, I understand I should have gone immediately. Then Kriss takes my phone and sees the app with the contractions that are taking place every three to five minutes. He says we need to go immediately to the hospital.
At the same time I need to push because I feel like need to poop (sorry for all the details). Later on I understood it was birth push and not a need to go to the toilet. Then, I decide to have a shower because I was reading that hot water helps to mitigate the pain. After that, I put some clothes. Kriss takes the maternity bag. I say: “why are you taking the bag? In any case doctors will tell us to go back home…. “
1:20 pm
He goes down to pick up the car and park it in front of the building (we were living in a one way street, so it was a little bit complicated). I am able to lock the door with the key and start doing down the four floors to join him. It seems being endless because of the pain, so I wait for the moment between two contractions so I can go down a few steps (we were living on the 4th floor at that time, no elevator in the building). I am blocked on the 3rd floor and unable to move forward. Suddenly, I hear the sound of an exploding balloon. My water broke. Now I understand that I will give birth in several hours.
Pain is still strong, but I am able to go down one more floor. Then I hear Kriss entering the building and coming to look for me. It is now 1:30 pm and the GPS shows 25 minutes to the hospital. I am conscious enough to see him driving well and mastering the situation, but trying to show him that everything is OK so we can avoid a car accident. Nevertheless, it hurts a lot and I want to push. It is like you have something blocked and you need to push it out at all cost.
2:00 pm
We are in front of the hospital. There is no space to park the car. So, he parks it just in front of the building, on the emergency park side. Well, it is true that my situation was a real emergency. Window is open and I am screaming because of the pain. There are some people just in front who hear me and call a midwife who is trying to calm me down while the team comes. They are here and tell me to move the legs and go out from the car. I say: “I can’t, it hurts a lot”. So, they are bringing a wheelchair and immediately install me on the delivery table. At the same time, we need to free the park space so Kriss is going to look for another space to park the car (Parisian issues).
I think it was at 2:06 pm that they put me on the delivery table. To be honest, it is now that I remember that it was really 2:06 pm because writing all of this, I have this flashback with the clock on the wall, showing exactly 2:06 pm. The midwife says seeing the baby hair. She says: “Madam, it is your baby coming out”. I want to push. At the same time, another midwife is trying to place the catheter. I am asking: “are you going to inject the epidural . She says there is no time to do that and the baby is almost there.
I am so conscious that I ask why are they going to place the catheter if there is no epidural…they also put the monitoring on. I am trying to hear if everything is OK with the baby. I push and the midwife says I need to stop for a minute, just to put the catheter. Everything is happening very quickly.
Then, she says I need to push. Between pushes I am hearing saying “Where is the father, he will miss the moment?”. I say: “he is looking for a place to park the car”. There is a moment I scream instead of pushing because the midwife tells me “Madam, you need to push not to scream”. I say: “Oh, sorry, it should be because of the pain, it hurts too much”, she says: “this is because we have the shoulders now“. Then I see Kriss entering the room with a smile on the face, saying “she is already here”.
2:16 pm: WELCOME TO THE WORLD BABY TINA
Our little baby girl Tina is here. He cuts the umbilical cord and they put her on me. She is not crying at all. She put her small eyes, barely opened on me. Her eyes are full with love. I ask why she is not crying. They do not have the time to answer and she is starting to cry. She feels the shock of being on this world. Everything is over. Then I start to shiver because of the emotions I am going through for the last 15 hours. My teeth are shattering. Doctors give me an additional blanket.
So, here is my story of giving birth, without epidural. I was always wanted to be like that, I mean without anaesthesia. I think it is really because of that I lived the situation very well. Simply because I was very well prepared for it. My mother has a very important role in that. She was reassuring me about that since forever. She was saying that I only need to pay attention to the midwife’s instructions and everything will be OK. I really think it is like any other situation in life, I mean if you are well prepared for it, you are going through much easier. It is true that pain is here, but just like any other pain, it will disappear.
I will finish the story with an episode about the epidural. I remember on the mandatory medical appointment with the anaesthetist, I shared my vision of giving birth without. When she heard that, she just smiled and said that we will talk once again about when needed. Well, at the end we even didn’t need to talk about it.
I hope that my story will help future moms to have another vision of this moment. It may prepare them for some situations you are not even imagining at that stage, even if you want or not the epidural. You know everything may happen and it is important to be ready for almost any kind of situation.
