Baby's Here!

We welcomed our little bundle of joy at the hospital late in the afternoon today. We were at the operating theatre when I heard her first cry. I was all numbed up and couldn't see her because of the makeshift curtain set up in front of my face blocking my sight. When we first heard her cry I asked Alex, "Is that our little girl? Is she out?" Hearing her cry for the first time was such a heart tugging experience.

I had intended to have the entire labour process as natural as possible. No drugs, no assisted delivery, no inductions. However as my midwife puts it, babies decide how they want to arrive and no amount of intention on the part of the parent makes any difference.

My labour was a long one. It started at 12pm with waters breaking and I was admitted to the hospital for overnight observation. By 10pm that night, the contractions had started and it went on till 3.30am at which point the pain was bordering on unbearable. I called my midwife informing her and I was moved down to the birth centre which was my preferred place of delivery. From that point, labour continued laboriously (no pun intended) and it was at 12pm that the decision was made that I needed an epidural to get us through the final stage. Prior to the epidural I had had an IV drip put into me, sat under a hot shower for 2.5 hours, sat in a warm bath for an hour and had 4 saline injections on my lower spine to manage the back pain. I don't recommend the latter to anyone. It really hurt and the relief that it provided was brief. Our little one was in a posterior position and it was causing me a lot of back pain. My strength was fully depleted by then and I was slipping in and out of consciousness in between contractions. The epidural restored me to much of my usual self but by 3pm the decision was made to send me to the operating theatre to retrieve the baby via forceps, failing which they would perform an immediate caesarean. I told the doctor that I really didn't want a caesarean and he assured me that my preference would be made known to the surgeon. I started praying at that point that baby would move and a caesar could be avoided. To end this little story, our baby arrived safely at 3.52pm. As I was being pushed up to the operating theatre, she had miraculously moved to the correct position and was delivered via forceps.

Although I managed to avoid having an induction earlier on, I pretty much had everything else and narrowly missed having a caesarean. I was fully drugged up in anticipation of a caesar (no sensations chest down) but we thank God that prayers work wonders. Now we are praying for a quick healing of my wounds as the surgeon needed to perform an episiotomy on me. The healing process is a long one but with prayer we ask for a speedy recovery.

From the point the waters broke, it was 28 hours before we first saw baby.

While I was pregnant with the little one I remember saying to Alex, " We have to remember these few months. It will be the last time its just the two of us."

After the birth of our little one, I said to Alex, "Remember what I said before about just the two of us? Now, I cannot imagine life without our little girl."

Alex agrees. She is our little precious one and such a joy to carry. She really is just too adorable.

cheryl