Birthstory

I wanted to write earlier but sure enough never found the strength or the time to do it. Since DH is cuddling with little Isabella right now I take the time really quick and write the story down, for those they are interested :)

On November 6th 2008, with a weight of 3675g and 54 cm, 8.1 pounds and 21.3 inches long, Isabella Angelina was born 2 days before the due date:

Last wednesday at 1 am, I have started getting 'weird' contractions. They were not intense yet but were a little different than the BH contractions I used to have. Sure enough I was way to unsure to go to the hospital right away after the last run to the hospital where they sent me home. I've said to DH to wait a little longer to see what is happening. Then they were 20 min apart but got more intense. We decided to go to the hospital when they started to be 10 min apart. On the way to the hospital ( now it is around 2 am ), the contractions became stronger and we had to sit in the parkinglot until one faded so I could walk up to the L&D room inbetween one and another. After talking to the midwife, I've had a few more and she put me on the monitor. She said that the contractions are awfully long ( about 3-5 min each ) and she wants me to stay overnight so it can be monitored. She offerend me some painmed which was suppose to help but it didn't. What it did was, the contractions were shorter but way closer now. I got a bed and DH stayed with me in a nice room which looked like a living room. He could rest on the couch they had there, while I started to have really bad contractions. They came very close after one another and didn't give me time to rest. At 7 am the midwife checked and I was "just" 3 cm dialated ! I was devastated and DH said " this is so not what we've read..you are having contractions all the time and you are still so far away from labor". However I insisted at this point to get an epidural ( PDA for the german readers ), because I couldn't stand the pain anymore. I then went to the Labor and Delivery room where the Anastasiologist came shortly after to do the epidural. It was now 8:30 am. After the epdidural I felt really good. I finally didn't feel the contractions anymore and DH and I were even pulling jokes and all. Around 2 pm or so, things became hectic. 3 interns and the chiefdoctor of the labor and delivery room were getting busy because the heartrate of the baby was too high all of a sudden. They said they had to get a blood drop of the baby's head to test it if she is in distress. I was getting worried at this point, plus my water was not broken yet either. They said they would do it now, in order to get to the baby's head.
When the chiefdoctor did it the first time, ( eventhough I had an epi ) it hurt a lot and after he was done he said he had to do it in 20 min again. I freaked out, because I started to feel umcomfortable after they broke the water. They did it another time after 20 min and told me they would come back to do it a 3rd time, when they had me ready and the doctor said " the baby is coming" . At this time I refused to work with them anyway, because I started to get the most painful contractions ever. I felt the urge to push badly and was getting very loud ( never thought it was happening ). DH was coaching me, and after another hard 15 min of pushing, the midwife said that she can see the head, and told me to touch it. At this time I didn't care much about it because the baby's head crowned but went back "in" and this happend about 4 times. I got to the point where I said I can't do it, and I am giving up, where the midwife replied " you are right there, you will not leave that room tonight without a baby !" This gave me another wave of strength and I couldn't believe when she finally pulled out the baby in one move and placed it on my chest.
I was in shock ( always thought this moment would make me cry ) but I was in so much shock about what just happend that I was just staring at it. I heard DH tearing up and kissing me, but I was just speechless and looked at this little bundle of joy in my arms.
My parents showed up about 20 min later and it was just awesome. The little one latched on to breastfeed right away and it is amazing how this little baby being in a mother's belly for so long has the instinct to look for the breast within less than an hour after they are born.

The german hospitals have "rooming in", meaning you get the baby in a bassinet and it stays with you 24/7. It was so exhausting since she didn't sleep in her bassinet at all so I had her in my bed every night. I stayed there for 3 days and was always happy when DH showed up early in the morning to take her away from me for a few hours so I could nap during the day. After 3 days I finally was able to leave the hospital and was so glad to be home to rest.

We are home now for 3 days and there are a lot of changes of course. She is a super quiet baby and sleeps pretty good through the night ( 4 hours, feeding, 3 hours, feeding ). She is just very hungry during the day, we feed her now every 2 hours ( we put her on a schedule ) and it works for us pretty good.
I gave up breastfeeding since the milk was not coming in soon enough and for 2 days we just could feed her with sugar water provided by the hospital. We are now bottle feeding and eventhough I still feel guilty and sad that my body isn't cooperating, it seems to work out for all of us.
Ever since she is being bottlefed she seems to be so satisfied and happy.

Ps. She is 6 days old today and she lost her umbilical cord tonight. That was faster than I thought it would be but the midwife said that she is already ahead of other babies.

Me in the morning - contractions a few minutes apart: