So what happens after giving birth?

I know that there are a lot of women out there who really tried to have a natural birth but after enduring injections, epidural and mutliple hours of torture had to have a C-section, or women who couldn't even try natural for health reasons...I don't think I accomplished anything...I was lucky, had a good support and a cooperative baby. I don't think birth is as natural as people tell you,we're not cows at the end. And I'm very happy that blueberry was born at a fully equipped hospital.

Yes, what happens after giving birth?

I'm not going to restate what has been so eloquently put before by the hilarious pregnant chicken; from poop issues to periods read "10 things they don't tell you "and understand what lies behind happy family photos:

http://www.pregnantchicken.com/pregnant-chicken-blog/2010/9/23/happily-after-giving-birth-10-things-they-dont-tell-you.html

My Birth Story: Part III

This part was the most traumatizing part for me.

I was expecting that after his birth, blueberry and I will have a moment of tenderness, that he would sweetly and calmly get adjusted to the world in my arms still breathing through his umbilibal cord. But the minute he was out, titou cut his cord while I held him for 5 seconds and they took him away. A nurse and a doctor rushed in, and there were discussions and a big tension in the room.

Even after 2 months, it makes my eyes watery when I think of this. All of a sudden, I was left alone, lying on the cushions, when everybody was doing something to my baby. From where I was, I couldn't see anything. I was yelling, what's going on, what's happening, and nobody was answering. I pulled together all my energy left and got up,  I saw some blood, scissors, and stuff hanging off my body, sarah rushed and made me lie down assuring that everything was OK.

I was trying to talk to him but I was far away. Then I asked claude to talk to him to calm him down. While people were working on him, Claude started telling him sweetly that he was his dad and that he loved him very much, explaining him what was happening, and that he shouldn't be afraid. Of course, all the nurses in the room melted, and so did I. Later, he told me that when he saw him, it was love at first sight.

We found out later on the cause of all the buzz. He had swallowed amniotic fluid,so he was not able to breath. They apparently cleaned his throat, gave him some oxygen, his heartbeat went up then really down. But finally he recovered. His Apgar scores were very low. At the time,  I was VERY  worried but now we joke about the fact that he miserably failed his first tests.

While blueberry was recovering, I still had one last push to do to get rid off the placenta. I gave everything I had, but it didn't work. After 45 minutes of trying, they gave me an injection. Then my midwives told me to thank my placenta for taking good care of my baby and tell it that now it was time to leave my body, and that's what I did. I thanked my placenta and after a big push, it was out.

After about an hour, they finally brought the blueberry to me. In my arms, he looked so tiny, so fragile. I thought he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen...

can you believe the tininess?

My Birth Story: Part II

After we went to the nature room I went right away into the pool. It felt really good. I was fully armed to have a nice delivery. I had with me:
-a massage oil called "accouchement harmonieux" (harmonious delivery).  How can an oil help you have a harmonious delivery, don't know, but you try everything in that situation
-music to help me relax (of course towards the end, I yelled "STOP THE MUSIC")
-candles (I know, I exaggerated a little)

Claude was massaging my back every now and then and I was using my breathing techniques. Some technical info here: What really helped me was to know that contractions would only hurt for 20 seconds every 5 minutes...Convincing myself that it was a true fact, after I was breathing deeply 3-4 times, the pain and contractions were not hurting as much. So I started off by using the sleep like breathing, 4 seconds breath in and 8 seconds breath out, and then when contractions became more intense I used the technique that you breath by making your belly a balloon. After 7 hours, I was really surprised when Sarah said I was 9 cms...That meant no epidural territory. 

But then my nightmare of pushing started. Now, pushing which is the last phase of the labor, was the last chapter of my book, last thing everybody teaches you and yes I hadn't come to that chapter of my book. And in my mind, when you are dialated 10 cms the baby comes out.

Yeah, one-piece swim suit, that's what I had on as well ;)

But no, it was so not the case. I felt like the urge to get out of the pool. Then I tried every possible position in the book to get him out of there (see above for a few) and every possible equipment in the nature room (yes, including the chair).  And it didn't work. I was very, very dehydrated, exhausted and very scared.

Towards the end when I was yelling that I wanted epidural and I couldn't do it anymore, the top of his head came out. And ladies, it burns down there like hell. Sarah and Titou (my other midwife) made me touch his head to encourage me, which was very surreal. Then I asked for a mirror so that I could see his head coming out, which helped me as well. But pushing is a two steps forward one step backward process — so the baby's head appears and then disappears again. Pfff!

But at the time, little did I know that this phase should be anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour and that at most hospitals, if it's more than an hour you get a C-section. Mine was 5 hours!!!!!  I was so exhausted that I would pass out of tiredness and pain between my contractions. But we waited...and blueberry took his sweet time to come out.

And at the end of 24 hours of being at the hospital, 12 hours of labor and 5 hours of pushing, he was in my arms. I will never forget the moment I saw his eyes...beautiful and scared...At that moment I knew that something was wrong...And in fact it was, he was not able to breath.

My Birth Story: Part I

The birth experience is so intense, so beautiful, so emotional, so rich that it's difficult to describe...

In a nut shell: I had a natural birth, no epidural, no drugs, no injections and no stitches! So yeah, we were natural, and all the way...The labor was 12 hours, which is pretty good for a first time mother...

The night of the 16th of April,  my belly was humangous. It was so big that we took a picture to document the giantness. Have you seen anything like this?? Unbelievable how your body can stretch this much but what's more unbelievable is how it recovers so fastly after!

I cropped my head...Just in case...

And that dot you notice on top of my belly was his lovely feet

That night (I mean the morning of the 17th) at about 4AM, I lost my water. Now, I have been told that when you lose your water it's nothing, you barely feel it...Well, that was certainly not the case for me. I lost, liters, and liters of water..the floor, the bed, everywhere was completely wet, so wet that fearing it will stain the hardwood floors of our apartment, claude even before calling the taxi, started cleaning the floors. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or yell.

On our last appointment with Sarah (my midwife), Claude had taken some notes on when to call her: Contractions every 5 minutes-->call, water breaks but water is clean--> do not call, water breaks water is yellow or brown-->call. .

And yes, my water was yellow (so bébé had peed-we even brougth a sample in a jar, to show the yellowness to nurses who were pretty impressed by our scientific approach). So we called our midwife who told us to go to the hospital.

After waiting for half an hour for a taxi (yep, it got lost) and losing many more liters of water on the way, we finally reached the hospital. They put me in a room where my contractions and blueberry's heartbeat were being constantly monitored. And, we started waiting calmly for the contractions to be more regular. We were really trying to relax and sleep to get ready for the labor. We went to a café, listened to radio, and hynobirth relaxation files that I had brought with me (yes, I went to the hospital with my laptop). 

So on the 17th, at about 4 PMish, my contractions became more regular and close to every 5 minutes.  I was doing really fine so I didn't call my midwife  thinking I don't want to disturb her daily schedule (you're welcome Sarah).  Thanks to hynobirthing breathing techniques, I was breezing through my contractions and feeling like a champion.  But at about 6 PM, I called Sarah and asked her to come because I was confused and very tired already (I mean we had been at the hospital since 4 AM).

Then Sarah came when I was having fun on the birth ball and told us we should go to the nature room since I was technically in labor. Well, da nature room at the hospital looked like this, with every possible equipment you can imagine, pool, jacuzzi, birth ball, the chair with a little hole in it, ropes, cushions, everything.

Sorry it's such a bad picture, but you get the idea.

So we went to the nature room...

2 months

2 months have already passed...

Blueberry is growing so fast...

We already passed to midi size diapers (bye bye mini), he already outgrew many, many clothes (mental note: don't buy newborn size), already 6 kg (yep, almost doubled his weight) and 60 cm (huge for a 2-month-old)

Let's see...we did so much in these 2 months, so many first times: we went to parcs, restaurants, we took the tram, the metro, the taxi, the car (yes, we were mobil), we went to multiple touristic sites in Brussels, we went to a photo exhibition (he was passing gas so loudly that people would turn their heads- I think that was his way of showing his appreciation for art). Oh gosh, we even went to visit Brugges, a city about 90 kms away from Brussels...

All very peacefully
I know...we are blessed...

Everyone tells us that this is not going to last long so we are trying to enjoy it while we can...

As he is exploring the world, we are exploring him:

He likes to suck his fist (yes not his thumb, the back of his fist), he is not so much into pacifiers.
He likes to eat, but not for very long. Very efficiently, he finishes his business in 15 minutes max.  This made me worried at the beginning, since I was not sure how much milk he was getting in such a short time. But later noticing how big he got, I stopped. Claude calls him "super sucker".
He likes to put his hands under his head when he sleeps.
He likes being in water. 
He likes to talk and smile to his little duck toy that makes a funny dingling sound ( ironically, the only made in china plastic toy we have)
He doesn't like to listen to his dad play the guitar (sorry claude) but he likes to listen to his dad sing funny french songs
He likes to talk on skype to yaya and dede and mami and papi
He likes to be called tzakug (little one) and nabasdak (bunny)
He likes to pee everytime we change him (thank god for the washer)
He likes looking at the sky, at lights, at trees and at me :)
He doesn't like to poop, pooping makes him very nervous. The pediatrician told me that it was just that he didn't know what to do when he has pressure. So now I try to talk to him and relax him when he poops (poor thing)
He doesn't like to sleep on his back, and when he sleeps on his back, he always turns his head to the left- we'll go see an osteopath to solve his left obsession that even started in the utero)

I'm exhausted but very happy. I'll leave you with a cute video of us :)