Theta's beautiful birth story

At 40 weeks, I was looking like this (i.e. nothing-but-belly..okay, my legs, arms + head were still attached...):

We were rather ready for Theta to "hatch" (-- in fact, my mom had been here since 38+4!) We had tried going on long walks, eating spicy foods, climbing lots of stairs, etc. etc. etc. We'd also tried being patient...but that seemed more difficult somehow...

Finally on Saturday (40+6), my water 'broke' (or started leaking..). However, because I had drunk an exorbitant amount of water that day, I just thought my pre-labor bladder was overwhelmed...

At church the next day everyone commented on the fact that Theta was still hanging in there. (Yes, I was aware... thank you :) ) Then after lunch, when the leaking resumed :-P, I realized it couldn't still be the too-much-water thing from the day before. So we called the midwife, met her at the clinic and determined that amniotic fluid had indeed started leaking the day before (but still no real contractions!),

so antibiotics + induction were the plan.

Here I'm reading the medical info about the induction while getting the antibiotic.

We started out with just a 1/4 dose of some medication to get my cervix further dialated (I had already been at 2cm for about a week...) and then my body finally took over, so no further medication was necessary. Long story short: I took a pain pill fairly early on, when contractions (while lying down) were painful, despite deep breathing.

Then I remembered that movement or other positions can be more useful and they certainly were for me! I am very grateful for the birthing ball and for "tönen" (a concept that is fairly common here, at least in the midwife scene -- let's call it "intentional moaning"? or "sounding"?)

The idea is to ride the wave of the contraction by "sounding" through it, ideally with low-pitched, open vowels like Aaah, Oooh, or Uuuh. By doing so you rob the contraction of some of its intensity or rather you direct the pressure and movement through/with your voice. Or you can think of it as a relaxation technique to better exhale.

At some point (this was the middle of the night) I was loud enough in my "tönen" that the nurse called my midwife (who had gone back home but expected to be called in during the night for me) + I called F + my mom (who had gone to a nearby friends' house to sleep + wait). They arrived first, held my hands, gave me sips of water + I continued to rock back and forth on the birth ball + "sound".

About 20 min. later the midwife arrived, got things ready quickly, remarked "Oh, there's the head" + a few minutes later I was holding our little Theta in my arms + F was holding both of us! It was beautiful. Intense and oh-so-beautiful.

We had really enjoyed the intimacy of just the three of us being there during labor and then, when our tiny human arrived, it hardly mattered that a midwife and a gynacologist were there too. They were quiet, respectful and let us have our time together -- not even taking the baby to clean him but instead allowing me to wipe him off with a cloth so we could stay together.

At some point we tried feeding + he was a champ! One side was a bit more difficult, but we perservered +, with the help of my mom + the midwife, we succeeded.

We then had a lovely, cuddly time. We are SO grateful for our tiny human!

and for Oma!

(At some point he pooped on the towels in which he was wrapped, so we realized, it might be a good time to finally put him in a diaper... :) Digestive systems work, check!)


p.s. If you want an even longer version or specific details, let me know ;)