False Alarm…
On our due date, May 29th 2015, Megan finished the final touches to the nursery: the last load of laundry, organizing the clothing into bins, and unpacking the last of the baby items from the Sea Shipment. Key reminder: All of our furniture and most of our possessions arrives in Berlin on Megan’s birthday on May 27th. We spent week 39 of pregnancy unpacking as fast as possible, having handymen come in to hang pictures and lights, and Ben became a furniture building aficionado. I digress, so the last touch was put on the nursery at 4:30pm and Megan sent a photo to the family. First thing that Friday morning, we had a due date OB/GYN appointment where we were told that the baby looked fine, everything was well, and to just keep waiting. Megan had texted Ben that nothing was happening and we agreed that a walk would be a good idea, so she would pick him up from work for a 15 minute walk home at 6pm. At around 5:15, Megan started to feel contractions or some muscle tightening and a bit of nausea. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to walk up the street and tell Ben. We spent the walk home, both excited, nervous, and in a little bit of disbelief that after the long 6 months of planning the move from the US to Berlin, we might actually be having our baby on our due date. We went home, added a few things to the hospital bag, and charged up all the many iPhone, speakers, kindles, and iPad. We then patiently waited for the contractions to become more regular, when instead they faded away entirely by 8pm. We went to bed that night unsure if we were disappointed or relieved to have a little bit more time. Saturday there were no contractions at all and we prepared ourselves for what could be another few days to a week of waiting. Sunday morning we had an appointment to go in for a CTG or fetal heart rate monitor at Charite Hospital. We realized that we were becoming more comfortable with the walk over to the hospital and we could now easily find the delivery ward. Megan amazed herself with her use of German at the speaker phone entrance, “Hallo, Guten Morgen, Ich brauche eine CTG”. Megan laid down for the 30 minute fetal heart monitor and Ben did his best to interpret the machine results. We hoped to be able to speak to a doctor and maybe even get another ultrasound. We were called back to see the doctor pretty quickly after the CTG. Megan felt her first contraction during this wait but was hesitant to label it as such after the false alarm on Friday. After meeting the doctor, who spoke excellent English, she informed us that she had to run a deliver a baby and she would be right back! It was during this wait that Megan began to feel additional contractions with the first one starting around 12 noon. Ben quickly began to time them and make notes in his iPhone: 12:01, 12:17, 12:32….
Oh my gosh, we are in labor! (right?)
The doctor confirmed that this was a good sign, but it was too soon to know for sure. She suggested that we walk around near the hospital for an hour or two and see what progressed. She said to head back when the contractions were around 5 minutes apart. So we decided to hit up our local doner kebab shop for a light lunch (please read this as complete sarcasm and a sandwich filled with garlic spread, veggies, hummus, chicken, and chewy crispy bread wrap is not the best choice as a final meal before birthing a baby!) After lunch, we came back to the apartment, still timing each contraction 10 minutes apart, 7 minutes apart… As we gathered the final items for the hospital Megan would call out to Ben through the apartment, “Add another one to the list”. By 2pm we were at close to 5 minutes apart and decided to make the walk back to the hospital. We took a quick picture in the nursery and took a moment to try and appreciate that our lives would never again be the same.
We got to the hospital around 2:30 taking a few stops along the sidewalk for the contractions that were coming with increasing strength. Megan had recently read an article about belly dancing to decrease the pain of a contraction, needless to say we were a sight to be seen walking down Chausseestrasse. Back at the delivery ward entrance we were again hooked up to the CTG machine, and it was quite a bit less comfortable in the afternoon as opposed to that morning. We were excited to recall that our Midwife/Hebamme, Ana was working Sunday afternoon and was beginning her shift around 2:30. We hoped that we would be able to see her soon. Ana came in to talk to us and at first told us that it might be too early for admission to the hospital. Megan was crushed, but asked for clarification. When it was clarified that we wouldn’t be having the baby in the next 2 hours but possibly more like 12+, we quickly shared that that was fine with us. We were just ready to start the process – Progress 2cm
We were taken to one of the delivery room that had a tub and Ana suggested that a bath might help me to relax and move things along. It was official we were being admitted to the hospital. We are having this baby today (well most likely today, Sunday, May 31st). Everything was becoming pretty uncomfortable at this point, but Megan tried to remain positive. The only comfortable position seems to be standing up and leaning against the bed or counter. The bath was relaxing, but it was getting hard to carry on a conversation and unfortunately there wasn’t too much that Ben could do to ease the pain. It didn’t feel good to be touched, massaged, or entertained…it just hurt. We began to think about when we could get an epidural and really hoped that things were progressing. At 5pm, Ana came in to do another check and thankfully we were at 4cm.
We moved over to a different delivery room across the hall that had a window, private bed, yoga ball to bounce on, and lots of space. I recall only wanting cold, cold water to drink but the German don’t do ice water so Ben was working hard to chill down some bottled water in the kitchen area of the delivery ward. The contractions were becoming unbearable and the anesthesiologist arrived. We signed a waiver and were given specific instructions about the importance of being still. For Megan this was the one and only terrifying part of the labor the thought of how to hold your body still when it is being wracked with contractions every 2-3 minutes that are one of the most painful things ever experienced. Luckily, Ana and Ben were there to support. Ana gave some medication through the IV that slowed the contractions for a few minutes and Ben and Megan worked on sitting very very still. The actual process of putting in the epidural was nothing after the build up and oh the sweet relief of medication!
By 6:30pm the epidural had taken effect and Megan was comfortably lying in bed with an IV of fluids, a blood pressure cuff, and the fetal heart rate monitor. Ahh it seemed like pure bliss after the hour that came before. Ben felt okay to run out and get something quick to eat and Megan was happy to finally take a look at her phone as we began to inform family that we were here and on the way to having our baby. We relaxed and rested for the next 2 hours or so talking and even laughing a bit about how excited we were. Ana came in to check the progress again around 9pm. Megan was starting to feel a little pressure during the contractions, but still very little discomfort. Ben was becoming a pro at watching the graphing machine that would show the strength of contractions listed from 0-100. We would cheer as we got one in the 50’s or 60’s and still felt little pain. Ana gave us some very good news…8-9cm dilated. How did that happen so fast, I think at the time we both thought we would be on to pushing in no time.
Things instead took a bit of a slower path and we hovered around 9-10cm dilated from 10pm to almost 1am of the next morning. Ana’s shift ended at 11pm so around 10:30 she helped us transition over to two new midwives: Lisa (a midwife in training with excellent English) and Grit (an amazingly kind and competent midwife with lots of experience who was able to provide comfort speaking only German to us). The pair popped in and out over the next few hours checking things here and there. During most of this time the epidural was still working it’s magic and Megan even got out of bed to bounce on the yoga ball and stand up and stretch a little bit while we listened to some of Ben’s birthing play list. Just kidding there was no playlist, but we did jam out a little bit to Florence and the Machine for some girl power inspiration. As it got closer to the new day it was time to rest again and gear up for the pushing. The midwives showed us a breathing exercise to help get through the last pre-pushing phase were that seemed to be all the body wanted to do (except it was little too early, the baby’s head needed to drop down a little farther). It gets a little fuzzy around here, but it must have been a little past 1am when we finally got the go ahead to push. Ben stayed at his post by Megan’s side coaching her in breathing and just being a generally fabulous husband. He took a few peeks down below to see what was happening and encouraged Megan that it wouldn’t be too much longer. Finally after 5-6 pushing contractions we were told it was go time. We were told to inhale, tighten everything, chin down, and PUSH. After 2-3 of these contractions, Megan waivered a little bit in whether or not she was going to be able to see this through. Ben’s encouragement along with the midwives promised that her head was just another push away. Megan felt the head and it all became real (and a little scary!) and then out she came and was plopped on my chest. Wow there are no real words to describe it but it was a quarter magical and three quarters shock. Luckily that quickly switched over to amazement!
The doctor and the midwives kept working and talking and discussing things at the foot of the bed and Ben and I began to fall in love with Ava.
