Just a few short days after my last post, we had an early arrival! Before I forget the wild ride that was Luke's birthday and entrance into the world, I wanted to document those crazy hours!
As I mentioned in the previous post, our local hospital was not allowing the father to attend the birth or enter the hospital at all, so we had been researching any alternative within an hours driving distance. We found a private hospital but had to have an appointment there if there were to let us deliver there. We woke up early on March 28th to arrive there for our 9am appointment. It was north of Porto so about an hours drive from our house. As we were getting in the car, I jokingly told Joel to grab my hospital bags, because you never know what might happen! And the nurses in our birth prep class also said you should always be prepared starting around 37 weeks!
Entering the hospital, we were questioned to be sure we don't have Corona virus, then given masks. Joel was allowed into the waiting room. The doctor spoke great English and did a normal check up where he informed me that I was already in labor and he could possibly be born later today. I had no contractions or pain up to that point so I was quite confused how I could be in labor and 3cm dilated. Then he called Joel in to tell him the news. And the important piece of info the people over the phone forgot to relay to us, they did not perform deliveries on the weekend. He gave us another private hospital we could try.
So we went on our way to CUF Porto. They admitted me and we again had the Corona screening and were so careful not to touch anything. A woman came in with her sick mother with all of the symptoms of Porto and it was just eerie sitting and waiting there to be called. I had an orange wristband to be helped. The ER's here have the traffic light system, red band means you will be called first, orange, then green band for minor incidents. We were in the waiting room probably 45 mins when a nurse pulls Joel aside and apologizes to him that we could not deliver here because we had never been seen there before and maybe there wouldn't be enough space for us... We left not very happy...
Then we called the other public hospital in Povoa de Varzim where a friend had given birth earlier in the week and her partner was able to attend. We called them and they confirmed that dad could still enter the hospital for birth. However, until it was declared I was in birth, he had to wait outside. Once inside, I was sent up to the Ob section of the hospital. I was helped by a very kind nurse who spoke excellent English. She had me do the test which measures contractions and babies heart rate with two monitors... I forgot what this test is called. Anyways, it takes about 20 minutes and you also have a button to click when you feel the baby move. The nurse confirmed that I wasn't crazy and I wasn't having any contractions. Then I went on to the doctor and she checked my cervix again and said I was now 4 cm dilated and how lucky to not have felt anything yet. The doctor gave me the option of being admitted and seeing what happened over the next few hours and if any contractions would begin, or go home and come back when I did feel contractions. I figured better safe than sorry, and see what happened as I didn't want to drive the hour home, start having contractions and not be able to make it back to this hospital in time. So I signed a paper and was admitted.
It was around 2pm or so at this point. Another nurse escorted me in and let me have a choice in rooms, and I chose the smaller room with a window! Joel would only be allowed to enter the hospital once, as my hospital bag was just thrown in as a joke I didn't have some essential things like a phone charger and toothbrush! So Joel went to pick up a toothbrush. He wasn't able to get a phone charger because the line to get into the electronics store was huge and he didn't want to risk being too late! (In Portugal during corona times, only a certain number of people are allowed inside a store at once). I was hooked up to the test machine a few more times and still no contractions. I bounced on the yoga ball, danced, squatted and tried whatever to get baby moving. Oh and they brought me some lunch! Thank goodness. Then they offered us our options to consider, and didn't give us a time limit that we had to decide. Option 1) Go home and wait for contractions to start. Being only 4cm dilated I could go into birth in a few hours or in a few days, or even longer in some cases. Option 2) Break my waters and have the baby!
Now this was a somewhat complicated choice to make. Option 1 would probably be ideal to let baby come when he was ready, however with Corona happening and that hospital being the last public hospital at the time to allow the father to enter... and chances the government would require them to change this policy any moment made it a tricky choice. After a lot of thought and consideration we decided to have the BABY! :) Even though he was 3 weeks early, he was still considered full term and the risks of problems were relatively low. The possibility that Joel wouldn't be able to attend the birth was unfathomable and with Corona cases growing and growing each day, we knew our decision. Once we decided we rang the nurse and about five minutes later (6pm) my waters were being broken.
Having my water broken didn't hurt, I didn't feel much at all in fact, just the feeling of the water falling out afterwards. From there it took about an hour for contractions to start. At first, I was thinking I could definitely give birth without an epidural, and maybe an hour later I was saying gimme the drugs! I tried to remain calm and remember all the breathing practice from my birth classes but I'm not sure how I survived some of those contractions. Joel asked me to describe the pain of a contraction and hmmm... that's a tricky one. For the most part, it felt like something was trying to break all of the bones in my pelvic region, or blow them up with pressure and then let them back down?
Epidural came, and did not hurt at all... The numbing agent to the skin definitely left me feeling and acting a bit funny. I became really itchy all over which is a normal side effect and definitely lost feeling of my legs and other lower body parts. It was a really strange feeling. But I was so relived to have the contraction pain go away. It worked pretty quickly, maybe within ten minutes.
About two hours from when I got the epidural, it was time to start the pushing! I think the epidural worked too well, because they say you should have a natural instinct of when to push, and I was totally fine just chillaxin in the bed. The pain of my pelvic bones being completely crushed was returning... I asked for more epidural. I continued pushing, and as I got closer and closer to getting Luke out, that pressure felt more and more intense. I felt like the nurse was saying that I was sooo close for a long time. Then they realized that Luke wasn't utilizing all the free space he had so his positioning was making it hard for him to come out. After a while they asked if they could help me using the vacuum suction thingy. I am not sure what we call this in English. I gave one more push with the doctor using the vacuum and he was out. Whoa... After that feels like a crazy blur of emotions and feelings.
3:40am- I heard him crying right away and the nurses told me he's here!! They placed the baby on my belly because his umbilical cord was a little bit short. Joel cut the cord after 60 seconds to be sure he had delayed cord clamping as I had requested. After Joel cut the cord, they laid him on my chest and worked on delivering the placenta. I had a double placenta which is a bit uncommon but basically there were two. They showed it to me and whoa it was a crazy thing to see! The scale in the room was broken so Joel went with the doctors to another room to weigh and measure him. 3.1 kg and 48 cm long. The pediatrician came by to check on him and he was perfect. Then he came back to breastfeed with me. Luke had a good feed and then continued to cuddle me skin to skin. All three of us definitely feel asleep at different points of the next two hours. After a little while the nurse came in to dress Luke so he could go and cuddle with Joel.
We were told Joel would have to leave at 8am, however when the time came, him and I both getting pretty sad about the time.. the nurses aide told us he didn't have to go until I was transferred out of my delivery room into the maternity ward. We had our hospital breakfast which was a bread roll, butter, and tea (or coffee). Another doctor came in to check on the baby. The nurse helped me to the bathroom and then I was off to the other side of the hospital and Joel had to say goodbye to us and head home until I was released. I think he left around 10am so we were really grateful for those extra few hours but I was so sad he had to go.
The next two days were hard. I had a bed next to the window and at the moment I was the only one in the room, but there were two other beds in the room that could become occupied.The window looked out to the front of the hospital which was nice. Joel went home and took a nap, took care of Mel and then came back with a phone charger and some other things I needed that weren't in my hospital bag. When he arrived, we waved through the second floor window. I wanted so badly for him to climb up somehow and sneak into the hospital to be with us. A security person delivered the bag of items he brought for me. Most of the first day, the baby slept and ate. He had his first big poop and I also tried to catch up on sleep, but it was hard with all the adrenaline and worries of a new mumsy! When I rang the bell for help on this side of the maternity ward, an assistant answered, then she would contact the nurse. Sometimes I think the assistant forgot to pass on my message or it would take so long for help that I would have already done whatever I needed on my own. This was a little frustrating especially when I was asking for help with breast feeding because it was already hard enough to find a time where he was awake and hungry, then to have to wait for 30-45 minutes sometimes for help, he had already tried to eat and gone back to sleep. When they arrived he would be completely zonked out. Some of the nurses spoke English, others tried to speak slowly and clearly so I could understand.
Those two nights were really rough, for long periods of time the baby cried and cried. I tried everything I could to make him happy again but something just wasn't right! I felt bad to be waking up all the other ladies in the other rooms and then hearing sometimes other babies start to cry afterwards.
The assistant who delivered food was always so annoyed that I took so long to eat, it always felt like bad timing. Like the baby had just woken up and needed to be changed and fed before I could start to eat.. so the food would be sitting for a long time and the lady was trying to clean up the plates. The hospital food was not too bad, I was expecting worse. Just needed some salt in the soups, but the meats were pretty good.
He had his first vaccine, hearing test, eye test, and was checked by a doctor each morning. On the day of release he had a little bit of jaundice but they said not enough to need the light treatment, we were just to watch if it got worse and try to get outside in the sunlight a bit. A doctor asked me questions about how I was feeling and healing and I didn't have any significant pain, just some soreness. So we were released on Tuesday, March 31st, like 54 hours after Luke was born. Luke slept like a little doll while Joel went to register him and get a birth certificate and the whole way home.
Mel was so excited to meet him when we arrived. She was so fragile and scared to get too close. She always laid next to us, or under us.
Tomorrow Luke will be two weeks old! Time really does fly, though the days feel so long sometimes it feels like yesterday we were waiting to be released from the hospital to come home! I am so in love, even in the night time when the cries seem endless. He has had a few decent nights where he was only awake for a stretch, and last night he only woke up to eat and went right back to sleep! What a gift.He has already regained the lost weight and is back to birth weight and we are doing so well!
We are so happy to be safe at home during the Corona Virus and are eagerly awaiting this to pass so Luke can meet all his new friends and family! Sending lots of love from the 4 of us to you! :)
Happy Easter!
As I mentioned in the previous post, our local hospital was not allowing the father to attend the birth or enter the hospital at all, so we had been researching any alternative within an hours driving distance. We found a private hospital but had to have an appointment there if there were to let us deliver there. We woke up early on March 28th to arrive there for our 9am appointment. It was north of Porto so about an hours drive from our house. As we were getting in the car, I jokingly told Joel to grab my hospital bags, because you never know what might happen! And the nurses in our birth prep class also said you should always be prepared starting around 37 weeks!
Entering the hospital, we were questioned to be sure we don't have Corona virus, then given masks. Joel was allowed into the waiting room. The doctor spoke great English and did a normal check up where he informed me that I was already in labor and he could possibly be born later today. I had no contractions or pain up to that point so I was quite confused how I could be in labor and 3cm dilated. Then he called Joel in to tell him the news. And the important piece of info the people over the phone forgot to relay to us, they did not perform deliveries on the weekend. He gave us another private hospital we could try.
So we went on our way to CUF Porto. They admitted me and we again had the Corona screening and were so careful not to touch anything. A woman came in with her sick mother with all of the symptoms of Porto and it was just eerie sitting and waiting there to be called. I had an orange wristband to be helped. The ER's here have the traffic light system, red band means you will be called first, orange, then green band for minor incidents. We were in the waiting room probably 45 mins when a nurse pulls Joel aside and apologizes to him that we could not deliver here because we had never been seen there before and maybe there wouldn't be enough space for us... We left not very happy...
Then we called the other public hospital in Povoa de Varzim where a friend had given birth earlier in the week and her partner was able to attend. We called them and they confirmed that dad could still enter the hospital for birth. However, until it was declared I was in birth, he had to wait outside. Once inside, I was sent up to the Ob section of the hospital. I was helped by a very kind nurse who spoke excellent English. She had me do the test which measures contractions and babies heart rate with two monitors... I forgot what this test is called. Anyways, it takes about 20 minutes and you also have a button to click when you feel the baby move. The nurse confirmed that I wasn't crazy and I wasn't having any contractions. Then I went on to the doctor and she checked my cervix again and said I was now 4 cm dilated and how lucky to not have felt anything yet. The doctor gave me the option of being admitted and seeing what happened over the next few hours and if any contractions would begin, or go home and come back when I did feel contractions. I figured better safe than sorry, and see what happened as I didn't want to drive the hour home, start having contractions and not be able to make it back to this hospital in time. So I signed a paper and was admitted.
It was around 2pm or so at this point. Another nurse escorted me in and let me have a choice in rooms, and I chose the smaller room with a window! Joel would only be allowed to enter the hospital once, as my hospital bag was just thrown in as a joke I didn't have some essential things like a phone charger and toothbrush! So Joel went to pick up a toothbrush. He wasn't able to get a phone charger because the line to get into the electronics store was huge and he didn't want to risk being too late! (In Portugal during corona times, only a certain number of people are allowed inside a store at once). I was hooked up to the test machine a few more times and still no contractions. I bounced on the yoga ball, danced, squatted and tried whatever to get baby moving. Oh and they brought me some lunch! Thank goodness. Then they offered us our options to consider, and didn't give us a time limit that we had to decide. Option 1) Go home and wait for contractions to start. Being only 4cm dilated I could go into birth in a few hours or in a few days, or even longer in some cases. Option 2) Break my waters and have the baby!
Now this was a somewhat complicated choice to make. Option 1 would probably be ideal to let baby come when he was ready, however with Corona happening and that hospital being the last public hospital at the time to allow the father to enter... and chances the government would require them to change this policy any moment made it a tricky choice. After a lot of thought and consideration we decided to have the BABY! :) Even though he was 3 weeks early, he was still considered full term and the risks of problems were relatively low. The possibility that Joel wouldn't be able to attend the birth was unfathomable and with Corona cases growing and growing each day, we knew our decision. Once we decided we rang the nurse and about five minutes later (6pm) my waters were being broken.
Having my water broken didn't hurt, I didn't feel much at all in fact, just the feeling of the water falling out afterwards. From there it took about an hour for contractions to start. At first, I was thinking I could definitely give birth without an epidural, and maybe an hour later I was saying gimme the drugs! I tried to remain calm and remember all the breathing practice from my birth classes but I'm not sure how I survived some of those contractions. Joel asked me to describe the pain of a contraction and hmmm... that's a tricky one. For the most part, it felt like something was trying to break all of the bones in my pelvic region, or blow them up with pressure and then let them back down?
Epidural came, and did not hurt at all... The numbing agent to the skin definitely left me feeling and acting a bit funny. I became really itchy all over which is a normal side effect and definitely lost feeling of my legs and other lower body parts. It was a really strange feeling. But I was so relived to have the contraction pain go away. It worked pretty quickly, maybe within ten minutes.
About two hours from when I got the epidural, it was time to start the pushing! I think the epidural worked too well, because they say you should have a natural instinct of when to push, and I was totally fine just chillaxin in the bed. The pain of my pelvic bones being completely crushed was returning... I asked for more epidural. I continued pushing, and as I got closer and closer to getting Luke out, that pressure felt more and more intense. I felt like the nurse was saying that I was sooo close for a long time. Then they realized that Luke wasn't utilizing all the free space he had so his positioning was making it hard for him to come out. After a while they asked if they could help me using the vacuum suction thingy. I am not sure what we call this in English. I gave one more push with the doctor using the vacuum and he was out. Whoa... After that feels like a crazy blur of emotions and feelings.
3:40am- I heard him crying right away and the nurses told me he's here!! They placed the baby on my belly because his umbilical cord was a little bit short. Joel cut the cord after 60 seconds to be sure he had delayed cord clamping as I had requested. After Joel cut the cord, they laid him on my chest and worked on delivering the placenta. I had a double placenta which is a bit uncommon but basically there were two. They showed it to me and whoa it was a crazy thing to see! The scale in the room was broken so Joel went with the doctors to another room to weigh and measure him. 3.1 kg and 48 cm long. The pediatrician came by to check on him and he was perfect. Then he came back to breastfeed with me. Luke had a good feed and then continued to cuddle me skin to skin. All three of us definitely feel asleep at different points of the next two hours. After a little while the nurse came in to dress Luke so he could go and cuddle with Joel.
We were told Joel would have to leave at 8am, however when the time came, him and I both getting pretty sad about the time.. the nurses aide told us he didn't have to go until I was transferred out of my delivery room into the maternity ward. We had our hospital breakfast which was a bread roll, butter, and tea (or coffee). Another doctor came in to check on the baby. The nurse helped me to the bathroom and then I was off to the other side of the hospital and Joel had to say goodbye to us and head home until I was released. I think he left around 10am so we were really grateful for those extra few hours but I was so sad he had to go.
The next two days were hard. I had a bed next to the window and at the moment I was the only one in the room, but there were two other beds in the room that could become occupied.The window looked out to the front of the hospital which was nice. Joel went home and took a nap, took care of Mel and then came back with a phone charger and some other things I needed that weren't in my hospital bag. When he arrived, we waved through the second floor window. I wanted so badly for him to climb up somehow and sneak into the hospital to be with us. A security person delivered the bag of items he brought for me. Most of the first day, the baby slept and ate. He had his first big poop and I also tried to catch up on sleep, but it was hard with all the adrenaline and worries of a new mumsy! When I rang the bell for help on this side of the maternity ward, an assistant answered, then she would contact the nurse. Sometimes I think the assistant forgot to pass on my message or it would take so long for help that I would have already done whatever I needed on my own. This was a little frustrating especially when I was asking for help with breast feeding because it was already hard enough to find a time where he was awake and hungry, then to have to wait for 30-45 minutes sometimes for help, he had already tried to eat and gone back to sleep. When they arrived he would be completely zonked out. Some of the nurses spoke English, others tried to speak slowly and clearly so I could understand.
The assistant who delivered food was always so annoyed that I took so long to eat, it always felt like bad timing. Like the baby had just woken up and needed to be changed and fed before I could start to eat.. so the food would be sitting for a long time and the lady was trying to clean up the plates. The hospital food was not too bad, I was expecting worse. Just needed some salt in the soups, but the meats were pretty good.
He had his first vaccine, hearing test, eye test, and was checked by a doctor each morning. On the day of release he had a little bit of jaundice but they said not enough to need the light treatment, we were just to watch if it got worse and try to get outside in the sunlight a bit. A doctor asked me questions about how I was feeling and healing and I didn't have any significant pain, just some soreness. So we were released on Tuesday, March 31st, like 54 hours after Luke was born. Luke slept like a little doll while Joel went to register him and get a birth certificate and the whole way home.
Mel was so excited to meet him when we arrived. She was so fragile and scared to get too close. She always laid next to us, or under us.
Tomorrow Luke will be two weeks old! Time really does fly, though the days feel so long sometimes it feels like yesterday we were waiting to be released from the hospital to come home! I am so in love, even in the night time when the cries seem endless. He has had a few decent nights where he was only awake for a stretch, and last night he only woke up to eat and went right back to sleep! What a gift.He has already regained the lost weight and is back to birth weight and we are doing so well!
We are so happy to be safe at home during the Corona Virus and are eagerly awaiting this to pass so Luke can meet all his new friends and family! Sending lots of love from the 4 of us to you! :)
Happy Easter!
I loved reading that. ♥️♥️ I cannot wait to meet little Luke!!
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