Our Son has arrived - Isaak Honn Tastet

Our son was born yesterday, March 9th. He is 7.9 lbs (3.6 kg) and 19+inches (50+cm). The length is approximate, we think he is taller but he hasn't been measured yet. They don't measure newborns in the Netherlands. Something about not wanting to uncurl them until they are ready. He is quite long, long fingers, long feet, long legs, long torso. I don't know how he fit!

He is perfect in every way. We are both in awe that we are now parents and have such a beautiful son.

Below is the details of the birth...

I experienced light contractions on Saturday and again on Sunday. My aunt (via Skype) kep telling me to call the mid-wife. I couldn't really believe that the PMS-like cramps were really my contractions. I called her Sunday evening around 7. She was delivering a baby and said she would call me back later to check on me. I called her again at 11, when I hadn't heard from her yet and wanted to go to bed. She was delivering yet another baby and had to be thinking I wish this crazy/not yet in labor woman would stop calling me. She told me to try to sleep if I thought I could. Turns out I could. They woke me up at 5 am, I had to "breathe" through them. I thought that was a load of crap until I actually had to do it. And it worked. Monday morning they really started in earnest at 5am. I called the midwife around 6:30am. Kevin made a run to the French bakery (less then a block away) so that I could carb load. Nothing like fresh croissants and madelines to provide a little pre-baby sustenance. She came around 9 am, she checked to see how far I had dilated - 2cm. Up until this point Kevin and I had been playing scrabble. Yes, scrabble. We had to do something to pass the time...as we were going to go crazy with contractions coming every 5 minutes. Picture this. Me sitting on a bouncy/work out ball. Eyes closed tight trying to tell kevin where to put my tiles and what my word was, mid contraction. She came back around 1 and I had progressed to 4cm. This time she found me humped up on the ball watching "Star Trek, the next generation" while Kevin napped. Up to this point I had been managing the contractions really well. Breathing through them and hugging the "ball". Of course as soon as she got here my contractions went all wacky. No longer consistent in time, duration or strength. F**king stage fright. Great. She said it always happens that way.

She was afraid that my labor might be long and she didn't want me to get too tired so we decided to break my water at 2pm. Once she broke my water my contractions got MUCH stronger and faster, and started to really hit me in my hips. No more stage fright. Holy shit did they hurt. She broke my water on the bed. (kevin's side...gotta love that!) I had a contraction immediately after. I was able to sit up and then thought I was going to puke. Kevin went searching for a bucket. Marijke quickly dumped out the absorbant packing filled tub and put it in front of me. 30 sec later I was fine...and hadn't puked. I had another contraction between standing up and making it to the other side of the bed. Then another when I got to the hallway. MUCH FASTER and HARDER. We decided that Kevin and I would head to the hospital and she would meet us there in about 30 min. Kevin called a cab while I screamed bloody murder in the stairwell. My breathing was totally shot and now I was just trying to survive. I kept thinking that our neighbors could hear me. Hell, probably the whole street. The cab took forever to arrive. I was ready to hijack a car. I was panicking and did not want to do this with out my midwife or in a stairwell.

Man did it feel like the cab took a long time to get here. At this point I was not managing the pain very well and really wishing for morphine. I think I scared the crap out of the cab driver - I am sure he didn't expect to pick up a woman in the throes of labor. It took about 10 min to get to the hospital.

Once at the hospital we took the elevator to he main floor, of course I had a contraction in the elevator - more screaming and scaring of the people in the elevator. I tried to waddle after Kevin to the front desk. Contraction at the desk. I could barely stand at this point. Kevin asked how to get to the birth center and we took another elevator to the 2nd floor. More contractions, more screaming. They were really starting to come very quickly. As we left the elevator I made it about 2 steps before another contraction hit and I couldn't walk any more. Thankfully a OB/GYN who was leaving for the day walked by and figured out that I needed a wheelchair. She then wheeled me in to our room. I think I had another contraction when either the midwife called or we called her. She said she would be there in 15 min. That was the longest 15 min of my life.

Our nurse didn't speak any English and been told that I was 4cm when Marike (our midwife) called to say we were coming. I am sure she thought "Wimpy American, 4cm and screaming bloody murder - this is going to be long day". Kevin kept asking for pain relief for me but it didn't translate. I got into the shower and Kevin ran water on my back while the screaming got worse. I remember saying "I don't want to do this anymore".

Marike showed up and immediately took over. She was awesome. She got me to stop screaming and start breathing - which really helped. I was in panic mode before. She got me out of the shower to check to see how far I had dilated. I was up to 9.5 cm. Yes, 4 - 9.5 in about 45 min. No wonder it hurt so damn bad.

At some point the nurses switched shifts. Our new nurse was a dream. I am so happy to have had her.

It wasn't very long (only a couple of more contractions) before she had me on the "stool" and start pushing. It was only a few more contractions before I felt like his head was right there. Wouldn't you know, it was. She kept saying she could see his head but I didn't believe her. I figured it was just her trying to encourage me. She got us a mirror so we could watch. During all of my contractions Kevin was either my back support or putting pressure on my hips - I couldn't have done it with out him. Between contractions he leaned back to take off his sweatshirt. I thought I was going to fall apart before he was ready to hold me again. I don't really remember this. I pushed for all of 25 minutes. I remember saying "OWWW, It hurts" at one point. We figure this was when I tore. It burned....I have since read the analogy of "burning ring of fire". Exactly.

I was amazed to be able to see Isaak's hair. Seeing just how close I we were was really encouraging. It was only a few more contractions before we were to the last one when Marike stopped to coached me. She told me I had to stop pushing when she told me to and then I would be able to push again when she said it was ok. One last big push and it was all over. Kevin says that during the next contraction, when I stopped pushing, Marijke had unwrapped the cord. After his head was out I could feel his shoulders slip through me and then his legs. An awesome feeling. I remember looking down at him, laying on a cushion on the floor under me, thinking "SCREAM, Damn it". It felt like forever before he cried. It was probably only 2 seconds. They handed me Issak and got me up into the bed. As soon as I had him in my arms I couldn't believe how long he was, and that he actually fit. I tore pretty badly and that was the only thing that hurt. It helped to have Isaak, but only a little. I asked for something for the pain and they gave me 2 paraceptomal - TYLENOL. Yes, 2 tylenol. I was thinking, you have got to be kidding. They didn't want to give me anything else because I planned to breastfeed. For an instant I seriously thought about blowing off the whole breastfeeding thing for some pain relief.

Once the cord stopped pulsing Kevin got to cut it. Very cool.

Because of the size of the tear (From what I have since read it would be a 4th degree tear in the US...meaning from one end to the other). Marike couldn't sew it so I had to wait for a OB/GYN to come and look - they needed to check to see if they were going to have to put me under a general. Luckily that wasn't necessary. They wheeled me to another room (around 7pm) and we waited for the OB/GYN to come back (took forever). In the meantime Marike got me some juice and Kevin and I couldn't take our eyes off of Issak. The OB/GYN finally came back but then left again to go find my midwife, who had since left...she had delivered 7 babies in 24 hours and was handing the shift over to the next one in the group). It took what seemed like forever for him to come back again and give me some a local to numb things up before he started stitching. He either didn't give me enough, put it in enough places or wait long enough because I felt some of those stitches. Had I had the strength I think I would have kicked him in the face. He was not gentle with either his inspections or sewing. I was not happy. He kept telling me to relax, yea right.

They wheeled (when I say wheeled, I mean in a wooden seat wheel chair, which is the same way I got to the room. Yes. I had just given birth, torn to high heaven and put in a wooden wheel chair. Come on! )us back to our room and our nurse started bringing us food, juice, and tea. We got Isaak to breast feed some more and Kevin and I ate and tried to pull ourselves together. Around 8 we tried to get me up and in the shower. I nearly passed out on the toilet so we decided to try again in an hour after more food/broth and juice. I had lost about 700 mil of blood - almost 2 pints. Around 9:30 I finally made it into the shower - I was amazed at how good it felt! I really just sat in a plastic chair and hosed myself off.

While I dried off, Kevin packed up our stuff and we started the process of checking out. There wasn't much too it. The nurse (I really can't remember her name, probably because it was told to me during a contraction) wheeled me down stairs where we picked up my prescription unfortunately it wasn't for pain relief but stool softener (TMI I know). She called us a cab and then got us downstairs to where the cab would pick us up. She helped us in to the car and helped Kevin buckle Isaak in. The ride home was much better then the ride to the hospital.

Getting from the cab to the apartment was a slow/hobble/walk. I got Isaak out of the car while Kevin got our stuff. I made it to the downstairs door before I told Kevin I would wait at the bottom while he shuttled stuff. I was walking very slowly. The local had worn off long ago and they were only giving me 2 REGULAR strength tylenol every 6 hours. I couldn't wait to self medicate with something stronger. At least Advil.

Once home we got a hold of a couple family members on Skype. We were in bliss. We finally headed to bed around 12 after changing his diaper.

Just to add a little more excitement to our days, Kevin has a cold. Poor guy. It started Sunday and has become the full stuffy nose/sore throat.

You can see the photos in our Flickr Web Album. We will upate this link with photos on an ongoing basis - so check back! We have some very graphic birth photos that the nurse took. These will not be posted on the web but are available if you are interested. Let's face it. Childbirth eliminates all modesty. If there is any modesty left, nursing kicks it out the door.