Calvin's Birth Story

First of all, thank you everyone from the bottom of our hearts for your well-wishes for the birth of our son. On more or less popular demand:

Primary Baby Stats:
Name: Calvin Johannes Powell  (Johannes is the German version of "John" after my grandpa Johann)
Birth day & time: Monday, 08/11/2014, 1:07am
Weight: 7lbs 12oz
Height: 20-3/4in
He likes: Sleeping, eating, sneezing, pooting
He dislikes: diaper changes, undressing, ultrasounds, especially on his privates


His Birth Story:
I was quite miserable for a couple of weeks already, not sleeping well and my liver cholestasis had flared up bad time again. And since my body was getting ready already, I was very anxious for our baby to be born. As our EDD approached, we decided to get together with my parents and sister to visit a nearby open-air museum and walk all afternoon to maybe kick-start labor.
When we came back around 7, I was pretty exhausted and felt a little crampy. While hubby took care of the cats at our friends' house, I prepared dinner for the girls, helped them brush their teeth and shower. We cuddled a little, I read their good-night story and off to bed they went. I retired to the couch around 8pm and watched some TV when I started having contractions, who became uncomfortable quite quickly. To take my mind off, I called a friend of mine to let her know that there's going to be a baby pretty soon. As I was sitting down on the couch, the contractions slowed down a bit. I got back up to pace the living room and called the midwife, who recommended to run a bath and relax for a while to see if the contractions would stop again. Hubby went to bed to rest a little, and I submerged in the bathtub. But instead of slowing things down, the contractions picked up big time. I got out and started throwing up, a sure sign that there's going to be a baby soon. I called my sister to get ready and head over. She arrived about an hour later and found me crumbled up on the floor. Hubby had been compressing my hips for an hour to help with the back labor, but it was getting worse. I called the midwife to touch base with her, as I was not sure if I could do the 45-minutes trip to Bamberg before the baby came.
 She left it up to me how I felt, and since the pain was excruciating, I decided to take the much shorter trip to the hospital in Forchheim. As soon as my sister arrived, hubby loaded me into the car (with two stops on the way there) and off we were. He almost had to carry me into the hospital as I was shaking violently from the pain and felt like in trance; the receptionist called the labor and delivery ward immediately and up I went in a wheelchair. I could barely climb up the bed or get out of my clothes. The midwife on duty checked me and I was at 8cm. The doctor put in an IV and I got some pain medication to take the edge of. Richard helped me further to compress my hips, but within minutes of arriving, the pain became much, much worse. At some point, I suddenly felt like pushing and did; at this point, my water broke and poor hubby got a good portion on his pants; with the next contraction, our baby's head was born, and on the third contraction I gave birth to our beautiful little baby boy. As soon as he was  lying in between my legs, I snapped out of the haze and took him into my arms. Like with the girls, the midwife had the honor to cut the cord once it had stopped pulsating; soon afterward, our son made himself known to the world with a strong voice.
We rested at our room for 4 hours, completed our paperwork to register him, and after I had a shower, we were on our way back home. We arrived around 5:30am, where my sister got to welcome her new nephew. About 6am, Violet woke up and was surprised by her little brother; Lily joined us around 8am.  We spent this first day resting, cuddling, and getting to know each other.

The past days have been just wonderful. Calvin is a good sleeper and generally a happy baby who's adored by his big sisters. I never expected everythigng to be so relaxing and simply natural and am very thankful for it. Calvin has already had his first well-baby exams and couldn't do better. He's already re-gained most of his birth weight and passed all other exams wonderfully. We couldn't be happier!

The girls with their little brother