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

Lily's Birth Story - Part 4

The last three days I wrote about the days leading up to our personal D-day, the day we would finally welcome our little baby into this world. At this point, I had been in labor since Thursday morning around 1:30 am and now, it was

Saturday, February 2, 2008

I had called the nurses at the delivery ward at IACH in Ft. Riley 3 times, and each time the refused to let me come in, telling me I wasn't even close yet. We've been timing contractions since about 9 pm Friday evening, and I did my best to deal with the contractions just allowing my body and nature take over. Around 2 am I asked Richard to call in again, because I was sick of them telling me to sit down and relax. I had the suspicion that they would not let me come in as long as I was able to call them by myself, and, what a surprise, when Richard called in, they asked him to take me to the hospital. We packed the final things for our bag, grabbed the rent check which we still needed to take to the office and headed out for the hospital. Richard had to stop twice during the 25-minute drive for me to move around during a contraction. When we finally arrived I walked up to the delivery ward (you will never see me being wheeled around in a wheel chair!!), where they put me on the scales, took my blood pressure and whisked me in one of the exam rooms while Richard finished the paperwork. The midwife on duty came in and checked me for dilation; luckily, I was at 5cm at this point and admitted. When she asked me to get up to be taken to the delivery suite, I saw all the blood on her gloves and on my legs; I was shocked, but the midwife assured me that everything was fine. Richard and I settled in our room that we entered as a two-some and would leave as a family of three. I tried to read, bounced on the birthing ball, and just tried to get my mind off the painful contractions. I was planning a natural birth, so I did not request an epidural at this point. The night nurse stopped by a couple of times, rubbed my back and smuggled in some orange juice. I was not allowed anything but ice chips but started to shake from low blood sugar levels since I had not eaten since dinner, and then only a little bit of mixed vegetables.

The midwife and my OB also came to check; around 7 am the midwife decided to break my water to speed up progress. I also got my second IV since the first one had clogged. When another hour and a half later I had only progressed to 7 cm, the OB ordered me to be hooked up to pitocin to speed up the delivery. Then he popped the "P"-word, I responded with my "E"-word and asked for an epidural. About 30 minutes later the anesthesiologist arrived and administered  the tube in my spine. The meds started to flow in my back and my veins, and the pain was gone. I was at the end of my strength and fell asleep. I remember the nurses coming in every once in a while to adjusted the baby monitor that was strapped around my belly. At some point, a new nurse showed up and checked me for progress. I was still more or less asleep when she finally became nervous and called for the OB to come immediately because I had unconsciously started to birth my baby; her head was almost out of my uterus. A leisurely 20 minutes later the OB appeared, exclaiming an "oh gosh, the head is REALLY on the way out!!" and prepared everything for the birth. I asked the nurses to switch off the epidural since I wanted to feel the birth but I was told that it was too late for that. They had pumped me so full of medication that I didn't feel a single contraction or the urge to push.

The nurse coached me when to push and when to stop based on the labor monitor, and only 2 pushes in I heard a loud and protesting cry. It took me 2 more pushes to bring our baby into this world. They told me it was a girl.. "We have a daughter", I told Richard, who had been holding my hand all this time. A daughter we had.. and she was so angry. She had all the right to be; my stubbornness had caused an extended prodromal labor and unnecessary stress on her. We tried to nurse, but she would not stop crying. At some point they took her away from me to bathe her and administered the usual Vitamin K-shot and eye ointment.

They put her under the infra-red warmer. She finally calmed down, and I felt so helpless. There she was, my little baby, our daughter, my love.. This little, skinny baby, who carried a piece of my heart inside her. From this point on, all I wanted was to do better, to give her everything she deserved and more. To show her the love I felt for her.

Five years have passed since this day, and still I cry as I write these words. I regret the way she entered this world, but there is nothing I can do to change it. She is now a wonderful, little girl, whose smile brightens the world. She's sassy, independent, and clever... oh dear, does she amaze us sometimes. I am still working on my promise I gave her 5 years ago. When I cuddled her to sleep tonight, holding her in my arms and feeling her peaceful breathing, I know that I have made up for our struggles back then. I love you, Lily, my life!!

Welcome, my Love!

Lily's Birth Story - Part 1

I have started writing this blog in early 2010. We were pregnant with a surprise baby, and after much contemplating where our family would head as a 4-some, we decided to move to Germany. The blog was some sort of outlet for my fears, my excitements, my hopes, and dreams for our future.

Back in April 2010 I shared Violet's birth story; a few months ago, however, I noticed, that I have never wrote about the days back in the end of January and early February of 2008 that have finally turned a couple into a family, the days of Lily's birth. A couple of days ago I realized, that Lily's 5th birthday would not only be on her actual birth day (Saturday), but also the Saturday of Superbowl weekend, just like it was back in 2008.

I would like to start the story remembering Wednesday, January 30, 2008. At this point, I was working a 40plus-hour job, was on the fast track to earning my bachelor's degree in only 15 months and happened to be 39w 3d pregnant. I had an appointment with a midwife at Irvin Army Community Hospital (IACH) at Ft. Riley. Since Richard was in the Army at that point and I was covered under TriCare Prime, I took the 25-minute trip to my appointment on post as usual during my lunch break. My pregnancy was considered "high risk" due to hypothyroidism that was discovered during the time I became pregnant (let me quote the doctor who confirmed both diagnoses: "How can you be pregnant with THESE thyroid levels???"), therefore I was usually seen by the head of the OB/GYN, but at that day I had gotten an appointment with a midwife. I agreed to be checked for progress and learned that I was only slightly effaced and not dilated at all. I accepted that since I was sure that I would go over the time by quite a bit; at about 36 weeks, my OB confirmed this feeling with a late-term ultrasound claiming that I would have either a very, very small baby (speak: 30th percentile AT BEST) or go at least 10 to 14 days past my EDD.

Despite the check results, the midwife sent me on my way with a "I give you two tonight; afterward, I don't guarantee for anything!"  I didn't believe in her words, having been convinced that the baby would not show up until the 10th at the earliest. Still, Richard and I went out for a date that night having dinner at Chili's, holding hands at the little two-some booth.

That night, as I did some more homework, I noticed some mild pulling pain in my back for the first time during this pregnancy; I never had Braxton-Hicks or any pain from my joints loosening at all, so I thought that it was about time something went on around here.

Little did I know what happened just hours later...