The Big Day December 14, 2008

NOTE: I started this when I was in the hospital…4 weeks ago!  I am just starting to get back in the swing of things.  Matilda is fabulous, and isn’t much of a crier – she has her moments, but can be calmed down in about 10 minutes max.  Not bad.  Keep your fingers crossed that she keeps it up!  Now, the story of how she came into the world…

I’m the kind of person who sometimes needs to know when something is going to END.  When I used to run 5ks, I always had one eye out for the finish line, and the other on my digital timer, constantly gauging exactly how much further I had to go.  And no, I did not go cross-eyed from this practice, though I can see why one might think that.

I didn’t love being pregnant, didn’t hate it, but I admit this last month was a bit tedious.  I was a stay-at-home mom with no mommying to do, and I could not find one freaking position to sleep in that did not irritate one part or another of my body.  I hated leaving the house, as I often would be the subject of abject staring.  On account of the gigantic belly.  Refer to Godzilla post below if you are not getting what I am talking about.  Plus, I was just waiting…wondering…waiting…

Then at midnight, on Sunday, November 16th, it all began.  A cramp here, and then 5 minutes later, another one, and then 5 minutes later another…you get the picture.  I found a nifty online contraction timer that helped me decide if it was worth treating as real labor, you can check it out here, but I am not sure how much fun it would be without having any contractions to time.  It wasn’t much fun even with the contractions, though I did like the red flashing light it showed during the contraction’s duration…like “Danger, danger, severe pain approaching.”

After timing the contractions for about 2 hours, we decided it was the real deal, and called the clinic to warn them of our impending arrival.  I did this in a robotic voice, reading the Japanese from a sheet I had prepared for this occasion.  The nurse responded to me in Japanese, so I have no idea what she said, and interpreted it as “Come on down!”

Since we are only a 20-minute walk from the clinic, we decided to stroll instead of taking a taxi, as I thought it would help get my mind off of things.  Of course, we had to pause every 5 minutes, as walking had become too difficult while my insides were compressing, but eventually we rolled our suitcase on in at 3:30am.

They hooked me up to one of those lovely contraction measurement machines, and Jordi was able to watch as the contractions grew stronger and progressed.  I got checked, and the midwife gave the rather disappointing news that I had dilated only 2 cm, which meant I had 8 more to go…and 8 cm is only accomplished by having lots more contractions.

It must be noted, that the Japanese as a whole do not believe in pain relief during labor, believing (correctly) that it slows things down, and also believing (a matter of opinion) that the natural course of things is the best way to proceed.  So going into the birth, I knew pain relief was not an option, and I honestly did want to see what the real birthing experience was about…I did.

In short, the contractions progressed from bothersome, to painful, to unbearable during the first 11 hours of labor.  It was during the unbearable stage, when they were 2 minutes long with only a minute to rest between, that the midwife informed me that she believed I still had 5 to 6 hours to go before the baby would be born.  My reaction?  Tears.  And a big freak out.  I flatly stated that I would not survive another 6 hours of these contractions, and that we needed to figure out a way to move things along.  The midwife looked confused.  Jordi patiently explained to me that we really couldn’t do much about the timing, and that it was going to take as long as it was going to take.  I disagreed, and said that I was going to get this ordeal finished in sooner than 6 hours.  I’m not quite sure how I managed to accomplish this, I’d like to say I used visualization techniques, practiced my breathing, or some other yogi type inspiration, but basically I just screamed in agonizing pain for the next hour, and the midwife said: “Okay, baby come now.” And down to the birthing room we went.  Along the way, I kept asking her: “By ‘Baby come now’ you mean I am about finished, right?  Like it is time to push this baby out, right?  Is that what you mean?”  “Yes,” she said.  She looked at me a bit strangely, and in retrospect, I can completely see why.

So sparing the gory details, an hour later, Matilda Aiko entered the world…not into a silent, tranquil world, but one in which her mother was bellowing like a water buffalo and her father was being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste by her aforementioned bellowing mother.  But the second she was out, they plopped her on my chest (the kangaroo care thing) and we had almost an hour together before we were sent back up to our room.

The past four weeks have been a mix of amazing happiness, exhaustion, tears, and a lot of laughing at the gastrointestinal performances of our new daughter.  I highly recommend it!

Below are a few photos of Miss Matilda: