The arrival of....

ALISHA HANNA REIERSEN!!

Date: 13 May 2007
Time: 1309 hrs
Weight: 3784 grams
Length: 49 cm

Birth Story
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May 13

Around 0200 hrs

Elyas woke up screaming so I went to comfort him back to sleep. He has slept throughout the night for a long time now so it was weird for him to suddenly get up in the middle of the night. Anyway as I was comforting him, I suddenly felt a strong contraction in my lower back. I tried to breathe in and out as quietly as I could until the contraction passed. It lasted for about a minute plus. I didn't really give it much thought because I figured it was just a false alarm. After all I was already a week overdue, what's a week more right? *sarcasm*

Since I was already up, I decided to go to the bathroom to pee. I was excited when I saw fresh blood and what looked like my mucus plug in the bowl (sorry TMI). The baby's finally coming woo-hoo! I thought I'd go back to sleep in hope to build up my energy before the big event. That was futile. The contractions came hard and strong every 7 minutes and boy did it hurt! I knew it wasn't good news when the contractions were just in the lower back (as it was with Elyas)...it meant that the baby was in the posterior position...again!

Around 0700 hrs

By this time, the contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart so I woke Geir and told him that it was time to drive to the hospital. Luckily my MIL was already there with us so we didn't have to wait for her to make the 2 hour drive to take care of Elyas. Despite the pain, I told Geir to have his breakfast first (what a considerate wife I am lol!). We drove to the hospital right after that.

At the hospital, I was seen by a midwife and she wired me up to chart the baby's heartbeat and the contractions. When that was done, she gave me an enema and it took me about 40 minutes to clear my system! It's hard to poop when you're having back contractions! Anyhoo after all that's done, I walked (yes, my midwife actually made me walk!) to the labour and delivery department where I was wired up to the monitor again. She gave me a quick check and I was 5cm dilated *yay*

Around 0930 hrs

By this time, I couldn't take the back pain any longer and requested for an epidural. Initially I wanted to try for water birth but the pain was so intense, I decided to skip it. Two anesthetics came in 10 minutes later to give me the epidural. I could have sworn I saw halo's above their head! Yes, I was THAT glad to see them ;) However, my excitement didn't last very long because one of them couldn't get the needle into my spine and had to try several times. Finally after what felt like an eternity, she managed to get it in and soon I was hooked up to the pain reliever....or so I thought. 20 minutes later, I was still in much pain. Not as severe but it still hurt a lot. Seems like the epidural didn't work properly! I remembered when I had an epidural with Elyas, it was an instant relief and I felt no pain at all. I told the midwife and she said that she could call them back and see if they could re-do the whole thing. I declined because I figured that they were probably rookies and was afraid of them poking me the wrong way and injuring my spine. Yes I was that paranoid....

Around 1100 hrs

My midwife checked me and I was 7cm dilated. Nothing much happened between this period except that I was sweating a lot from the pain....

Almost 1200

I was 10cm dilated. The midwife then broke my water to speed up the process. There was meconium but she didn't seem too worried about it and I was in too much pain to worry so we didn't really discuss the issue :P

Anyway, things progressed soon after and by 12 plus, I was pushing. After about 10 minutes of pushing, the midwife called for the doctor. They usually don't call the doctor unless it's an emergency or that they needed to vacuum the baby out etc. When the doctor arrived, I was utterly disappointed. I didn't want this baby to be vacuumed out (as it was with Elyas) because that caused a lot of problems with the lining of his spine and he developed colic soon after. I was determined to push this baby out on my own. With the next contraction, I gave my all and the midwife was actually impressed. She said, "Finally, something good is happening". What a word of encouragement eh? :P Upon seeing this, the doctor decided to walk away from the bed and stood by the door, ready to exit. I was relieved....

With every contraction, I pushed harder and finally her head popped out (I forgot how much that hurt!!). She was looking upwards so she was indeed in the posterior position. Then came the drama...with the next push, she wouldn't budge. Apparently her shoulders got wedged and she was stuck. The midwife then shouted for the doctor, who was still standing by the doorway and she came running to the bedside. She then pressed onto my belly and pushed it in a downward movement - in the effort to push the baby out. Finally, she came out! She was covered in a lot of meconium so she must have pooped even more when she was stuck. She was then placed onto my chest immediately. After about 5 minutes or so, I cut the umbilical cord, pushed the placenta out and was sewn up (it was just a tiny tear). I did all this while I still had Alisha on my chest, who was crying non-stop.

Waaaaaaah, somebody please put me back in!!!!! (Just seconds after she popped out)

All in all it took me 45 minutes to push Alisha out and the labour lasted 11 hours from the first contraction. A far cry from over an hour of pushing with Elyas and 22 plus hours of labour. Everything was well at first until the doctor told us that because she was stuck, they needed to take her upstairs for an x-ray to make sure that she has not dislocated her shoulders. So off they went with my little girl. 10 minutes later they came back with Alisha and the result.....her shoulders were not dislocated BUT she broke her collar bone. There's nothing they could do about it accept to let the bone heal on its own which should take about 4-6 weeks. They told me that it's common for babies to break their collar bone when they get stuck halfway. However as a mother, no matter how common such incidents are, it's not a pleasant thing to hear. I was sad for my girl although still glad that apart from the broken bone, she's healthy and safe in my arms.

So that's pretty much the birth story. We could not check into the hospital's hotel (as we initially planned) because of the broken bone. They wanted to keep her closeby so they could examine her every now and then. So we stayed at the hospital's recovery section. Initially I had to share a room with another lady but the midwives accomadated us and gave us a room all to ourselves so that Geir could spend the nights with me too. They even wheeled in an extra bed for him lol! It's the policy here to leave babies with their moms. They don't have a nursery and they don't watch the babies for you BUT because Alisha was contantly crying, probably from the pain and needed to be held all the time, they told me that I could leave her to them during the night for a few hours while I catch up on my sleep. I'm very pleased by the generosity and kindness of the hospital staffs. They were sincerely concerned for our well being. Maybe they were afraid that we would sue them for the broken bone?? After all, we recorded the birth so we have evidence. Hmmm.....

Here's a video of Alisha just seconds after she was born :)