Welcoming Mäuschen

We returned from our first fly-away vacation as a family of three a few days ago. I had packed my computer thinking I might be able to snatch a few moments to write this post. The joke was on me though, I merely opened my laptop once to write an email. I had essentially no “free” time at all while in Mallorca. We had a really lovely trip though and were joined by my sister for most of the trip.

I’ll share more about our Mallorca trip in a separate post.

PAST

But for now, I wanted to finally share my birth story. It’s already been over three months!

Dress rehearsal

A few days before the delivery, I experienced contractions. They were frequent but not regular. However, they did last about 4 hours. It was late evening and my toddler was running a fever that night. So when Mausi woke up and needed comforting, the contractions eventually stopped.

The following days were uneventful with no real contractions. I had a prenatal visit the day before the due date and things looked fine but no signs of imminent delivery.

I had an induction with my first pregnancy on the due date. At that time, my cervix was closed and I hadn’t experienced any sort of regular contractions before. I induced on the due date because I lived 1.5 hours away from the hospital and didn’t want a 3-hour round-trip drive every other day for monitoring.

Since things seemed pretty chill the day before the due date and my cervix was still closed, I made plans with my aunt, uncle, and mother (who had arrived in Germany a week before the due date) to have lunch the next day.

Tell me your kid is German without telling me your kid is German

03:30 AM

It was the morning of my due date. I had woken up to pee. A rather normal occurrence at this point. However, I was unable to fall asleep again which was odd.

04:30 AM

I started feeling contractions. From the start, they were rather frequent, about every 5 minutes. I decided to monitor them thinking this might just be a false alarm and it’s been 4 minutes, certainly, there wouldn’t be another contraction in the next minute, and….. ohhhhh….. there it is. I decided to monitor it for one hour.

05:30 AM

The contractions continued about every 5 minutes without a break. I got up and started to gather my things for the hospital but still wanted to monitor for another half hour and wait until 6 AM before waking up my mom. She had heard me walking around however and came to see what was going on.

06:30 AM

With continuing regular contractions, I rang my uncle to let him know that I wanted to head to the hospital soon. He was tasked with watching Mausi while I was at the hospital.

07:00 AM

We arrived at the hospital. I was brought into a room and greeted by the night-shift midwife. She performed a cervical check and put me on the monitor. I was only about 1.5 cm dilated. After a half hour on the monitor, she came back with the day shift midwife who was just starting her shift. The baby looked good on the monitor. They asked me if I wanted to go home again, go have breakfast, or go out on a walk. The reason was that they didn’t want me cooped up in a hospital room for so long, since some deliveries can take quite a long time.

We also discussed the type of room I’d like for after the delivery. My options included a shared room, a private room, or a family room. The family room would allow my support person to stay with me, essentially being admitted to the hospital as well, and would be my main helper postpartum. I elected to request the family room. This would cost me about 70€. Gotta love the German healthcare system.

I knew that I would not make it home with the frequency and intensity of the contractions I was having. But, since it was a lovely fresh morning, I opted to take a walk with my mom to a nearby bakery to grab some breakfast. I was informed that I would be able to have more than just one person with me at the delivery so I immediately rang up my best friend so that she could join the party.

08:00 AM

The bakery is just around the corner from the hospital but I was already having to stop with each contraction and focus and breathe through them. I didn’t even have an appetite anymore by the time we made it to the bakery. All I wanted to do was return to the L&D floor. My bestie arrived while my mother and I made our way back to the hospital.

08:30 AM

Back in our room, the midwife seemed surprised to see us back so soon. She reviewed some non-medication pain management strategies including getting into the bathtub. I was very keen on this option as I had always wanted to try it out but this was not available during my first delivery. I imagined it would feel nice to be in the warmth and be supported by the water.

09:00 AM

Off into the tub I went! It felt so nice. The midwife asked which aroma therapy I would like added to the water and I chose lavender. That has always been my go-to relaxation scent and was what I envisioned when thinking about deliveries and aroma therapy.

The contractions were continuing very regularly. I enjoyed the water while chatting with my mom and bestie between contractions. It didn’t take too long though and they became more intense. I was no longer interested in conversations and requested my AirPods.

My mom and bestie went into the main room while I immersed myself in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The crescendos and decrescendos lined up so perfectly with some contractions, that it felt almost magical.

09:45 AM

My mom was back in the bathroom with me and massaging my back and neck. I was still immersed in the world of Vivaldi, Bach, and Mozart.

I performed my own cervical check and found that I was about 5 cm. My amniotic sac had not ruptured yet.

A few strong contractions later, I felt the amniotic sac pop at the height of a contraction. Since I was suspended in water, I did not have the same Niagra Falls sensation I did during my first delivery.

10:20 AM

My midwife was back and wanted to do a cervical check. For this, she requested I be lying back some. Up until this point, I had mainly been hanging over the tub edge. It took several contractions to get into the right position. I was completely dilated!

10:40 AM

I got myself back into my preferred position because I felt it was almost time to push. The midwife reapplied the monitor.

10:45 AM

The midwife told me the baby was “reacting” to the contractions and if it wasn’t coming out soon, I’d have to get out of the tub. I knew there was little chance I was going to be able to maneuver myself out of that tub considering the intensity of the contractions.

10:46 AM

During the next contraction, the midwife said the baby was making its way out and it was time to push. I felt that too.

10:51 AM

The midwife told me to take a feel of the very hairy head that was making its way out!

10:54 AM

My final contraction… the midwife instructed me to push, push, push,…now no pushing, just breathe (while she maneuvered the shoulder)… okay now push, push, push. And then I proclaimed “Raus!” (German for “out”).

She handed me the baby between my legs underwater for me to retrieve and lift above water in front of me. And there Mäuschen was. My sweet, not so little, second baby. While admiring their cuteness, one little hand lifted and touched my nose. What an experience! My bestie cut the umbilical cord. My mother had the honor during my first delivery so I wanted to provide this opportunity to my best friend.

11:00 AM

I handed the baby off to my mother at 10:59 AM and got out of the tub and into the hospital bed. Mäuschen was quickly looked over by the midwife but back in my arms and offered to breastfeed by 11:04 AM. I delivered the placenta shortly thereafter and the physician then repaired the tear (my previous episiotomy scar tore).

I was given the option to have an ambulatory delivery. Given that it was so early in the day and I felt great, I elected to proceed with this option as I did not see a reason to stay the night in the hospital and away from my toddler. All we had to do was remain in the hospital for at least 4 hours after the delivery. We weren’t going to make our original lunch plans at 2 PM but decided to get the food to-go and have it at my place just a couple hours after our original planned time would be perfectly acceptable as well.

12:00 PM

Mäuschen received the official first well-child exam from the midwife in the room with me. We spent the next few hours chit-chatting and informing friends and family of Mäuschen’s arrival.

03:40 PM

We took a group picture in the L&D room and then were off to return to my apartment. My best friend drove us but had I needed to, I could’ve probably walked home. The anesthetic local injection for the episiotomy tear was still working very well at this point.

04:10 PM

We arrived back at the apartment and Mausi got to meet Mäuschen for the first time. My aunt, uncle, and cousin had picked up the food. Mausi inspected my now deflated stomach that previously housed their baby sibling as if to verify that the baby had indeed been in my belly. Mausi received an older sibling gift from Mäuschen and then we all sat down to eat. I sure was hungry at this point and enjoyed my well-deserved first real meal of the day.

PRESENT

As I mentioned, we returned from our trip to Mallorca a few days ago. I’ll be sharing pictures and videos from the trip on Instagram and Facebook over the next couple of weeks and plan on writing a dedicated blog post as well.

Mausi continues to go to daycare while Mäuschen accompanies me throughout that time running errands and preparing content to share.

FUTURE

We are off to Croatia soon. My sister will be joining us again! It won’t be a very long trip but I look forward to exploring a new city.

So many trips are planned for the remainder of the year. Looking at the next couple of months:

June: Croatia and Egypt

July: Houseboat tour in Germany and a trip to a location that is yet to be determined. Possibly Itlay or Greece.

I hope you’ll continue to follow along!

mfg