Happy Birth-day: the birthstory of Amy-Jo

On Wednesday March 30, 2011 we arrived at the hospital at 7 am for a scheduled induction after a - well, for me anyway - mostly sleepless night. The doctor had already warned us that I was in for (another) long labour since I had been dilated 1 cm for three weeks already. Since I had a C-section with my son they could not use a "drip", so we had to wait and see what the day would bring. A gel was applied bringing on a few contractions which I puffed away on this: Kenneth could sit behind me and apply pressure to my back when the contractions came. We had brought some of our own cd's this time and that really helped: I could focus on the music throughout the contractions. At around 11.30 am the nurse tried to break my water for a first time but it didn't work. At 12.30 she tried again with more success. The contractions came regularly and the intensity was strong but I was only dilated 3 cm by this time. Yes, long labour indeed... I tried walking around, performing endless circles inside the room, but to no avail. There was no progress. I decided to try the tub: it took a while to fill up but it was definitely worth the wait: I spent about 45 minutes or maybe an hour in there. I finally moved up to 4 cm. But now it was already 4 pm and the contractions were getting harder to deal with. Since things weren't moving along I opted for an epidural. By 4.45 the epidural was applied and I was finally able to get some rest. I was even allowed something to eat! Well, Kenneth ate most of it, but I had a chocoladekoek. Around 5 pm I was finally at 5 cm. Great you would think, things are finally moving along... But no, at 10 pm I was still at 5 cm... We were already thinking that it would end in another C-section but the doctor had faith and said that - as long as the baby's heartrate was fine - we could wait a while longer. By that time I was getting really tired so I didn't have high hopes when the nurse checked me again at 11.15 pm. But, patience is a virtue: I had finally moved up to 8 cm! By 11.55 they had set up everything so I could start some practice pushes and then, on Thursday, March 31 at 00.32 am, Amy-Jo arrived into the world after less than 10 pushes.

Tiny feet with tiny toes

Tiny fingers and a little flattened nose

The hospital now follows the skin-to-skin guidelines which allows the mother to keep her baby on her chest for the first hour! This was so wonderful. I was even the one to check the gender of the baby. I double-checked just to be sure ;-), but yes, she was a girl!!! At first Amy-Jo was covered by a green blanket: since we didn't know the gender, the nurse didn't want to use the pink one just in case it would be a boy. But after finding out she brought out the pink!

Gone was all the tiredness and we only had eyes for Amy-Jo.

First encounter with siblings

A beautiful start...

So intensely happy...