He is here 
!
Our son Noah Orion Leopold was born June 24. at 3:42 am after more than 48 hours of labor at home via cesarion section in hospital. It was the toughest experience of my life but I don't regret any part of it. He is just the most precious little thing and DP and I are madly in love with him
This is how it all happened:
(background information: DP and I live in Thailand and were planning a homebirth right from the start. There are no MWs in Thailand working outside hospitals, so we found our MW here on MDC She kind of was going to be 'in the neighbourhood' anyway and so we arranged for her and her DD to stay with us for the last weeks of my pregnancy and a bit after)
Wednesday 18. (39 weeks 6 days) - in the evening I went for a walk with my mw and her DD on the beach and we played 'catch me' and I did some running. After that I had some serious cramps, but not quite like I imagined contractions to feel like. The next morning I lost some water, but again wasn't sure if it actually was amniotic fluid or just some very clear discharge.
Thursday 19. - nothing else happened. My due date came and passed without much excitement
Friday 20. - I decided it was time to wake the labor-gods and played badminton with Joi, which was great fun and quite exhausting. The night after I had my first contractions. They weren't very strong yet, but I knew they were *it* and the start of this exciting journey I had been waiting for so long. It would end with meeting my baby Although the ctx weren't too painful, they were enough so wake me up and keep me from getting a good night's sleep.
Saturday 21. - I lost some more water sometime around noon - now I was sure that my membranes had ruptured, but it still was only a small tear, so I just kept on leaking for the rest of the day. Now it was inevitable: I would be going into labor real soon. I decided it was best to stay active and we all (Joi, my mw E, her DD S, and me) went to the mall and I shopped some last things for the baby. In the evening ctxs picked up again, first slowly and then they became quite regular and I had to start 'sounding' through them.
Joi and I started timing them with the contraction master website at around 1:30 am and they came approx. every five minutes, but sometimes also more often and sometimes there were bigger gaps of 8 or even 10 minutes.
Sunday 22. - At some point in the early morning hours I decided to get into the birth pool and Joi heated up pots of water on the stove to get a good temperature. It soon became clear that being in the tub slowed things down again. The ctx became less frequent and I was starting to feel exhausted after all this lack of sleep, so Joi and I went to bed and tried to sleep for a bit. I managed to get about 2 hours with ctx every 20 minutes or so, I guess.
Afterwards E checked the baby's position and was once again irritated because she couldn't quite figure out the position of the head... she said it felt different from what it was supposed to feel and that maybe the head was tilted to one side. She couldn't tell for sure though and some time later she felt again and the head seemed to be the way it was supposed to be. E also checked the heart rate every now and again and it was very stable between 140 and 160 during the entire labor.
During the day things slowed down again a little and although I kept having contractions they weren't as frequent as they had been during the night.
Sometime in the morning I arrived and took S away for some fun stuff so her mother would be free to concentrate on me.
In the evening the ctxs picked up again and I was on a quite regular pattern with ctxs every 6-7 minutes for 70 seconds for the whole night.
Again the night came and went with me getting literally no sleep at all and with my energy waning more and more.
Monday 23. - Again Joi and I 'took a break' from labor for a couple of hours in the morning, lying down and trying to get small portions of sleep between ctxs. By now they were so painfull that I couldn't bear them in a lying position anymore but had to sit up for every single one. Joi was great, always pulling me up really quickly whenever I gave him a sign that the next ctx was coming up. That helped heaps.
A little later E did a vaginal exam, because we really needed some encouragement. the baby's head was really low and I was almost full dilated, maybe 1 or 2 cm to go. That really cheered me up, although E wasn't sure about which sutures she felt (I should probably let you know, that E is not a fully trained MW yet, but still studying and although she has already attended quite a few births, she still lacks the experience and routine in some areas such as confidently feeling the position of the head for example - but then again these malpositionings are rather rare so there is even less opportunity to 'practice' feeling them anyhow).
Things started to get more intense from then on. At some point I put on some funky reggae music and we all danced for a while, which was great fun. Then in the early evening hours the ctxs reached an intensity that had me thinking, okay, if I'm not in transition already I am definitely close.
And then the most painful and also scary hours of my life followed. I was basically stuck at the edge of transition for about six hours. I stayed in the pool for a while, got out again, sat on the toilet, hung to Joi's neck and screamed my head off. no nice low sounds anymore, couldn't do it. A few ctxs actually had me in tears, because I was just so exhausted and NOTHING seemed to be moving. When we had checked me earlier and I was almost fully dilated and the head was so low down already I was sure that i would finally be rewarded with holding my baby real soon. E told me I had to try and push through the ctxs, but I never felt like pushing, I just felt this incredible pain! I somehow managed to get my last energy together though and pushed like a crazy woman through the next ctx - nothing.
Tuesday 24. - I guess it must have been around midnight when I decided I couldn't take anymore of it. I was stuck, nothing was moving, I had been in labor for about 48 hours and I just was really close to losing it. I remember thinking if this was normal, I never ever wanted to have another child. And at some point I asked Joi to please kill me, just so the pain would stop. I dreaded every upcoming ctx - I was ready for the hospital.
We left the house around 1 am and went along bumpy roads with our bumpy jeep to the hospital. There everything went rather quickly. the staff was surprisingly friendly and helpful and after they checked me and also found I was dilated to 9cm and heard from us that I had already been for 12hrs they called the OB and he checked me again and told us that we were going for a c/s...! Yeah, well, here went our plans for a quiet and peaceful NATURAL homebirth... our little one was presenting with his forehead and he was stuck in my pelvis so tightly that there was literally no chance of moving him back up and into a better position. My pushing efforts had also just squeezed him in there even more tightly.
I was sad and exhausted but also relieved that something was happening and I felt I had done everything I could. Everything went real fast after that. they gave me a spinal block, and strapped me to an operation table, but they were nice to me
I was scared and wept most of the time, but Joi was there with me and I could just focus on his eyes. The whole staff were really nice and E had made sure, that Joi could stay with me and then with the baby, that they didn't give him any vaccines and so on. We forgot to ask about the placenta but altogether we were and still are really pleasantly surprised by their attitude towards us crazy homebirthers. And they were really impressed to hear that I had been dilated to 9cm for 12 hrs and still held out so long - actually we didn't tell them that I could very well have been like that for 24hrs already, we just didn't check before, bc I had opted out of unnecessary vaginal exams 
When he was born I was behind this green screen, but Joi could see and I asked 'boy or girl?' and he said 'it's a boy, and he is really handsome!' After they suctioned him he brought him right to my face and I could kiss him and welcome him to this world, even though my hands were literally tied. Then they went awa with him but Joi stayed with him the whole time and as soon as they had cleaned him a little and weighed him, he took him and stuck him under his t-shirt to give him some skin to skin contact. It looked like a sling, very protected and comfy, but the nurses looked at Joi as if he was an alien - they'd never seen a father behave like that before 
I was stitched up and brought to a recovery room. I was so cold and exhausted and I guess a little in shock too that my whole body was shaking uncontrollably. Joi soon joined me with Noah and I nursed him for the first time and he latched right on.
He was 3.33 kg and 54 cm and now he is nursing well and he has no problems whatsoever. I am also recovering allright, though I have to say: c/s wound = no fun at all!
So we are all happy and healthy and having as good a time as possible in our private room with w-lan, fridge, and TV
You can see him under this link including a live pic of me writing this story while nursing
https://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/franziholub/Noah_Orion
Just wanted to let you all know that MDC and especially all you ladies from my DDC have been the greatest support and awesome to virtually hang out with (and hopefully will be for a while - I am very aware of all the late June mamas who are still hanging in there!)
Franziska
!Our son Noah Orion Leopold was born June 24. at 3:42 am after more than 48 hours of labor at home via cesarion section in hospital. It was the toughest experience of my life but I don't regret any part of it. He is just the most precious little thing and DP and I are madly in love with him
This is how it all happened:
(background information: DP and I live in Thailand and were planning a homebirth right from the start. There are no MWs in Thailand working outside hospitals, so we found our MW here on MDC
She kind of was going to be 'in the neighbourhood' anyway and so we arranged for her and her DD to stay with us for the last weeks of my pregnancy and a bit after)Wednesday 18. (39 weeks 6 days) - in the evening I went for a walk with my mw and her DD on the beach and we played 'catch me' and I did some running. After that I had some serious cramps, but not quite like I imagined contractions to feel like. The next morning I lost some water, but again wasn't sure if it actually was amniotic fluid or just some very clear discharge.
Thursday 19. - nothing else happened. My due date came and passed without much excitement
Friday 20. - I decided it was time to wake the labor-gods and played badminton with Joi, which was great fun and quite exhausting. The night after I had my first contractions. They weren't very strong yet, but I knew they were *it* and the start of this exciting journey I had been waiting for so long. It would end with meeting my baby
Although the ctx weren't too painful, they were enough so wake me up and keep me from getting a good night's sleep.Saturday 21. - I lost some more water sometime around noon - now I was sure that my membranes had ruptured, but it still was only a small tear, so I just kept on leaking for the rest of the day. Now it was inevitable: I would be going into labor real soon. I decided it was best to stay active and we all (Joi, my mw E, her DD S, and me) went to the mall and I shopped some last things for the baby. In the evening ctxs picked up again, first slowly and then they became quite regular and I had to start 'sounding' through them.
Joi and I started timing them with the contraction master website at around 1:30 am and they came approx. every five minutes, but sometimes also more often and sometimes there were bigger gaps of 8 or even 10 minutes.
Sunday 22. - At some point in the early morning hours I decided to get into the birth pool and Joi heated up pots of water on the stove to get a good temperature. It soon became clear that being in the tub slowed things down again. The ctx became less frequent and I was starting to feel exhausted after all this lack of sleep, so Joi and I went to bed and tried to sleep for a bit. I managed to get about 2 hours with ctx every 20 minutes or so, I guess.
Afterwards E checked the baby's position and was once again irritated because she couldn't quite figure out the position of the head... she said it felt different from what it was supposed to feel and that maybe the head was tilted to one side. She couldn't tell for sure though and some time later she felt again and the head seemed to be the way it was supposed to be. E also checked the heart rate every now and again and it was very stable between 140 and 160 during the entire labor.
During the day things slowed down again a little and although I kept having contractions they weren't as frequent as they had been during the night.
Sometime in the morning I arrived and took S away for some fun stuff so her mother would be free to concentrate on me.
In the evening the ctxs picked up again and I was on a quite regular pattern with ctxs every 6-7 minutes for 70 seconds for the whole night.
Again the night came and went with me getting literally no sleep at all and with my energy waning more and more.
Monday 23. - Again Joi and I 'took a break' from labor for a couple of hours in the morning, lying down and trying to get small portions of sleep between ctxs. By now they were so painfull that I couldn't bear them in a lying position anymore but had to sit up for every single one. Joi was great, always pulling me up really quickly whenever I gave him a sign that the next ctx was coming up. That helped heaps.
A little later E did a vaginal exam, because we really needed some encouragement. the baby's head was really low and I was almost full dilated, maybe 1 or 2 cm to go. That really cheered me up, although E wasn't sure about which sutures she felt (I should probably let you know, that E is not a fully trained MW yet, but still studying and although she has already attended quite a few births, she still lacks the experience and routine in some areas such as confidently feeling the position of the head for example - but then again these malpositionings are rather rare so there is even less opportunity to 'practice' feeling them anyhow).
Things started to get more intense from then on. At some point I put on some funky reggae music and we all danced for a while, which was great fun. Then in the early evening hours the ctxs reached an intensity that had me thinking, okay, if I'm not in transition already I am definitely close.
And then the most painful and also scary hours of my life followed. I was basically stuck at the edge of transition for about six hours. I stayed in the pool for a while, got out again, sat on the toilet, hung to Joi's neck and screamed my head off. no nice low sounds anymore, couldn't do it. A few ctxs actually had me in tears, because I was just so exhausted and NOTHING seemed to be moving. When we had checked me earlier and I was almost fully dilated and the head was so low down already I was sure that i would finally be rewarded with holding my baby real soon. E told me I had to try and push through the ctxs, but I never felt like pushing, I just felt this incredible pain! I somehow managed to get my last energy together though and pushed like a crazy woman through the next ctx - nothing.
Tuesday 24. - I guess it must have been around midnight when I decided I couldn't take anymore of it. I was stuck, nothing was moving, I had been in labor for about 48 hours and I just was really close to losing it. I remember thinking if this was normal, I never ever wanted to have another child. And at some point I asked Joi to please kill me, just so the pain would stop. I dreaded every upcoming ctx - I was ready for the hospital.
We left the house around 1 am and went along bumpy roads with our bumpy jeep to the hospital
. There everything went rather quickly. the staff was surprisingly friendly and helpful and after they checked me and also found I was dilated to 9cm and heard from us that I had already been for 12hrs they called the OB and he checked me again and told us that we were going for a c/s...! Yeah, well, here went our plans for a quiet and peaceful NATURAL homebirth... our little one was presenting with his forehead and he was stuck in my pelvis so tightly that there was literally no chance of moving him back up and into a better position. My pushing efforts had also just squeezed him in there even more tightly.I was sad and exhausted but also relieved that something was happening and I felt I had done everything I could. Everything went real fast after that. they gave me a spinal block, and strapped me to an operation table, but they were nice to me
I was scared and wept most of the time, but Joi was there with me and I could just focus on his eyes. The whole staff were really nice and E had made sure, that Joi could stay with me and then with the baby, that they didn't give him any vaccines and so on. We forgot to ask about the placenta but altogether we were and still are really pleasantly surprised by their attitude towards us crazy homebirthers. And they were really impressed to hear that I had been dilated to 9cm for 12 hrs and still held out so long - actually we didn't tell them that I could very well have been like that for 24hrs already, we just didn't check before, bc I had opted out of unnecessary vaginal exams When he was born I was behind this green screen, but Joi could see and I asked 'boy or girl?' and he said 'it's a boy, and he is really handsome!'
After they suctioned him he brought him right to my face and I could kiss him and welcome him to this world, even though my hands were literally tied. Then they went awa with him but Joi stayed with him the whole time and as soon as they had cleaned him a little and weighed him, he took him and stuck him under his t-shirt to give him some skin to skin contact. It looked like a sling, very protected and comfy, but the nurses looked at Joi as if he was an alien - they'd never seen a father behave like that before I was stitched up and brought to a recovery room. I was so cold and exhausted and I guess a little in shock too that my whole body was shaking uncontrollably. Joi soon joined me with Noah and I nursed him for the first time and he latched right on.
He was 3.33 kg and 54 cm and now he is nursing well and he has no problems whatsoever. I am also recovering allright, though I have to say: c/s wound = no fun at all!
So we are all happy and healthy and having as good a time as possible in our private room with w-lan, fridge, and TV
You can see him under this link including a live pic of me writing this story while nursing
https://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/franziholub/Noah_Orion
Just wanted to let you all know that MDC and especially all you ladies from my DDC have been the greatest support and awesome to virtually hang out with (and hopefully will be for a while - I am very aware of all the late June mamas who are still hanging in there!)
Franziska
I love those pics!
