My dad arrived in Vienna on June 19th. I remember riding home from the airport in the taxi with him, and the taxi driver asked when my baby was due. "Tomorrow," I replied. What a shock for him!
Earlier that day, I met with my doctor. All looked well, and she was quite certain labor would begin very soon, as my cervix was already at 3cm and soft and malleable. I just smiled skeptically. We'd heard that for almost a month before Nathanael had to be induced! She spoke with my mid-wife and scheduled a fetal heart monitor for the evening of June 20th, mentioning that she thought my body might be ready to respond if the mid-wife agreed to attempt a few homeopathic methods to activate labor.
That afternoon, Gregory and Nathanael and I walked half an hour to his Kindergarten Summer Sports Festival. It was a rediculously sweltering hot day. I was miserable, but I enjoyed watching Nathanael participate in activities with his Kindergarten friends. The pre-labor contractions were as active as ever in the heat and activity, but I didn't think much of it.
The next day, June 20th, was Evangeline's due date. Gregory and I picked up some groceries, stocking up the home, just in case we didn't come back right away from the appointment in the evening. We made sure we had everything packed, and we tried to survive the heat. The apartment's internal temperature reached 85 degrees! Ugh! And Gregory's allergies were acting up big-time.
We said goodbye to Nathanael and Grandpa and Grandma at 5:00pm, letting Nathanael know that if we didn't come home, Evangeline would have been born! We arrived at the hospital (Goldenes Kreuz) at 6:00pm and were set up with the fetal heart monitor.
At 7:00pm, my mid-wife, Elisabeth, inserted some gel onto my cervix and massaged it a bit. She told me that if it were to successfully stimulate labor, we would know within 30 minutes, likely beginning with mild cramping and then contractions at regular intervals. She was right, of course! At 8pm, after just that, I asked her how likely she thought it was that Evangeline would be born that evening, and she responded that she'd already completely the check-in procedures for us! We would be meeting our daughter that evening!
They moved me into a Labor and Delivery room then; they let me choose which room I liked best, so I chose the violet room. At 8:45, I received an enima, and while going through that torturous experience, I threw up while bawling from the pain. My midwife was so pleased, explaining that throwing up was a kind of emotional release, showing that my mind and body were ready to have this baby. She checked my cervix and found it to be at 7cm.
The next hour of events happened quite quickly. My water broke, but I had no idea as it was simply a gentle trickle. I was having a lot of back labor due to Eva's positioning, so the mid-wife had me lie somewhat inverted on my knees with most of my weight on my shoulders in order to move Eva's chin down to be resting more deeply in the birth canal. After this, the intensity of the contractions increased significantly, and speaking through them was difficult. I asked my mid-wife when transition would begin and when she would suggest I get an epidural. She was a little surprised by my question and informed me that she could probably count the remaining contractions on one hand! (She was exactly right!) She said she'd speak with my doctor when she arrived.
At that point, I went through three extremely intense contractions. The doctor arrived after the second. I couldn't relax between them as they were so intense, so my doctor suggested I try pushing on the next one. I pushed through one contraction, and Evangeline's head came half-way out! I pushed through a second contraction, and she was born! 10:49pm. And no tearing! Praise God! (And thanks to the amazing Epino device the mid-wife had me use the month prior to prepare my body for delivery.)
I pushed through two more contractions a few minutes later to deliver the placenta. That part was a bit more painful than I expected or liked. The placenta was huge; both my doctor and mid-wife were amazed! Haha! Then my mid-wife pushed out a couple blood clots by pressing with her fist on my uterus/mid-section, and it hurt so much that I grabbed her hand to stop her and yelled, "Ow!" I imagine that was quite humerous to her. (Evangeline was in my arms at this point!)
Evangeline was in great health. She nursed for about 10 minutes within the first hour. As opposed to Nathanael just after birth, Eva opened her mouth widely and nursed easily from the beginning on. Interestingly, she was never cleaned off from birth; they simply allowed everything to remain on her skin and soak in to keep it from drying out. Gregory and I were a bit surprised by that; we kept thinking they would take her away to take all the measurements and wipe her off! I didn't mind keeping her with us the entire time though.
I am so thankful for my wonderful doctor and mid-wife and for my husband who held my hand through it all. Each one of them played a crucial role during the delivery, and I couldn't imagine it having gone more splendidly!
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