Nicolas Kenneth Pouchain: A Birth Story

As you know, Sat June 7th was Anais' 5th b-day party with her friends. I woke up around 5 AM and eventually got up at 6:30 when Austin came into my bed giving me his breakfast order of his usual "Austin want chocolate croissant." So we got up, had breakfast, I baked a cake for Anais, started picking up and cleaning the house, did laundry again to get the baby's clothes in order and everything arranged for when the baby comes. I did some last minute shopping for the goodie bags while Xavier took care of the kids that morning. I did a lot of last minute cleaning up until the first kid arrived. I was totally stressed. I had no idea how to entertain 6 little girls for 3 hrs. The weather was crap as well, rainy and cold. The girls still jumped on the trampoline thank goodness. Then Mami and Papi showed up around 5 PM. More chaos. The party went until 6 PM. The kids were thrilled, but some were terrified of my in-laws dog, Rennes. Our house was more or less trashed once again after the party, so I started to clean up some more and do more laundry and start cleaning the attic and the attic bathroom for my in-laws, while Xavier made dinner and the kids gorged themselves on candy. Then I couldn't stop cleaning, I vacuumed the attic and went down to the second floor and continued vacuuming and went down the steps until I exhausted myself around 9 PM, when we started having dinner. I wasn't hungry that night, so I just ate watermelon for dinner. My mother-in-law told me to stop cleaning because she thought I would drive myself into labor, but I couldn't let them sleep in a filthy attic, it's just not nice and Yvette should not be expected to drive 10-12 hrs only to clean her own room when she gets here. At least Xavier changed the sheets on the bed, which really helped. I went to bed around 10 PM completely tired having been going, going, going all day except for about 1/2 hr when I stopped and laid down before the party because I needed to relax and because my back was really hurting. But it felt really good psychologically to clean, so you know...

About 11:45 PM I felt 1 contraction, the baby moved, which hurt and then poof my water broke. I thought awe nuts! Any night, but tonight! I went downstairs and said to Xavier "My water just broke, we gotta go"

I knew it would happen fast and it takes about 1/2 hr drive to the hospital. I usually vomit right away so I was actually terrified of that, so we had to hustle, hustle, hustle. My bag was already in the car, but the batteries died that day on the camera during Anais' b-day party and unfortunately we didn't have any other back up batteries. Mind you nothing is open at Midnight on a Saturday night in Germany, so we can't just pop by Walgreens to get batteries. Of course the car was still filled with groceries that I bought 2 days before, but never unpacked and the front seat was filled with bags of cat litter in preparation for this big event. So here I am, water leaking out my pants, puke bucket in hand and unloading kilos of cat litter from my side of the car. Contractions haven't started yet, again thank goodness. By about Midnight, we were in the car ready to go. That's when the contractions started, mind you they STARTED at 5 min apart.

By about 12:30 AM we arrived at the hospital at the emergency entrance. Xavier dropped me off while he parked the car. A few doctors passing by wished me good luck. I sat in the only chair at the emergency entrance. In Munich you have to walk your way to the Kreißsaal (labor and delivery) on the second floor. So there we were walking through this maze, reading the signs and trying to figure out how to get to the Kreißsaal on the second floor from the emergency entrance. I didn't have my glasses on because a month ago, Austin broke them and I didn't want to wear contacts. We had to stop a few times because walking made my contractions come faster and I couldn't walk through them, they were a wee bit painful.

I guess we got to the Kreißsaal by about 12:45 AM and they set me up for a CDG for 1/2 hr to measure the contractions and the baby's heartbeat. They took out blood and set up a sack of fluids for me to take in order to get a PDA (epidural). They said I couldn't get a PDA until the blood work was done from the lab which should take about 1/2 hr (min). I figured I had time, so I wasn't too concerned and the contractions weren't that bad. My back was hurting, but it was still manageable. I also asked them to do an ultrasound to make sure the baby was still head down. Originally Nikki was breach and they manually turned him around at 36 weeks, which actually worked this time. On a Sat night if he had flipped back, I would have had to been prepped for a c-section, but he turned out to be still head down. So, about 1:15 AM or so I guess, we walked into a birthing room. I sat on this large uncomfortable bed. Laying down on my back or side made my back hurt more. Xavier put on soothing music, which actually helped and rubbed my back for me. He was an excellent labor partner. The mid wife didn't really do much. She checked me at some point and I was about 4-5 cm. Then after a few contractions, I have no idea how many, I started having some that were more severe. The last one knocked me clear off the bed. The position was too painful on the bed and I rolled off mid contraction onto the floor onto my knees. That's when I said PDA, PDA, PDA. She said this is your 3rd child, you may not have time. I was still getting the fluid in my arm and my blood work wasn't back yet. She said I have to check you. I said can you do it from this position, she told me "no." I was sort of having back to back contractions, I don't really know and I didn't want to lean back because of the back pain, but I did anyway so she could check me.

She checked me while I was on the floor and she said "you're open." I said "how much?" She said, "you're open." I said "How many centimeters?" She said, "I don't understand." I repeated, "How many centimeters?" She said "10, you can start pushing whenever you feel like it." Then she said something like, "At any rate it would take about 45 min for the anathesist to get here to give you the epidural (PDA)." I thought about it and figured pushing won't last 45 min and at least the pain will stop after the baby is out, so I might as well push, I certainly don't want to endure these kinds of contractions for another 45 min.

So, the midwife said, "Where do you want to push?" I looked around the room and they have this nifty orb like chair suspended in the air that looks like a training instruments for astronauts. I sat down on that and the midwife said, "lean back." I said, "I don't think so, that was certainly NOT comfortable." So, I got off the astronaut chair took a few steps forwards, dropped to my knees on the floor and said, "OK, I'm pushing." She said, "There?" I said, "Ja." Then she brought me this kind of stool that looks like and 18th century torture instrument. I said, "Thanks" and leaned on it. I think she expected me to sit on it. When she realized I was going to give birth on my knees, she brought over a yoga mat for me to kneel on, which was nicer than the hard floor.

I took off that little hospital gown they give you because it was in the way and started pushing. I was terrified because I'd never experience the pushing part without large quantities of narcotics, so I tried to explain this to the midwife in my terrible German, which I don't think she understood anyway, so I kind of felt on my own for the delivery. I told her I needed guidance in English because I don't know how to explain that in German, but I don't think she understood that either. When you're in labor, you don't exactly want to try to be conversing in German and her English wasn't that good, so oh well....It was kind of hard to think and express yourself in German in between contractions to communicate with the midwife.

I forgot pushing is like playing tennis and I sort of forgot to breath. The midwife was behind me trying the catch the baby as it comes out so she wasn't yelling "Breath! Breath!" at me and there was no one else in the room with us besides Xavier. So, I suppose it took about 1/2 hour to push Nicolas out. I was afraid of tearing, which I did, but couldn't feel, so that was a relief. When she was telling me to slow down or stop pushing, I was terrified I was tearing. Your instinct is to push as hard as you can with total ferocity to literally eject the baby like a projectile across the room. So to not push is next to impossible especially during a contraction. It was a pretty cool experience though and it wasn't so bad at all. When the baby finally came out, he was all blue and looked nothing like me. He looked like a mini Xavier. The first thing Xavier said was, "It's a boy." (We suspected we were having a girl.)

I assume that when you give birth, you're supposed to feel all lovey dovey, but all I really felt at first was, relief. Xavier cut the cord and held the baby first, while I climbed up on the bed to deliver the placenta. When it came out, I got to touch both sides of the placenta. That was very cool. It's not like what you would expect. It was a cool experience. I'm glad to have had it. Then they sewed me up. Again, I was terrified of the pain and yes, I did feel more than I would have liked. After about 1/2 hour Nicolas wanted to nurse, imagine that?!

As usual, Xavier and I could not agree on names and in all honesty, I never really started thinking about names, much less for a boy, so Nicolas went a day or 2 without having a name. We kept calling him Austin. It's weird to talk to your kid without having a name to call him. The good thing is, you could take a name and look at him and sometimes, some names just didn't seem to suit him.

All in all, this birth was by far the easiest I've ever had and the most enjoyable. Time passes so fast when you're in labor. It felt like I only had like 20 contractions total and the time felt the same as a Sunday morning wait at IHOP for breakfast in Austin, TX. In other words, it was nothing at all. The only thing missing was the newspaper (and a name for the kid). : )