Beyond words - The birth of Noah Milan Hess

My due date was Friday, September 4^th. I was just happy that Eric already arrived from the US and that we could spend some days before the birth of our little peanut. The 4^th came and went with no signs of labor. However, we had a wonderful day together, walking around a lot, joking around and wondering about the “real” due date.

On Saturday, September 5^th we went to the cycling museum. It was a two-hour drive and I did not feel well in the car at all. I told myself this would be the last ride in the car before the run to the hospital. Little did I know that this was already the beginning of my big adventure: giving birth to our baby boy.

For some reason, I woke up the next morning at 3am. - Nothing new when you are pregnant because you have to use the restroom a million times, but this time something was different. Eric was sleeping peaceful next to me but nothing was peaceful in my world. I felt like my water might have broken and started to feel some minor cramps, but wasn't sure. I was nervous and excited at the same time.

Nature is strange. The last couple of weeks I was wondering how my labor would start. I was afraid that my water would break somewhere in public or while exercising or that labor would start and I would realize it too late. So this might be it? I went to the bathroom and still was not sure. I decided to go back to bed and try to sleep some more. I thought the cramps I was feeling were early contractions and I knew those could happen for a few days. I laid down but this time I was sure the water broke. Or not? I went again to the restroom and back to bed but this time I decided to wake Eric and go take a shower to see if the cramps would get worse or stop. If it would be real labor the cramps would get worse. Eric was sitting up immediately and looked at me with big eyes as soon as I woke him up. He was really nervous and asked if I am ok. I told him that labor might be starting. So here I was again in the bathroom. After the shower I was sure that this was IT and went to wake my mom up. She was already up and said that she already knew because I was in the restroom so many times and “moms just know”. Great. Mom – you should have told me! I went back in the room to tell Eric to get ready but he was already all dressed, sitting on the bed. I love him so much! By 5.30 am we where ready and my Dad drove us to the hospital. The trip took 35 minutes, my contractions where not too bad, pretty regular, maybe 10 minutes apart. When we arrived at the hospital and I got out of the car I felt the first REAL contraction. I thought: all right, bring it on.

I was happy to see the midwife upstairs; it was the one I was hoping for. The last couple of weeks I already had to go to the clinic to check in and meet the staff and I really liked her from the beginning. By 6am another midwife showed up (I did not really like her to much in the beginning) and the nice one said she is off now. Oh noooo. Oh well - with or without a nice midwife, I will deliver my baby today! After about 20 minutes of being at the hospital, our midwife checked to see how far dilated I was. I was still thinking that I had hours and hours to go. To my absolute surprise, I was already dilated to 3 centimeters!

I really wanted a natural childbirth with no medical interventions/drugs, but 4 hours into labor I was not too sure anymore. I told Eric while walking around the hospital that it would be his turn next time to deliver the baby. At least I could still joke around.

The whole time, Eric was right there, telling me stories and even "breathing" along with me. I couldn't have done it without him; he was so supportive and helpful. I was walking around the whole time while in labor and when I felt a contraction, I was humming and breathing the pattern I learned from my friend and from my midwife. I was lucky to be the only one delivering this Sunday morning, we were the only ones there, together with the midwife and the doctor, who checked on me once in a while. It truly felt like a birth house and not like a clinic! So relaxed, oh wait, not really, the pain was getting pretty bad but the breathing pattern kept me going, of corse Eric did keep me going as well...I wanted to be strong for him and the peanut.

I started pushing around noon and Noah was delivered at 12:50pm. Amazingly, I did it completely naturally the way I originally wanted to. We had a super fast labor and a healthy baby boy at the end. We feel that God has truly blessed us with our baby. Noah has changed our lives forever. We are so thankful!

Noah Milan Hess!

9 lbs at birth. Born Sunday, September 6th at 12:50 pm local time (Germany is 7 hrs ahead of CST).

Thinking about my labor a couple of days later I think giving birth was not bad at all. I thought it would be worth. But there are two things that where scary and I hope it will not happen again in case I have another child (yes - we will have a second one mom, don't panic!)

Unfortunately I had an episiotomy which I really wanted to avoid but I guess Noah was a fairly big baby so they had to do it. I am still convinced with the right midwife you can avoid it but they didn't ask me or anything, they just decided to do it and went for it. If it was for the safety for Noah I totally agree and I am fine with the doctor's decision.

The scary thing about my delivery was that I lost a lot of blood after birth. My blood pressure was very low, the nurse had to take blood samples and a drip was put up. I had to take iron for a couple of days and I was pretty weak for the first two days but I recovered quickly and we left the hospital after 4 days.