So what happened on delivery day.

So many people want to know sooooo

Here goes…….

January 30 Sunday Morning 4:00AM

Woke up to a slightly different bathroom feeling. I couldn’t get back to sleep again and read the delivery chapters of a couple different baby books for the ten millionth time. Everything said that these contraction feelings were fake. They didn’t hurt but they sure were annoying. Dad was off to Kyoto that morning and I really wanted him to go.

Li brought Dad to the bullet train station and helped him get his bullet train tickets for when he had to go home. Before they left I whispered to Li to hurry back as felt weird.

He got back and we called to hospital. They asked a bunch of questions and said come on in.

11:00AM – got to the hospital.

Went through all the typical check in shit and headed up to the maternity ward. There I was weighed and checked. I was only 1 cm dilated but my blood pressure, for some reason, was through the roof. They wanted to send me home but because of my blood pressure I was admitted for observation and would most likely go home in the morning. I was having contractions but they were not thinking very much of them.

I spent a long boring day but took advantage of the do nothing situation to rest in between contractions. I had not really slept well the last few days.

January 31 Monday around 12:30ish – the contractions started to make me consider my pain threshold level. Li, by this time, had been sent home to go to sleep and was told he could go to work in the morning.

At around 3ish in the morning I was 5 cm dilated and Li was called and told to get his ass to the hospital. Poor guy had been a bundle of nerves and had not slept a wink the entire night either.

He showed up and became my back rubber ass holder (though I don’t think he knew why he was holding my ass and it didn’t bloody work either). By this time my blood pressure had totally dropped to normal and my contractions were full on real hell.

OH and NO EPIDURAL!!! They don’t do that over here!!!!

There are no words that can describe the pain that contractions create. I can tell you that your ENTIRE body seems to be involved in them and that I sweated more than I have ever sweated in my entire life. Every muscle in my body hurt the next day – from the top of my head to my baby toe.

At 6:30 I was fully dilated and moved into the delivery room. There I struggled for over 2 hours as my contraction streangth, as well as my own, had died down. I was given an intervenous drip to intensify the contractions and all I can say is SHIT that stuff works fast!!

JiXiang was born at exactly 9:00am January 31. She weighed 3140grams (just a hair under 7pounds), she was 49.9cm long, her head was 33.3cm round and her chest was 35cm round.

What is the hardest thing you have ever done in your life up to this point?

Talking to Alisha for the last time was pretty damn hard but giving birth to JiXiang with no drugs was definitely a very close second.

How is the TV and ER wrong?

It hurts more than they really show!

You don’t cry after your baby is born, there are not enough fluids left in your body from sweating to produce tears.

Being suddenly told DO NOT PUSH after 2 hours of pushing is not as easy as it looks on TV. It is very difficulty to stop pushing after you have been struggling with some deep soul searching to find the tiniest scraps of energy left within your body.

It is actually a slight shock to see the baby come out. I don’t mean seeing the baby which is amazing in itself I mean SEEING. For the first time in five months you can see past your belly button.

First reactions to JiXiang?

I regret to say it was not love but relief that it was all over. I was soooo tired. Then shock that that was my baby. Than instant fear as her umbilical cord was lying across her chest and I panicked that it was around her neck. It wasn’t thankfully but I still asked twice if she was ok.

I got to have her on my chest after she was quickly cleaned up and that is when the love flew in, which was quickly squashed when they began to remove the placenta.

Where the baby books lie!!

They say that the removal of the placenta is a minor pain that does not last long especially after all that you have been through. BULL!!!! It hurt!! Maybe if you are already on pain killers it doesn’t but damn! I was quickly awake after that.

The stitching up was basically non painful but the pressing on my stomach to help clean it erased any exhaustion I might have been feeling and woke me up completely.

Li wasn’t in the delivery room. He had never really wanted to be in there, he was a bit afraid of it. The doctor asked me if I wanted him in and originally I was insistent on it but by that time I couldn’t have cared less who was in the room or what they did to me as long as she was out.

He came in shortly after holding his daughter and looking so happy. Not proud or scared but happy and content. That just made me so much happier. Still no tears as I still had no fluids. I drank so much water after.

In Japan we stay in the hospital for 6 days. It is expensive but I loved the entire time. It was so reassuring to have a nurse on call 24 hours. There are two options – you can have the baby stay in the nurses station and be on their set feeding schedule but free of the baby inbetween, or have the baby in your room and everything is do it yourself. I chose the second d-it-your-self option. It was a little stressful but it was great as I had to learn hands on and had a nurse on call 24 hours for all of my questions.

I wasn’t allowed to have her in my room until Tuesday afternoon as rest is what is first prescribed. I tried to nurse her on the 31 st, but she kept falling asleep. I got my first breastfeed trial on the Tuesday and she destroyed both nipples in the process.

Breastfeeding is NOT easy. The whole latching thing is bloody difficult for both the baby and you. She brused my nipples pretty badly on that first day and they still have not yet recovered. OUCH!!! But my milk has come it and she is gaining weight.

So we are now at home and last night she did pretty good. I am sticking to a 2 and a half to three hour schedule during the day so she eats properally but letting her sleep her fill at night. Last night she went 4 hours in one streach and it felt really good. I also read a section in this one baby book that totally summed up her little bit of fussiness when eating and gassious shits. It says that I am actually producing toooo much milk and almost over feeding her. I am going by their recommendations and it seems to be working as she is sleeping better and has a lot less gas.

Anyway the door bell rang. Pictures to follow.