Not even 30 minutes later, I was in tears because my contractions were hurting so bad and I had no breaks. We headed back down to labor and delivery. Crystina had me sit on the birthing ball and hold on to this rope hanging from the ceiling. She warmed up a big bean bag and massaged it on my back during contractions, which helped a lot! She wanted me to lay down on the bed so she could check me. I was not excited about being trapped on the bed with horrible contractions. After I had a contraction, I hurried on the table to be checked as quickly as possible. She checked me and said I was at a 4. I had two contractions laying there and it was so painful. I wanted so badly to get on my feet again!
After she checked me, I told her I wanted to get in the bathtub. I really wanted to do a water birth if possible. Luckily I was the only one in the labor and delivery unit, so she had me using all the different rooms because each room had different mechanisms to deal with the pain. Once I got in the bathtub, it felt really good. There was a thing hanging from the ceiling above the bathtub and that helped to hang on to it while on my knees. Not too long after I had got in the tub, Danielle had showed up.
My contractions were so painful at this point. I was laying in the water on my back with my feet pressed at the end of the tub and I was holding onto the handles on both sides. My hands were getting really numb and shaky. My body started to get really sweaty and hot. Crystina put a cold rag on my forehead, which gave me some relief. Shortly after Dr. Kaeshal showed up, I felt the urge to push through my painful contractions. Every small break in between my contractions, I tried as hard as I could to relax and stay calm. It was extremely hard to do that and I couldn't help but dread the severe pain the next contraction would bring. I wanted Crystina to coach me through it and tell me exactly what I needed to do to get the baby out. Instead, she kept telling me to push when I felt like it and listen to my body. I'm pretty sure I said, " I can't do this" a couple of times in between contractions near the end. After a couple contractions of pushing, the doctor started coaching me more on when/how hard to push, which I was grateful for. My next contraction I pushed extremely hard and it felt like I delivered the baby. They then told me that the head was out. I don't remember Meika's head hurting that much to come out! I reached down and felt the baby's head. On the very next push, the rest of the body came out. Abe said it was really neat seeing the head out underneath the water while waiting for my last and final contraction.
After he came out, they immediately put him on my chest. What a relief to be done with the labor and have my sweet little baby in my arms. It's crazy how fast you fall in love. His little body was blue and he wasn't crying. It made me a little nervous at first and they kept assuring me that he was ok. Dr. Kaeshal put my hand on his chest to show me that he was indeed breathing and just fine. They had me keep rubbing his back to get some color in him. They said he was so calm because he was nice and warm. I guess that with a water birth, it is initially less traumatizing for the baby? They practically had to pester him a little bit to make him cry. He was born at 12:10pm, just about two hours after I was given the induction pill.
They had me get out of the bathtub and onto a bed where I was able to lay and admire Anders. We waited and waited and my placenta wasn't wanting to deliver. Crystina kept pressing as hard as she could on my belly to help it come out. I couldn't help but try to push her hands off of me because it hurt so incredibly bad. After no success, Dr. Kaeshal stuck his entire hand in there and manually pulled it out. Ouch!! I was not prepared for that amount of pain. It was horrible. They stood and observed the placenta for awhile and talked about it. I asked what was wrong and they said I had a very "special placenta". It ended up being something called Velamentous cord insertion. It is when the umbilical cord attaches in the wrong place. It was attached to a thin part of the sac instead of directly into the placenta. There were finger like veins from the cord that ran down the side of the sac and into the placenta. Most likely that was the reason why he stopped growing a couple weeks before he was born. The doctor said that bad things could have happened to both me and the baby because of it, but not to worry now since he and I were just fine. I looked it up later and found out that it causes still births in pregnancy and can cause the baby to die during labor. That confirmed to me right then and there that Anders was/is our last baby. I'm so glad that for whatever reason I did not know that this was wrong with my placenta. In Germany you have an ultrasound at every single appointment during pregnancy, so it's crazy to me that it was missed. It would have been so stressful my entire pregnancy and labor having to worry if my baby would survive. He really is such al little miracle. After all the pain and sadness with my miscarriage last year and then finding out about this cord problem, we are so very blessed to welcome a perfect little boy into our family. My heart could not be any more full.
The girls are so in love with him. He is a perfect little completion to our family. It's crazy the overwhelming love I have for him. It's not that I love him anymore than I do my girls, but it is a different kind of love. Here is the story of Anders' birth in pictures.
