My BIRTH story

October 17th, Thursday. I was pregnant 40 weeks, the possible birth date was 2 days before (October 15th). That day I had an appointment at my doctor. Since everything was fine, baby's head still low, we decided not to wait anymore and to do induced labor the next day. I was supposed to be in the hospital at 7am.

After the appointment I went home, took a long shower, checked my bags, put the suitcase next to the door and went to bed (early like a chicken) before 10pm. Around midnight pain in the lower part of the belly woke me up. Nothing serious, I said to myself, as that already happened once when my doctor (I like to say "manually") checked me. So I tried to sleep, thinking the pain will stop eventually, yet it only became more regular. Until 1am when my water broke. Now that's a super funny feeling, when you walk around the house wetting the carpets and tiles (now is the moment to remember how you blame your dog when he does peepee at home).

17-ti oktobar, cetvrtak. Bila sam trudna 40 nedelja, 2 dana sam presla termin (15-ti oktobar). Toga dana sam imala zakazan pregled kod mog doktora. S obzirom da je sve bilo ok, bebina glava i dalje nisko, odlucili smo da ne cekamo vise i da narednog dana putem indukovanog porodjaja (tj. izazvanim kontrakcijama) zapocnemo novu zivotnu fazu. Trebalo je da budem u bolnici u 7 ujutru.

Nakon pregleda sam otisla kuci, istusirala se, proverila sve stvari, stavila kofer pored vrata i otisla ranije da spavam, kao pilence pre 22h. Negde oko 00h probudila sam se od bolova u stomaku. Nista strasno, pomislila sam, vec mi se jednom desilo kad me je doktor (sto bih ja rekla "rucno") pregledao. Probala sam da spavam, misleci da ce bolovi prestati, ali su samo postali redovniji. Sve do 01h kad mi je pukao vodenjak. E to je super cudan osecaj, kad hodas po kuci i kvasis tepihe i plocice (sad je trenutak da se setis kad grdis psa ako se popiski u kuci).

To make story shorter, until 2am we were in the hospital (which is 40min drive from home). Since the pain didn't stop, they immediately put me in the room where I was supposed to give a birth, and changed my clothes while waiting for my doctor and midwife to come. The pain was stronger, that much that I was waiting in the bathroom for a few minutes for the wave of pain to pass so I can come out. Nurses checked me how much I was open, and called anaesthetist to give me the epidural. Now we waited 10-15 minutes for it to work. I started to feel its effect, everywhere except in the lower left part of belly, the pain there was as intense as before. 

My doctor arrived (finally one familiar face), he saw I was still in pain and requested additional dose of epidural. Again "needle poking" along my spine. I remember only that anaesthetist said she had another case like this where the baby was low on the left side and epidural didn't have full effect. Anyway the pain finally stopped, but now I couldn't feel or move my legs (here's a strange feeling number two, you really feel helpless). So we had to wait a bit for its effect to subdue...

Da ne sirim pricu ovde, do 02h smo bili u bolnici (inace udaljena 40min voznje). S obzirom da bolovi nisu stajali od ponoci, odmah sam presla u sobu gde je trebalo da se porodim, i presvukla se dok sam cekala mog doktora i babicu da stignu. Bolovi su postali sve jaci, toliko da sam cekala u wc-u nekoliko minuta da prodje talas bola da bih izasla. Medicinske sestre su me pregledale koliko sam bila otvorena, i pozvale anesteziologa da mi da epiduralnu. Sad je trebalo sacekati nekih 10-15 minuta da krene da deluje. I krenulo je da deluje, svuda izuzev sa leve strane donjeg dela stomaka, tu su bolovi bili istog intenziteta kao i ranije.

Moj doktor je stigao (konacno jedno meni poznato lice!), video je da i dalje imam bolove, te zatrazio dodatnu dozu epiduralne da se ne mucim. Onda je opet usledilo bockanje iglom duz kicme. Secam se samo da je anesteziolog rekla da je imala jos jedan slucaj kada je beba bila nisko sa leve strane i epiduralna nije zahvatila dobro. Elem konacno su bolovi stali, ali nisam osecala telo od struka pa nadole, noge uopste nisam mogla da pomerim (evo ga cudan osecaj broj dva, tad se stvarno osecas nemocno). E sad je trebalo cekati da dejstvo malo prodje pa da nastavimo...

This was all happening until 6am. I basically kicked George out of the room at some point 'cause I wanted to bite from the pain and couldn't focus properly on pushing. Unfortunately we all thought we would finish by 5am, as everything was happening fast and the way it's supposed to be, but the epidural blocked me. Somewhere around 6am the effect of epidural started to fade, I felt my body and I could move my legs again. But I also felt each contraction and greater intensity of the pain. I was left alone with my midwife in a room with dimmed lights. Here comes the hard part, contractions and pushing. I pushed really hard (thank you my abs and core!) for about an hour but I couldn't pass the certain point. The baby took a position where he couldn't easily enter the birth canal. A couple of times I seriously thought I would faint from pain, but I didn't say a word nor complained, I was silent. 

The nurses entered room around 8am bringing necessary things and instruments, now I barely understood what was going on. I know that my doctor sat down in front of my (sorry but wide open) legs, opened/cut me a bit (which I didn't realize until later when he started to put stitches). The only thing I do remember clearly is the last contraction. There were two moments: the first one where I felt huge pain in my upper part of belly like something moved, and another moment when something "slipped" out of me. That was my baby with loooong umbilical cord. He came into this world on Friday, October 18th, at 8:15 am (8:20 according to George), 52cm long and weighted 3.450gr. He cried only once, just to show us he arrived...

Ovo se sve do nekih 06h desavalo. Ja sam Jorgosa izbacila iz sobe malo ranije, jer sam od bolova htela da ujedam i nisam mogla da se skoncentrisem na napone i guranje. Na zalost svi smo mislili da cemo do 05h zavrsiti jer je sve islo ubrzanim tempom i kako treba, ali me je epiduralna zablokirala. Od 06h je krenuo brzo da jenjava njen uticaj, osecala sam telo ponovo, mogla sam da pomeram noge. Ali sam osetila i svaku kontrakciju i sve jaci intenzitet bola. Ostala sam sama u zamracenoj sobi sa mojom babicom. Krenuo je tezak deo, naponi i guranje. Gurala sam jako (hvala moji trbusnim misicima) nekih sat vremena ali nisam mogla da predjem odredjeni deo. Beba je zauzela polozaj gde nije mogla da udje u kanal. Par puta sam pomislila sam da cu se onesvestiti od bolova, mada ni "a" nisam rekla niti sam se zalila, cutala sam.

Sestre su oko 08h usle u sobu sa neophodnim stvarima i instrumentima, sad vec nisam kapirala sta se sve desava. Znam da je moj doktor seo ispred mojih (izvinjavam se, sirom otvorenih) nogu, otvorio/secnuo me malo da mi olaksa (sto sam tek kasnije ukapirala kad je krenuo da me zasiva). Jedino cega se jasno secam je poslednja kontrakcija. Postojala su dva trenutka: prvi gde sam osetila ogroman bol u gornjem delu stomaka i kao da se nesto pomerilo, i drugi trenutak kada je nesto "iskliznulo" iz mene. To nesto je bila moja beba, sa duuuuugom pupcanom vrpcom. Dosao je na svet u petak, 18-ti oktobar, u 8:15 (8:20 prema Jorgosu), dug 52cm i tezak 3.450g. Samo jednom je zaplakao, eto cisto da nam da do znanja da je stigao.

Later I learned from George who was outside of the room but saw everything (useless to kick him out, lol) that the baby came out turned on the side, probably that's why we struggled a bit. The nurses cut the cord, wrapped him in a towel and handed me this sweet little bundle (he was soooo calm). They left me to hold him for 3-4 minutes before they took him for a check-up, bathing, wrapping...

In the room I gave birth I stayed for another 2-3 hours. They brought me baby one more time, this time left him a bit more to sleep on my chest (back then he learned where is the most comforting to sleep, that's his fav place even now). They took him back so we can both be moved to another part of the hospital where all other babies and mamas are... there starts the postpartum recovery which is a subject for another day...

My baby boy is one month old now (no need to say I have no idea when that happened)! That's why I thought it's a nice opportunity to share my birth story, for those who are curious how everything went... Wasn't easy, it was really painfull, but I was never the one to complain on the pain nor I said at some point "I will never do this again!". It's all part of the life, it's called the experience, it helps you grow as a person. That day my perspective and point of view for many things changed dramatically. I saw one more time how strong I am (don't speak about physical aspect). But we're gonna leave that as well for another post...;)

Kasnije sam saznala od Jorgosa koji je bio van sobe ali je sve video (ja ga dzabe izbacila, haha) da je beba izasla okrenuta na stranu, verovatno je zbog toga malo otezano bilo. Sestre su isekle vrpcu, uvile ga u peskir i predale mi taj mali slatki zavezljaj (kako je samo miran bio)… Ostavile su mi da ga drzim kratko pre nego sto su ga uzele da bi proverile sve detaljno, izmerile ga, okupale, uvile...

U sobi gde sam se porodila ostala sam jos 2-3 sata. Doneli su mi bebu jos jednom i ostavili da spava na meni (tad je naucio gde je najlepse spavati, to mu je omiljeno mesto i sad). Nakon toga su ga ponovo uzeli da bi i mene i njega prebacili na odeljenje gde su sve ostale bebe i mame… tu krece deo price o oporavku koji ostavljam za drugi put...

Moj deckic je sada star mesec dana (bespotrebno je reci da nisam ukapirala kad je vreme proletelo)! Zato sam i zelela da podelim moju pricu o porodjaju, za sve one koji su radoznali da cuju/procitaju kako je sve islo... Nije bilo lako, bilo je zaista bolno, ali nikad nisam bila osoba koja se zali na bol niti sam u nekom trenutku rekla "Nikad vise ovo necu uraditi!". Sve je to deo zivota, to se zove iskustvo, sa tim rastes kao osoba. Tog dana moja perspektiva i pogled na svet za mnoge stvari su se drasticno promenili. Jos jednom sam videla koliko sam zapravo jaka (i ne pricam samo za fizicki aspekt). Ali i to cemo ostaviti za neki drugi post...;)