Friday morning, October 10th. Last prenatal visit with the AMAZING Stephanie!
We're not sure if it was the cervix massage or this...
that made Niko decide to start coming outLabour started at around 6:15 PM. We were in the pool at the Kinam Hotel, just a regular Friday afternoon : )
Back at home contractions felt pretty good on all fours giving Gabriela the opportunity to ride me like a horse.
We all stuffed her suitcase full of who knows what and she happily bounced out of the door with Alexis, Ben, Sharon, and Bryan. Thank you friends!!!!The midwives arrived before 9 PM and then Hillary the photographer. I was like "who are these people in hospital scrubs?" and then I was like "ow ow owwwwwww! ow".
Labour was 13 hours including 2 short walks outside, but mostly in the bedroom which is really normal: in the closet, shower, toilet, on the ball, leaning on the change table, on the bed, at the other wall, trying to move my hips, killing mosquitoes between contractions (not so normal) and trying to embrace the next wave. That's a nice way of saying I fought like crazy, learned to breath, stroked the wall, yelled bloody murder, pushed, and then went back to contraction when we realized he wasn't down yet!!!!! (at 4 AM).
We had a great time remembering all the hilarious things I said (not that I remembered : ) including "Come on Stephanie, this is RIDICULOUS!", "Okay, just kill me now!" and "I need an...epid-opisomy!" and others that I won't mention here. Our neighbours across the way only came over twice to ask if they could bring us to the hospital (hee hee). This morning I heard myself tell Matt about the pain: "like a machine gun 2 cm from my lower abdomen with endless bullets...pow...pow...pow." Niko's heart beat like a galloping horse during all but the second last push when Stephanie slipped her fingers beside his head, massaging it gently and the little horse was back.I didn't know who was where when but everyone was exactly where I needed them. I could not have done it without everyone! PAIGE, doula at age 14, brought hot and ice cold compresses somehow simultaneously from the kitchen to my belly or back. Her Mom, TARA Livesay, arrived from running her first marathon in Minnesota five days earlier raising $62,000 for Medika Mamba which makes enriched peanut for growing Haitians, slept on the living room floor between contractions and prayed during them. BETH McHoul, 19+ years working with women in Haiti, training to be a midwife at age 56 not to mention running marathons, offered boundless encouragement especially "you're almost there" "you're so close" which is so very Haitian whether you are five minutes or five hours from the destination; Hillary held my hand, made coffee, brought ice and drinks, reminded me to breath and somehow also took all kinds of gorgeous photos (most of those featured here). Matt, ever present, laughed, breathed, massaged, and yelled, and breathed, and started all over with me, helped catch the blood, cried, AND CUT THE CORD,
and cried some more
and hasn't stopped cleaning, cooking, hosting, and getting me ice drinks since.
Stephanie, I don't have the words for Stephanie. At age 32, 300 births under her belt, 3 weeks in Haiti, stayed up all night doing everything, never short on suggestions even if I refused all of them. She even let me bribe her...she would say: "let's have two more contractions and then stand up"...and I would say "if you let me stay here in this position, I'll do nipple stimulation (which naturally speeds up contractions), I PROMISE!" (I HATED nipple stimulation b/c i hated making those bullets come even faster). And when I decided to take a "nap" at 4 AM instead of pushing Niko out, she was like "okay, sure, no problem" and she got nice and relaxed on the bed for a little siesta (until my next contraction : ) and she went with me, with us all the way until 7:19. When I began pushing she expertly broke all the membranes (my water did not break on it's own after 12 hours) and massaged every single millimetre open with a little olive oil and breathed with me to prevent serious tears of that little opening as it slowly, gently stretched to fit the 14 cm head.
After all that, they handed me the baby and instead of reaching for the baby, I reached between his legs exclaiming "he has a penis!" and then looked at his hands to see if he had six fingers and finally if he had a tattoo of Tabasco on him because I generally drown my food in the stuff.
Stephanie in the meantime, jumped in the shower to wash up and then pulled up a chair and threaded her needle.
Niko was Stephanie's first white baby delivery (the first 300 babies were Filipino where Stephanie completed her training) and go figure here in Haiti! So far, Niko is rather Haitian, coming out 10 days after the "date" and super chill, not to mention surviving the Tabasco so far. (We have been waking up in the night to wake him up!!!!!) He's just a little longer than the average Haitian babe but we DO see big babies born here come out already looking around!
BIG sister Gigi showed up in the morning...I LOVE this picture!
As for me, I'm just peachy! Really not tired and the tears (3) were very small and superficial. I did have an awfully sore tailbone but now I can sit up kind of : ) and today I started feeling the loss of blood which was over 2 pints. This morning I couldn't figure out how to spell anything, like "chich pea" or "we are hear" and momentarily couldn't see the computer screen at all, but water and the neighbour's Haitian chicken soup (liver!!!!) are working magic and avocados and grilled fish, and more avocados, and honey from Dezam, not to mention watercress, rice & bean sauce, mangoes, watermelon (yum yum) are helping me through. I am only mentioning half of the miracles that happened! But alas, this is a miracle that happens everyday and we are crazy blessed to have experienced every second of it.
Our neighbours who share and own our house were SOOOO quiet! and didn't come over once during labour. But their ears were pressed to the walls as they tracked the stages of labour. And after they met him, they spent the weekend, making soup, changing our sheets, washing diapers, fetching water, ice, avocadoes etc. If we ask them to buy oranges, they've already made the juice. Praise God! 300 cheers for Haiti and Haitian hospitality. Seriously I'm blown away! Thank you Madame Léon, Carlo, Simeon, MaryJo, Mammi...
okay must go...I started this post at 8 AM...Niko's doing a sleep marathon...Matt made solar food...G and M washed diapers after school...but the internet is the internet here and our photos were big.
LOVE LIFE LAUGH, EAT SPINACH
photos by Hillary Prag, Samurah, Matt Van Geest
