Here is the birth story. Also titled, “Having a Child in a Foreign Country is Just Not Quite the Same.” Since this is a fairly long post, it has been broken up into two parts. Oh, the suspense!
Having Contractions, but No Baby
Starting a few weeks before Silas came I had been having contractions on and off. So every night we thought it might be “the night” but I would go to sleep and the contractions would be gone by morning. We kept waiting and waiting and I was growing very tired of being pregnant and of having contractions but no baby. Every time we went to the doctor they did an ultrasound. By the end it was saying that the estimated weight for Silas was 8.5 lbs! Thankfully he was not that big. I think he was only 7 lbs 11.5 oz when he was born.
A Good Birthing Partner
By the 5th I had been having contractions all that night and that morning they got very strong and closer together. We waited at home for as long as we felt we could so I could be as far along as possible. Also, Jeremiah was still sleeping so we wanted to try to make it to morning time. From 1 A.M. until 5 A.M. I walked around our bedroom and had lots of pain, while Evan got our things together (and quite possibly played on the internet, I can’t exactly remember. I do know that he was a good birthing partner once again). Around 5 A.M. we called our friend Karin who would be watching Jeremiah while I gave birth. She came over and as soon as we were leaving, Jeremiah woke up. It was hard, but we left without him seeing us and she took care of him. He had a lot of fun playing at her house all day, since she has a huge playroom with lots of toys. I don’t think he even missed us.
The Hospital: Like in America, in the ’60s
Off to the hospital we went (5 minutes away) and Evan had to go fill out paper work since I was supposed to be induced later that morning and they weren’t planning on me being there so early. I was only 3 cm dilated so they hooked me up to a machine to monitor the contractions. Because I was hooked to the machine I had to lay on my back in bed – very uncomfortable with contractions. Then they let me into the labor room around 6 or 6:30. The hospital was like an American hospital, just from the 60’s or 70’s. The walls in the labor room were pink, just to give you an idea. Here you labor and have the baby in one room then go stay upstairs in a different room. So they took me to the labor room and left me there for awhile. Evan had to go ask them for a hospital gown since they didn’t provide me one right away. Let me just say that the level of privacy and personal space one gets in Indonesia is very different from the states.
To be continued…
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[...] read The Puppy’s birth story Labor and Cultural Pains Part One, Part Two, Slideshow [...]