Its been 48 hrs now. I've gotten some sleep. E's gotten less. But, I feel rested enough to give a summary of Our Life with Bianca, so far.
Monday evening E was having sporadic contractions between 5 and 7 minutes apart. She was noting the times on her pad with a pink pen. Every time she reached for the pen I became a little bit nervous, but not incrementally. We watched one episode of Lost Season 2 from iTunes and went to bed at 10pm, thinking we would not be sleeping the whole night. Sure enough, around 1:30am E felt some water breakage and the contractions were becoming a bit steadier. She got up to prepare her things and shower etc. She told me to get my rest and that she would wake me when it was time to head to the hospital. I rested, fitfully sleeping, until 5am. I got up, changed our Skype announcement to "Going to the hospital...." and we went.
We checked in at the Emergency Room at 5:30am. They first took us to a monitoring station in a room with 3 beds. E was on the monitor for 45minutes or so, and I found the charting of the contractions and heartbeat oddly soothing. I held her hand at each contraction and we waited. They showed us to a private room and we set up camp. E was only dilated 1cm so we knew we had a long day ahead of us. She texted her mom - who was at that time on her way to Berlin to catch a plane. Fortuitous timing! We stayed in that room for about 3 hrs, contractions steady, at about 5 minutes apart. Then they took us to the dilation room - aptly named. They put E on a slight Pitocin drip, and fluids. E reached 5cm and then the contractions' strength subsided. The midwives and residents who were checking on us increased the drip. 5-8cm was the worst, I think for E, and certainly psychologically for me. 8-10cm came quickly and she began pushing. All of the dilation took about 3hrs. 30min of pushing in the dilation room and another 30min in the delivery room and Bianca was out. No drugs, no episiotomy.
I can't say enough about the quality of care we received. We were both a bit apprehensive about having our baby in a country where neither of us speaks the language natively. E has been studying Spanish like mad and mine doesn't fail me when I need it, but having to communicate in a foreign language during this emotionally and physically draining time was weighing on my mind. The midwife, Gene, and the two residents who delivered the baby were awesome. Once they knew our story - Polish, American, met in Dubai, conceived in Italy, baby born in Spain - they spoke clearly and succinctly, repeating instructions as necessary and exhibited calm professionalism and warm demeanor throughout. I think the two residents were our age or younger. Just great. Awesome. E was so thankful to have such great care. And most of the staff in the Pediatric floor are great, though there is one Smoky Smokerson. They are calling Bianca,
Linda, beautiful.
Right after she was born, I accompanied her to be dressed, weighed, measured - she was 50.5cm 20" long; while the nurses helped E. She just looked at me, probably not focused, but I think she recognized my voice. She was perfect.
The hospital permits spouses or
parejas to stay the night. So I've spent both nights with my girls. I'm doing what I can, but E is the star of this show. She's been phenomenal,
genial as the staff say. The staff hard a hard time accepting that our daughter has two
nombres and only one
apellido, but now they got it. They let Bianca stay in the room all the time, except when they need to give her shots and tests etc. Its a two-person room, but we've yet to get a roommate.
All for now. Stay tuned.
