D- Day

After a restless sleep, at 6:00 am the alarm clock marked the beginning of the day when Amandio Gabriel was born. Apprehensive yet strangly calm, I went through the motions of preparing for our departure to the hospital. The taxi ride there was excruciating. I hated that we were sitting in morning traffic when we could already be there and starting the process of finally getting to meet our son. With a cheery 'good luck' from the nurses in the Fertility reception area as we passed by, we entered the labour room. The staff there sprang into action, urine test, blood pressure check, temperature, blood tests, hospital gown on, IV inserted and hooked up to the fetal heartrate and contraction monitor. Lying in the bed with Amandio sitting beside me, the labour process was induced. 60ml.. then 80 mil of oxytocin. Wham.. my stomach tightened, sharp pains but still manageable when I focused on my breathing. I distracted myself successfully by reading 'Country Living' magazine and its peaceful garden photos and beautiful home renovation projects transported me to a very calm place.. which particularly helped when the time between each contraction shortened to 2minutes and the pain intensified. After almost five hours of this, I decided to lie down to get some rest (relatively speaking!) to conserve my energy for delivery. Imagine my letdown when after 10 hours of battling with the pain and being 'courageous' knowing that the end would come and was worth it, when the doctor informed us that I was still only 1cm dilated. Knowing of my preference for natural birth, he suggested we continue for another few hours to see how things progress. However, when I questioned him in detail about what he anticipated would happen, we decided to throw all my notions of natural birth and its benefits out the window and not delay the birth any longer. The doctor thought that at that rate I could be in labour for at least another 10 hours, but still may only reach 8cm max.. by which point the baby could be so distressed (my blood pressure soaring) that we would have to go for c-section anyway. Put that way..operating room!! I insisted on showering first..I guess as a kind of way to mark the end of one idea/stage and prepare for a new one. 15 minutes later the operating team was ready. Then, lower body numb, legs like heavy rocks, suction sounds, kisses from Amandio (who was wonderful and not at all phased by what was going on), eight hands on my abdomen, a heavy pushing feeling on my stomach (people say this lasts only a few seconds.. well, for me it was two minutes cause the doctor had been so careful to make a small incision that it took four people to push the baby out) and out he popped. FIrst thing I heard wasn't his cry but 'look at his big scrotum'! LOL! Needless to say, I know of someone who was pleased :-) Then, came the cry... weird feeling but beautiful too. The doctor placed Amandinho next to my head, photos were taken. The whole thing was magical, but in a surreal sense (hard to describe really as it all happened in a total of 15 minutes with plenty of jovial chatter in the room - hard to take it all in. I did feel my eyes well up when I saw him and it was probably Amandio's face while looking at his son that touched me most. For him it must have been easier to really 'live' the experience.

One of my concerns about c-section was the fact that I would only see Amandinho again after two hours in recovery and one hour in my room. This posed a huge problem for me and was one of the main things we discussed with the doctor prior to making the decision to go ahead with the surgery. It is proven that a baby who doesn't start breastfeeding within half an hour of the birth may have problems with breastfeeding. True to his word, the doctor made sure that as an exception Amandinho could be taken to me in recovery (depending on my condition of course). I requested them to 'send me to sleep' while they sewed up my insides as the feeling made me extremely nauseas. I woke up to find hands and faces above me, holding Amandinho to my breast which was being poked and squeezed at vigorously. It was actually quite comical :-) I just went with the flow, all inhibitions lost.

So, Master (the title printed on his Birth Cert and all other hospital documents)Amandio Gabriel Martins was born on Tuesday, May 19th, at 18:37 with the 11th Waning moon in the year of the Ox (also on his Birth Cert!). He weighed 3.43Kgs and measures 52cms.