our birth story

i guess i should start out on april 20th.

we had our routine doctor appointment and everything was looking good with xavier. my blood pressure was still high so the doctor wanted me to come back on friday to see how it was doing.

april 23rd - a surprise visitor!!


we went in to the hospital and my bp was still higher and my doctor did an ultrasound to make sure xavier was getting enough blood and everything was fine. they also wanted to test my blood. she said that we might have to come in on saturday and that if we get a call we would have to but if not then we would just see her on the following tuesday at our regular appointment.

when we were finished with that appt we went to jeremys office because they were having a "hail and farewell" lunch thing for some people in his building. while we were there jeremy checked his work email. i was looking at the screen but not paying attention to what was going on and jeremy kind of panicked and minimized it and asked why i was reading his emails. so i got suspicious! he brought it back up for me and i saw who it was from. afton moman! =) he let me read it and it was saying that her flight was on time to stuttgart and she hopes that i dont know she was coming!! i got extremely happy! i was pretty upset that she was coming all the way to europe and not coming to visit so this made my day so much better!!! she was to be arriving at 4:50pm.

we left the lunch at around 2:30 because now i needed to tidy up the house a bit. i was getting so nervous. i hadnt seen afton in a while and she was also bringing someone that used to not like me at all, well, we didnt like each other. we did get a phone call from the doctors office and they said i needed to come in because my platelets were lower than they liked and they wanted to see how they were doing the next day. after cleaning up a bit we headed out to the airport.

we got to the airport a little late and we couldnt find afton anywhere. we finally found her and it was such an awesome feeling to see her! i miss her so much! on the way home, traffic was so crappy. it was also hot so that didnt help. i think it took us like an hour or so to get home and it usually only takes like 30-40 minutes. when we got home we unloaded everything and they settled in. that night we just hung out. i was pretty tired from being on the go all day so i went to bed earlier than them.

april 24th
jeremy and i went to the hospital at around 9 to get my blood taken and wait for the results. we were there for about an hour or so and they said i needed to come back on sunday because my numbers were still dropping. by this point i was getting kind of nervous because something obviously wasnt right. when we got home we all got ready and we headed out to downtown stuttgart. we walked a ways to the indoor market and we bought fruit, veggies, cheese, and bread for dinner that night. we were going to bbq teriyaki chicken. we always make teriyaki chicken with afton and so we HAD to do it while she was in germany! we sat around downtown for a while. it was so nice out and it felt good to just sit by the fountains and such. we got home and we watched some of "the office" and then we started bbqing. dinner was great, especially with afton there. when we finished eating, everyone, except me, tried the zip line they have here at the playground. it was funny to watch them ride it. afton was the most scared about it but finally rode it! hehe that night we pretty much watched "the office" for the rest of the night.

april 25th - my birthday!

jeremy made us breakfast, which was awesome, then jeremy and i headed out to the hospital at around 11am to get my blood taken again and they let us go home instead of waiting for the results. we got home a bit later and we all got ready and went to the commissary to get deli sandwiches and stuff to go eat at the park. afton and ryann really came at a great time because it was absolutely gorgeous here! on the way to the park we were looking for parking spots and since it was so nice and everyone wanted to be there, there was absolutely no parking close by. we finally found a spot in this little lot a bit away. we got there and found a spot under a tree to eat by a bunch of tulips, it was so gorgeous! it was fun to sit there and watch all of the people taking pictures by the tulips. most of them looked like they were trying to be models. we sat there for a while and ate and then headed home.

when we got home i checked our cell phone and we had a missed call from the hospital. i called them back figuring they would just tell me that i had to come in on monday to repeat the tests. when i was talking with them they told me that since my numbers kept dropping they wanted to see me at 9am on monday and to bring all of my stuff because they were going to induce me. the feeling i felt after that was a feeling i have never ever felt. a flood of various emotions came over me to the point where i almost started to cry. it was reality that i was going to meet my son very soon. i immediately told jeremy. it was weird saying it out loud. after that we told our parents, well, jeremy got a hold of his first. i was having trouble getting a hold of anyone in my family. i finally got a hold of them after a while trying to call. everyone was so excited for us. i was getting more nervous but trying not to show it. jeremy called and made reservations at this sushi place for my birthday dinner. while we waited for dinner time to come around we watched more of "the office". i made a few more phone calls in that time to family.

dinner time came and we headed out to the sushi place. we were told we needed to make reservations and when we got there we wondered why. hahaha it wasnt busy at all. i got octopus for my appetizer and it was totally NOT worth the almost 10 euro i paid for it. lame! and i got 2 california rolls for dinner. usually california rolls are the cheapest thing on the menu because of the fact that its imitation crab used. not here. not in good ole' germany! they were the most expensive roll!!! i think it was almost 10 euro for each of those rolls. double lame! anyway, so we finished eating and came back home. i finished packing my hospital bag and xavier's diaper bag. we watched more of "the office" before we went to bed.


april 26th - induction day!
i woke up pretty early to take a shower and get ready. it was becoming more real that i was going to be giving birth soon. added to those feelings i felt extremely sad to see afton leave. it was so awesome that she came to visit us. i feel very blessed to have her as a best friend. we all headed to the hospital together because we were having shera pick afton and ryann up from there to take them to the airport since we couldnt. we got to the hospital and we sat around for a while waiting to be called back. i think it was around 10am they finally called me back. they explained to me what was probably going to happen and she did an exam to see if i was dilated at all. she said i was about a 1cm. they did a non stress test next and while that was going on afton had to come and say goodbye. i was really sad. while they were doing the non stress test the doctor started an iv and gave me a dose of antibiotics for group b-strep. i had no idea i tested positive for it because i had no idea they did the test! weird. that antibiotic was really weird. when she injected it into the iv she told me that i would start smelling something weird and i did. it smelled sort of like nail polish remover or something. it was totally weird.

at around noon they gave me my first dose of the stuff to induce me. it wasnt like what i thought - an iv of a pitocin. it was actually just half of this little pill. i cant remember what they called it but it started with a "z". jeremy and i went back to our room and watched "the office". within a half hour of taking the pill i started having small contractions. every 2 hrs we had to go back and do non stress tests, which was kind of annoying. i hated having to leave our room and go to another part of the hospital to do the tests. xavier was looking fine in the tests except the fact that he would be sleeping so they would have to come and wake him up. most of the time they would just use this stick with a bell(like a bicycle bell) and ring it around my belly, that usually worked but sometimes they would have to shake my belly. haha. i got my next dose around 5pm and the contractions were still coming but not really regular or strong enough to do anything. we continued to do the same things, watch "the office" and go do the non stress tests. this was pretty much what we did the whole time. the last test was around 10pm i believe.

before we went to that test one of the nurses came and told us that jeremy had to leave. i didnt know that he couldnt spend the night. i got extremely upset and started crying. when we were doing the test the midwife came in to talk to us and i started crying again and she asked why and i told her that they said jeremy had to leave. i just couldnt believe it. i wanted jeremy there with me. i needed jeremy with me. the contractions were getting a bit stronger but the midwife said she didnt want to give me another dose because they wanted me to sleep. they gave me some pain medicine to help me sleep and said we were set to go. before we left the room a guy came in and said that they had some bad news. i almost started freaking out(thinking it was about xavier) until he told me it was because they had to move me to a different room in a different part of the hospital because they needed my room for someone that just had a baby. i understood and asked him since we had to move everything to a different room if jeremy could spend the night. he said that he could compromise with that and he got jeremy this chair thingy to sleep on. i was so grateful to have jeremy with me. such a huge relief! we went to bed and it actually was pretty easy to fall asleep, easier than i thought.

april 27th
a nurse came and woke us up around 6:30am and said that they wanted us in labor and delivery after breakfast. so, we ate and went there to do a non stress test. i got another dose at around 11am and we were free to go walk around and such. for the majority of the day we did the same stuff as the day before but at around 5:30ish we went for a long walk and walked up and down 8 flights of stairs and by our next test for xavier i was having harder and more frequent contractions. after that test we went back to our room for a couple of hours and the contractions were coming about a minute apart and were really intense. im not going to lie, they were really painful and i cried a lot. i thought i was going to be stronger than i was, but you never know how you are going to react until you are in the situation. we went for another test around 9ish and after that one they decided to check me again and i was only 2cm dilated. the midwife asked me if i wanted to labor in the tub for a while and i totally said yes! while we were finishing up the test she got the tub ready for me. the labor room was pretty awesome. the colors were oranges and reds and it felt so calming. the tub was huge! i was excited to get in and hoping that it would relieve some of the pain. i think i spent about an hour and a half or so in the tub. it didnt do much for the pain but it was nice to be able to sway back and forth and work through the contractions that way. jeremy called the midwife in at around 11 or so to tell her that i wanted out. when i got out she said that she could check me to see if i was progressing and i had dilated to 3 and i was told i could get the epidural, which i gladly accepted. again, i thought i would have been stronger but i felt them a lot in my back and it was just horrible.

april 28th - the big day!
i got the epidural around midnight. after that things kind of took a turn for the worse. i was falling in and out of sleep for the first hour or so. sometime shortly after getting the epidural it wore off or something on my right side because i could feel contractions on my right side and only there. it sucked. i also noticed that i now had this huge ball on my left side where xavier was. he sort of curled up into my ribs and wouldnt move. it looked like this, but more extreme:

it made dealing with the contractions i was feeling on my right side super hard because i couldnt move very much and it was a bit harder to breath. around 4:45am they came in and checked me and i was fully dilated so they broke my water. about a half hour later or so they noticed xavier's heart rate was dropping and he wasnt descending so they wanted to check his blood to see if he was getting enough oxygen. this was really scary for me. they had to go up and poke his head to get the blood! this whole part reminded me of watching one of those haunted places shows on tv. sometimes they show haunted insane asylums and they flash back to show what they thought went on in one of the haunted rooms. in the flash back it was usually a bunch of doctors speaking a different language, using tools you have never seen before to torture the patient. this is exactly what i thought of. there were a few midwives there doing the procedure and they were all speaking german. i had never seen any of the tools they were using before and it freaked me out. i closed my eyes for the most part hoping that he was ok and that it would be over soon. they got his blood and tested it and said he was fine. then about a half hour later they came back in and had to test it again because he still wasnt moving and his heart rate was still dropping. this time he wasnt getting enough oxygen so they decided they had to take him via c-section. i got so scared. it all happened so fast from here. they got me into the operating room and i could see everyone getting ready. jeremy finally came in wearing scrubs after they started and they told him not to look over the curtain thing. i was so glad to have him there. i started shaking pretty bad. this happens when i get extremely scared or nervous and im not sure why it happens. there was a midwife next to me the whole time telling me it was almost over. then we heard him cry. i remember looking at jeremy and he said "there he is.". it was amazing! they took him to get cleaned up a little before they brought him to us. when we saw him we couldnt believe how beautiful he was. it was the best feeling in the world. even though i couldnt hold him right away i knew he was ok and it made me feel so much better.

they let him stay with us a bit while they stitched me up and such and then when it was time for me to go to the icu they took him to be cleaned up better and to do all of the tests on him, jeremy stayed with him for this. i was still shaking pretty bad while in the icu. i was really tired as well so before jeremy brought xavier i fell asleep. i woke up when i heard jeremy come into the room. one of the midwifes came in shortly after and got me started on breastfeeding. that was a very awesome moment for me. he did pretty good for his first time. he ate for a bit and then the midwife has to take him again. people were checking me frequently and when i could move my feet and toes they said we were ready to go to my room. they wheeled me down to the room and transferred me to my bed. the rest of the day i was in and out of sleep. shera came and visited for a while to meet xavier and i felt bad that i just slept pretty much the whole time. i was pretty exhausted and it was super stinking hot in the room. i think the temp outside got up to 80 degrees! it was crazy. jeremy left that night around 10 i think, which totally stunk. i HATED that he had to leave. but, i just went to sleep anyway and the nurses brought xavier to me whenever he needed nursed so that made it easier.


april 29th to may 3rd - the rest of our hospital stay
i was in the hospital for a total of 6 days - post c-section. every day i was in the hospital was a day for me to get better, and i did. i slowly was able to start doing things on my own which was really hard but nice. it was also nice not to have all of these bags coming out of me. they took the catheter out i think the second day and i also had these tubes coming out of my incision site that they took out of me the 3rd day. oh and when they took those out, it hurt like crazy!

during the day when jeremy was with me he helped a lot with xavier. we would go for walks together and go change his diaper and clothes together. he would help me get my food. he was such a great help and comfort. i took it really really hard that he had to leave at night. that coupled with having to have a c-section, i cried a lot. sometimes i couldnt even help that i was crying. it was really weird. i was really sad to be left alone without my husband at night and really disappointed that i had to have a c-section. i knew and understood why i had to have a c-section but dealing with the recovery and seeing the other new moms being able to walk more normal than me, wear normal clothes, doing things without help, and going home before me made me really sad. i couldnt really talk to anyone either because i didnt know german so i felt pretty alone.

the nurses and midwifes were awesome though. they helped me a lot with trying to feed xavier because he was having some latching issues. i had to pump a couple of times, once because he was just freaking out in the middle of the night and not latching and the other because he just got circumcised and he was all drugged out and was just sleeping and not latching. they had me feeding him every 2 to 3 hours because he was a little jaundice. he never got bad enough to be under the lights which was really good. when we were discharged they didnt even say anything about it so we assumed he was fine.

the day before we left the hospital xavier got circumcised and i also got checked out by my doctor to make sure everything was ok for me to leave - and it was! that last day there made me so happy because i knew that i was going home with my baby the next day. i didnt even cry! haha

may 4th - the day we went home
jeremy got xavier dressed in the coming home outfit that has been worn by 3 generations on jeremys side of the family. it was really special to us that he wore that. he looked so cute! we left the hospital around 10am. it got very cold and rainy here in germany which was lame! we got home and it felt wonderful to be home! later on in the day we made a bunch of phone calls to our families. it was good to talk to everyone. the first night was good for us. xavier slept and woke up when he wanted to eat and thats it. i was still pretty sore but able to move good. i slept on the couch, reclined because there was no way i could get up into our ginormous bed! haha


so thats it! that is our birth story! thanks for reading!