Our first baby

by Nurit

Jonathan, a couple of hours old

Hi Sarit,

It's very nice to have a place to share our birth story and read about other people's experiences in the delivery room.

My story is, well, unique, as are all birth stories. My husband and I had been trying to conceive for quite a long time without any success. We tried going through different treatments, including IVF, with no results.
Just as we were losing faith, my husband changed his job to a very less stressful one, and bingo, our wish to become a family would now come true without any intervention, so for all of you trying, my first tip is: get away from anything stressful.

My pregnancy was hard on my body, the 1st trimester I would get sick every night and I would be tired all the time. The 2nd trimester was a bit easier, but the 3rd one was the hardest, getting sick again every night, constant heartburn, I could hardly breathe and I could hardly sleep, the bed was so full of pillows my husband had hardly any space for himself.

By this time we were attending our birth course, which has nothing to do with breathing, we learned mostly the process of birth and what to do afterwards. We were told birth is not like in the movies where you see a woman flush out a gallon of water when her water breaks and then you breathe in and out.

The big day was just around the corner, and we set up a meeting at what would have been the 2nd day of the 39th week (a Monday)with an obstetrician because the baby was big and I decided to deliver through a c-section. The Friday before that I just couldn't bear it anymore, I was getting no sleep, I could hardly breathe, and walk, and I was as big as a blimp. That day we had dinner at my parent's house. Back home my husband went to bed and I fell asleep on the sofa, I wasn't comfortable in my bed, but at about 1 am I decided to go to bed. At 3 am my water broke, and it was just like in the movies,I found myself laying in a pond in the middle of my bed. I kicked my husband, who didn't get it until the third time I told him my water just broke. He jumped out of bed and started to try to get dressed, it's a miracle he didn't hurt himself in the process, I was actually calmer than he was. He managed to get ready, and so did I, and we went to the hospital. On the way I could see how anxious he was.

In the hospital we were hooked up to the monitor, and the we were settled in a temporary room until the operation, we tried to get some sleep there with little success. At 10:30 I was allowed into the operation room, the doctors put on some classic music on the background and began the procedure. At about 11 am my husband was allowed into the room, he sat beside my head and was not allowed to stand up (they don't want to deal also with fainting husbands), and at 11:13 am we heard our son's voice for the first time, it was the most magical, exciting, emotional moment of my life, sadly, I couldn't hold him right after he was born, on this occasion the father enjoyed being the first one to hold the baby. While I was being rolled out of the room and into the recovery room, I saw my husband holding our baby, he brought him next to me so I could see him, and it was the prettiest 3.9 kg. baby I had ever seen.
After that I went to sleep for a couple of hours to recover from surgery.

What I can tell you is, if you can avoid surgery, do it, recovering from a c-section is much harder than from natural delivery, also if you are planning on breastfeeding, holding your baby after a surgery on your stomach hurts a lot.

I hope you find this story helpful in some way, thank you for letting me share it with you.