I Had a Baby in Japan - Uriah's Birth Story
It’s really amazing to me how each and every birth is different. Same mom and dad, completely different baby and a changing body with each one.
With the other two, I ended up at the hospital at 40 weeks, 2 days with a broken water. With this guy, I ended up at the hospital at 40 weeks, 2 days with high blood pressure. While I’m sure it was due to stress, it could still be problematic for me and baby, so the doctor recommended induction on that day at the very latest.
While I would have obviously preferred to start labor naturally, I didn’t see any sense in endangering us.
Actually, the really nice part about inducing is that you know when you’re going in. You aren’t caught unawares at 3 in the morning without a shower. You don’t have to call a sitter and hope they can be there in the next 10 minutes.
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| Before changing and heading to the delivery room for induction |
We were able to prepare the kids for what was happening the previous day. We told them that we’d drop them off at school and then we’d go have the baby. We told them who would be picking them up and that we hoped they could come see the baby after school. I think this made the adjustment much easier for them, as they didn’t just wake up without us home.
So we dropped the kids off at their school about 8:45, grabbed some breakfast for Brandon, and then went in for a check up at 9:10. They said at this point I had already dilated to a three (it had been a zero the week before) and the baby had started to descend. They checked me in, got my IV inserted (after 6 TRIES) and then took me to the delivery room where they started to administer the pitocin at 11:10.
It was the weirdest thing - at noon they brought me lunch. I was sitting in a delivery room, being administered pitocin, weathering fairly regular contractions, eating lunch, I was shocked. When I shared with them that in the U.S. you only get ice chips, they were shocked. They said, “how would you have the energy to deliver a baby if you didn’t eat???”
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| Awkward couple photo the year - after lunch |
Haha, finally some reason! (Side note - I think the real reason is that they don’t get anesthesia in Japan. An epidural isn’t an option and, even if you ended up needing an emergency c-section they will only use local anesthesia. So there is no risk of you needing it and then throwing up.)
Anyway, so I ate my lunch and my water broke around 1:30. Around 3:15 they said, “you’re a six and you’re going to deliver soon, so you should get up and use the restroom. You can go after this next contraction.”
The next contraction came and my back started hurting. They said I shouldn’t get up, had the doctor check again, and I was a 7. That was when the contractions really started hurting. I started feeling like I should push and they said I needed to wait because I was only at an 8. By 3:44 they said I was fully dilated and should push. I started pushing and Uriah Scout entered the world a mere 7 minutes later at 3:51.
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| Moments after he was born - they laid him on me as they cleaned him up |
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| We spent the first two hours of his life in this room then headed back to the shared room to start our stay |
But the beautiful thing about birth is that when it’s over you have the best reward. Yes, you have a recovery and many, many sleepless nights ahead of you, but you also have a baby that you worked so hard to make over the last nine months.
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