This piece appeared on babylovenetwork.com, with the title ‘Memories of My First Time’.
As my due date draws closer, I’m getting more and more anxious…lol…was telling a friend of mine how you can visualize the impending pain, but there’s nothing you can do about it. You really look forward to holding baby in your arms, but the process? Not so much J
Last time with Tumiso, or miss T – as she’s popularly known as, around the Mathenge household – I went in for an elective induction…PS…nobody prepares you enough for what that really means. It’s such memories that make me say this: if our men knew half the pain we go through during child birth, they’d wait on us hand and foot eeevvvery day for the rest of our lives! J
So, here are memories of my first time; what happened during the delivery of my first angel:
I checked into the hospital on the night of September 31st, 2006 for my elective induction, and the nurses proceeded to give me a tablet induction at around 11 pm. They estimated that I’d be giving birth at around 7am. I told my husband to go home, catch some shut eye and be back at around 6 in the morning, because “I gat this!” After all, I’m a strong woman, right??
At this time, all I was feeling were some mere cramps. I thought to myself…”my labor is a walk in the park!!”
In a nearby room, I could hear a lady screaming her lungs out. I thought, “How much decorum can one lose? Like seriously?” I was soon to swallow my own words…
My sweet nurse indulged me by answering every time I buzzed for her; “Nurse I need this, nurse I need that.” Oh, the needy first time mum I was!…but she was kind, and helped me through what I thought was my labor. The night was not going too bad, and neither was the nurse…I thought.
By 6 am, they proceeded to give me a 2nd tablet, as I had hardly dilated. All of a sudden, I felt shock waves electrify belly. Nothing could’ve prepared me for this feeling. The room was literally spinning, and I thought something was going terribly wrong. “This cannot be normal!! I need help!” I thought to myself. “Now you’re in labor,” my nurse told me. Yea…the lady I heard screaming the previous night, she had nothing on me when it came to my turn to scream and yell.
The thing about induced labor, or at least my experience of it, is that you have very short moments in-between contractions. So whatever you learn during lamas, just does not apply. No time to take walks, sit on balls…and the breathing exercise? The hi-hi-huuuu? Yea….that doesn’t apply at aaaallll.
At some point, I managed to call my hubby, who being a first time dad as well, began to panic. Later on, he tells me I was calling him every 3 minutes, but when you’re in labor, 3 minutes feels like a 30!
No words can describe how intense that feeling is; and decorum?? Not the thing on your mind at that point in time. I thank God that my labor was however not long – about 2 hours, but of course it felt like forever. I have flashes of recollection of the details; like I remember literally hanging on my hubby’s dreadlocks, breathing in some oxygen… (lol! at one point we were both screaming in pain! Hehehe!) That really wasn’t helping, sitting on some stool that’s supposed to relieve pain…(note the use of the word “supposed”) and walking around the corridors looking for the delivery room…coz this baby’s gotta come like nowwwwww!! Once I went in, it luckily took me two pushes, and my precious Tumiso Nyakwea Mathenge was born.
I cradled her in my arms with such adoration. I cried tears of joy. I was overwhelmed with emotions. “This is the little girl who’s been growing inside me for 9 months. And suddenly, the pain was gone… I assessed each part of her sweet little 3.4 kg body…counted her fingers and toes…ooohhh….just the memories of that special moment is bringing tears to my eyes as I write this.
These are the things that make you know, there is God. That from nothing, a life is formed and placed in your womb, and only by the grace of God is that life sustained and brought into the world.
At the end of the day, it was all worth it. So first time moms, don’t be alarmed. It is God’s ordained way of bringing forth life.
Well, that’s the story of my first round. I would really love to hear yours. Please join babylovenetwork and share your experience, photos, videos – anything to get me some company as I anxiously wait to see what my round two will bring forth in a few weeks’ time.
– BabyLoveNetwork
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