As most of you already know, our baby was due on 22 March. However, that day came and went without any signs of baby. Apparently, the little one loved the thought of being kept in a warm, nice and cosy environment with constant food supply and no worries in the world. However, as every 6"7'/203 cm tall person who's flown economy class to the other side of the world knows, there comes a time when one wants to get out and stretch one's legs a bit. Thus it was that on Tuesday 26 March, after Anna had just been to the hospital to book in an induction of labour on 1 April, that baby decided to make a move. When I say move, it wasn't like in the movies where the water breaks, the woman lies down, boiling water and clean towels are hastily procured, the woman screams and pants for a few seconds (more if it's an art house movie), baby pops out and is held up with the announcement "It's a boy/girl!", and the new parents look deep into each other's eyes and smile, with violins playing in the background. Instead, it started with almost 48 hours of irregular contractions, which made sleeping a bit hard, especially for the one of us having the contractions. It was also quite disheartening hearing from the midwife that labour had in all likelihood not even properly started yet, and that the early phase of labour could go on up to a week. In the end, they asked us to come in to the hospital to check that baby was alright. Baby was right as rain, and in fact already on its way out. So there was nothing more than to go up to the birthing suite and get it over with (in fact, I didn't have time to go and fetch our carefully planned hospital bag from the car). I won't go into any details regarding the labour process. As they say, what goes on in in the birthing suite stays in the birthing suite. However, I will make the following observations: firstly, Anna was a super woman, definitely worthy of a Marvel Comics series in her name. Secondly, and as Anna had already been told by her very Russian prenatal physiotherapist: zey don' call it labour for nozing. Finally, many people say that a coming down with a man flu is equivalent to giving birth, but honestly, I must say that I've now started to have my doubts.
Anyway, all's well that ends well, and for us everything ended really well, and at 11:20 pm on 28 March, we ended up as parents of a beautiful daughter of 3.8 kgs going by the name of Emily Leuchowius. We're all good, but are increadibly tired (especially Anna) after having gone through three sleepless nights (better get used to it, I guess!). We're also very happy and excited about our new family member. You'll hear more about her in time, but I now need to get some sleep.
love,
K
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| Cosy tummy / the calm before the storm |
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| Tired but proud parents, approximately 1.5h after the birth |
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| Somewhat heavier than expected |
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| Noooo, I want to go back! It's all cold and strange, and somebody's put a weird plastic thingy on my tummy! I didn't ask for any of this! |
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| Well, if I can't go back into mummy's tummy, I think I can be content if at least I get to sleep on it. |
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| I'm quite comfy sleeping in my gender neutral-coloured outfit. I have also tested my finger nails on my cheek by now, and have found them to be of satisfying sharpness. |
