Introducing Juliet Fern (including her birth story)!

Sooooooo a lot has happened since I last posted. We are now a family of 4, complete with a perfect set of boy and girl offspring. Juliet Fern was born on July 21 at 2:06 AM, weighing 5 lbs 14 oz and measuring 18.9 inches. According to my Thai due date (based on last menstrual period) I was 39 weeks, 2 days. According to my US due date based on my 10 week measurement scan, baby girl was actually born on her due date. So, somewhere between 39-40 weeks. 

Here's how it went down: Last Thursday I moved down to a serviced apartment near Bumrungrad Hospital. Our house is located 12 miles north of Bangkok and depending on traffic (which is notoriously terrible here), it can take a long time to get to the hospital. Add in the fact that after hours we'd have to get our driver to come to our house to pick us up, I was anxious that once labor got started, I'd be stuck in a car for 1.5+ hours and possibly end up delivering on the side of the road. 

Soooo game plan was that after my 39 week appointment, I'd move downtown and Forest and Jonathan would join me on Friday. 

A rare night to myself! Girly TV and Chamomile Tea. 

39 week bump

Our driver brought Forest to me Friday morning and we had a great last day together, just the two of us. We hung out at the grand opening at Bambini Villa (a little shopping center/playground that caters to toddlers/preschoolers). 

soaking in sweet time with Forest before baby

My parents were set to arrive on Saturday morning, which they did with a pretty smooth journey (as smooth as a 25 hour journey can go, at least). 

We took them to The Grand Palace but when I got there it was very hot and very crowded and I just felt very pregnant. When they told us the boys would have to rent pants and long sleeves we decided to nix those plans and just go to lunch. 

That afternoon those of us jet lagging and growing babies took naps while Jonathan took Forest to the hotel pool. That night we had plans to go to our hotel's rooftop restaurant, Above 11. 

Nana didn't make it as she was too exhausted but we had a nice 'Peruvian Japanese' meal. I just think that's hilariously random. Peruvian Japanese? What does that even mean? IDK but we enjoyed our Pisco Sours and Sushi. 

We left the restaurant around 7:30, put Forest to bed and tucked ourselves in around 8:30. I was having back cramps and contractions, but I mentioned I'd been having prodromal labor for weeks so I'd learned to just ignore these rather benign labor signs. But then I felt a little pop inside and then started to gush some fluid. I hopped up in a nanosecond, said 'I think my water just broke!' which got Jonathan also up in a nanosecond. 

Sure enough I continued to gush out some fluid and then the contractions started...The real contractions. And they were intense and very close together. We called my dad who came up to our room to stay with Forest while we frantically gathered last minute hospital bag items and Jonathan went down to get a cab lined up. The cab ride took about 2 minutes. I was so grateful we were downtown! (Though I was secretly hoping our cab would be a TukTuk just so I could say I was in labor in a TukTuk). 

I was instructed that if I went into labor at night, to go first to the emergency room. They got me in right away and put me in a bed next to a guy with a foot infection. Very sanitary! They hooked me up to a monitor, saw my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and topping the scales. They did a cervical check and I was.... 2 cm. Womp Womp. But since my contractions were clearly so strong and close, they went ahead and admitted me to labor and delivery. They put me in a monitoring room where another nurse confirmed I was 2 cm. She also said she didn't think my water broke. Even though there was a literal puddle on the floor in the room and I had filled up a menstrual pad with fluid. 

IDK, maybe I was just leaking and it didn't completely break.  Or maybe there was a language barrier. The whole experience of delivering in Thailand was top notch but the language barrier was a definite annoyance after a while (my fault for not knowing Thai). 

Bottom line is contractions at 2 cm. Topping the charts and 2-3 minutes apart. 

They went ahead and called my doctor to come in. The nurse said to try to wait until 4-5 cm for the epidural but I could have it anytime I wanted. Like, say the word and I would have it within 20 minutes. I was feeling like a weenie for wanting it already, but decided to tough it out until 4 cm. They came to check me 2 hours later (2.5 hours from my water breaking) and I was a 3. It was very discouraging, but I labored on. 

After 30 more minutes I asked for the epidural and I was 4. Yay! And this is where things went south. For some reason the epidural took FOREVER to insert. So I was hunched in a ball for 15 minutes, instructed to stay completely still, all while having minute-long contractions every 3 minutes. It was tough. But the toughest part was everyone speaking Thai in hurried voices and me not having any idea what was going on. 

They eventually got everything set up, and I instantly started shaking uncontrollably and breaking out in a cold sweat and was miserably nauseated. I'd rather be a 10 on the pain scale than puke my guts up so I was feeling like I'd made a bad trade. 

I asked for a cold rag and they just stared at me blankly having no idea what I was asking for. Finally Jon got my point across and they gave me a cool rag and put anti-nausea meds in my IV. They also gave me something to stop the shaking, but that made me itchy all over. So that took some time to figure out. But then I had sweet relief for about 45 minutes (4 hours after water breaking). 

Then suddenly I start feeling contractions again, hard core. I told Jonathan who called the nurses, doctor and anesthesiologist in. I was numb on the outside but completely feeling everything internally. At this point I was 8 cm and the contractions were almost continuous. The anesthesiologist tried to get me some relief but from there I went from 8-10 in a heartbeat. My doctor asked me if I wanted to push to which I retorted: 'You're the doctor. Is it time to push?' She said yes and said 'take deep breaths between contractions' to which I retorted 'There doesn't feel like a break. It's like one continuous contraction.' She laughed. Ha. But I was able to catch a breath in the 10 seconds of relief between contractions, and for the next 10 minutes or so I pushed with all my might. I just wanted the constant excruciating pain to end! 

I could feel the baby moving out, but luckily that part of me was numb so I didn't feel any tearing or pain in my nether regions. It was such a relief to birth her and I have to say, I feel like there was more of an emotional bonding right away versus with Forest where I was completely numb from a spinal block. 

Never is a woman more photogenic than 60 seconds after giving birth. My doctor was stitching me up during this photo. LOL!

Water breaking to delivery was right at 5 hours. Timing couldn't have been better with my parents arriving in the knick of time, water breaking at a low traffic time and us being just a short cab ride away from the hospital. I'm so glad we were next to the hospital and our stay downtown was only a few days! 

Juliet remained alert and awake for several hours after the birth. It was tough to not get any sleep the night before and then have her be so wide awake, but Forest was the same so I was prepared for it and running on adrenaline. 

Around 7 am I got her to doze off for a nap and ever since she's gotten the hang of the sleep thing. 

I'm knocking on all the wood and trying not to talk about fight club, but the nurses at the hospital nicknamed her 'sleepy girl' (versus Forest who the nurses could hear bellowing from down the hall). 

The recovery process was so much different than what I experienced in Scotland. It was like comparing a hostel to the Ritz. Instead of getting to know my new baby and trying to nurse in a room with 5 other women in the same situation, I had a private suite with a large bathroom, kitchenette, and a twin sofa/bed for guests to lounge on. And there were no archaic visiting hours. 

My mom showed up at 4 am the morning of her birth to relieve Jonathan so he could dash back to the hotel for some rest (another perk of having a hotel room near the hospital!). 

Resting at the hospital was tough during the day because I felt like there were constant interruptions for me and Juliet, but nighttime was actually fine. Again, girl likes her sleep so we are getting along just fine. 

Unfortunately, she's not as crazy about eating and with her low birth weight we have to really try to get her to take bigger feedings. 

But nursing is like a tranquilizer dart for her. She'll be bright eyed and ready to rumble but as soon as she starts nursing her eyes flutter closed and she's out cold within minutes. 

This has caused a poor latch and some breast feeding issues for momma.  A week later we are making some better progress. She's putting on a little weight (still a loss overall from birth weight, about 5 lb 6 oz as of Saturday). 

She needed up being readmitted to the hospital for jaundice on Friday, but that's another cultural sort of post for another day... I hope that sometime in the next week I'll get around to blogging about her first week, her hospital stint and her name story. Stay tuned!