We were there 16 days before the birth and five days after. We were incredibly blessed with a free place to stay that was a five minute drive from the private hospital where we would deliver. It was a comfortable apartment on one level of a large family home of a friend of ours that lives in Greece. His parents and brothers and their families, who lived on the other floors, were very kind and helpful and it was a great situation. When we arrived, my first doctor's appointment showed the baby in a very low position and 2 cm dilation and the doctor said not to go far, that we could have a baby any day. So we passed our waiting days mostly inside in the ac to escape the awful Tirana heat and we spent a lot of time playing with Annaliese and working on puzzles together. I know, we're kind of wild. We also went out walking at shopping centers and Annaliese got in several indoor play places. One day we took the gondola up the mountain for a beautiful view of Tirana. We went for walks in the evenings and went out for Chinese food and ice cream. It was a quiet, special time together as a family of only three.
Finally the day came. On Monday, September 14, I woke early and got busy cleaning the house and preparing for our friend Nertila to come stay with us. She would keep Annaliese at baby-time. We had our normal morning otherwise, and got ready to go to the hospital for a 9:00 appointment. I felt no change and no pain and expected to have a conversation about inducing by Friday when my parents would arrive, if labor hadn't begun before then. Traffic was crazy, we assumed it was because it was the first day of school in Albania. We took a back road that we thought would miss traffic and instead got stuck in worse traffic and got rear-ended. We were all fine, thankfully! Our hitch did some damage to the other car and protected ours. Finally, we made it. We were staying a six minute walk from the hospital and it took us over half an hour to drive that day.
At the appointment, Dr. Anton said I was certainly dilated more than the last check two weeks before. I measured 3 to 4 cm and the ultrasound showed the baby incredibly low. He expected a very quick labor once it began and advised me to stay that day and induce labor instead of leaving and waiting for labor pains to begin and run the risk of a very chaotic labor and delivery. The traffic we experienced that morning was fresh in my mind and I didn't feel good about a road-side delivery in sight of the hospital. We decided that we would return for induction in the afternoon after Nertila had arrived.
We returned home and I made sure I had everything ready, prepared some notes for taking care of Annaliese, did some research about induction methods, had lunch, and put Annaliese down for her nap. I explained that Daddy had gone to pick up Nertila and she would be there after she woke from naptime. I told Annaliese that it was really time for us to go to the hospital to have the baby now and after the baby was born she would come visit us there. She loves Nertila and was excited and went down for her nap super easily. I had some great quiet time to myself until Kenny returned from the bus station with Nertila. We gave her a quick run-through of things and headed off.
As we pulled up and parked by the sign "urgjenca" we noticed how strange it seemed to go to the hospital with no labor pains, no urgency. It was polar opposite our first birth experience. We even stopped outside and took a final pregnancy photo. The time was 2:30.
By 2:45 I was admitted to the room where we would deliver and by 3:30 I was hooked up to a heart and contraction monitor to assess the situation. The nurse checked and said I was dilated to six and I was absolutely shocked and amazed because I had had no pain. The doctor came in and saw that I was contracting every several minutes and we decided to check again after half an hour to see if that continued. We settled in and actually started playing cribbage. I played standing so I could stretch and move around to try and keep the contractions going. I began to feel the cramping coming and going, but it wasn't painful. The next check he asked if I would like the waters broken and said things would probably happen very quickly after that. I was a little shocked still because I had only begun feeling any pain at all and decided to wait and see what moving around more could do. We continued our card game with me moving and stretching. The contractions started coming every couple of minutes and started to really hurt - had to quit playing, which was unfortunate because I was doing great and was set to skunk Kenny. Doctor checked me again and because I wasn't particularly enjoying the contractions, I decided to have my water broken and really get things going. He broke my water at about 4:45.
The contractions intensified and I got the greatest relief when I stood and leaned over the end of the bed and swung each foot. The next check i was at 7-8 and the doctor suggested I stay in the bed. I didn't really want to, but I didn't feel able to get up again because of the nearly constant pain. The nurses prepared the room for delivery. At 5:45 they said I should begin pushing, which confused me because I wasn't to 10 yet, but the doctor said because the baby was so low, pushing would bring the baby to crowning. The pushing phase was four-ish contraction rounds of three or four pushes. But to me it felt constant and I struggled. I held Kenny's hand on the right and a wonderful older nurse named Shpresa (Hope) was on my left. The doctor did an episiotomy and with a few last pushes our baby girl arrived at 6:10. She weighed 7.5 pounds and was 19 & 5/8ths inches.
I opened my eyes to our very purple baby with lots of dark hair on my chest and for a while felt nothing else. She gave a small cry and I bawled because it had hurt so much and it was over....relief. I was worried because she didn't cry much at all, but they assured me she was perfectly fine. They wiped her down and gave her back and I held her while they stitched me. That was not fun at all and seemingly took forever. They took her to weigh and clean her up and such and when she returned, we took our first try at nursing. We were moved into our recovery room around 8:00 and got busy announcing the arrival of Faith Josephine to family and friends.
Faith didn't show much interest in nursing, only sleeping, and I was very stressed out and concerned. The hospital staff assured me it would be alright and she was fine for a while and there was no need to worry yet. Kenny tried to encourage me also. Finally Tuesday afternoon a nurse that seemed very determined to help us figure out nursing succeeded and we had our first real feeding at about 21 hours old and Faith hasn't looked back. She has mostly latched and fed well since. She doesn't cry much at all and seems to be a very content newborn.
Nertila brought Annaliese for a visit on Tuesday morning. The timing was very unfortunate as the chief of the hospital happened to be visiting and checking things. Children under age four aren't actually allowed on the floor, but we snuck Annaliese in for a short visit before the chief stopped in. Annaliese was excited and immediately climbed up on a stool beside the cradle to see her sister up close. She said, "Baby awake!," baby's hat," "baby needs a diaper changed," "hold baby?" It was incredibly sweet. I held them together and Annaliese smiled happily and closely studied her little sister. I spent a few minutes outside in the waiting area with her and Nertila. Annaliese suddenly seemed so big and independent and so talkative. She was enjoying her time with Nertila and everything was ok - no reason for mommy-guilt! I had been so worried about having the baby before someone from Korca could arrive to keep Annaliese and her having to stay with someone unfamiliar. Every plan we tried to make had fallen through and I had had to surrender to trust in God's timing. I should know better and save myself the stress and surrender first! Nertila's arrival and the baby's arrival were at the perfect time and she was the perfect person to come and keep Annaliese. I'm so thankful she could!
We were set to go home Wednesday afternoon, but since Annaliese seemed to be doing so well and the hospital stay had been excellent, we decided to go ahead and stay in the hospital the third night that is included in our pay package. When it's a busy baby season, the rooms are double, but there must have been a lull and we were able to have our own room. Had we been sharing, we'd probably been in a big hurry to leave. Kenny staying with me to help made for a precious three days focused completely on Faith. Her birth and first few days were a beautiful experience and we're immeasurably grateful for the gift of Faith Josephine.
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