Caleb Birth Story

So Caleb's Birth Story...that's definitely is a STORY. They say labor goes quicker with your second child and Jackie can definitely attest to that. Brooklyn's labor took 10-11 hours so they said Jackie's second would be around 5-6 hours most likely. Due to this we were to call the midwife as soon as the contractions reached 5 minutes apart and not until they were 5 minutes apart for an entire hour. 

Brooklyn was born 3 days after her due date. Jackie began to see signs of labor the day before the due date when she lost her mucus plug. Jackie was experiencing a lot of water retention and bloating. Jackie was very uncomfortable and ready to finally see their baby girl. With Brooklyn 20 months earlier from present day, Jackie had contractions start the day after the due date that got as close to 6 minutes apart but they slowed down and were erratic around 15 minutes apart for the next night and throughout the day. She tried to rest but it was difficult. Around midnight going into the day Brooklyn was born, real labor began. 

Jackie's parents arrived in Amsterdam Sunday morning around 8:30am. Joe picked them up from the airport. We went to bed Sunday night sometime between 10 and 11. Joe was off to work in the morning since it was Monday and Jackie was trying to think of a fun indoor activity we could do with Brooklyn and her grandparents without a car on the rainy Monday. Around midnight Jackie woke up with a lot of pressure to pee like she does most nights over the last few weeks of the pregnancy. 30 minutes later she had that feeling again. 30 minutes later again. Mmm that's different. Soon she was waking up every 20 minutes and then closer the pressure started happening every 15 minutes and she could no longer sleep in between. Around 4am she started really timing the contractions starting at 9 minutes apart. By 5am Jackie let Joe know her contractions were 7 minutes apart. He got up to take a shower since it was looking like go time soon. While we waited for them to become 5 minutes apart so we could call the midwife, Joe turned on the replay broadcast of Game 7 of the NBA Championship Finals where the Cleveland Cavaliers finally won and knocked down last year's Champs, Golden State.

8:25am Jackie called with a 5 minute contraction time. The midwife on call was busy with another birth so she had to call in someone on their day off. Since she had slower 7-10 minute contractions before that she suggested Jackie take a bath to see if labor would truly progress. Jackie was nice and relaxed in the tub. Joe asked if she had been timing contractions. She said no because they felt further apart and less painful. She told Joe how many she had since getting in and they ended up being 5-6 minutes apart. By 9am the contractions were real strong and close. At 9:04 they called the midwife again to say labor seems to be progressing and they should come check on us soon.
Around 9:10, Jackie's water broke in the bathtub and that's when it became real! She quickly stood up mid-contraction. At 9:14 Joe called the midwife to the urgent news. Contractions were now very intense and 2 minutes apart. Joe helped Jackie waddle to the toilet. She was in too much pain to truly dress herself. She got on a nursing camisole and pulled her hair back. Joe helped her to bed to wait on the midwife to check her even though she could feel intense pressure like she felt when she was at least 8cm dilated with Brooklyn.

The midwife arrived within about 10 minutes. Leni, the midwife, does a check and says Jackie is 10cm dilated. She starts prepping things on the bed to get ready. No time to head to the hospital as we had previously planned. Joe does ask and gets a very telling look from Leni that yes we will be staying here and having a home birth!
Around 9:30, Jackie began pushing. It was obvious she was scared to push hard and deliver the baby. Joe helped coach her to hold her breath while she pushed. Leni bluntly told her to push threw the burning sensation as the head crowns and hold it there in between contractions. Jackie pushed for 25 minutes and he was out at 9:55! He was already crying before his full body had made it out.

At 10am Jackie delivered the placenta. Her bloodloss was 100cc, which is way better than the 800cc she lost with Brooklyn. Jackie stayed overnight in the hospital because her body went into shakes when she tried to walk with help to the bathroom. Jackie had a second degree episiotomy with Brooklyn. Jackie had a minor tear in the same location this time that required 2 stitches after delivery this time. 

Meanwhile downstairs Jackie's parents had taken Brooklyn to the park to play while we called the midwife and took a bath. After the midwife arrived, they saw Joe run downstairs for our to go bag with our paperwork, etc so they just thought we were preparing to leave for the hospital as we had previously planned. Grandma was shocked and excited when they heard his baby cries upstairs!

Midwife on call was busy with another labor which apparently only happens a few times a year. So it was an unplanned home birth, but we are extremely happy with the whole experience. It all went so quick.It used to be 60% of births in the Netherlands happened at home. Today the statistics at our midwife's practice is closer to 20% opt for a home birth or have a fast delivery like in our case where it is necessary. We always knew home birth was a possibility, but we were more open to the idea after having one child already. We still wanted a hospital birth in case something went wrong. With the way Jackie's labor was with Brooklyn, we knew if she needed that extra care, we were already there.

It was really nice to know Brooklyn was downstairs with Jackie's parents playing just fine with no clue her baby brother was about to be born. Jackie had horrible visions of her hearing mommy scream in agony or having traumatizing visions of blood everywhere or something. It was great to already be home and get to sleep in our own comfortable bed & shower right away. It was a way more relaxing, intimate, & natural birth experience. It still feels surreal.

Brooklyn meeting Caleb, our new addition to the Liang Family, as of 25 minutes ago!

Happy mom and big sister

Kisses

Happy mommy

A little behind the meaning of our name choice. With Brooklyn the name had a lot of significance for us. Joe proposed marriage in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge in 2006. The origin of the name for the area called Brooklyn is after a Dutch town, Breukelen, just south of Amsterdam. (Much of New York has Dutch town name origins: New Amsterdam, Haarlem, Rotterdam, etc). We loved that our daughter, born in the Netherlands, would have Dutch ties to her name. We always had a hard time with boy names. We never had a backup picked out in case they were wrong and Brooklyn turned out to be a boy. We both agreed we like the name Caleb about halfway through the pregnancy. We would call Jackie's belly by name to see if it fit, seemed appropriate, etc. Well around 8 months pregnant, Brooklyn knew to point to Jackie's belly when we asked her where the baby was. Now if we asked her where Caleb was, she pointed to my belly! Looks like the name has stuck! Caleb it is. We had always agreed that with a boy, we would have his middle name be Joe's father's last name, Dai. Brooklyn's middle name, Grace has Christian meaning. Caleb means follower; faithful, devotion, whole hearted, bold, brave.  In the Old Testament, Caleb is a leader of the Israelites, one of those sent by Moses to scout out the land in the second year after the Exodus. He and Joshua were the only people over the age of twenty to enter the Promised Land.

Brooklyn’s Birth Story

October 6, 2014

This post may be a little graphic and too much information for some so please don’t bother reading if you don’t want to know the true gory details of Brooklyn’s birth.

Our baby was due Friday October 3. Jackie spent the week leading up to D-Day taking long walks with their dog Chance and staying as active as possible.

She went to the fabric store on Thursday to buy supplies to make the crib bedskirt, hoping that making the plans would be enough to convince baby girl it was time to come. 

On Thursday Jackie believed she began to lose her mucus plug since she saw some pink when she wiped which at least meant some progress was happening but it still could be days before the baby came.

Contractions began Saturday night and got as close as 6 minutes apart. Jackie called the midwife to give them a heads up. They said to wait it out and see if they get closer to 4-5 minutes apart for an hour. Unfortunately they started to slow. They became more erratic and 15 minutes apart. No go on baby Saturday night. Jackie probably only was able to get 4 solid hours of sleep Saturday night.

The midwife called Sunday morning to make sure we were still okay. By then the contractions were still coming but were every 15-20 minutes but remained more intense and consistent. We spent Sunday watching Band of Brothers after revigorating our interest after all the Remember September events in Eindhoven surrounding Operation Market Garden. It was a nice distraction during the contractions and waiting.

Sunday night the contractions started to get stronger. They were about 10-15 minutes apart. We went up to bed around 10pm hoping to get some sleep. Jackie sat on her exercise medicine ball leaning her head over on the side of the bed while timing the contractions. They were still 10-15 minutes apart so around 11pm she decided to get into bed and try to get some sleep through them. Every 15 minutes she was awake for each contraction. They were now strong enough to no longer sleep through. At midnight she got up to use the bathroom. This is when she truly saw the bloodly show with the mucus plug release. As soon as she finished wiping, the contractions picked up. She brought the medicine ball into the bathroom (so Joe could keep sleeping) and leaned over the bathtub while timing the contractions. Within that hour they were now 4.5 minutes apart! Time to call the midwife!

Jackie made the call and the midwife on call that night was at Maxima hospital delivering another patients baby. She said she would be to the house in about an hour to check on my progress. She arrived at the house at 2:30am along with a midwife student finishing up her final year of studies. They checked me and said that I was 1 cm dilated. They suggested taking a bath and they would be back in 3 hours to check on my progress unless we notified them sooner that things seemed to be progressing quicker or if it was too much pain for Jackie. Jackie ate a snack and then got into the tub. Joe made sure the bags and car seat were ready to go. The bath was extremely relaxing and really helped alleviate some of the pressure of the contractions. The midwife came back 3 hours later and during the exam said that Jackie was 5 centimeters dilated and that it would be a good time to head to the hospital.

Joe dropped off Jackie at the hospital entrance and the midwife helped her into a wheelchair. We got the last room available at Maxima hospital in Veldhoven. Since there were so many deliveries going on, the kraamzorg nurse that does after birth care in the home for a week had to come to the hospital to help with the delivery. Jackie was very tired and would drift to sleep slightly in between the contractions. She felt very odd in the hospital. She felt like a lab rat on display with the midwife, the midwife student, the kraamzorg nurse and Joe all watching her breathe through each contraction knowing there wasn’t much they could do to help her but tell her to relax. Around 8am they checked Jackie and she was 6cm dilated. They decided to break her water to help speed up the delivery. At 9:45am Jackie was 8cm. This is when the contractions began to be really painful. Jackie was managing the pain well with relaxation breathing. During each contraction she would focus on it as a rush of energy like an ocean wave rushing over her waiting for her. She would envision herself anxiously waiting for the peak of the ocean wave to arrive at the height of the contraction and then ride it back to shore as the contraction lessened. It was a very calming vision for her. As she became further dilated, closer to being able to push the pain became more extreme. Joe offered his hand for her to hold for support. He played our song that we danced to at our wedding (“You and Me” by Lifehouse).

Joe was incredibly nice the entire time and was strong support system for Jackie.

The last few contractions before Jackie was fully dilated at 10cm were the hardest. She felt the urge to push badly.

When it was finally time to push she wasn’t very effective. Joe had to remind her during pushing to keep her chin down on her chest, keep her eyes open and hold in each breath while she pushed. After 32 hours of relaxation breathing it was hard for her to switch for slowly releasing air to holding it. It is not like pooping like they say. That push you don’t have to worry about tensing your other muscles and closing your eyes, but in labor you do so you don’t waste any unnecessary energy or risk having bloodshot eyes afterwards.

After each push the midwife would use the doppler to monitor the baby girl’s heartbeat. It was extremely hot during the pushing. The bright lights over the exam bed were really warm. Between each push Joe would put a new wet cloth on the forehead and chest to help cool her down.

Jackie’s contractions had started to spread further and further apart and she was getting extremely tired from pushing. The midwife suggested to bring in a doctor after an hour of pushing. That motivated Jackie to push with everything she had to get her little girl out of the birth canal. We were worried they were going to decide we had to do a C-section. By the time the doctor was in the room they said they could see the hair on her head.

The doctor placed in an IV to administer the pictocin which emulates oxycotin to induce labor and keep the contractions coming steadily. The doctor listened more continuously to the baby’s heartbeat through a different monitor once the drugs were administered to make sure the baby wasn’t distressed.
The doctor numbed Jackie and then cut her.

Brooklyn Grace Liang was born at 12:53pm. 

They immediately put her on Jackie’s belly. We couldn’t have been more proud to meet this little girl. 

At that moment it didn’t matter that Jackie had to have an episiotomy (2nd degree), our baby girl was safely out and healthy. 

Joe cut the umbilical cord.

One more small push and the placenta was delivered. They asked us if we wanted to see it. We really didn’t but they made it seem odd that we didn’t so Jackie agreed. They then asked if we were planning to keep the placenta. I guess that is the norm in the Netherlands…

The stitches of the skin and muscle afterwards were extremely painful.

If it hadn’t been for this beautiful angel in Jackie’s arms, she might have been crying too from the pain. 

We are In love already 

She immediately began to latch and suck when placed properly on Jackie’s chest by her boob. 

Brooklyn weighed 3460 grams (that is 7lb 10oz in “American”) 

We estimated a few days after her birth that she was 19.5 inches long. 

Daddy and his girl 

Brooklyn dressed and snuggly 

We had the duck there from our birthing class to remind Joe to be nice. 

While Joe was at home letting Chance out and giving her some breakfast, Jackie got some sleepy snuggles with Brooklyn.

Brooklyn with her hands around her face just like in all our ultrasound sessions 

Brooklyn in her carseat ready to leave the hospital room. 

Brooklyn in the car, ready to come home.

We made it home with our precious cargo.

There is a HUGE perk to having a baby while living in the Netherlands. Mothers are entitled to an after-care program, a kraamzorg, who is a maternity nurse who visits the home daily to look after the baby, provide practical advice if needed and help with the general house chores. Our insurance covers the kraamzorg’s help care for mom and baby and her basic cleaning and laundry. We refer to her as Joe's new best friend.

Joke, our kraamzorg was at the hospital for the birth to assist since all the nursing staff were busy with other maternity room births. We did not realize at the time that she would be the same one coming to our house for the next week.

Joke told Jackie to stay on the first floor for the first few days and to avoid taking the stairs since the pelvis bones had been through so much. Joke brought breakfast and lunch to her each day. Joe handled dinner duty. She watched the baby so Jackie could shower each day. She showed us how to bathe Brooklyn. She vacuumed every other day. She did all the laundry. She changed the bedding every other day while Jackie showered. She ironed the sheets. Yes let me say that again. SHE IRONED THE SHEETS! Craziness. Who irons sheets?! We told her she didn’t need to but she said she needed something to do since everything was going so well with Brooklyn and momma.

One other perk to having babies in the Netherlands is a maternity leave of 16 weeks. Mothers are required to stop working 4 weeks prior to their due date.

Breastfeeding is going great so far. My milk has already come in and she is going a good job latching, sucking and swallowing.