Here is a few more pics of our little boy, Daniel.
He is doing fine in ICU and the doctors are very happy with his progress.
Now that things have calmed down a bit, I can think more clearly and recap on the events that happened when Chantal suddenly went into labour.
I arrived early at hospital Friday morning, 06/02/09 at 07:02am to check if she was fine. She had some pains but asked me not rub as it was painful.
The doctor arrived at 08:15am and went through the records of what happened the previous night and found that she's doing well and that it wont be necessary to do the Caesar as yet... It was then decided that it would be safer to keep baby inside mommy for as long as possible so that his lungs can be further developed.
Just before doctor was about to leave, she asked Chantal again if she is ok and Chantal mentioned that she had some backpains and a feeling of heaviness..
At 08:23am, doctor decided to do a speculum test and I was asked to move out of the way... (I was not impressed.......)
I moved to the other side of the room with my laptop and continued writing on my blog and the curtains were closed.
Five seconds later, the assisting nurse opened the curtains and ran out of the room and Chantal was screaming.....I was dumbstruck...
The same test was performed the day before and there was no running and screaming involved!
I ran over to her side to hold her hand and I was shocked by what I saw..... Daniel's feet was already out!!! Can you imagine what went through my mind!!!!
The next thing I knew, I was holding Chantal down and keeping her legs open.. it was just the doctor and I in the room.. the other nurse alerted the ICU staff of the emergency... very clever of her I thought afterwards..
Chantal was in so much pain and I actually felt sorry for her as this was not what we had planned for all these months.
From day 1 a caesar was planned with an epidural for the pain.... now she finds herself having natural birth with no epidural and no one was prepared for it!!! unbelievable drama I tell you...!!
Chantal was struggling to push and baby's head was stuck.. for at least 2 minutes..... to me Daniel was completely lifeless and I thought that we had lost him already.... I felt extremely sad at the time but had to be strong for Chantal.. I begged her to push so that doctor could free his head (normally his head should come out first!!!).
I tried to keep Chantal down so that she could not see that he was not moving, because I knew she would panic.
Baby was finally out at 08:30am but there was no movement......................... then he opened his mouth and I was so relieved!! Doctor gave him a few pats on the bum but he didn't cry.. he's to strong to cry for something like that ;-))
The cord was cut (after 3 attempts) and baby was immediately rushed away with the Neonatal ICU team. Chantal didn't get a chance to see him and there was no chance to take any pics either... this happened so quickly that even the doctor didn't have time to change.. she delivered Daniel wearing her white pants and green top... My words just cant explain to you the adrenalin rush that we had in these few minutes....
After a while I had to drink some water and needed to get some fresh air... started to feel a bit faintish for a moment.. :-))
Chantal's first question was... "Is he alive??" and everyone said out loud "YES"! We were both relieved and happy that it was all over.
Her placenta was then removed and she had a few internal stitches. Later, Dr. R Dippenaar from ICU came over and said that Daniel has been stabilized and was doing well...
Mommy is producing enough milk to feed Daniel and he is sleeping at the moment....
Francois Willemburg
Freelance photographer
francois4photos@gmail.com
0736005135
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