The birth experience

So I had my son on the 12th… the past 2 blog posts were “scheduled out” pre-birth, and I accidentally scheduled them for May … mostly I’ve just been sleeping

All of my “granola intentions” were mostly just that intentions.  We ended up inducing, which meant that at a certain point my contractions were so strong I couldn’t focus anymore, but my body wasn’t at the point of delivery— let’s just say I had another 4+ hours after that point, so I opted for the epidural.  My doctor actually had another woman giving birth at the same time as me, so the midwife was running back and forth between the two rooms, and at a certain point after the epidural, a doctor came and sat with me for what seemed like an hour just with her hand on my stomach monitoring my contractions— it was soothing and nice to have someone just sit there with me, and I don’t if I would have expected that type of attention in the US.  She said she was surprised I lasted as long as I did without the epidural, and that I let it wear off once so I could get the contractions to kick in and help things move along.  From what my doc said, those who do parto normal in Brasil get the epidural’s early on in the process.

When it finally came time to deliver a nurse pushed me through the door (bumping the frame) down the hall (bumping over the door frame bumps on the floor) and into the surgery room. Then I had to scoot myself onto the table, as they adjusted my legs (strapped in) on the stirrups (twice), and tilted me downward.  I told the room that had I not opted for an epidural, at this point in time I would have wanted each and everyone of them dead.  Seriously, it would have been awful to be at this stage and being moved.

My husband wasn’t around for any of this, because well he had to be sent to a totally different floor to put on his surgery clothes.  And since he had brought his laptop bag and I a backpack with random “labor stuff” for the 9 hour labor, he had to also run all of that up to our room, as we were told we couldn’t just leave it in the pre-labor room.  He ran into the room as I was making the first push, and the anesthesiologist was pushing on my stomach.  I politely said “really do we have to push on my stomach?” and he walked away, so no big deal other than they tried to push my baby out for me.  They did cut me, and there were like 10-12 people in the room between 2 obgyns, midwife, nurses, anesthesiologist, and the pediatrician.

I got to hold the baby, then they took him to get cleaned and weighed, and then he was brought back a few minutes later to nurse and bond with me. After that I was told we would go upstairs and he to the nursery for the next 2 hours to do all of the “baby stuff” that comes after birth… which wasn’t the 4 I had been told, so that was nice.

Either way, I’ve have a wonderful, sweet little bundle of joy… finally!

Arrested!

We’ve made it a habit to hang out on Saturdays at Parque Ibirapuera.  My son loves it, and it’s a nice walk for me.  The other weekend (pre-baby) as we were leaving my son happened upon the Civil police van.  We often see these around Brasil, either Civil or Federal Police vans, with the cops just kind of standing around making sure the peace is kept.

I have a fear of cops. Period. US and well of course even more so in Brasil, due to stories like these that I’ve read and the fact that I don’t speak Portuguese great, my distrust of cops here is even worse than in the US.  Seriously my husband laughs at how afraid of police I am — I would shake when they pulled me over for tickets…before, during, and for like 30 minutes afterwards.

But not my kid, he hopped right up into the van, and one of the police officers (the female one of course), immediately came over and gave him a sweet little tour.

Contrary to the close up of his face, he was having a grand ole time.  However doesn’t it look like he’s gotten caught for doing something bad?

Famous Brasilians for you

We all know Gisele Bundchen, and if you don’t then you know her American Football playing husband Tom Brady… power couple right?  But if you’re an Iphone user you most likely have been using the Instagram app, and may have heard of the recent sale of Instagram to Facebook.

What you may not have read, but a friend of mine tipped me off to is there is a Brasilian connection there. Maybe if I read magazines in Brasil, I wouldn’t have missed the full spread they did on Mike Krieger.  The Veja article  in Portuguese.

Of course, if you’ve seen the movie The Social Network, you would know that the other founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin is Brasilian as well.

The Veja Article is an interesting read as it highlights a few of the technology geniuses that Brasil has claim to… in Google translate here. It’s funny, I’m just an expat, but I’ve gotta say I’ve got a bit of pride for all things a bit Brasilian.

Being Brasilian– finally

So I often joke my husband is Brasilian…he’s not he’s just really embraced some of the cultural things.  If our nanny (we don’t call her a baba as well my son calls his bottles babas so it would get rather confusing), is home for any reason she’s on the job in his mind.  Yeah so what, it’s a holiday, or a Saturday or what have you.  If she is here, he’s more than happy to hand off any and all work to her… in fact I worry what will happen when one day we are back in the US.

But I digress, one area that he is not Brasilian in is his cheapness when it comes to the baby.  My husband’s a finance guy, so this isn’t new news to me.  In fact, one of the first phrases I learned in Portuguese was “mão de vaca”  or in English, basically someone who is so tight fisted, their hand is really a hoof.  So when I posted about Brasilian baby traditions, like lembrancinhas and door signs, he said,

Let’s just write the kids name on a sheet of paper and slap it on the door.  And just don’t tell anyone we are at the hospital, then we won’t need lembrancinhas!

His co-workers (male of course), all agree with him (finance guys of course).  You think I exaggerate slightly on the hospital visitors thing, but the other day our nanny came home and said that one of my son’s park-playmate’s mothers indicated that she wants to meet me, and what better time than to visit me once the baby is born.  Yes, the first time I may or may not meet this women is right after giving birth!

So since my son decided that he didn’t want to come out on Wednesday (seriously it’s been a week now!), I decided that I needed to thoroughly nest, maybe that would make him realize it was time to say hi to everyone.  And that’s basically involved me putting together a door sign and a bunch of little lembracinhas… just in case.

For the record I am VERY VERY not crafty…. so I’m quite proud of the fact that I hand made something.  Oh and for all of you non Brasilians, no we are not naming our kid Muleke… my husband just really wants to have that up on the door– the name part is interchangeable.

Anyway, I’m off to part two of nesting,  continuing to spray down the load of whites with WD-40.  Yes, my son as a pre-pregnancy gift decided to drop in a blue crayon, and everything is covered in tiny blue specs…

Inducing labor in Brasil

There are many recommend methods for labor induction.

Considering there is a sex shop on every corner, Brasil should be able to help with spousal intimacy.

Long walks in the mall Brasil can help with that- hanging at the mall is somewhat of a pastime here.

Spicy food isn’t too big here, but they’ve got peppers a plenty.

Dancing enthusiastically- Brasilians love to dance, in fact I have been chastised more than once for not going dancing while here.

But you know what Brasil has to offer pregnant women the most?? Crappy streets.

Combined with the cheap shocks of my Honda Fit by the time I get to my doctors office the kid is practically shaken out.

In fact since we got here my contractions have been 5 minutes apart. I had to explain that I was totally fine BEFORE the ride over.

She said today is the day..if it’s not, I think my hubby and I have some driving in store.

funny stuff

Nothing to do with Brasil, other than the fact that I’m having a baby here, and so I thought this video was funny if you haven’t already seen it.

 

Ok and maybe the note that while I’ve been donning flats and Haviannas, most of the Brasilians I’ve seen have no problem wearing tall heels as shown in this video.  Is it wrong that I spent 30 percent of the time thinking, man her feet must kill, and the rest thinking, no way would I put my fat pregnant arse in that outfit for everyone to see.