Around 3PM on the afternoon of Saturday the 13th we settled the boys onto the couch to watch The Spiderwick Chronicles (which we had received from Netflix the previous day). Tina popped some popcorn and we started the movie. She started having contractions about half an hour into the movie but didn't think much of it -- they were fifteen to thirty minutes apart and not very strong. We had dinner and put the kids to bed. At 10:00 we sat down to watch the State / Carolina basketball game. During the game Tina's contractions became stronger and more frequent. At halftime I called some friends from church who had previously volunteered to watch the boys. I told them things might be progressing and asked them to keep a phone nearby during the night.
A little after midnight the contractions were consistently five minutes apart and increasing in both frequency and intensity. So we decided to drop the boys of with our friends and head to the hospital. Tina didn't think she was progressing as quickly as she needed to be in order to be thinking realistically about having a baby in the next 4-6 hours but we both wanted to avoid the panicked drive to the hospital that we had with Calvin (he was born while Tina was standing up in the delivery room; she never even got into the bed). Given Tina's history of quick labors, we thought it would be better to already be at the hospital when things got exciting. If we showed up too early we could always just walk around or sit in the lobby. If we waited until it was too late, we could have found ourselves calling an ambulance or having an unscheduled home birth.
We dropped the kids off at our friend's place a little before 1AM and headed to the hospital with everything under control. Tina was having contractions every 3-4 minutes as we were driving in the van. We arrived at the hospital about 1:15AM and then we waited for about twenty minutes to be seen in the initial triage room (there was only one midwife on duty and she was already examining somebody else). My German is better than most of the Americans here but I learned pretty quickly that my grasp of German medical terms isn't very good at all (who would have thought that the words I use at the bakery wouldn't do me much good in labor and delivery?). About all I was able to tell the midwife was that I had not yet done the required check-in / registration procedures (Anmeldung).
The midwife hooked Tina up to a fetal monitor and then called a doctor who spoke English when she realized the language barrier was going to be an issue. Tina was attached to the fetal monitor for about 30 minutes. Then the doctor checked her cervix and it was only dilated to two centimeters. Despite this apparent lack of progress, they decided to admit her anyway because of her history of quick labors. The time was about 2:15AM.
Since nothing was imminent, the midwife sent me away to complete the required registration at the front desk. When I had been gone about five minutes, Tina's contractions start coming very quickly (less than a minute apart) and with strong intensity. After about fifteen minutes of suffering alone in the triage room, the midwife showed up and helped Tina waddle 50 feet down the hallway to the delivery room. The midwife checked Tina's cervix and now it was dilated to eight centimeters. The time is about 2:45AM. A little before 3:00AM I return from registration with a handful of papers (all written in German) to find the triage room empty. Initially I wondered where she went but I didn't have to wonder for long because I could hear the sounds of a woman in labor coming from down the hall.
I kind of stumbled into the room looking the part of the dazed and confused husband. After a few more contractions the cervix is dilated to nine centimeters. A few minutes after that it is time to push. I walk to the bag and grab the camera. Twenty minutes later Sara was born. She was born at 3:48AM. She weighed 3690 grams (just over 8 pounds) and was 51cm (about 20 inches) long. The whole thing lasted about three hours. The really heavy labor wasn't much more than an hour. The doctor who spoke English stayed pretty much the whole time (on occasion she stepped out to check on the screaming woman next door). All of the German hospital staff were extremely friendly and very accommodating. I tried to speak German as much as I could (it was easier after the baby was born -- the words once again became conversational) and everything worked out well. Of course, it helped that the baby was healthy and there were no real pressing medical needs for either Tina or the baby.
Another person in labor needed the delivery room we were in so by 4:30AM we had been transferred upstairs to a recovery room. It is common to share a recovery room with another person but we requested a private room. That costs more and we aren't yet sure if the insurance will pay for it. I guess we'll see when I file the claim (I still haven't received a bill from the hospital).
The German approach to newborns is much more hands off than the American approach. At the hospital in Annapolis where both of the boys were born the nurses were constantly coming during the night and waking them up for this test and that test. The Germans might have run one test in the hospital. Other than that they pretty much leave you alone. The nurses do not generally help with diaper changes (they do supply some diapers but no wipes so make sure you bring your own) or even come and check on you. Nobody came with the supplies they have in the States -- ice pads, etc -- and nobody gave Sara a bath in the hospital (she was born with a lot of hair and it was matted down with all kinds of yuck). They basically wiped her off with a few washcloths and then handed her to Tina in towels (no cute little stripey blanket with matching cap). They also do not provide hospital gowns or towels so if you want to take a shower, be sure to bring your own.
This hands-off approach might have been a bit more annoying if the birth had been Tina's first but by the third time it begins to be familiar and we mostly just wanted to go home. The hospital staff brought breakfast around 6:30 (Brötchen with meat and cheese -- what else would you expect?) . We were all sleeping when breakfast showed up. About 10:00 I went home to take a shower and grab a change of clothes. I returned around lunchtime with the car seat. Lunch had been served while I was gone. We filled out some paperwork, promised to come back the next day for a blood test and a hearing test, and then Tina and Sara were released from the hospital around 3:00. I picked up the boys later that evening and they got to come home and meet their new baby sister.
I learned the next day that Blue Cross Blue Shield will not direct-bill with the hospital because Tina was admitted for less than 24 hours. So basically they are treating this like an out-patient procedure. They want me to pay up front and file a claim for reimbursement like I normally do. I still haven't received a bill so I have no idea what this is going to cost -- it'll probably be several thousand Euro. I will make a decision about how to approach this once the bill comes in the mail.
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