Big news! Ellen Miamar Matos Powers (a.k.a. Mia) was born on Sunday March 9, 2008 at 2:08pm in Santo Domingo. When she came out she weighed 7 lbs exactly and was 19 1/2 inches long. And she came out yelling! Just minutes after arrival she was lying on my stomach lookingall around with these big wide-open blue eyes and taking everything in – not crying at all, just looking.In a nutshell, the birth (at least my part in it) went flawlessly. I was in labor for a little under 11 hours, but really only about 5 of those hours felt like hard work. I managed to stay at home with mymom, Nancy and Heuris attending to me until about noon, and so it was nearly 1pm by the time we arrived at the hospital after a wild cab ride running all the red lights in the city and our poor cab driverscared to death that the moaning pregnant American woman was going to have the baby right there in the back seat of his car. The driver was justifiably worried: only an hour and eight minutes later,Mia was out.Even after all the adventurous things I´ve done in my life (and there’ve been a few), I can honestly say that none of it compares to the sense of accomplishment and pride that I felt when they put this little person in my arms. Heuris was with me the whole time, quietly coaching me along through the hardest parts of the labor and having his usual and extraordinary calming effect. Because of this, I was able to do the whole thing med-free, of which I am so grateful because I got to really participate in the birthing process. And honestly the birth itself - plus or minus a few particularly strong contractions around transition and pushing - was mostly pain-free as well. It was centainly full of aches, stretching sensations and a lot of inner heat, but not anything mind-blowing or incapacitating. Less than 15 minutes after, I was lying there smiling and eating a sandwich and talking on the phone to folks at home. The first night, I was still so excited I could hardly get to sleep.
But by no means was everything easy, especially not once we left the hospital. By far, the hardest part of the birth itself was the initial recovery: not only did I have to learn how to take care of Mia, but also attend to my aching, tired and traumatized body. My doctors rushed me through the pushing stage (literally jamming down on my abdomen to get the baby out asap and yelling at me to push, PUSH), and because of this (though they would never admit it was their fault) I sustained a significant amount of internal lacerations and external tearing. Coping with the stitches for 8 days was rough, and getting them out by my witch of an obstetrician (also and unfortunately a med-free experience) even rougher. Learning with Mia how to feed her was a real challenge as well. On day two she quit latching on and was intent on eating only her hands which left her hungry and frusterated. A scary 12 hours of crying and struggling later, we began feeding her with an eye-dropper to make sure she was getting enough nourishment. By the end of day 4 and a LOT of patience and trying later, we had managed to get feeding pretty well established, and now she is eating like a champ. FYI – For those of you wondering where we got her name from: Ellen is for my wonderful Granny Ellen - my dad´s mom - who turns 90 this year. We put it first because we thought it sounded better that way. Miamar we made up from mia + mar. In Spanish “mia” means “mine” and “mar” is “sea,” so you could say her name means something like "sea of mine," which is important since Heuris´ family is full of fishermen and we both love the water. Matos is Heuris´ paternal last name. And Powers, of course, is for me.
Here are a few shots of Mia from that first week:
Check out her active little hands – she was busy with them from the very beginning.
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