Klara Poppy Ekstrand is here!

Our beloved daughter Klara Poppy Ekstrand is finally here. On Sunday, August 19th, 7:38am she was born at the University Hospital in Lund, just a seven minute walk from our house. Her given name will be Klara, but most likely we will continue to call her Poppy most of the time. Time will tell what we and she will feel most comfortable with.

When I was one week past my due date I had a regular check up with my midwife whom I've seen every second week since I came back to Sweden in June. You don't have a doctor checking on you unless the midwife finds something out of the ordinary. This Wednesday she thought my blood pressure was a little too high and with my history of pre-eclampsia with Alice & Nils, she sent me up to the hospital to have a doctor check on me more carefully. He found no other symptoms or warning signals besides the pressure, so he sent me home, but wanted to do another check up two days later. On Friday the pressure was slightly higher and my thrombocytes were a little lower than he felt comfortable with so he kept me for closer observations. Best would be if the delivery would start by itself since I had a caesarian with Alice & Nils. Inducing is not so good under those circumstances.

I stayed over night in the hospital. Mats, Alice & Nils came over after school and stayed with me while I had dinner. They were not comfortable with the situation, but when they understood that I was there because they could take better care of me there than if I was at home, they were ok with it. The following day I rested most of the day in my bed to keep the pressure down, but they also wanted me to walk a little so the labor would start. Late afternoon the pressure went up even more and I started to leak some amniotic fluid so they sent me down the two floors to the delivery ward. There they monitored Poppy's heartbeats and my early contractions constantly. I called Mats, they served me dinner and slowly, slowly my contractions came more regularly. 

In Sweden you don't have a doctor that you have chosen to deliver your baby. You call the hospital when you have about 5 minutes between your contractions, they confirm that they have a spot for you and when you arrive they install you in a room. A team with a delivery midwife and a nurse guide you all the way. If there are complications there are doctors available too, but normally the babies are delivered by the midwife. There was one team when we came in, but their shift ended three hours later and a new team started working with us. She wanted to put me on stimulating drip and did so on the lowest possible dose. I had painful contractions for three hours, but it didn't help me open up. Poppy's heartbeats went down so they took me off the drip. Suddenly there was drama in one of the other rooms, so the team left us to ourselves for a couple of hours (still monitored though and we could call them any time). It all slowed down to a pace that was comfortable for me and for Poppy. Mats helped me out with massage and a TENS-machine that gives impulses on the lower back. Much better and much more effective. When the team came back my contractions were coming closer and closer and getting stronger all the time.

At 7am on Sunday morning our third team of midwife and nurse started. I had just entered the last phase of the delivery and could not open my eyes. I kept them closed to focus, took some nitrous oxide occasionally, but mostly just listened to my midwife's instructions and tried to keep calm. Thirty-eight minutes later our lovely Poppy entered the world. It was the most wonderful and emotional moment I have ever experienced. I was so happy to have Mats there with me and that we could both be part of this together. They immediately put Poppy on my chest and after a short while she found her way to my breast. It was such a reward to be awake and I was grateful that I didn't have to do a c-section again (they talked about it at one point during the night). With Alice and Nils I was so sick that they had to have me totally sedated and not even Mats could be in the room when they were born.

Soon they came in with be best breakfast I've had in my life. The "champagne" is Pommac - a Swedish kind of non-alcoholic cider. Mats walked home and came back with Alice and Nils (who had slept at home by themselves). They were surprisingly calm and so happy to find both me and Poppy in good health. 

They were proud and super sweet with their baby sister. One at a time they held her and were fascinated by her small fingers, face etc. They couldn't stop looking at her and commenting on how cute she is. 

After four hours we walked over to the hospital hotel where they have a special section for newborns. You have your own hotel room and in the corridor there are nurses/midwives to help you out 24/7. You just give them a call and they come to your room right away. They help you with any possible questions, get the breast feeding working etc. They do the first check ups on your baby and when you feel ready to go home, they give you advice about what to do. The dads can stay over night too, but in our case it was better for Mats, Alice and Nils to live at home and just visit me after school and have dinner with me in the restaurant downstairs. Cost: First night free. Then $10/night and that includes three great meals and two snacks in the restaurant. 

After two nights in the hotel I walked home with our three children (but it looks like I still have one in my stomach too in this picture). Mats took the bags in the car and was ready with the camera as we came home. It was a warm, nice summer day. Alice and Nils took turns pushing the stroller and the whole family was happy to finally be united on Tunavägen.