Introducing ... Anika Mae Schmidgall

Anika Mae - 4 days old

Sorry it has taken so long to get this posted. We've been a little busy. =D But definitely a good busy. I'll give you all (well most) of the details and how everything went. There's a lot of pictures too, so I hope its not too long for you.

Friday morning we called the labor ward to see what time we were to go. They told us to be there by 8:30, so we had about a half hour to finish getting ready and head into the "unknown". Broderick had decided to confuse things a little by developing a bad cough and wheezing. My poor mom had to take him to the doctor here friday morning. Thankfully our neighbor was awesome and drove them there and showed them where to go. He was ok too. Just a cold they said that was only in his upper chest, so it was ok to bring a baby home to that.

Our little boy, soon to be big brother.











Here we are, ready to leave for the hosptial.

So we get to the hospital and they take us to a room in the delivery ward. They got some information and monitored the baby for a half hour and gave me my first "pill" to start labor. Then we were sent to the labor ward and would be there 6 hours until I was due to have my 2nd "pill". The labor ward is not a private room. There are 4 beds in there with laboring women. You can imagine how much Brad liked being in this room. What was nice though, was we were allowed to get up and walk around and even leave the hospital. So we were able to walk to a nearby Italian restaurant for lunch on that friday. We got a lot of reading done and tried to sleep when I could, since I didn't know how much sleep I could get later.

After 6 hours, I was taken back down to the delivery ward where they monitored again for a half hour and I was given my 2nd pill. Now in the US, I was given this pill every 6 hours once I started. Here they told me they only do 2 per day, so they wouldn't do anything else with me until saturday morning. WHAT??? Its only 4:30 in the afternoon right now and I'm just supposed to wait around? I want this kid out of me. They said that sometimes this could take 2-3 days. I was devestated. I was not planning on being in labor that long. So back to the labor ward with my roommates. I was in labor by now though and I thought it was severe, but they kept telling me that I wasn't bad enough for pain meds. I wasn't progressing either. Again - WHAT???? Don't tell me that. Maybe I am a wimp, but it was painful to me. =D Brad really had nowhere to sleep and wanted to get a hotel room nearby. I was not so happy about the idea about him not being nearby while I was in labor. It turns out the hospital has a few rooms you can rent for about 10$ a night, so Brad took one of those. At least he was in the same building. But here I am in labor in a room where there are 2 other women sleeping - one of which was snoring very loudly. (The nurse had to keep coming and wake her up and finally they moved her to a different room.)

Here's where Brad spent most of his time, in a waiting room down the hall from my room.

Finally at 2 AM, they decided to take me back down to the delivery ward (where you do have your own room). My midwife decided to try accupuncture on me to see if that would help. I was all for trying anything to help with the pain. I'm here to say it didn't help and actually the needles in my hands hurt.

I got a new midwife a little while later and she asked me if this was worse than my first labor. I told her that I had an epidural with my first, so I couldn't really compare them. She then said to me, "Would you like an epidural?"

My answer ....... "YES!!!!"

Here is my angelic midwife who got me an epidural. Again, I know I'm a wimp. But notice I'm smiling now.


After my epidural, I was able to sleep a little bit. This was so nice as I was quite exhausted. When I woke up, I had progressed quite a bit. This was good news. They took the epidural out about 8:00 in the morning because they like you to be able to feel when its time to push. When it was finally time, she came out in less than 30 seconds. So nice as Broderick had taken 2 1/2 hours of pushing.

Here's little Anika in her first moments.

Mommy, Daddy and baby

Proud Daddy

Her first exam.






She's already got Daddy wrapped around her finger.

Mother and Daughter. I'm holding a present. Brad was so nice to have bought me a gift.

After a couple of hours in the delivery ward, they took Anika to the neonatal unit where they would monitor her blood glucose levels. I just had to check in on my floor and then was able to be with her. Brad left to get my mom and Broderick.

Here's proud big brother.

I love my "littal soster".

Grandma with grandchild #18.















The whole family.

Her blood sugar was a little low and my milk wasn't enough, so they gave her an NG tube and gave her formula through that. Poor girl didn't like it going in, I felt so bad.

Daddy and his little Princess

My eyes are open, better take a picture quick.

Most of saturday was spent in the neonatal unit with little Anika and at 8:00 that evening she was able to come to my room to spend the night. Again, we had a roommate, but at least it was only 1 this time. We were so tired since we didn't get much sleep the night before that after Brad got us settled in our room, he went and got a room at a nearby hotel. Anika needed one more blood test in the morning and then they were sending us home.

Our view from my hospital room.

Daddy carrying her to the car.

Bundled up in her car seat.

So 24 hours after her birth, they told us we were free to leave and we gathered our stuff and headed home. So different than in the US, they would never have you leave that early. Many women over here leave as soon as 4 hours after their baby is born. Thankfully I really did feel great at this point and we had gotten good sleep our first night together.

Finally made it home.

Broderick was excited to see her again.

Here I am 1 day old.







So, it was quite an experience, at the beginning, I was not happy and was missing the big private rooms in the US. But ... the actual birthing process with the midwifes went awesome and they were great. So, I'm not sure which was better, just two very different experiences.

Names over here have to come from an approved list, so that helped us pick out our name, but since she was born here, we also wanted her to have a Danish name. Mae is my Grandma Schock's middle name and that is where that came from.

I'm sure we'll be updating soon with more pictures and how things are going. So far she is such a good baby, but maybe she hasn't quite woken up yet. =) Thank you so much to those who have prayed and all the well wishes. It meant so much to know so many people cared.