So finally, on the 30th of August 2026, our lovely daughter Etel arrived to this world. 🩷 It was like they say “the most beautiful day in our life”. Oskar and I were so in love with her directly. Her hair, her slow and soft baby movements, her cute eyes looking at us… not to mention her sweet little own voice. Or her hiccups, hehe. 🤭
3280 grams and 50,5 cm of pure love!
My water broke 💧
On Friday the 28th of August, my water broke at Stockudden, where my parents live. We spend a lot of time there, since it is also our “summer place”. Oskar had just got back from work and bought some nice food that we were planning on grilling later, and we sat down scrolling our phones just chilling with the family, when I suddenly felt my water breaking. It was such a funny feeling. I burst out loud “Omg, I think my water just broke?!”.
I didn’t have any contractions or so yet, so I felt surprised. But Oskar called the hospital(s) and we ended up going to a completely different hospital than the ones that are in our area — we went to Åbo / Turku, which is closest to Stockudden, but still over an hour drive (since so many hospitals have closed down in Finland). Nothing really happened during Friday at the hospital, so on Saturday at 13-ish o’clock, I got the medication cytotec to help my body get ready for giving birth. Cytotec helps ripen the cervix and start the contractions.
The medicine sure did work… 🫠🫣😬
Oh gosh… at first I didn’t really feel that much, so I got another cytotec pill at 15-ish o’clock. And man, after that, I could for sure feel my body getting ready for childbirth. A few hours later it hurt a lot and the contractions were really frequent. Even though I had read books preparing for giving birth, where they recommend you not to scream or put energy on the pain, I couldn’t really do anything else than use my voice out loud. Finally, around 20-ish o’clock in the evening on Saturday, I was open enough to be moved to the delivery room.
The “tense” belt helped a bit as a pain reducer during the first contractions, but not once they got more intense and harder.
I thought she would arrive faster… 🙈
On Saturday we thought we’d get a daughter the same day, but nope, it didn’t happen until Sunday. I thought it wouldn’t take that long, so afterwards I almost felt a bit disappointed, how slow my body was after the water had broke. However, it really got me realizing how we (women) all are different and how, prepared or not for giving birth, you never know what will happen or how it will turn out!
Here I was sooo tired and “dead”…
After getting laughing gas and one “shot” of epidural, I was very tired and exhausted. My body started shaking and I was freezing. I felt weak, and wanted some more epidural, but suddenly I was open enough to soon give birth! At this point, I did get some energy because I thought “omg, she will be here soon”. Little did I know, that it would still take until Sunday morning 4.32 o’clock for her to finally arrive. It was probably good I didn’t know how long it would take, haha.
So in love with my little one and her beautiful hair!
Etel 🩷 30.08.2026
We stayed longer at the hospital than I had expected
We stayed at the hospital until Tuesday 1st of September, so 5 days in total, since we arrived on the 28th of August. I hadn’t expected that our stay would be so long, however, we look back at these days like we almost spent time at a hotel. Or maybe not for Oskar, but for me as the mother, getting food served each day and having our own room to stay in. Plus, once Etel finally arrived, we enjoyed it so much. 💕
Looking back, I must say even though I had read the book “Föda utan rädsla”, meaning “Giving birth without fear”, with so many good tips, preparing women for giving birth — you can never know how your experience will be. For me, giving birth was pretty painful, but both the pregnancy and the post partum journey have been amazing and I’ve been feeling so well and healthy! It’s really cool how the female body works! I also believe my holistic living has helped my body to heal so quickly after giving birth. 🤗
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