29th March At around 2am, I was awakened from my sleep by tummy ache. It was feeling really bad and I thought I had to go to the toilet. Just as I was trying to get up (with back numbed from lying down for too long), I felt water tickling down. Hubby sensed my movements and helped me up immediately. After I got off the bed, I saw some bloody stains on the bedsheet and realised that my water bag had burst! I couldn't believe that my water bag would burst at week 37 and 4 days. After our gynae visit on last Sat, we had thought that our baby would not arrive until near to the EDD, since he was not even engaged yet.
I was a bit panicky because I had thought that the amniotic fluid should be clear in colour and not bloody like mine. I was worried that something bad might have happened to our baby as I was not sure whether a bloody amniotic fluid was normal. Anyway, it had happened and hubby immediately got up to change and took all the things we needed to bring to hospital. No time to waste! And it was indeed fortunate that he had just packed almost everything for the hospital bag. I grabbed a dress for hospital discharge which he threw into the bag and we left our house. It was around 2.30-2.45am.
Hubby sped down to TMC. My amniotic fluid was still leaking along the way and I was quite soaked by the time we reached, which was around 3am. The contractions got more and more regular too. (By the way, it was the first time that we didn't have any problem finding a parking lot in TMC.)
We were brought to the labour ward on the 2nd floor by a security guard and I was given a bed near to the door. The other 2 beds in the room were occupied. Hubby left all our belongings next to the bed and he was brought downstairs to do the admission. I was asked to change into the hospital gown. The toilet seat was already stained with blood and there were droplets of blood stains on the floor too. I guessed the nurses were too busy to keep the place clean as there were apparently quite a few mothers in labour at that time. It was quite scary as I didn't know what to expect next. My contractions was getting worse but it was still manageable at that point in time. I walked back to the bed and laid down. The neighbour opposite me seemed to be suffering a lot. For some reason, her hubby had not arrived. She was moaning in great pain and it affected me somewhat, making me nervous too.
There were probably many people delivering on that morning, because the nurses didn't really bother about me. I could hear baby cries on and off too. My contractions seemed to worsen as time passed and finally, a nurse came to check my temperature and pressure. I was given an enema soon after and had to visit the loo. I took a little shower to ease the contraction pain as it was getting more and more intense. It got so painful that I was finding it hard to get back to the bed and my legs were starting to tremble too. I kept the shower on until the interval between the contractions came. Then, I quickly made my way back to the bed and laid down. The nurse did a cervix check and said that it was "still early", meaning that the dilation was only about 1cm.
Hubby was nowhere to be found at that time and the moanings from the opposite bed made it hard for me to concentrate on the breathing techniques that I had learned. I felt nauseous from the contraction pain and asked for the gas mask. It did not help initially and the mask didn't really smell that great either. However, as the pain got more and more intense, I started to breathe deeply and tried to concentrate on breathing. I also asked the nurse for my husband and could hear them calling out for him in their PA system. They also called his hp number.
Sometime later, I overheard someone asking for epidural. She or her hubby was asked to sign something as epidural had its side-effects. Soon, the doctor came to administer the epidural. The nurse asked her to keep very still or else it would be dangerous. Soon after this, I stopped hearing any moaning and heard the couple chit-chatting. I thought to myself "Wow" and was tempted to ask for epidural too. However, the harder I breathed, the drowsier I felt and I actually slipped off to sleep on and off between the contractions. Hubby came some time later and helped me hold onto the gas mask. According to him, it was almost 5am as he was stuck at the admission counter for a very long time for some dumb reason.
I was supposed to use the gas mask only when the contraction came, but it felt so much better with the gas mask on all the time that I did not allow my hubby to take the mask away from me. It was like narcotics! I was addicted to the mask and fell asleep in between the contractions. Even when the pain came back, I felt only semi-conscious.
At around 7am, a nurse came back to check on me. I was woken up from my sleep, but still felt drowsy. After she checked my cervix, she asked my hubby to wait outside as they needed to prepare the bed and push me to the delivery ward. I was a bit surprised and asked her how many cm? She said I was 8cm dilated already! I asked her "Is it too late for epidural?".
She answered "Yes". Gosh! I had wanted to succumb to epidural when I was about 4cm dilated, because the pain was getting really unbearable. I had heard that if the epidural was administered too early, the delivery might end up with forceps/vacuum and thus, I had willed myself to endure the early stage.
They took the mask off me and pushed my bed straight to the delivery ward. I was yearning for the gas. Upon reaching the delivery ward, the midwives and nurses set up the bed and stirrups and asked my hubby to fix the gas for me. It was a relief to have the gas back. It was like opium to me. As I felt that I had already reached the limit of my endurance, the nurse offered to give me a jab on the bum. I agreed immediately as anything that helped was most welcomed! (I was very relieved to be told later by the midwives that in this hospital, only Dr Tan and Dr LC Cheng do not use pethidine as a pain relief drug. ) Hubby stood by my side and kept encouraging me that I could do it! His presence helped tremendously.
The nurses told my hubby to go and have his breakfast as Dr Tan would only arrive in an hour's time. Hubby said that it was fortunate that he didn't listen to them. He only managed to gulp down a cup of milo at the family lounge and when he was back, Dr Tan was there.
The pain was really bad and the worst of all was, Dr Tan asked that the mask be removed from me. She asked me to push very hard when the contraction came. I tried a few times but it was not going anywhere. Then, I saw her getting her equipments like needles, scissors, etc. Hubby immediately asked me not to look. I shut my eyes and focused on breathing. When the team heard from the CTG machine that my contraction was coming, everyone came back to my side and started to shout "PUSH". Hubby supported me by my side and shouted along with them. He was pushing my head down and the midwives were pushing on my tummy to help the baby out. Hubby kept encouraging me "You can do it!" and at times, all I could hear was his voice. It was my greatest fortune to have him by my side. After about 6 or 9 pushes, I felt our baby come out and heard his cries. It was 7.53am. He was 3.135kg, and 49cm long. Head circumference was 33cm.
(Hubby, just want to thank you for being there. I could not have done it without your support!)
Hubby didn't get a chance to cut the umbilical cord. After it was cut, the cord blood was collected. After the placenta was out too, Dr Tan pushed out the blood clots. The cramps were still there and it still hurt until she gave me painkillers. I could still feel my uterus contracting a little until the painkillers took effect. After they had cleaned up our baby, he was brought back to me. The lactation consultant was also there to help me start latching on for the first time. After I had managed to latch him on for a while, he was pushed back to the nursery because the room was too cold.
We stayed there until 1.30pm before I was pushed to my ward. Apparently, the hospital was fully occupied that morning. My mom came to visit me while we were still in the delivery ward and the midwife made an exception for her to enter.
Anyway, introducing our little darling - Ian!
1 comment:
congratulations! Baby Ian is so cute! And thanks for sharing your birth experience. All natural, so brave! I'm expecting too and will be delivering in July. Hope I'll be able to go through natural birth too.
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