On Monday the 20th, hubby took me to the hospital. We arrived at about 5:30pm and proceeded to the labour ward where they hooked me up to some machine to get a baseline reading of baby's heart rate and my contractions. About an hour later, Dr Tai came to insert a gel in my cervix to help it to soften. Apparently, my cervix was already quite soft and I was 1cm dilated.
I was checked again at midnight and at 5am, and at this point, was found to be 2cms dilated. After a short nap, hubby arrived and we both went to the labour ward after I had a quick shower. There, Mel the midwife, asked if I was going to have an epidural. She said that I didn't have to use it if I didn't want to but that the anesthetist could be difficult to get hold of later on if I did. Hubby and I decided to have the epidural catheter put in and to use it if we needed to. There was a drip and a spinal tube and again, I was linked up to the fetal heart and contractions monitor.
After breakfast, Dr Tai came in to break my waters at about 9:30am. It felt weird, having all this warm fluid come out of me. And when a big contraction came, it would push out more amniotic fluid from me. Hubby and I would look at the contractions monitor from time to time, just to see how big some of the contractions were...but I was still pretty comfortable.
Come lunch time, Maggie the next midwife, offers the both of us some lunch and says that she's going to have to increase the amount of oxytocin to get the contractions to come closer together. She said that I was getting inconsistent strong contractions and they needed to have 4 strong contractions in 10 minutes to get things going. Time to up the dosage from 30mls to 60mls. This was about 1:30pm or so and was also right about the time when things started to hurt. And so we started the epidural.
At about 4pm, Maggie does a VE and says that my cervix has completely dilated and so off she goes to ring Dr Tai and gets me to start pushing. She coaches me on how to push with the contractions, where to put my hands, and what to do with my breathing. And so it begins.
Dr Tai came in at about 5-ish (time starts getting really fuzzy at this point as I'm concentrating real hard on pushing) and gets a bit concerned with my temperature and baby's heart rate. Apparently, it would take another 3 hours of labour to get baby out naturally. So he decided that we were going to have a vacuum delivery and tells me that if I push, he'll pull...and we'll have a baby. At some point, the vacuum comes off the baby's head (poor baby!) and I feel it too. Then, he puts it back on and we continue...
Dr Tai then gets concerned that she's not going to fit...so he does an episiotomy. Later, hubby confesses to hearing the snip and then witnessing all that blood loss. He was helping hold my legs up and was giving me encouragement but at that point, needed to sit down and gain a bit of colour. I remember the pain and how it felt to have baby bearing down...it was like I was being torn apart and I didn't know if I could take it any longer or if I could push anymore...I was so close to giving up...so so close...
It took 3 sets of strong pushes before baby came out...there was a pause at one point where Dr Tai got me to pant before asking me to start pushing again. And then presto - she was out! Once she was out, Dr Tai placed her on my breast, all bloody and wet and everything. It was a sight for sore eyes and it was just amazing. Our littl' girl...I was finally holding our baby.
Soon after, she was whizzed off to get cleaned and weighed and APGAR tested etc whilst Dr Tai harvested the cord blood, delivered the placenta and sewed me up. I was starting to feel the pain of his sewing as the epidural wore off and it probably took him a good 45 minutes to finish all that stitching. By this time, it was well past 6:30pm and I was exhausted.
The next thing we know, Dr Tai announces that the parents are here! Apparently, they had schemed to go to nearby tavern for dinner and then decided to walk over to see what was happening because there hadn't been any news on what was going on. Hubby sent them home and came back to spend time with baby and me. Baby had started rooting at the breast and that was the first time I breastfed. At that moment, the wonder of it all hit me and I fell in love with our littl' girl...
She's here...she's perfect...and she's all ours.
Welcome to this world littl' one...
1 comment:
Aiyoh, I become so takut reading about your birth experience. I salute you, my dear - in fact, I salute ALL mothers (especially those you go about it the natural way) - for braving through it. Cannot wait to see the lil' one!
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