And I never ever wanted kids... again the same thing that bit me in the butt in the previous post returns to bite me once again.
16/07/2008 0900
Contractions came every 15min. They were still bearable so I decided to wait it out at home and monitor in case it was a false alarm. I napped in between contractions.
1200
Contractions finally stopped. Rested the whole afternoon to replenish the energy drained from the exhausting morning.
1700
Contractions started again. Still every 15min interval so waited it out again. Somewhere along the way, it became every 10min.
2000
Hubby came home and I went downstairs for dinner. By this time, the contractions were every 5min and MIL advised us to go to the hospital to at least do a check. Hubby would later tell me that at this point, he thought that it would be a false alarm and totally expected us to get sent home.
2030
Finished dinner. Had Keong Saik duck. Proceeded to take a shower, all the while moaning that I was so going to get an epidural immediately upon reaching the hospital.
2115
Finally made it to the car. Yup, it took that long for me to take a shower and move around the house even though my hospital bag had been packed previously already. Hey, you don't expect a pregnant woman to zoom around the house while battling contractions ok...
Then details became hazy. Upon reaching Mount Alvernia, hubby dropped me off at the reception while he went to look for a parking lot (so I wouldn't have to walk so far). As I was having yet another contraction when I entered the reception area, I sat down to get over that particular contraction before registering. Guess I had that I'm-in-pain look on my face, because a Mt A staff actually wheeled a chair over and asked if I wanted to go straight to the delivery room which I agreed. Therefore had a nice ride to the delivery suite while at the same time wondering how Hubby was going to find me. But figured he would be resourceful enough to find me. According to him, by the time all registrations were done and he came to the delivery suite, it was 10pm already. Nurse checked me, pronounced me 3cm dilated and called my gynae. Oh yes, and while I was lying on the bed, nurse gave me the gas mask and kept telling me to breathe in the gas. "More, more! Deeper breaths!" My first good breath didn't take the pain away, but it made me high enough to not think about the pain. Kinda like alcoholic high without the alcohol... quite nice/shiok actually. Haha. And then.. totally forgot about requesting for epidural.
2230
Gynae Dr Roy Ng came. He checked me and pronounced me as 3-4cm dilated. Broke my water bag and I think I heard him say I didn't have much water. Told us that on an average, the cervix would dilate 1cm every hour. This meant that I would deliver at around 6plus in the morning and that the nurse would check me at around 2.30am. Then Dr Roy left. The midwife told me that if I felt like pushing later on, I MUST not push, but should inform the nurse immediately.
2300
Hubby kept giving me updates on my pain meter. There's this CTG machine that gives you actual numbers on the pain level of the contraction. The higher the number, the more painful. Apparently, my highest number hit 128 or something like that. By this time, I was too tired to hold on to the gas mask, so Hubby held it to my face when the contraction hit and took it off when it was over. Along the way, it was too much to bear and I asked for pethadine (an injection to the thigh that is suppose to be a better pain reliever). Looking back, at that point of time, I didn't think the stupid injection worked, but according to Hubby, it definitely worked cos I wasn't groaning as much after the injection. Oh well... think he's in a better position to comment on all these. Oh yes, and also just once, when my contraction hit, Hubby didn't give me the gas mask. I turned around and lo and behold, he had fallen asleep! From time to time, I bring this incident up, and he always goes "Wah, one time only hor!"
0100
Suddenly felt the urge to push. Told Hubby who immediately told the nurse. She checked and said I was 7cm dilated! Anyway, nurse paged for Dr Roy. After some time, I really really felt the need to push but cannot push cos (1) cervix not fully dilated yet (2) Dr Roy not here yet. At this point of time, I requested for epidural not to get rid of the pain but to get rid of the urge to push! Nurse checked and said "Girl, no need epidural already. 8cm already! Baby coming out soon!" I then knew I wasn't going to be able to request for my epidural already.
0130
Dr Roy arrived. Checked and did something to my cervix. And after some time told me to push. Honestly by now, I was quite exhausted as the nurse had asked me to push earlier. Lousy me, wasn't pushing correctly and wasn't pushing enough. Finally, Dr Roy whipped out the vacuum and told me that even with the vacuum, I had to push. So with Dr Roy vacuuming the baby below, 2 nurses pressing on my stomach to help push the baby out, and me pushing a few times, he came out finally.
0207
Baby Declan arrived all slimy and icky, but the feeling that I got when he was placed on my tummy can never be put into words. Dr Roy had a discussion on the time of birth because he found the clock suspectingly slow! The nurses did the requisites for Declan (cleaning, weighing, etc) then gave him to me to let him suckle. I tried unsuccessfully before I proceeded to unceremoniously throw up (either due to the gas mask or pethidine, I'm not sure). Anyhow, I could still smell the Keong Saik duck in my puke! Haha. And I never knew the process of cleaning me womb and sewing me up could take such a terribly long time. The cleaning was pain wor...
The arrival of Baby Declan
Declan is not happy being disturbed
"I'm trying to sleep. Can you stop shining that stupid light on my face?"
