Finally: Shalom's Birth Journal

Monday, 6th March 2006 11:30am
I went to NIE for lessons, happy that I only had 4 weeks of school left. Which means, if I pop, I wouldn't have to go school anymore because I'm entitled to (only) four weeks of maternity leave. At about 11.30am, while looking for a carpark lot, I felt a contraction, felt like serious cramps, but not the death-defying kind. So I started timing my contractions. Ben had sent the Ford for check-up/repairs, and was on the way to NIE to meet me and try to get his work done. I tried to time the contractions during my tutorial (which pretty much gave my tutmate a scare - "are you going to give birth now?!?!") but couldn't really time it well. Sort of there, sort of wasn't. So I thought, maybe go Dr Yap and check. However, we stayed in the library for ben to get some work done, and for me, some reading. But I was excited to see my baby! :D

Contractions were supposedly getting closer, and by dinner time (we were at Taka with my MIL, SIL, her son, Ben, Abby and Lina attending the Baby Fair) the contractions were approximately about 10 mins apart (we were supposed to ring my gynae at this point but we decided to wait). After dinner (we told my MIL that I was going to pop soon, which got her quite happy/surprised/a bit kan cheong) and shopping, we had to decide between waiting at Taka which was opposite Mt E vs going home and having to drive back again if anything happened during the night. We even considered waiting at Coffee Bean at Mt E. Thank God we went home and had a good rest instead.

Tuesday, 7th March 2006, 7am
The sun rose, and no further action. :( Made an appointment early in the morning to see Dr Yap. I was expecting either for my waterbag to break or at least a "show" (or see my mucus plug), which means that effacement and dilation would have begun. My contractions were still on and off, and could feel them only if I paid good attention, which was pretty odd. I suspect massaging the acupressural points on my ankles had something to do with these weak contractions. :P Anyway, I was hooked up on to the CTG machine that measures contractions, and it didn't reveal anything much. So much for the squiggly messy lines (lower lines). :(



It was pretty frustrating, especially for Ben. He had to choose between accompanying me for the day in case the real action began (and having to explain to his office that I'm in labour but not really yet, which could be quite difficult to understand) vs going back to work. So the darling husband chose to be with me until he could witness the birth.

Dr Yap then examined me and found that I was about 3cm dilated with a bit of show, which meant great news! :D He asked us to go back home and wait (instead of waiting at the hopsital which could be pretty agonising) for more action. We gave up timing the contractions and kept praying for more signs. We were thinking, the little one had better come out either today, otherwise he'll be born on 8th March - International Women's Day. Sounds horrid in Chinese - san ba! :P

So we came home and did our stuff (we were really stranded and didn't know whether to go home or to stay within the vicinity). So we decided to go home and snooze. Which was a great idea. By evening there was still no action. Sigh. Went Haagen Daz in the evening with Eve and had fondue to destress a bit. It helped, but still longing to see my baby. (Thanks mum for the treat! :D)



Wednesday, 8th March 2006 8am
Still no action except for an occasional contraction. It was getting rather frustrating. Dr Yap's clinic called in the morning and told me they forgot to tell me to go for another CTG scan. (Each costs more than $77 and I keep thinking I could have gotten at least 2 massages instead! :P) This was my 3rd CTG scan and I was hoping for good news instead of no news.

CTG scan revealed irregular contractions and Dr Yap measured me to be 3-4cm dilated (still). He was quite puzzled as to why I didn't feel any pain. I felt tightenings but no pain. I was quite down by then and he asked me if I wanted to deliver soon, which I replied "YES!" So he said to go have a good lunch (which we did, at Bakerzin) and then admit to the Delivery Suite. We admitted around 2plus and Dr Yap broke my waterbag to induce labour around 3plus, or 4. From my last labour, I remembered the intense contraction after the bag broke and asked for epidural after that coz I felt I wouldn't have the energy to go through the whole labour plus delivery. But this time round, even as the nurses asked if I wanted the epidural, I asked them to KIV. I wanted to try without epidural and the awesome nurses there understood and were very affirming. :) Thank God for them, esp Nurse Angie. Awesome lady. :) Pity we didn't take a photo with her. Hmm. She was really attentive and even started preparing for Shalom's arrival very quickly. She also made sure that the CTG machine was working properly when it didn't seem like it was detecting my contractions. She had suspected there was something not right, so she marched right in and announced that she was going to stay by my side and manually observe my contractions. After a number of contractions (some were anti-climaxes), she changed another transducer, hoping to get better signals.

7:30pm
Contractions were getting stronger. Thankfully, I wasn't on epidural so I could have dinner! :D (One of the perks... heh.) I got out of the bed and had my sandwich. As I did so, contractions suddenly were way much stronger than when I was in bed. I could only take a few bites and then pause when each contraction hit. I LOVE THOSE CONTRACTIONS!!! It wasn't painful. It was even very 'shiok' to experience them! :D So I was happy like bird but when the contraction came, I just kinda paused till it passed. Was focusing on each one, the sensation and the experience. :) After the meal, the nurse recommended that I walk around (only within the Delivery Ward). I was happily chatting with them and experiencing awesome regular contractions! :D They were also very glad that I was experience such close regular ones. Everyone was just smiling happily especially when the contractions hit! :D

But...

when I got back to bed, the contractions kinda slowed down. Which was quite odd. And frustrating. But somehow, after a while, the contractions started getting regular. Which was great news! :D

11pm
Contractions were pretty regular, and I started to experiment with the gas mask. It was quite fun using it. I had to know when to take, and when not to. If I took it too late, then it wouldn't have any use. If I took too much of it, the room would spin. Ben even tried!! Heh! But it's not like the alcohol-high feeling. In fact it was quite nauseating if I took too many breaths. So max I could take was 4 breaths before I started feeling sick (which was only temporary). Even without it, the contractions weren't that murderous. I think my contractions were rather mild, according to the charts. Mine peaked around 40, while some actually hit 100! (Apparently that happens when epidural is used, I think...) Anyway, it finally started getting regular (see the bottom line - the 'mountains' are the contractions, while the valleys are the rest periods between each contraction). I also asked for Pethedine - pain relief which didn't relief any pain but made me really groggy instead. It was between epidural and Pethedine and the latter only reduces the 'pain' by about 40% while the former simply numbs the lower half of the body, giving the patient the full load of icy cool ants crawling up and down your legs.

Anyway, it was fast approaching 9th March, and I was hoping that he would be born after 12mn. In fact between 12mn and 6am. Somehow I like the idea of being born between that time. Strange right?

Thursday, 9th March 1:30am
Happy that 8th March was over and done with. :D I told Ben that I was going to deliver within the next hour or so... somehow I had that feeling. The nurses kept coming in and asking me if I felt like pushing, and I kept replying no. But when I kept going for the mask, I felt that something wasn't normal. I asked Ben to check the screen if I was having a contraction because usually the contraction would just come and go after a while, about 30-45sec. But this time, even when the contraction had gone, I was still going for the mask because something was just uncomfortable there. I was pretty groggy by then - very distracted by the grogginess while still experiencing the contraction - and so I asked Ben to get the nurse. I was examined and was about 9cm dilated. The nurse asked me to give a push and she could feel the baby's head! :D That was when the action all started. They got prepared and started the delivery process. It was about 4-6 pushes (of 10sec each) when Shalom was born exactly at 2am!



The Pethedine was quite irritating actually... I couldn't really focus although I wasn't that knocked out. Just that being on epidural allowed me to be more conscious while being on P made me high on some drug while trying to focus on the first few moments of my precious' arrival. Wished so much for the drug to wear itself out asap!

Anyway I did not have any 'post-birth withdrawal symptoms' like my first one - all that nausea, shaking, chills, fever etc. Praise the Lord! :D Also, I didn't have swollen feet! :D heh... was reading Supernatural Childbirth and it said that the Israelites walked in the desert for forty years and their feet didn't swell, so can claim that my feet wouldn't swell, and they didn't! :D heh. Although I did use pain relief, I realised that the whole birth process was bearable instead of fearing that it would literally take my life or feel like it was 'pulling my lower lip over my head'!

I'm just glad that Shalom is well now, and happily guzzling tons of milk and putting on weight! :) Initially he dropped too much weight (more than 10% of his birth weight) and was quite worrying because of jaundice/dehydration/etc. But thank God he's alright now. After his feed, he acts like a drunkard! :D Must record sometime and show him when he's older! :D