I went for routine check up with Hubby at KKH on my 39th Week as per normal and Doc said this to us “be prepared for labour anytime and just go to the delivery suite when you feel contractions. But if by next week still no signs then we may consider inducing cause cannot let baby stay in for too long.” We Went home with a heavy heart just waiting for THE day.
On 3rd April 2005, EDD, went KKH for check up and there was still no signs. Looks like this little one is very comfortable in my tummy and has no intention of coming out. So Doc schedule me for induced labour on 5th April 2005 and ask me to be warded by 12pm if there’s still no signs of labour. On 5th, April, we took our bag, camera and etc to the hospital to be ready for induction. Went delivery suite to register and then they monitored me on CTG for half an hour to make sure baby heart beat is fine.
A nurse came to me and explain to me the procedure of induce labour. They will insert a Prostine pill for me that day, if I do not have any contractions at all, they will insert another pill the next day. If after 3 pills baby still refuse to come out, then we may have to consider caesarean. The sound of it really sends shivers down my spine and I cannot imagine drawing a line on my tummy 🙁
While alone in the room, my hubby went around taking photos of me then he then went to 7-eleven to buy me some magazines to kill time and bought me a can of Milo, went to smoke and etc. At 1plus, they inserted the prostine pill and asked me to stay in bed and they will monitor me. The nurse told me if by 3:30pm still no contractions, they will send me back to the ward. I was hoping that if I deliver soon, my eldest son (Joshua) would be able to see his baby sister by the time he come to visit in the evening but that did not happen. At 3:15pm, I was sent back to ward to rest as there was still no contractions and I was only 3 cm dilated, “still long way to go” was the comment I heard from the nurse. Sigh… I decided that since I was going back to the ward, I was determined to wait for my son to come visit me before delivery. At the ward, the nurse told me to ring the buzzer if I feel severe contractions and if I can no longer tolerate the pain. “How to determine intolerable pain?” was the thing in my mind as everyone have different tolerance level.
At 4:30pm, contractions started but I told hubby that I want to endure till my eldest comes cause I know my son would want to see me since he will be spending the night at granny’s place. Contractions got more and more intense, and I got hubby to request for a paper to jot down my contraction timings. It was coming every 1 min… then every 30 secs. I asked the nurse what is the defination of intolerable pain and she just replied with “whenever you feel like going down, I will get them to send you down”. I tolerated all the way till 6pm and kept doing breathing exercises.
Finally Joshua came, I gave him a big hug and told him that he will definately see Mei Mei tomorrow. Contractions got so bad that I could not even eat the Macdonald’s meal that my hubby bought for me. After Joshua went back, I told Hubby that its time. My hubby was so excited and called for the nurse. This was our 2nd kid but he was really excited cause its his Princess. The nurse then sent me down on a wheel chair. I arrived at the delivery suite at close to 8pm. The staff nurse came in to get me changed and introduced herself and asked if I wanted any pain relief. She really made me feel very comfortable and feel at home. Again Hubby ask me to take epidural cause doesn’t wan me to go though so much pain but I was worried that it may be too late cause contractions already very intense. In the end, we still requested for it.
The nurse came in and told me that there was no anaesthetist currently available so I could only use the laughing gas for now. After my previous experience of labour, I really handled this better. I was breathing slowly to calm myself down. Finally after 10 mins, an anaesthetist came and I told her about my scoliosis and about my first epidural which did not work. She asked if I could sit up instead. As she could see from the graphs that my contractions are very intense now, she explained that she will try to insert the tube only in between contractions. I sat at the side of the bed with nurse’s help but was struggling through the contractions cause the mask was not long enough to reach me hence I had to tolerate through my contractions without relief. The anaesthetist took a very long time to locate the soft part of my spine due to my history of scoliosis and as I was overweight (not easy to see position of spine). Finally, after around 5-8 contractions, she finally inserted the tube and I felt the tingling sensation. I lay in bed and suddenly felt so good. Epidural was finally working, I can no longer feel the pain but was shaking a little. She told me it was the normal but I did not mind the shivering. I turned to hubby and said “Dear, now I can 100% confirm that the epidural did not work during the labour of our first boy.” He agreed immediately seeing the differences of how I behaved. I was so relaxed and even jokingly commented to my hubby that maybe our daughter will be born at the same time as our son as he was born at 22:12hrs and it was already near 2200hrs.
Hubby then went down for a smoke thinking that the delivery may not be soon. After a while, the doctor came in the room and attached another “thing” at my thigh. I think that was for detecting baby’s heart beat and left the room. The staff nurse came in to check on me and upon looking at the graphs by CTG,
she asked: “Where is your hubby?”
Me: “He went down for a smoke :)”
Staff Nurse: “Call him back immediately”
Me: “Is there anything wrong?”
Staff Nurse: “Just call him back”
I called hubby but he did not answer his phone. I then called again and told him what the nurse said. When Hubby came up at around 9:55pm, he told me that he was calling my dad to update him on my situation and was telling him that most probably I will only deliver after midnight. The doctor came in to check and said “ You have to deliver now, get ready.” I asked him what’s the hurry as he seemed a little worried. I asked him if baby is okie as I suddenly had a fear in me. He told me that Baby’s heartbeat was not very strong and that really scared me. They got ready with gloves and etc and reduced the dose of epidural to let me feel the contractions so that I can push. A midwife came in at this time and started to help me into position. I remember that the midwife was using her body weight to pushed against my left leg and the doc on my right.
They asked me to push as if I was trying to push them away and after 3 pushes, our daughter was born. Guess at what time? Our little Angel was born @22:13hrs with just a difference of 1 min from her brother! Hehehe The first thing I realized when I looked at her was that she was Big. Her birth weight was 3.4kg! Much bigger than her brother 3 years ago and she kept crying. The nurse placed her on my belly and I was so happy when I saw her. As I thought everything was over, the nurse came and told me that there was no surgeon to stitch me up and I had to wait but the worries was overcame by the happiness of seeing our daughter. The staff nurse asked me if I would like to breastfeed my daughter and I said Yes immediately. As my first breastfeeding experience was unsuccessful, I asked for her help. She patiently guided my baby to latch on and SHE SUCKLED!! I felt so good and satisfied seeing my baby latching for the first time. I really would like to thank her cause she was very patient helping me. Finally the surgeon came to stitch me up and she too was patient and told me what she was doing. I remember her telling me “ okie ah.. I’ll be done soon… bear with it, will be over soon, last stitch already k?” She kept repeating that to console me.
After she was done, the staff nurse gave me biscuits and milo to drink and she kept telling me take my time and that she’s got plenty of delivery suites available for other moms, so drink and eat slowly to regain strength. That really touched me. When I could be sent back to ward, the staff nurse took a float like thing for me to sit, it was something which did not happen during my previous labour.
Hubby this time round stayed with me even till I went back to my ward and help me wash up and ready for bed. And this time, the stitch did not feel as bad as the last. After the birth of our first kid, I could not even walk properly even after the 3rd day. But this time, I could even walk to the bathroom myself to bathe the next morning .
Now, our princess is soon to be 6 years old. We thank God for our healthy and happy children!