Image from photo contest
Many of my friends tell me that when their water bags burst, they had time to shower and eat something, and then make their way to the hospital as there was no hurry..one even had time to take a hot bath, blogged about her water bag bursting then drove to the hospital!
So when I woke up on 10 Oct at 7.30am, when I felt fluid trickling, I went to toilet to check and YES! My water bag has finally burst! I m FINALLY going to give birth.. you can imagine how excited and overjoyed I was, after waiting for the past 4 weeks at home and 1 day short of my EDD (Expected Due Date, which was on 11 October- coincidentally my sister’s birthday). If I had given birth on 11 Oct, Christabelle would have been in my tum tum for exactly 40 weeks.
At week 36, my gynae told me that I will give birth anytime as my birth canal shortened to 1cm and my mucus plug kinda discharged.. so I hurriedly took leave and stay home, lest I give birth at work!
So I waited.. and waited for 1 month! Oh man.. waiting was such an agony…
Ok, continue with the birth story.. water bag burst, told papa Chua about it, ask MIL to cook breakfast while I showered (everyone said got time to shower and better shower coz a few days cant bath after that)..so I showered…and.. I really felt like passing motion! But.. nothing came out.. I started having contractions. By the time I was eating breakfast, the contractions were like every 5 minutes… which was weird coz our antenatal class instructor and all the baby books said that the contractions would be like 30mins apart until the time that the baby is coming, then it would be like 5 minutes apart.. and I kept on feeling like I want to poo! Which was so weird..!
So by the time we got on the car, the contractions were like so painful..! I called the labour ward to tell them we were coming and by the time we were almost there, I felt like I couldn’t walk at all, so better ask them standby wheelchair for me.. which they did. By the time we reached at 830am, a security guard was waiting for us with a wheelchair. He pushed me up to the labour ward and was trying to ask the nurse where to “place” me. So he left me at the labour ward reception and went to ask.. at that point, I was already cringing in pain and it was so painful that I was moaning in pain!
I told him, “Uncle, very painful already!” Then, he started to panic when he realize that I cannot tahan already.. the nurse placed me in the waiting bed (not the labour ward yet coz usually people don’t give birth so fast!) and when the mid wife came in, the first thing I asked was,
“Can I have epidural (pain relief) now?!! Very painful! I feel like I want to pass motion!”
She then explained that the feeling of wanting to pass motion is the baby pushing her way out and that I CANNOT PUSH now…I must resist the urge… (antenatal class teacher said, if the midwife say cannot push, you cannot push yet else your labour will take longer) BUT its was so hard to resist the urge! Have you ever tried holding back your poo when its almost coming out? Duh..
Then midwife proceed to check my dilation while I was screaming in pain.. she checked and started to panic when she said, “oh, you dilate 8cm already! (PS: 10cm = about time to give birth)”
Then she panicked. I kept asking for epidural coz it was painful..! She told me she go and look for anesthetist and prepare a ward for me. I asked where was papa Chua, and she told me he was doing the admission procedures and scolded me, “see lah, you come in so late, everyone rushing for you now!” I didn’t have the energy to tell her I came in almost immediately after water bag burst.. I almost thought I was going to give birth before hubby came up..
**Midwife stressed and complaining to the nearby nurses in the background, “see lah! She stressing me! Want epidural, dilated 8cm already! Still need to give her antibiotics! Where to find anesthetist?”
After 3 minutes, she came back with the bad news..
Midwife: I can’t find any anesthetist for you now, all of them are busy. Anyway I don’t think you can make it for epidural, you will probably give birth by the time you get the epidural. So can you go without epidural?
Me: ????!!! No epidural?!!! How can? Huh! Everyone needs epidural..! But then, I think I didn’t have much of a choice… so ok.. no epidural loh..
Papa Chua came and the 1st thing I told him was that midwife said that I can’t have epidural coz no time and no anesthetist (later after I gave birth, he told me he was going like: Oh shit, no epidural.. cham liao! coz long time ago I told him I MUST have epidural, I scared pain…!)
So I got wheeled into labour ward and nurse told me, ok, you can start pushing anytime, gynae will come up soon.. so daddy chua and the midwife became my cheerleaders…push and push.. (sounds easy huh? But pushing not painful was the earlier part of contractions that can die one..) ok, at last at 0959hrs (1 min short of 10am- someone said she got character, purposely come out at 0959 instead of 10am), our baby belle came out into this wonderful world! Luckily she’s kind to mummy, come out fast fast in record time, in 2.5hrs! When she don’t want to come out, she make us wait for 1 month, when she feel like coming out, its fast and furious! Maybe she’s still in post F1 mood..
But anyway, I still can’t believe I made it without epidural- not that I had much of a choice! (I thought no epidural -was only for the very brave women out there, so far I only know of one case, the mummy say she don’t want epidural, I was full of admiration for her courage!) but still it was an amazing feat and I think I should give myself a big pat on my back!