Labor Experience.

As promised (though tad late), I'd like to commemorate my labor experience right here on my blog.

I know I've been procrastinating to blog but in all honesty, being a mom keeps me occupied almost all the time! Every time I try to get my hands on the laptop, I'll be rushing to do a lot of things. Pay bills, check emails, replying them, facebook messages, reading facebook notificatiosn, the list is endless. So by the time I'm done doing all that, voila, my little girl wakes up. Hence, the attempt to update my blog just stopped right there and then.

But right now, my mom (her nenna) is taking care of her and in fact is asleep, so I'm doing all the checkings later and blogging first.

So here goes :)

10th July 2011 (Sunday)
It was morning and it was time for breakfast. I took a sip of hot milo and somehow I felt my stomach was at unease. Unexpectedly and unfortunately, I had severe stomach cramps. In fact it was more like the stomach spasms like the ones that got me admitted to hospital twice. I yelled in pain (it was almost unbearable), which resulted in panics all over the house thinking that I was going to deliver (I'm sure it wasn't time yet) any time soon. So my husband rushed me to the emergency department at DSH and the doctor on call jabbed me with Buscopan. But before I was given the medication, the nurses called up my gynae informing them of my situation and it was him who suggested that I be jabbed with that pain relief. I was told to stay there for a couple of hours for observation fearing that I might deliver yadayadayada (I was 38 weeks at that time). So I slept through the time, woke up to the doc on call's question "How are you feeling?" told her I felt better, as expected. Fyi, this isn't my first time taking that jab so I knew that medication was going to relieve me of the pain. Alhamdulillah. Went back home, rested all day.

11th July 2011 (Monday)
830 am, got a call from Chen, my gynae's personal assistant. Asked me to come by the clinic cause my gynae wanted to check my condition after yesterday's case. Apparently my gynae instructed the doc on call at the emergency dept to call him back to report to him as to my condition post-Buscopan. In fact, it was him who could discharge me. What happened was the doc on call didn't call him, made the decision alone and discharged me without his consent. He was rather angry, I was told hence cancelling my appointment which was supposed to be on the 12th. As I got to the hospital, I did the typical CTG scan, blood pressure, temperature, urine and dilatation test. Whilst being strapped on the bed, the midwife sensed something was amiss -- baby's heart beat was rather fast as compared to the usual readings. Normally it would be 150 beats per minute but this time it was 160 - 170. My temperature read at 37.6C which was slightly high and my blood pressure - oh my, it was read at 140/110 and that my dears, is high! Funny I didn't realize that I was having high blood pressure and fever. I thought all the uncomfortableness was part of my pregnancy. Kuat sungguh! Haha.

But the moment my blood pressure read at that rate, I knew at that instant I surely will be admitted. Hmm. After all the test, went to see my gynae, to wit he confirmed all that the midwife had said earlier, and he did the dilatation test. Finally, after a number of dilatation tests, I am 2cm dilated. That's it, my gynae said "It's time. You will have to deliver tomorrow. I will do a semi induction on you - which is to break the water for you and let nature takes its course. That means, we'll try to let the cervix dilate by itself. However, since your blood pressure is rather high, you'll have to be put on epidural. Epidural will automatically control your blood pressure in the sense that it will bring down the pressure. When you're in pain, your blood pressure will go up. Since yours is already high, without epidural it will go higher so that's risky. So get yourself admitted today, we'll monitor your blood pressure twice tonight and also do CTG scan to monitor baby's heart rate and to observe your contractions."

I sat there, staring blankly at him and said this .. "What if I don't take the epidural?"

He said, "It's going to be risky but you can try.."

My husband gave this worried look and said, "See how it goes k?"

On to admission. Unfortunately, all single rooms were unavailable that night so I was made to come to the hospital twice on the same night to monitor my blood pressure, contraction and also to check on baby's heart rate. And since there was no room available, I went back home. Prayed and prayed that all will be okay the next day.

12th July 2011 (Tuesday)
Woke up at 6 am, prayed Subuh and solat hajat and took off to DSH. Arrived there just about 7am, went to the labor room straight, changed into the green loose hospital wear (whatchamacallit). By this time I was still purging since Sunday, hence no need to introduce that ameda? Enema (thanks Abg Do :)) to make me pass motion. Slightly after 8am, my gynae came in to break my water bag and immediately I felt like I was going to have one whoopin pee! And just so you know, this purging lasted till 11am. Dammit, I was panicking or what. Bila nak start labor etc ni? The midwives kept coming into the room requiring me to do the procedure but I stalled them at every time. Last last at about 11ish my gynae instructed the anesthetist to start on with epidural. At this juncture, I had no say.

So came in this doctor, not so tall, fair skinned with a long beard, dressed in a beige uniform. He looked seriously serious (takut okay!), introduced himself and explained to me all that jazz pertaining to epi. I nodded in fear (of him, not the epi) at every sentence like a small kid listening to their parents lecturing. By the end of the explanation he asked if I was okay (I'm guessing I looked like I just saw a ghost -- takut doctor tuuu! muka garang!) and I said, yes. Cut short .. epidural procedure started. It was painful but it is bearable, well, to me la.

Two hours later.

Still having severe pain on the right side of my uterus. I was contracting every 1-2 minutes apart, was fully dilated but still feeling the utmost pain. The anesthetist was quite puzzled with my condition as I shouldn't be feeling ANYTHING. I told him I could just bear the pain but he insisted in giving me the maximum dosage fearing that I will scream at the top of my lungs. I was doing the Lamaze breathing technique all through out the painful contractions (I swear by this dude! MUST LEARN!) and was doing quite well with it (of course with assistance from Hashley) so I suggested to not add up the meds into me. But I believe doctors know best, so I succumbed myself into the one last shot of anesthesia.

Guess what? Still felt the pain! Can you believe that the anesthetist at this time cakap to me, "maybe I have to redo the procedure again". For the very first time, I was scared. I teared a little. I didn't want to redo the epidural. Sakit kot and I was so afraid of the side effects. But I braved through it all, I went ahead without it. Then came my gynae, He did the dilatation test -- at that time I was fully dilated. Said to the midwives it was time for delivery but with the assistance of vacuum extraction. Apparently all the pain that I was feeling was caused by the change of my baby's head position. She was turning to the right instead of facing down!

Approximately 4-5 pushes, I hear a loud cry and I instantaneously cried non-stop, literally. Tears were gushing down my face it was so hard to stop. Masya Allah, it was one of the most beautiful thing I've ever felt in my entire life. Pure happiness - that was all that I had in my mind. The doctor immediately placed her on my chest whilst Hashley cut the umbilical cord and my gynae stitching me up. According to him, I only had a couple of stitches on the part where he did episiotomy on me. Midwives then took her away for Apgar test, wrapped her and passed back to us for Hashley to azan and qamat. Unfortunately I wasn't able to breast feed her at that time cause I was shivering to the core which was the result of epidural (some people do shiver, some don't) but within an hour Khaisah latched on. Alhamdulillah.

In total, I was in labour for 4 hours. Not that bad lah kan, syukur. After about 2 hours of monitoring my blood pressure, was allowed to go back to the room. Dah ramai orang rupanya. As I saw my mom's face, I cried yet again. I now truly understand all the sacrifices that a mother would do / have done for her child. It was just too surreal for me but fret not, it was all good.

After the guests went back I started to feel the contraction yet again but this time it was intense. Well apparently I was having post natal contractions! Nobody told me it was going to be rather painful! Gahh. The nurse came in and gave me Ponstan painkiller -- but it didn't work. After two hours, she came in again and jabbed me with Pethidine. Guess what happened the next second? I was drowsy like stoned woman, fell asleep the next second. The next thing I knew it was 2 hours later and it was time to feed my baby again.

But above all, alhamdulillah, I can never thank Allah enough for this precious, miracle rezeki. Aside from all the pain yadayadayada, the moment you look at your child, you forget all the pain and misery that you are going through. I am so blessed and contented, I have never been happier in my life. Syukur Alhamdulilah (sorry I said this too many times but that's how I truly feel). I'm sure all mommies out there feel the exact same way that I do. No money, bags, shoes etc can ever make you feel as happy as your child can make you happy. Till then on my confinement post :)