After weeks of waiting at home, reading up and watching videos on birth stories and signs and symptoms of labor, as much as I have wanted to experience a real labor, somethings are not up to me to decide.
Now thinking back, I guess there were signs that little cheeks was on the way, but nothing was concrete. 29th Sep was probably one of the most adventurous day during my days of staying at home. Went out for early lunch with friends and even went Suntec to walk walk shop shop a bit after that. I even wanted to drive myself there and back because it was raining, but Cheeky didn't let me, in case anything happen on the way. Evening time, I still went Parkway for dinner and a bit of shopping before heading home and marking the end of another weekend. But somehow inside me, I knew little cheeks is not going to stay in me for much longer as I could feel her pressing down harder and making it more difficult for me to move around. Moreover, I could sense a kind of menstrual cramp feeling getting stronger (it started abt a week ago and until now, I have no idea if this is the very early stage of contraction.)
And so that night everything was as per normal, we went to sleep around midnight. Cheeky was snoring away but I couldn't sleep well. At almost 1am, I felt some liquid leaking down there, but I chose to ignore it and continued trying to fall asleep, thinking it was another false alarm because throughout the past 2 days or so, I've been feeling liquid coming out but everytime I check, there was nothing. A while later, I thought I better go to the toilet to check it just to be sure. Now this time it was something different, my pantyliner was all wet, but I still wasn't hundred percent sure if that's my water. So I decided to put on another pad and wait a while and see. I went back to bed and woke Cheeky up gently telling him "I think your little girl is on her way, but I'm not too sure."
After lying on the bed for another few minutes, I felt a bit of water coming out again, and so I sat up, and I felt more water flowing out, and so I jumped out of bed and then it happened, a gush of water just came out like that, enough to wet my pants. It was unmistakable, my water bag broke! But I don't feel any pain or contraction. And so I quickly washed up a bit and got changed and grabbed my hospital bag and all the documents and Cheeky sent me to the hospital.
Upon arriving at the hospital, the reception guided us to the observation ward after telling her that my water broke. There, they gave me a cup for urine test and got me to change into the hospital gown. Luckily they were very fast if not I think I'll have left a trail of water everywhere. After which, I was asked to lie on the bed and strapped on the ctg. There and then, my contractions were very very mild and didn't feel any pain at all, all I felt was more water flowing out uncontrollably.
And so I lay there, secretly hoping for more painful contractions or something to happen as the woman beside me was already almost screaming in pain. After a while, the nurse came in to check on me and asked Cheeky to do the hospital admission as our princess will be out that day by hook or by crook. Till then, there was no progress, still zero cm dilated..... The only feeling I had was hunger (seriously)
I can't remember the exact sequence, but I knew through the night, I was given fleet to empty my bowels, the nurse poked my veins twice (cos she couldn't get any blood the first time round) to draw my blood for cordblood banking and to inject antibiotics iv for fear of infection. Then at 4 plus, the order from my gynae was given to insert a pill to induce the dilation. Soon after, I was pushed into the labor ward and another round of waiting started...
My gynae came in the morning abt 9ish to check: no progress! We had to make a choice, either induce somemore and wait (with no guarantee that it will succeed) or go for a caesarian. I had always wanted to do a natural, but the situation didn't seem promising, and dragging on for too long will only cause more danger to the baby and it will cost a bomb, worst still, if after rounds of induction and dilation baby still can't come out, it will still end up in a caesarian. But Cheeky knew caesarian was my last resort, so we decided to give it another chance. At about 12.30pm, the nurse came in and started me on i.v. to increase the contraction and we were told to wait another 3 hours for my gynae to be back and make the final decision. And so we waited again, luckily I had permission to eat some sandwich for breakfast and Cheeky went out for brunch, if not we would both have fainted. Only abt 2 hours into the iv induction did I start to feel a bit more painful contraction, but I didn't have a good feeling abt it because the nurse said I'm suppose to feel it every 2-3 minutes and it's suppose to be very painful, which I'm obviously not. By 4ish, my gynae was back and checked: still only 1cm dilated and so he said, let's do a caesarian.
From there, everything happened so fast. The nurses started to prepare me and everything else. I got shaved, stuffed by a catheter, given some antacid to drink and signed a form which I had no idea what was written on it. Then, I was pushed into the Operating Theatre where I transferred myself onto the operating table. Then the anesthetist came and asked me to lie on my side and curl up and a nurse stuffed a mask full of gas (laughing gas??) onto my face while he jabbed my spine. I was in a half-blurry and drowsy state when I got cut opened. I didn't feel anything and all I remember was I couldn't stop tears from flowing and kept asking where is Cheeky.
Cheeky came in soon, all dressed and masked up. According to him, I was already sliced open and they were digging for the baby. He stood by my side comforting me while I felt the doctors pulling and pushing my tummy and in less than 5 minutes, I heard her first cry! After spending almost 40 weeks in my tummy, talking and 'playing' with her everyday, bringing her to so many places, baby Kylie is finally out to see the world! After cutting the umbilical cord, cleaned and wrapped up, she was placed in my arms. As I looked at her tiny little face, that moment was magical and everything happened so fast. After which, Kylie was taken out to be examined by the pd and Cheeky followed to take her photos while I was being stitched up. The whole process took only about 15 minutes and I couldn't help falling asleep after that. When I woke up, I was already in my ward and shivering non-stop.
Kylie is a perfectly healthy 2.905kg little girl and she has double eyelids! (couldn't help but that's the first thing I noticed when she opened her little eyes) Like every mother's child, she is perfect to me.
That's our sweet little girl, who greeted us with a smile right after she made her first cry. (more photos later)
The few days and nights in hospital wasn't too bad. The first night, Cheeky stayed with me and we both totally concussed. The second day was better, though I was stucked on the hospital bed with the catheter still in and I was only given some porridge and horrible tasting food. It didn't help that my appetite was still good as per normal and other than being immobile, I was feeling ok, moving around was a bit painful, but still bearable. Second night I stayed alone, which was quite a challenge especially when they brought little Kylie in for breastfeeding and I can't really move, but somehow, I survived! The catheter was taken out in the middle of the night and by day 3, I was up on my feet and moving around, very slowly. The wound didn't hurt as much as I expected it to, only getting up and down the bed was more difficult, and the wound actually felt more numb than painful when pressed. Finally on thursday, I was going home with my little princess!!!
Gosh, I'm a mother now, and motherhood is a milestone learning journey that no books can teach. There are good days, there are bad ones, but seeing her face and her smile makes everything worthwhile.
