Labor Stories

Everyone tells me the 1st child is usually late: Late as in past 40 weeks in gestation. Mine wasn’t. Belle’s due date was suppose to be on Nov 11th or was it the 12th? Can’t remember anymore but I do know she was suppose to share the same birthday as Sun Yat-Sen.

My mom even scheduled to arrive on Nov 4th from Canada ‘cos she wanted to sight-see first. She was also on the assumption my labour would be late. She told me I was an overdue baby; so she assumed my daughter would be like me. She was soooo wrong; ‘cos this monkey queen (yea, she tumbled and turned quite a lot in the womb) decided to greet her Popo on Nov 4th.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A week before Nov 4th:

Jon and I had started to visit the ObGyn once a week since wk 36. She told us I was 1cm dialated and from the measurement of my girth the baby should be over 6 lbs but no more than 7 lbs.

We went home feeling excited. I was extremely excited ‘cos I was at my wits sitting at home doing nothing. Everytime I log on to IM, my friends would ask, “Still no sign?”

Eventhough I was spotting (a little) off and on, I think since wk 34, my cervix was still stuck at 1cm. I tried walking and climbing the stairs ‘cos a coworker told me climbing stairs does wonders to dialation. I was so kan lick (Cantonese: hardworking). I climbed the stairs everyday but cervix still stuck at 1cm. 

Nov 3rd:

I was getting sick of eating my MIL’s cooking and wanted something different. Jon brought me to Chilli’s for dinner. I think I had steak ‘cos I couldn’t take any carbs due to my GD. The meal was so-so but it was better than Chinese food.

Once we got home, I took a bath and even had a good poop. Since I was on iron pills I was kinda surprise my poo-poo was very smooth. Did you know pooping or having pooping sensation is a tell-tale sign of labour? After that I went downstairs, plopped on my comfy sofa and switched on the TV. I remember clearly what was on that night: Lord of the Rings, episode 2.

Around 10pm, my tummy started to contract. I waved it off as Braxton-Hicks ‘cos I was getting a lot of false contraction throughout the week. The contraction was about 10 mins apart but stopped after an hour or so.

The movie went on till almost midnight. By that time my contraction became more frequent. I told Jon about it and we decided to stay put first. We then decided to go to zzzland. He said maybe by sleeping my contraction will go away. How we got that silly assumption? The doc said my due date was Nov 11th/12th mah!

Jon fell asleep very fast but I was wide awake. Somehow I couldn’t sleep. I kept tossing and turning. Jon’s snoring didn’t help too. I felt like hantam (Malay: pound) him but didn’t do it ‘cos I knew he was dead tired. Despite the pain, I had about a few mins of deep sleep in between contractions.

About 12.30 am:

Tapped Jon on the shoulder but this hubby of mind kept snoring away. Called out to him and his snores became louder. What the heck?! I kept looking at the clock. The contractions were 6-7 mins apart and kept going for over an hour. I told myself, “To heck with it, I’m gonna try to sleep again.” Woke up again. Looked over to the clock–almost 2am.

I couldn’t take it anymore and the contractions were 5 mins apart. I called out to Jon again. The reply I got was ZzzzZZZzz. WTF! Oh yea, I found myself more vulgar during pregnancy..hehe. I pushed Jon. He slept like a log. I resorted to kicking his legs. He finally woke up after several kickings from me. I told him calmly, “let’s go to the hospital now.” Guess what he did?

He quickly clammered down the bed. Tried to get my pants, almost couldn’t find it, and helped me wear my pants, socks and sweater. He was so kelam-kabut (Malay: clumsy). He pulled me up from the bed ‘cos I just couldn’t get up. I’ve fell and hurt myself many times but nothing compare to the pain I was experiencing then. The walk from my room to downstairs seemed like a long time. I had to stop midway to breath and Jon had to lug me halfway down the stairs. Junior got excited to see us in the family room. We told him to be a good boy and mommy & daddy will be back.

2:15am: Arrived at Stanford Hospital

Luckily for us, we had pre-registered so we need not register at the maternity ward upon checking in. I was wheeled to a small room and was told to strip from waist down. The nurse checked my cervix and told us, “1 cm.” I yelled (not loudly), “What?! It can’t be!” I told her my contractions were 5 mins apart. She said I’m probably going through real labour contraction now but my cervix wasn’t ripe yet. She went out and checked with the ObGyn who was doing  rounds that night. Later she told us either we could go home and wait till I start dialating (my waterbag was intact) or I could walk around the wing to help speed up the dialation.

In mind, “WTF! So damn painful still wanna ask me to jalan-jalan??” Anyway, I took her suggestion. The 2 rounds I made on the wing was like a tortoise marathon. It also felt like the loooooongest walk I’ve ever made in my life! I walked about 5 to 7 steps and had to stop to huff & puff when contraction happened. Midway to the 2nd round I told Jon I couldn’t take it anymore and begged to be admitted right away.

~to be cont’d