Labor Stories

My story is kind of funny, as it clearly demonstates how greedy I am!

It all started on Friday, 11th August 2006 - I was headed into my 39th week. I was having period-like cramps since 3 in the morning. Nothing painful but was just uncomfortable. I went to work as usual but had a nagging feeling that something was not right. So at around 10am, I drove from KL back to PJ where my ob-gyn is. I went to the maternity ward, explained to them that I think I was having contractions. They then strapped me on the doppler machine and monitored my contractions via a graph output. The graph was flatter than an airport runway! I was, however, 2cm dilated already. After 30mins of being strapped down, they sent me home. By then it was already past noon so I decided against driving back to KL (friday traffic and all). Drove to Sunway Pyramid to join hubs for lunch instead, and enjoyed the rest of the day. Was feeling quite disappointed as I was already quite hyped-up about delivering by then.

The following Saturday, hubs and I joined my in-laws for our usual Saturday makan. FIL decided to treat us to a seafood dinner at a restaurant near the old Subang airport. As we live near Ikea, that is considerably quite a distance for us. Anyway, I enjoyed whacking the crabs, fish, prawns and lala, using the pregnancy as a valid excuse to stuff my face.

8:30pm - I was about 3/4 way through dinner when I started to have a tummy ache. First thought was, “Uh oh, I ate too fast and now all the food is fighting for space with the baby”. So I took a final piece of crab (it was a LARGE crab claw, I recall!) and went to wash my hands. I  then walked around the area, hoping to feel better (that’s what I usually do for indigestion - you can tell than I over-eat ALL the time!), but somehow the pain became more persistent. I then started to think that perhaps I was going into labour! I told my hubs and he said that I probably over-ate, AGAIN! Everyone finished up dinner while I started to time my contractions.

9:30pm - Half an hour…..20mins…..15mins….by the time we were in the car on the way home, it was only 10mins apart! But then again, I still wasn’t 100% convinced that I was in labour because I didn’t have any other signs, eg no show, waterbag didn’t burst.

 10pm - When I got home, I immediately rushed to the loo and relieved myself. Right after that, I felt so much better. Then I laughed and told my hubs that it was another false alarm! I must have eaten too much. I started winding down for the night and hubs went to take a shower.

10:10pm Just 5mins after my remark, I was hit by another bout of contractions. I timed them again…and after just 10mins, I was sure THIS WAS IT! I screamed for my hubs and we rushed to the hospital. That must have been the longest 15mins drive in my life!

10:30pm - By the time we got there and parked, I was huffing and puffing, with contractions only 2 minutes apart. I couldn’t walk and had to be wheel-chaired to the room - took enema - wheeled to the labour room and when checked, I was already 6cm dilated. However, the midwife said that because the water bag hasn’t burst yet, they didn’t call the doctor as this could go on for hours. I asked for epidural in the meantime because I’m such a chicken- cluck cluck! I settled and tried to sleep but the blood pressure monitor kept going off every 15 minutes. Hubs was happily snoozing in the chair.

12:30am - I heard a “pop” and I felt water gushing to the floor, close to where hubs was. He was quite grossed-out. Hubs buzzed for the midwife and she immediately up-ed my epi (on my request ha ha) and called my ob-gyn. She predicted delivery before 6am.

1am-4am - More waiting……….zzz a little in-between…..am exhausted. Serves me right for walking around 1 Utama for 4 hours the day before.

4:30am - Midwife came to check again and said that I was ready to push, which I did. Hubs held my hand tightly from fear (I suspect more on his part than mine)

5am - Ob-gyn arrived, looking surprisingly fresh. I supposed he’s used to waking up in the middle of the night. I continued pushing, but the baby’s head was facing upwards so had to extract him using the vacuum.

5:26am - My little angel was born, with a funny cone-shaped head due to the vacuum (Note 6 months down: I’m pleased to tell you that his head looks normal now!). Ob-gyn placed him on my tummy, baby looked at Mummy and Mummy burst out into tears. What a wimp!! Daddy followed baby to see him get weighed and cleaned-up. Mummy called the families and sent SMS to best friend. (P/S: Best friend, who delivered just 4 months before, not too impressed with getting SMS at 6am on a Sunday morning!)

I enjoyed my pregnancy and child birth so much that I think I will do it again pretty soon!