It took me almost a year to get Speckie's birth story out and I resolved not to let the same happen to XLB, here's hers.

I always have grand plans every weekend and even with the EDD drawing to a near, I did not want to concede defeat to the belly nor compromise on our weekend plans. 2 June came and I woke up feeling not so great - disrupted sleep is one and well it just did not feel right. We headed for soccer class, back for a nap and then headed for the Act 3i festival that I bought tickets way earlier and was definitely taking a chance on my own participation since Speckie arrived earlier than I intended.

After the play, I felt slight discomfort at the belly, ignored it and even went for a spot of shopping - oops, the cramps got more intermittent and I informed the Hubba we could be celebrating XLB's birthday today. Made our way home, showered, took my bumpfies, timed the contractions...even sat through dinner with the contractions coming in waves. Damn, my mom had my favourite chye poh kuay teow on the table and I barely ate. I even insisted on taking my last family photos before making our way to NUH.

The moment I sat in the car the contractions were irregular - chey! By the time we reached around 730pm, I was wheeled to the delivery suite (again, remember the false alarm) and then strapped on to monitor yet another 30-45 minutes for contractions and for the gynae to decide if I were really in labour and for the antibiotics drip to be administered.

It was ETERNITY in pain and thank god for my gynae who did the cervix check (and not some random MO like the last pregnancy). I kept repeating I wanted my epidural and when I got it, the relief was temporal. I could still feel the contractions not entirely but it was helluva painful. Asked to double the dose and even THEN, I was wincing in pain (argh). The last shot at this was when the anaesthesist warned that upping it further would mean I cannot feel a thing and it would be the equivalent of going for a csect kind of numb.

Turns out because of her position, the epidural probably could not numb my entire belly - boo! Now back to Strep B and the antibiotics drip I needed to administer for 4 hours so XLB would be protected whilst coming down the birth canal. The labour progressed too fast after epidural was administered, the waves of contraction were so close, there was no way (absolustely no way) I would have not taken epidural.

Gynae was called in sometime 3 hours later and moments before she entered, my waterbag burst with a 'pop' and a gush of water was felt. First time experiencing it actually and I barely needed to push, XLB crowned on her own with minimal tearing.

There endeth my second birth story, nothing dramatic but I wish she needn't be subject to all the jabs because the antibiotics were not administered enough.



 


Welcome to the world, little one. You complete us and to God be all glory, over and over and over again.