‘When is Isaac coming out?’ – was the question that was constantly on my mind. By this time, I was practically getting phonecalls & smses everyday asking if I had any signs of labour or whether the baby is already out. I was starting to get impatient myself to the extent I was getting pre-birth blues.
I never expect myself to go all the way till full term (EDD 23 Sept). On 20 Sept, my visit to the gynae confirmed that I was to be induced the following night as my amniotic fluid was a bit low & baby was not thriving well inside the womb. The risks of inducing were however enough to make me anxious as it might ultimately lead to an emergency C-section if the body does not respond to the drugs.
Given little choice, hubby & I packed our bags Sunday evening & proceeded to Gleneagles Hospital. We were fortunate enough to be given a free upgrade to the superior room & at no cost (as we checked in after 8pm). After a friendly nursing staff briefed us about the room & filled in my medical history, we made ourselves comfortable & even finished off our HK series! It felt like a holiday at a luxurious hotel then!
As time ticked by, we soon realized that it was 11pm & a nurse came in to check my dilation. To my dismay, my cervix was still not opened. And to add, the vaginal examination was excruciating & intrusive! I was given the enema which left me running to the toilet immediately! Gosh, was this just the start of my labour nightmare? Finally, I was offered the inducing drug at 12 midnight & decided to lie on the bed to catch some sleep.
At 3am, I woke up with bad lower backache. The pain grew in intensity & frequency. After an hour, it was accompanied by extremely bad hip pains. It really felt like my hip joints were cracking open to allow the baby to travel downwards. I called in for the nurse who asked if I was experiencing any contractions. Sadly, I honestly replied that it was only backaches & hipaches, but not much abdominal cramps! I was starting to get worried for fear that my body wasn’t responding to the drug. I prayed hard that God would send the contraction pains so I could be freed from the C-Section.
I read that walking & deep squats helped, so I started walking around the room. Each time the pain came, I had to clinch on to hubby & squeeze his arms tight. I also practiced the deep breathing exercises that were taught in the pre-natal classes. This continued till 7am when I was finally brought down to the labour ward.
By this time, I was literally pleading for epidural! My dilation was only 2cm by then, so the nurses immediately rang for the anesthetist. Thankfully, he arrived pretty quickly & by 8am, he administered the epidural through my spine. From there onwards, everything was BLISS!! Though I broke up in shivers, at least the pain was minimized & made me feel much more relaxed. The peaceful moment did not last long as 20 minutes later, the midwife was frantically calling for my gynae to come & I overhead her saying on the phone that the baby’s heartbeat was dropping drastically! I was given the oxygen mask & shortly after, she checked my dilation again & to all our amazement, it had increased to 7-8cm!
Finally at 10am, I was told I was fully dilated & could start pushing. My legs were strapped to the stirrups & I was taught the pushing techniques. After 4-5 big pushes, the baby’s head was partially out! My gynae arrived in his surgical gear, slapped his gloves on & with another 2 big pushes, baby Isaac was finally out!
Hubby cut the umbilical cord & Issac was carried to the opened arms of his proud & relieved mommy. I could not ask for a happier finale to my 10-months pregnancy journey!
