Flashback Friday – The Birth Story | The Adventures of Bulbie

No one told me that being a new parent = no sleep + no personal time = dairy cow

Apologies for the lack of ~~will power and energy~~ posts

If it counts for anything, I actually drafted this post in FEBRUARY – I somehow forgot to post it =(

So Life With Pink Princesses asked me about my birth story

and I thought to myself – yes! I should definitely blog about it before Momnesia sets in and I totally forget what hit me

So here goes – as much as my memory can retain the information (I think I might have suffered memory black outs from the excitement and pain)

28 Jan 2013

8 am – woke up bright and early, looked at my huge bump and said “ADIOS BUMP – Bub will be here today!!” (little did I know that it would take more than a day)

9 am – reached the Gynae’s and started induction (because Sage was estimated to be about 3.5 kg which is considered quite huge if I still wanted a natural delivery)

10.30 am – got the news that I should walk around while waiting and come back to the clinic at 12.30 pm

so we went to a shopping mall nearby and I thought that we were going to do some shopping in air-conditioned comfort and have a nice lunch, but Peas wanted to run some errands – so we crossed the roads in the blazing sun to the post office and I requested to sit down for awhile as I started to get some backaches

Peas: “you’re suppose to walk! come on!”

Me: “… …”

we then walked past a REALLY NERDY exhibition on Singapore’s Tax History – of course Peas was intrigued by it and said “This is way more educational than shopping right? Let’s go for it!”

I thought to myself – “oOoOo i’m bursting with fruit flavoured excitement with the prospects of understanding TAX” <– sarcasm spread thickly over a slice of bread

But nonetheless, we went for the exhibition – different people cope with stress and excitement differently — enough said

After the exhibition, we had to cross back to the mall – thinking that the underpass might be air-conditioned, I told Peas that I wanted to use the underpass

BAD MISTAKE – not only was it NOT air-conditioned, we had to climb the stairs BOTH WAYS – good grief

So there was another really pregnant lady trying to walk across the underpass in front of us, and this was what Peas said

“come quick! let’s race her!”

I gave him a look as my back was KILLING me — and started walking a little faster (hahahaha you can’t take the competitive streak out of me)

We managed to close the gap while climbing up the stairs – but alas the advantage she had did her well

but I digress

1 pm – we waddled back to the clinic and they hooked me up on the CTG to monitor my contractions – here’s a picture of what was going on

weird thing was – I didn’t feel any pain at all!

so they told me to take another walk and come back at 4.30 pm – I promptly went home to take ANOTHER shower =)

4 pm –

“are you SERIOUSLY not feeling any pain at all? look at your contractions!!!” – the nurse told me

“i keep thinking it’s the baby moving” – i told her

however, whilst my contractions were consistent once every 2-3 mins (In fact it got to 6 times in 10 mins)

my dilation was only 1.5 – 2 cm

so the Gynae sent me home and told me to only admit into the hospital after 11pm so we won’t have to pay for an extra night when I didn’t need the pain relief yet

went home, took yet another shower (woohooo) and we drove back to the hospital to get admitted

11 pm –

Peas and I lugged our stuff and checked into the hospital and were told to wait for my Gynae at the observation ward (you know the ones which you share with 3-4 other moms waiting to be transferred to a proper delivery suite)

tick tock tick tock we waited and were told that the Gynae would be running late as the other mom she was seeing had to do an emergency c-section

so we fell asleep and realised that my contractions were becoming less intense (i.e. the pill we inserted in the morning was losing its effects)

29th Jan 2013

2.30 am –

Hurray Gynae appears and checks me for dilation – to my dismay, 2.5 cm

pffftttt after all that waiting

Peas was told to go outside while my Gynae checked

BUT what I thought was a routine dilation check turned out to be MORE

my Gynae then proceeded to burst my water bag

now as mentioned, I didn’t need any pain relief all day, and at this juncture I was on zero pain relief

coupled with the fact that I was 100% not prepared and not aware of what was happening, I did what any reasonable person would do

SCREAM

the Gynae continued at it without much sympathy or humour at the wee hours of the morning

“Ok I’ve burst your waterbag and will put you on drip to induce – I’ll see you in the morning later” said my Gynae, as she scuttled off

winning line came from Peas as he returned to the bed to check on me: “Hey did you hear someone screaming just now? I could hear it from outside”

I looked at him “… … that was me”

we were then transferred to the delivery suite to wait for further contractions and dilations or until I decided I needed my epidural

3 am

so the nurses tried to “fix me up” with the drip and CTG in the delivery suite

I looked at that needle and then asked the nurse: “you reckon it will hurt?”

I mean seriously, my question was really more rhetorical, and thinking that most times, they would say “no dear, it won’t hurt that much” etc etc

THIS particular nurse told me: “of course pain lah! The needle so thick, how can I say not pain? And if you keep moving, I will have to jab a few more times because the vein will ‘run away'”

sheesh louise! thanks nurse, thanks.

but of course I had to suck it up and looked the other way as she jabbed my hand and asked “so pain or not?”

I told her “well now that I’m not looking it doesn’t hurt as much”

and her response (and I swear I heard a tinge of disappointment in her tone) “oh not pain?”

anyways, chugging along

4 am

a sudden unfamiliar pain struck me and I woke Peas up – “Hey Peas – I think I’m starting to feel contraction pains – how? should I wait til like 6 am in the morning?”

silliest question I have ever asked – I mean WHY did I even say that? If it’s pain, do it now, why would anyone in pain wait til 6 am?! so the anaesthetist can have breakfast first before coming over?!?

(don’t know what got over me – might be the pain – don’t ask)

but knowing that I had to give the anaesthetist 1 hr to make her way to give me my epidural, I pressed the buzzer at 4.30 am for the epidural

4.45 am

Anaesthetist burst into the room with a smile on her face and a song in her heart – think of Glinda The Good Witch of Oz + sorority + cheerleader type of a doctor (i swear if this were a movie or a cartoon, streamers and balloons and confetti would be falling from the sky)

AGAIN Peas was told to wait outside (thus missing out on all the action)

“HEY SWEETIE I’M HERE TO GIVE YOU YOUR EPIDURAL – GOOD MORNING – DON’T WORRY IT WILL BE OVER SOON – NOW REMEMBER IT WILL BE A VERY FAST PROCEDURE BUT YOU CANNOT MOVE AT ALL – NOT EVEN TALK – IF NOT I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO INSERT THE TUBE IN… NOW GET READY…”

(and she went on and on and I was in pain so it sounded more like “XJOEJFPOAEFPOAMFPOAMFPOAWFJOWAJFOPAWJFPOA” to me)

then the next thing I knew I said “OUCH”

“NOW SWEETIE – REMEMBER I TOLD YOU NOT TO TALK AT ALL – I CANNOT INSERT THE TUBE WHEN YOU MOVE OR TALK”

of course! how did I forget that?! oh wait – because it really did hurt?!?!

then I did the 2nd silliest thing I did that day

“OUCH” (again)

and all I heard was “GAS HER GAS HER”

and I saw a scuba diving contraption come towards my face

next thing I heard was

“OKAY SWEETIE IT’S DONE DON’T WORRY YOU WILL BE FINE NOW – OK TAKE CARE DON’T WORRY”

then the door closed

wow – she came, she saw, she conquered, she left – in 10 mins flat

“that was fast – does she live nearby?” I asked the nurse on how the Doctor appeared within 15 mins

“nope, she just drives a ferrari” – the nurse told me (at that moment, I made a mental note that being an anaesthetist would be a great career choice for Sage)

5.30 am

with the epidural in place, I slept like a baby and the next thing I knew, dilation was at 5 cm

9.30 am

the nurses woke me up to check my dilations again – 9 cm

whoopie! we’re in business

10.50 am

10 cm and ready to boogie

the nurses came and gave taught us what needed to be done as we clearly forgot what we were taught in those ante-natal classes – and we had 3 mini rehearsals before they told me to wait for my Gynae to come

“ok very good – you just have to push like that later when the doctor comes and you will be fine” said the nurse

I felt good – pushing felt more like doing a stomach crunch then pooping

11 + am

Gynae appears and she performed the episotomy and after the first push I heard everyone exclaim

“excuse me, excuse me – my tummy is in the way, but what just happened?” I asked

Peas: “oh the baby’s head is out”

“the head is out – like the head? or the hair is showing? it’s different” I replied (with an epidural you really haven’t a clue, and my bump was not doing me any visual favours as well)

Peas: “the whole head!!”

Me: “oh oh oh what now? what now?”

and with another 2 half pushes, Sage was out!!!

and suddenly my tummy went down and I could see some of the action

11.23 am

HELLO SAGE!!!!