I was in labour...

Each weekend seems to hold a different surprise for us.... in the last weekend, I was awaken up at 830am in the morning by ringing of my hp, I had thought that it was the alarm that I set on it, I tried putting it to snooze a few times and it did not "obey" me. That was when I was more awake to pick up the overseas call. The call has woken me up with great news! Yes, I was going to be in labour!!!

ha ha ha.... u must think that I was pulling your leg. But nope! I was going to be in the delivery suite of dear friend Em. (the lady who drove us to Amsterdam & Luxembourg 3hrs each way when we were in Brussels) The call was from Al, her hubby, who was in NY at the time of her delivery... so I was called on to keep her company in the delivery suite!! Such an honor!

I quickly leaped out of bed and jumped into the shower (got to prepare for the long haul cos her waterbag burst without any contractions....) Got myself nicely cleaned up and borrowed a digicam from my bro (another great blessings that he only lived 1block away!! :) ) Jumped into a cab and reached her within an hour of getting the morning call. (another great blessing that Singapore is such a tiny country hee..)

It was so exciting to be able to witness yet another birth (when I was in sec school, we had a program to be attached to a hospital, there, my classmate & I witness our first C-section birth, but it was too long ago, less personal with the mummy, so this is definitely way to exciting, PLUS, we are also looking forward to the day when its my turn... in God's time).

When I reached the hospital, I was expecting to see Mama-to-be Em to be in pain because of the contractions and perhaps confined to the bed in preparation of the labour. Instead, she was in a crawling position, trying to reach to the other side of the bed reaching out for something in the drawer! She definitely does not seem to be in any form of discomfort!! Looking at how agile she was, she doesn't even seem to be due for delivery!! ha ha ha.... We had a good laugh ;)

It turned out that she had her waterbag broken in the middle of the night at around 130am. She called the hospital and she was advised to be admitted to the hospital to be prepared for the delivery. This baby is 3weeks EARLY!! His daddy is still far far away in NY, everyone was expecting the baby to be about 1-2weeks early. Never 3?? So daddy was not able to come back in time for his delivery.... Thus, Aunty Jen was called to document and assist in the delivery instead hee...

So at 930am, mummy was trying to clear her bowels (through the medication from the doctors) and get ready for the delivery.... at 11am, we all went down to the delivery suite with her. By then, her parents, sis, dr. morbid & myself formed the escort team. Right at the entrance of the suite, the nurses stopped the rest of the escort team from entering the delivery suite. It happened so quickly that I did not have time to respond to that, I just declared that her husband is not around, and I'm the appointed "companion" and went straight inside with her.



It was time for her to have a drip set on her left hand, so that she can get some "food" in her system since she'll be forbidden to eat anything from then onwards. Woah, the drip ran really really FAST! In about half an hour, one bag of 500cc of saline was all gone into her body! hee....

Next was the really scary part. EPIDURAL! Yep, it was a tough procedure to insert anesthesia down the spinal cord to relief the contractional pains in the abdomen. The anesthetic doctor, Dr. Raymond, came into the suite with a big grin on his face and started explaining the procedure to the both of us. It sounded really dangerous and has tonnes of side effects. Like possible tension headaches for upto 4days!! During the run of the anesthesia, the person will feel itch, puking, shivering and many many more. Taking on the epidural itself IS a dangerous process, if the insertion of the needle is not inserted correctly, the patient may have other side effects. So its tougher to have a perfect insertion on those with crooked spine. Guess what.... Em has one of the most crooked spine that Dr. Raymond has ever seen! Knowing that sent more shivers down our spines. As Dr. Raymond was explaining the procedures to us, Em showed signs of anxiousness, I kept assuring her that dr. has to give us the worst case scenarios to prep us. But the actual process will be bearable.

Shortly after his explanations, Dr. Raymond started to suit up into a sterile robe and set up his "epidural" station. Em was sitted upright, with her back towards the doc and had a pillow to hug on to. I held her hands for assurance and I could see the whole process of setting the epidural.... that was quite FRIGHTFUL! I commented that if this process really freaks me out, I'll just skip the whole pregnancy part and dive straight for an adoption. Hee.... okay lah, I chickened out, I did not peep so much to see the whole entire process, but judging by the many jerks that Em had from all the poking and insertion, its definitely not a fun process....

So she's got a drip on one hand, an epidural-linked drip on her back to the right side of the bed, two baby monitors on her belly (one for the baby heart beat, one for contractions of the uterus), blood pressure monitor for mummy and another tube for drainage of her bladder. Lots of stuff hooked up to her and she doesnt feel a thing!! heh... lucky gal! No contractional pains wan leh!!! And its only 1230pm. She only 2.5cm dilated. We've got to reach 10cm for her to start the pushing process.... and its just waiting for her to dilate further. There was a cosy arm chair beside her bed for ME, it can recline backwards for more comfort. We both took that chance to lie back and relax... chatted and doze off (sorry was too comfy to take pictures of the armchair hee...).

Inbetween our chats and dozing, the nurses came in at 15mins intervals to check on the heart rates, blood pressures, taking down all the records. At 3pm, an MO came in to do another check, well, still at 3cm only. She said should be around 10pm or so for the delivery. Good thing she gave us good warning, allowed us to gauge the time to inform the rest of the family and friends. Goody, more sleep hee. I was really enjoying the nap. Though I wont be the one doing the pushing of the baby, dun really need that "extra" rest but, what the hack, already there what must also enjoy the pamper. If only that chair has massaging functioins, maybe Osim can consider sponsoring their chairs to entice future parents in buying their own armchairs hee.... Good marketing avenue.



A corner of the suite where many many stuff were kept, super organised!


Ad came to the hospital in the evening and brought with him a pair of walkie talkies hee... we tested them out... yeah it works! We have comms!! for the rest of the evening, we all had fun talking over the walkies, exchanging silly jokes.... they even coined a temporary name for Em & Al's newborn.... called "Emlex" ha ha ha... quite awlful sounding hor?? At 6+pm, another check on Em, confirmed that she's dilated to 6cm!! Yeah, 4 more hours to go! We were getting excited hee... tempo buiding up both inside & outside the delivery suite heh...

The MO consulted her gynea and instructions were given to increase the medication to induce labour. All this while, Em had to endure the side effects of epidural, it started with lots of itch all over the body, esp. in the zone where the anesthesia ends! She commented that she's scratching like a monkey! hee... wonder if monkeys have similar chemicals running through their system hee... Also, she gradually felt more of the puke coming, until she finally PUKED! Oh man.... lots and lots of stuff came out! (but she din eat anything leh...) Although it was mostly clear fluid, I was relieved to see that she's not puking out her bile, yet.... She felt much better after puking, shortly after the puke-relief, she started shivering... another side effects of epidural. We had the itch-puke-shiver cycle for quite a while until 9ish.... At the 3rd puke, she was definitely puking out her bile juices... that kinda got to me.... the strong stench of bile... I had to turn away to reach out for the paper towel to avoid puking myself! heh....

A probe was set to monitor the baby's heart beat to a even greater detail... super cool!



then at 930pm, MO came in to do the check... VOLA she's fully dilated! She's READY!!! We totally did not expect it! So I had to quickly walkie the good news over to the "pom-pom" crew outside to standby for the GOOD NEWS hee. A midwife came in and started explaining the breathing-pushing procedures to Em & me while she set up the room to prep for the Dr. Anna's arrival to receive the baby. She got Em into the sit up position, Em was suppose to take a deep breath through her nose, hold it, and PUSHHHHHHHHHHH for 10 counts and then take a short breath, PUSH again! She's got to do it twice in a row for the baby to stay pushed out or something like that.... She got Em to practise practise abit.... and before we knew it, she was telling us that she can SEE the baby's head!! like a 10cent coin, then 50cent coin!! SO cool! I took a peep! hee.... I saw his hair!

the next few mins happened so fast that it was almost impossible to capture them in picture. I had to walkie over the good good news to the "pom-pom" crew and they all got ecstatic!! So was I! Not knowing what to expect, I just held Em's head when she had to push, watched her face, at times, she would be sooooo pale after the 2nd push. Poor thing. Dr. Anna came in, got dressed and more midwives came in and all was helping Em to do the PUSH routine. After a few mins, baby "emlex"'s head popped out! hee.... yah, just his tiny head. Em had a short breath-break and the pushing started again, this time his tiny body came out! SO FAST! Baby "emlex" was placed on mummy while Dr. Anna and the midwife team started to check on him, clean him, and cut his umbilical cord. And of course, baby "emlex" was SCREAMING his tiny lungs out! hee....

more pushing and the afterbirth or placenta came out. Dr. Anna showed us how it worked, we were super educated boy! sorry forgot to take picture AGAIN! but managed to capture many of baby's firsts hee....

I got his first SCREAM, first weight, first pee, first height measurements, first head circumference, first bath, first suckling sound, first glance at a digicam.... I guess, its enough to make up for the difference lah hor??



Dr. Anna was patiently explaining to Em on how she'll feel over the next few days as her body is recovering from the labour, the stitches, the birth etc. All this while she was stitching her up ha ha ha... interesting eh?

Soon, 1hr+ after the delivery, mummy & baby was ready to leave the delivery suite and go out and meet the pompom folks. A huge cheer was heard when we were been received. Yeah.... all in a days' job.

Baby's alert and curious about this new world that he's in. He's got strong affinity for technical items like his daddy. He'll stop crying to look at the digicam!! hee... yes, he's a cute one. Definitely going to be a bundle of joy for his folks! Congrats!!