Baby Andrew decided to come early on 10th June!
My water broke on 9th June. Was taking a nap and waiting for Melvin to come home.. got out of the bed at 5ish pm, and I dribbled water all over the place. My first thought was "@$#*! That isn't pee. He's coming early"
I had all intention to take my time and shower because that is what I've been taught in antenatal class. They told us that the baby can take up to 24 hours to arrive after the water breaks.. PLUS, I wasn't feeling any contractions.
I gave Melvin a call to ask him to come home quickly. Heard he freaked out a little in the office.. mostly because I was home alone and there was no one to help me.
Then as I walked to the bathroom, the clear dribbling liquid turned pink, then bright red. That was when I freaked out because a colleague had shared her story of placental abruption the week before. And because I panicked, I ended up dripping blood all the way to the bathroom, then back to the bedroom because I forgot to take my sanitary pad/underwear/change of clothes. Left bloody footprints all over the place.
After I cleaned myself up as best I could, I gave Melvin a call to ask him to come home fast. It was a "Can you come home and pick up stuff needed for the hospital? I'm going to the hospital on my own first. You need to come home and clean up."
Then I left. Imagine his horror at the bloody footprints.. He ended up calling every 10-15minutes while he cleaned up, fed the dog, pack his clothes (yeaaaa he dawdled on that despite my reminders that HE needed a go bag cos he was staying in the ward with me). He ended up getting to the hospital at about 7pm.
By that time, the nurses have hooked me up to a machine and apparently I WAS having contractions but couldn't feel them. They weren't strong contractions and were 8 minutes apart. My gynae refused to let me go home, saying that I was going to have to come back to the hospital in less than 24 hours anyway... she tried to secure a bed in the maternity wards for me (as opposed to me spending the night in the delivery room) but all the rooms were full, apparently.
So I stayed in the delivery ward. By 12.30am, I was begging for epidural because the contractions were coming closer and stronger.. and we all know what a wuss I am with regards to pain. I was 4cm dilated by then.
They made Melvin leave the room during the administration of the epidural. Which pissed me off cos I was so scared. Everytime I made a sound (Like "ow"), the nurse and anesthesiologist would shush me. I get the feeling the anesthesiologist wasn't very confident, and that added to my discomfort and fear. By the time they were done and they left, I was seriously annoyed. "Amateurs," I thought.
The annoying thing was after the administration of the epidural, I stopped dilating further. I know that medically speaking, epidurals don't STOP dilations, but my experience tells me otherwise. I went from 1cm - 4cm in 5 hours, then stopped dilation further after epidural was administered? Can't be a coincidence. I was still 4cm dilated at 7am on 10th June, btw.
Dr Tan decided to induce me in the morning of 10th June. Even then, it was 2pm by the time I was fully dilated. They reduced my epidural from 8units to 0.5 *sulk* Then asked me to push. So I felt every contraction. I didn't push hard enough so the nurses had to help me by pushing on my tummy.. then Dr Tan gave up and used a vacuum. Next thing I knew, I heard Dr Tan announce, "The head is out!" There was a slight flurry of activity and I heard a suction kind of noise.. they must have been clearing his airway. Melvin took one look then refocused on me. One more contraction and push, then they placed a very slimy, angry sounding baby on my chest.
It was a case of "OMG it's a baby! OMG what have I done!" /panic
The feelings of maternal love only came later.
So here's Andrew, with the photo taken 2 days ago (9 days old)
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