After the false alarm on National Day, I've been telling myself to minify the contraction pains I feel. But in the early morning of 18 August, at around 3am, the pains are coming on too strong to ignore. At around 4am, I decided to time the frequencies and duration of the contractions. It turned out that I'm having a contraction of around 1 minute every 6 to 8 minutes. I was contemplating if I should wake up Hubby. He was so sound asleep. I thought for a long time. I realized that it's better to head to the hospital early if not we'll be caught in the morning peak hour traffic later.
So I woke Hubby up. Sleepily he asked how often was the interval. Upon hearing that it was 6-7 minutes, he almost jumped out of bed. What followed was a crazy hurry to wake Mom and Tessa, and had everyone ready to leave for Clementi. Tessa was surprisingly very wide awake and chirpy.
On the way to Clementi, the contractions remained relatively regular and strong. I called the emergency hotline to inform them that we are on our way. At Clementi we bought ourselves some Mac breakfast before heading to NUH.
We reached NUH A&E at around 5.40am. We were brought to Ward 22 and registered at 6am. We were given Suite 10. Hubby had told me beforehand that I can ask for epidural and this time round he won't ask any questions. So without further ado, I told the nurse that I opt for epidural when asked what kind of pain relief I want.
The houseman on duty came to check my dilation; and informed that I am 6-7cm dilated. He called to inform Dr Anna. Dr Anna asked to speak to Hubby. She told him that looking at my situation, it was already too late to call for the anaesthetist. I can only rely on the gas (entonox).
The nurse consoled me that this will save us some money. I told her Hubby is the one who's extremely happy, not me. The nurse advised that to gain maximum benefit I need to start breathing the gas as soon as I feel a contraction start. This means the maximum action is being achieved at the height of the contraction. At first, I didn't dare to use the gas too much and tried to endure the pain. But as the pain intensifies, I had to put the mask on longer. The pain is excruciating and the gas did little to relieve it.
The midwife came in every now and then to check on me. She advised that I should alert her if I felt the urge to push the baby out. By this time, the pain was almost unbearable and I did feel the urge to push. So I signaled to Hubby to call the nurse (by this time it was so painful that I can't speak as I perpetually had the gas mask on). The nurse came and checked my dilation and said that I'm still 6-7cm dilated, so not yet.
By this time, Dr Anna had arrived at the hospital. She reassured me that she'd be around. After Dr Anna left, the pain intensified and what ensued just happened naturally. Pain came, I pushed as if removing my bowels. This went on for some time before the nurse came back to check on me. Removing the sheets covering me, she exclaimed that she can see the baby's head. Then frantic broke out in the delivery suite as they frantically called for Dr Anna who nearly went into a casaerean operation. During all the panic, I was like half conscious, wondering if I'm going to faint or die from the pain. I just did what my body tells me, breathes in the gas when the contraction came and then push. Dr Anna arrived just in time to deliver the baby. I could clearly feel his warm body slipping out from me at 8:31am. Then still quite conscious, I noted that the nurse is going to give me a jab to deliver the placenta. I followed Dr Anna's instructions and was slowing regaining my composure.
At last I was all stitched up and ready to breastfeed my boy for the first time. After breastfeeding, we waited to be transferred back to the normal ward. Finally we were in Ward 96 bed 9 at around 10 plus.
This time round though exhausted the after effects are more bearable. I felt more energetic than the last time I gave birth to Tessa. The recovery was also more speedy. So there were really merits in not using epidural.
That's how my little boy arrives on 18 August 2010 at 8.31am, weighing 3.405kg, measuring 52cm tall and head circumference of 34cm.
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