so it began in the wee hours of 23 april, after midnight. that familiar feeling. not those braxton-hicks kind of contractions which i’d been getting for what seems like forever, but sharper. i was prettifying another diaper cake while watching tv while everyone was asleep, and kept watch on the clock at the same time. it’s begun, i thought – ten minutes apart.

i was still up around three, finished up, and decided to sleep till it was time for aniq to go to his oma’s house at seven in the morning. in the shower, there it was, the sign i’d been praying for – the bloody show! the mucus plug came out and there was no doubt that THIS was The Day. i guess the body, and the baby, knew i was given a deadline – the doctor had given me till the next day to have me induced! so i called the doc, told him about my contractions and the bloody show, and he said he’d meet me at the hospital shortly.

it was around eight by the time we got ready, and managed to drink the last of the akar fatimah water and a mug of milo. mum had dropped by, feeling jittery on my behalf as usual, tsk-tsked me who couldn’t help take the opportunity of sunlight to snap pictures of the diaper cake i’d completed while waiting for izad, and off we went!

thankfully, it was still early so no traffic on the ECP. registered and was led to the delivery suite by 8.45am.

how familiar.

like the last time, i was given a squirt of enema, something i’d looked forward to ha ha, no thanks to all that constipation during the last part of my pregnancy. took the minyak makan too, and recited some prayers.

the doc came in around 9+, just as i was having one of my contractions. he and the nurse placed their hands on my stomach, “good contraction,” he said, whatever that meant, then checked for dilation (4.5 to 5cm). while singing along to michael buble’s ‘sway’ which was emanating from his phone, he discreetly burst my waterbag. swoosh!

“by lunchtime you’ll be giving birth,” he declared. and he left for his clinic – all the way in kembangan ha ha.

and so i watched this machine as the minutes passed. izad even went down for breakfast.

i’d refused any of that gas rubbish, coz the last time it made me giddy. but this machine, kept me focused WAY, WAY better than any gas could! i watched the number rising as i felt my contractions – it made me anticipate them, so i was prepared to grip myself and BREATHE. after the contractions peaked, the number went down, and i could relax again.

this went on for a while, till around 10+, when it happened – the MOST intense contraction had begun, out of the blue. i watched the monitor again and the number had shot up much higher than before. the nurse called the doctor, a manager came in, both assuring us that they were trained to deliver – not that i cared! i’d watched enough of channel 70 to know that ANYONE can deliver babies, even 10-year-olds! :p

very soon after, The Urge became so strong that at the peak of my contraction, i simply had to grit my teeth and PUSHHHHH. it may be my second time doing this, but i was still naive enough not to realise that this was what all the “push! push!” fuss i’d seen on tv and movies was about – NOBODY had ever told me to push at this point, it’d always been my own doing. coz the doctor was not around – again, LOL!

but this time i KNEW that the baby was going to come out, doctor or no doctor, so i told them this was it, and they turned me supine (i was controlling my contractions and the pushing on my side all the while) – and then the final contraction:

SHE WAS OUT! just like her brother – she just… tumbled right out, all at one go. kinda slid out, actually. yeah, i sat up to see it happen too. hehe.

the husband didn’t even have the time to take a video or whatever – he was just as taken aback at the sheer rapidness of it all. all he knew was, her head appeared, and then her entire body.

the doc only came by about ten minutes later or so, to deliver the placenta and stitch me up. i *think* there were two stitches involved. i’ll ask him when i see him again next week.

i’d never imagined she’d be so… big. well, big is relative, of course, but i *am* kind of on the small side. the wonders of the womb, to have withstood the weight and tenacity of this baby.

and well… that’s that. she came at her own time, just as i KNEW she would.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 27th, 2008 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Birth, ChapII. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.