Labour Pains: The Great Delivery!

HEY! HEY!

I was nicely counting down during one of my last few posts that i had 16 days left to my EDD. So rewind back to the week before last week, i was looking forward to Wednesday (6th April) because, one, my bestfriend Kaimana was touching down in sunny Singapore and i finally was gonna be able to spend 3 long weeks with her before she flies back home. (She lives in Alaska) She's also the Godmother of my princess, and in a way, she was also flying back for the delivery as well as her sister's and mum's birthday. I also had my weekly checkup with my OBGYN to check on my baby. So i was fully looking forward to WEDNESDAY!!

So the bestfriend and her sister met me at the clinic for my checkup. (It's great to have your bestfriend by your side!!) My doc had to check how dilated i was to determine how soon or how late my delivery would be.

DR HENG: Hmm...you're only 1cm dilated. Don't think baby is coming anytime soon. Also your baby's head is very low. I can feel her head. Quite a bit of hair.

CHERYL: So nothing to worry about yeah?

DR HENG: Nope. I'll see you again next week okay! Eat healthy! See you next week!

 

So we decided to go get our nails done. Typical girlie thing to do. But good time to catch up as well but mid mani-pedi i started to feel some pains. Like i felt constipated. But i knew it was coming from the baby. So i called my mum to tell her and she was all, "Maybe you're being paranoid." So i decided to just not panic and carry on ding my nails. The bestfriend noticed that i was starting to get uncomfortable and said we can leave if we wanted to but i though, heck, must be my imaginations. After getting our nails done, (and i tried OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean collection. Planks A Lot which is a lovely purple for my toes and Sparrow Me The Drama, pink creme, for my fingers. LOVELY COLOURS!!) we had our dinner which i felt i was dying already, so we quickly rushed home to my place and i plonked my butt in bed squirming in pain.

Thank goodness the bestfriend decided to stay with me at home, because i would have died in the pain i swear! She helped call Sham who was still at work to rush home. By the time he got home, i told him we needed to head to the hospital. Something was not right. The pain was nothing i had imagined. Good thing Sham's cousin lives across the street from us, because he offered to drive us down to the hospital and thank goodness that the Hospital was literally 5 minutes away by car from our house.

So we get to East Shore Hospital and they immediately put me in a wheelchair and i get pushed up to the Delivery ward. (OMG! It started getting so real at this point of time!) It's funny how earlier in the day when i visited my OBGYN, i took my weight and was 72.4kilos and when i was at the hospital and had to take my weight again, i dropped to 71.2kilos! Weird! And no, my waterbag had not burst yet.

My doc happened to be in the next room delivering another baby so she came to check on me right after, and broke my waterbag for me and in a span of just an hour, i dilated from 1cm to 3cm. No one prepares you for the kind of pain you go through for labour. The starting was not so bad. But then it started to get more pain as the contractions became more frequent. They gave me laughing gas to help with the pain, but that made me puke heaps. I remember my doc saying, "Baby won't be arriving till about 7/8am. So i'm going home to sleep. See you later!"

Midway, i had to be put on the oxygen mask as our baby's heartbeat was wonky as i took too much laughing gas i suppose. I freaked out a little, like what have i done? I hope our baby is okay. A nurse had to stay in the room just to monitor that i did not take the mask off and that baby's heartbeat gets back to normal. :/

About midnight, i took a jab to my thigh to help with the pain which at that point had become somewhat unbearable. Boy..that sure didn't help one bit. By that time, i was in so much pain i was begging for the Epidural but unfortunately, because i took the jab to my thigh, i had to wait 4 hours before i could take the Epidural. That would mean only at 4am. The nurses checked me again and found that i was 5cm dilated, so they called my doctor down and within minutes she was there i the room with me, telling me to push. Sham held my hands and encouraged me to push, and i paid so much attention to his voice. I was scared, like really scared. I didn't know what to expect or how much pushing i had to do, and Sham's voice helped me through, he made me feel calm.

It's all a little fuzzy now. Especially since i was so 'out of it', high on laughing gas. All i remember is having to PUSH. Push with all my might, and get that baby out. I remember telling my doctor that i couldn't do it anymore. That i was exhausted, and that i couldn't find anymore strength to push, and her telling me to try one last time and if i couldn't do it, they would vacuum our baby out to help. But YAY! I managed to give one last and good push and out comes our little princess! Meet our munchkin, Kiara Eve. :)

Kiara was born on the 7th of Apri 2011, at 0145hrs. She weighs 2.725kilos and was 49cm long. It's true what everyone says you know. The minute your baby pops out, you forget the pain, you forget how much that contractions hurt. All that matters is that beautiful little person that has just arrived. That he or she is okay and you just ache to hold him/her.

It has been a true joy to have her around, to wake up daily to such a beautiful face. I love watching her sleep. I especially love how she giggles in her sleep. My mum says that the angels playing with her. :) I love watching the many funny faces she pulls, i love watching how Sham cuddles and whispers to her. She's everything we've imagined her to be and more. I thank God for blessing us with a child. Children are indeed the best gift anyone could ever have. Our life just got a little more perfect. :)

Thank you for taking the time to read. Will try to update again soon! As much as it's a joy to have her around, the Princess sure can keep us up at odd hours making sleep such a luxury! Our eye bags have officially become luggage bags! Will leave you with this for now, the bubs has woken up for some 'hooter' food. Heh. I'll leave you with a funny face she pulled yesterday which looks like a Bruce Lee kinda face. Love this Princess to bits!

Toodles!