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For those of you who want to see more photos of Elena, here are some that we’ve uploaded on Flickr!

How is Elena doing?
Due to her low birth weight, the paed found that she wasn’t regulating her body temperature and glucose level very well after observing her for about an hour. He came to my room at the maternity ward to inform hubby and me that he would like to admit her into the special care nursery to be placed into the incubator, and she will likely be there for about 1-2 nights.

How is mommy doing?
Of course, my heart dropped when I heard what the paed said. I’d thought that we would be able to go home the very next day! Nevertheless, it was good to know that she was in good hands, although I was heartsick over the fact that I couldn’t get to hold and cuddle her. Furthermore, I was still confined to the bed, as I had to wait for the effects of the darn epidural to wear off.

About an hour after being transferred back to the maternity ward, a nurse came to help me to the bathroom. My legs were still very heavy, and coupled with the loss of blood and lack of food, I nearly blacked out the minute I reached the toilet! Luckily, the nurse was there, and my mom arrived just in time to hold on to me. It was my very first ‘almost-faint’ episode…definitely not something I relish to repeat…the room was spinning, I couldn’t keep my eyes open, my ears felt as if I had cotton wool stuffed in them and I was on the brink of losing consciousness!

The rest of the day was spent recuperating in bed and trying to regain my strength. Hubby and parents spent the time going to and fro between the maternity ward and the special care nursery to see Elena and give me updates.

I spent the night crying myself to sleep, feeling absolutely miserable. I told hubby…I’ve spent nearly 9 months with her in my tummy every night, and the first day she’s out, I can’t be with her…

As with most birth stories, this is a long and detailed one (more for my own record, actually!)…

It was supposed to be a routine checkup with the doctor at 10am, Friday morning. My so-called regular contractions had been getting less regular even after stopping the oral meds, so I didn’t expect that baby would come out so soon (although I’ve been bugging her non-stop). She was really active on Thursday night though…I could hardly sleep as she kept on moving, stretching and kicking!

When Doc did the ultrasound scan, we asked him if he could see her face. He replied, no, as her head was already engaged in my pelvic area (Darn! I never got my 3D pic!). He proceeded to do a vaginal examination to see if my cervix had dilated further…and surprise surprise, I was already 3cm dilated!

I asked the doctor…”So does that mean she’s coming out today?”

Only to get the reply…”Do you want your baby to come out today?”

You mean I get to choose?

Hubby and I looked at each other for a minute and said in unison…”OK”!

Doc gave us 20 minutes to go home to pack (luckily I packed my hospital bag 4 weeks ago!), and off we went. I felt strangely calm and excited all at the same time and I think hubby felt the same way. On the way back to the hospital, I remember him telling me that the important thing is that I do not panic (coz I’m a pretty panicky type of person)…and that if he panics, I should tell him the same thing…

When we arrived back at the hospital, we headed straight for the labor ward. I was taken to labor room #3, while hubby went down to admissions to settle the paper work. After changing into a hospital gown (an ugly yucky green coloured gown…why can’t they make it pink??), the nurse came in to give me an enema. Won’t go into details here…I’m sure most of you mommies know what happens after that… On hindsight, it’s a good thing that they did that as doing a #2 is really the last thing you wanna do when you’re recovering from stitches and hemorrhoids!!

When hubby got back, he settled in and began taking photos of the room, etc. I waved him away when he tried to take my photo…I looked like a mess in the hospital gown and spectacles with my hair all tied up…(yes yes, vain vain).

After strapping on the CTG sensors, the midwife asked what kind of pain relief I’d decided upon. I told her I wanted an epidural, but not immediately as I wanted to see if I could tolerate the pain. After she left, hubby advised me to just take the epidural straightaway…after all, I’d already decided to have it if I can’t take the pain, so must as well just do it early before I pass that ‘point of no return’, ie. it becomes too late for an epidural! After some hmm-ing and hawing on my part, I sent hubby out to tell the midwife that I’ve decided to do the epidural now, and she proceeded to call the anesthetist. I was also given a form to sign to declare that I’ve been informed of all the risks that comes with the epidural, yadda yadda yadda, and was also told of the same risks by the anesthetist (”There’s a small risk of paralysis, etc. but don’t worry, I’ve been doing this for 20 years and it has never happened to my patients“). Honestly, that last minute talk almost made me change my mind!

The procedure of inserting the catheter for the epidural didn’t hurt as I was given a local anesthetic to numb the area. I did feel an ‘electric shock’ kind of feeling in my left leg when the catheter went in, though.

Surprisingly, the anesthetist also did the blood withdrawal needed for the maternal blood testing (it’s part of the cord blood banking procedure). However, when they tried to take the blood from the IV inserted in the vein of my left hand, they found that the blood was so thick that they had to manually massage my arm and wait for the blood to drip out drop by drop! It wasn’t painful, but agonizingly slow! Finally, he managed to collect enough for two vials…phew!

Not long after that, doc came in and proceeded to break my amniotic sac. The procedure wasn’t as uncomfortable as I expected, but gosh, the feeling of the warm liquid gushing out is Just.So.Weird. And it’s A LOT of liquid! And all throughout the 3+ hours of labour, I could feel the liquid leaking out intermittently especially during a contraction…not very pleasant, let me assure you!

After those two procedures, the rest of the time was spent waiting and waiting. I could feel the epidural setting in, but the dosage was abit too much for my liking as I felt my left leg go all heavy and asleep (I wanted more of a walking epidural where I could still move my legs), and I think it affected my bladder as well (I wanted to go, but couldn’t!). My right leg, however, felt perfectly fine and I remember commenting to hubby quite a few times about it. I figured that the epidural was probably lopsided and worried that they might have to do the whole procedure again! As I still had feeling on my right side, I could feel the slight pain from the contractions, but it was pretty bearable…very much like period cramps and a bad backache when each contraction came.

We told the midwives about the lopsided feeling I was having from the epidural, and they asked me to try lying on my right side (probably to get whatever liquid that’s going in to flow towards the right). However, it didn’t really work as I could still feel the cramps. Finally, another anesthetist came in to check on me and said that it’s possible that baby’s head is pressing on some nerves in my pelvic area that isn’t covered by the epidural! Anyways, the pain still wasn’t too bad at that point so no choice la, just tried to tahan. I remember thinking…what a waste of money asking for the epidural!

Although my contractions were regular, the midwives said that it wasn’t intense enough, so I was given a small shot of labor-enhancing drugs to strengthen the intensity of the contractions to help baby move along further into the birth canal. The midwives also helped to manually dilate my cervix whenever they did the internal examinations, so I suppose that helped things along too.

Pretty soon, I was already 9cms dilated! Surprisingly, I still had the presence of mind to SMS a few friends and update them… The midwives came in and asked me to try some practice pushes (which will also help push baby down further into the birth canal), but boy, it wasn’t as easy as I thought…it’s not like you can just push…you really have to focus all your energy on that particular area!

Finally, it was REALLY time…ie. 10cms and doc came striding into the labor room, put on his gown and gloves, and the surgical instrument tray was rolled in.

And the hard work really begins!

With hubby standing on my right, and the midwives telling me when to push, the active phase of the labor wasn’t all that bad. I do remember feeling the cramps on my right side getting really painful at one point though, but once baby’s head had moved past that area, that pain subsided soon enough.

Again, the pushing wasn’t really easy, and funnily enough, I got somewhat distracted as I could see what was going on down south as everything was reflected by doc’s glasses! Although baby was moving along well, I wasn’t able to push as effectively as doc would’ve liked, and he finally decided to assist using a handheld vacuum device, though he did tell me that I still have to push.

Between trying to focus on pushing effectively, and the anxiety that I won’t have anymore strength to push, AND periodically asking if baby’s heartbeat was ok, it was a HUGE relief when I felt the pressure of baby’s head ease…I knew at that very moment that she was out! One more small push, and out came her shoulders!

In the confusion, we forgot to tell doc that we wanted hubby to cut her umbilical cord… …so by the time she was placed on my tummy, all slippery and wet and confused, her cord had been cut and clamped already.

I got to hold her for abit before the midwife brought her to the warmer situated next to the bed and proceeded to clean and weigh her (2.16kgs…so small!), and wrap her up. While waiting for them to pass baby back to me, I started shivering…apparently, it’s a side effect from the epidural.

Baby was passed back to me while the doctor proceeded to collect the cord blood and stitch me up (just a small tear, no episiotomy…doc said not to worry, he was giving me 4 stitches in two layers, whatever that meant!). I honestly wasn’t aware of what was going on at doc’s end as both hubby and me were so absorbed with our new bundle of joy!

After the doctor finished up, he congratulated us and left. Baby was taken away for her first bath, while I was left in the labor room for observation before being transferred back to the maternity ward.

How did we feel? I can’t speak for hubby, but I felt an overwhelming feeling of relief above everything else. Yes, relief! Elated and happy was definitely high on the list, but I was relieved that after 4 weeks of worrying, baby was finally out…safe and sound, healthy and whole.

And so, our journey into parenthood has begun…

What happens next? To be continued…