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Warning! This is a really long post!

This was the most awesome, tiring and longest labour ever! So much for a calm* birth I’d prayed for! 🙂 And lots and lots of exciting parts that I doubt I’ll ever forget. Even now the entire labour and birth process is still playing in my head!

Wednesday, 11th March 2009 (40 weeks 5days)

We saw the dr in the morning and he casually mentions that this baby is much larger than my previously 3.5kg  large baby (#4). The u/s showed a possible 3.7kg baby. At that point I was most unfazed as in my mind I’d already thought that the baby was about 3.8kg from the size of my belly.

About 6pm

As we left for our 14th wedding anniversary dinner just before  6pm, I started to have mild contractions every 10 minutes apart. Didn’t say anything coz I’d many false labour signs before.

About 8pm – went to the toilet.

Thursday, 12th March 2009 (40weeks 6days)

Midnight – went to sleep with contractions still coming on every 10 minutes. A little more intense now. Feeling urge to empty bowels but nothing happens.

12:35am – woken up with urge to pee. Almost immediately felt intense contraction. Managed to go right back to sleep after relieving myself.

3:10am – contractions woke me up. Contractions seem to have moved closer. Every 5 minutes. Urge to go to the toilet again. Successful! 🙂 Started to time length of contractions. 30 – 45seconds long. Pressure on rectal area is felt.

Lying down was not comfortable at all. Stood and leant against the bed with pillow and bolster as props.

4:10am came downstairs to get a drink. Contractions continue at 5 minutes apart, 30 – 45 seconds long. Wondering if I should sms/email anybody. Embarrassed to give another false alarm 🙂 But this time it seems the real deal. I actually have to stop what I am doing to breathe through each contractions.

Emailed Shyla & Misti. Thanks for praying!

Went back up to rest. Feeling rather restless though. Contractions still 5 minutes apart. Realising that there was no breakfast in the house (we were planning to have breakfast out), I started to write out what to order for whom from Mac’s and stuck it up on the whyte board.

When dh stirred at around 7plus, I told him that the morning’s plan of visiting the chiropractor and Science Centre was off 🙂 Told dh to call Mac’s for breakfast instead.

I started to sms friends to inform them that labour is established and to pray for me 🙂 In my mind, it would be all over in 1 – 2 hrs. But what did I know! 🙂

The contractions started to last longer but not closer. From 30 – 45 seconds to 45 seconds to 1 minute. All this while I was walking and getting on all fours and rocking. I even sat on the toilet bowl to labour!

10:25am – went to the toilet and passed out mucous plug. Was most pleased coz from past experience, it meant labour was very imminent – for me, that is. At that moment, dh popped his head in & I happily told him – soon!

Contractions began lasting 1 minute 15 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds long but still at 5 minute intervals. No urge to push. I was starting to get tired and annoyed. Afterall, I hadn’t slept since 3am and had no appetite for any food. And the fast labour I had anticipated was just not happening. I kept asking God, “What is happening???”

All this while I was labouring alone in the room – I much prefer it this way. Meanwhile dh was popping his head in every now and then to check my progress. Each time he was met with a shake of the head, indicating no progress! The next time he popped his head in, I told him, I was going to sleep!

So I lay down & promptly fell asleep, waking only upon each contraction. At about 12:30pm, I felt a gush of stuff coming out of me. I thought my waterbag had broken. Then I looked, it was just a small puddle. Dh said, “so little?” Lol.

Contractions became a little more intense after that. Each contraction pushed out more mucous. I now got up from bed to walk, rock, go on all fours, squat – whatever I’d read that can help labour progress. But nope! things remained the same. Frustrating. Still 5 minutes apart!

I began to suspect that my baby is not facing the correct position and hence there was a lot of movement in between the contractions and I was feeling a lot of back aches, totally non-existent in my previous 6 births.

At that point in time I was still wondering when to make a move to go to the hospital. In my mind, going by past experiences, I had planned to make a move to the hospital once I started to feel the urge to push but so far, I have had no urge to push and the contractions were not getting any closer at all.

But at about 1:00pm, I decided to sms my dad to make his way over to our home to watch the children, regardless of the stage of labour.

Shortly after that, when dh popped his head in again and I told him, “I think  the baby is not in the correct position and that’s why we’re not progressing. And my back is aching!” He started to pray and command Anna to get into the right position. After that he massaged my back a little then the doorbell rang!   My dad was here!

1:50pm – As dh left the room to open the door, I felt a movement down into my cervix (the head?!) and then an intense contraction which broke the real waterbag. This time it was a huge gush. (I have no idea what the previous gush of water was!) The bed was soaked. The back ache was gone! And then I felt the urge to push.

The Birth

Well, at that point, I wasn’t about to make my way to the hospital for sure! Dh walked in and saw the mess on the bed. I climbed down from our bed to the mattress on the floor. I immediately got on all fours and started to push with the contractions.

But guess what? Each contraction was still very far apart. And as I pushed, I would feel the slight ring of fire at the cervix and just as I thought I could bring forth the head, the contractions would stop and and the baby would slip right back in! Argh! I did this 3 times! I was getting increasingly fed-up 🙁

When the next contraction came, I told myself, I am going to push her out, with all I have got. So I did – or thought I did. I felt the stretch of the perinium but couldn’t see what was happening so I asked dh for a description. I was hoping that the head was completely out and all I had to do was wait for the next contraction to push the shoulders out. Nope!

After that huge effort of pushing, all I got was was just the rim of the head, just before the eyebrows! Oh man! Frustration is an understatement!

Then I felt another contraction and I pushed. This time, I felt the burning sensation all around and it hurt for a while. Then the sting subsided. No more stinging. But the head was not out either!

What was happening?! I was very puzzled. With my previous births, once I felt the ring of fire, the head would be out and in a twinkling of an eye, the shoulders and the rest of the body. But not this time. And why was the interval between the contractions taking so long??? ** I tried to push some more on my own but of course nothing happens and then I tried to breathe her out. Nothing happens either!

Then I felt more contractions coming along but very mild. With each contraction, Dh would go, “I see the eyes now”, “the nose”, “the lips”.*** Then NOTHING!!! I’m like, “huh?” It was like a slow motion movie!

Dh asked, “Do I do anything?” “No!” came my quick reply! “Just leave her alone. Don’t pull her!” Meanwhile, she was just stuck in me. It was highly awkward and uncomfortable.  I asked hopefully, “Are her shoulders out?” “No, it isn’t.” Grrr…. 

I asked dh,”So what do we do now?” Of course he had no answer! Lol! I tried shifting around slowly but no position was comfortable except on all fours. So I stayed in that position and waited for the next contraction to come that seemed to take forever!

Although neither of us knew what to do, what was awesome was that I was very calm inside. No fear, no pain. no panic.

Then comes the next awesome part, I felt her turn very slowly. Usually this part happens so fast I don’t feel it but this time I did! I remember yelling at dh, “Don’t pull her!” And he goes, “I’m not doing anything! She’s turning on her own!”

And then there was a pause.

I prayed for contractions to re-start, while dh was praying for Anna to cooperate with my body.

A mild contraction came on, one which result in some liquid coming out of me, not the shoulders. Another contraction, more liquid, no shoulders. Suddenly felt huge contraction coming on, I pushed with all my might and the shoulders slid right out. Hurray! baby is out! (Dh says that as the baby turned more, he saw something white pushing through. It was actually one of the shoulders! Cool, eh?)

Dh caught the baby and she lay on the mattress. I looked at the baby lying there. She looked a bit shell shocked, spitting out stuff from her mouth. She lay very quietly, looking all around. Dh handed her to me and she was very quiet. Dh handed her to me and I rubbed her back, as I’d read before and asked for a clean towel to be wrapped around her. Then she started to cry and wouldn’t stop! Haha!

Dh then went outside and called all the children up. They were so thrilled! Our 21 month old kept going, “baby, baby!” And “wet, wet!” referrring to the amniotic fluid that had flowed off the the mattress and onto the floor.

Immediate Post-Partum

I tried to nurse her but she was too busy crying. As I sat next to the bed rubbing her and admiring her, I felt a slight contraction and something whoosed out of me. I thought it was the placenta but it was just some blood clots. So I told dh I was going to sit on the bed instead of the mattress on the floor.

So I climbed up and sat down with the intention to nurse the baby once I was comfortable. In my mind, I was going to put the designated placenta basin under me to catch the placenta when it comes out.

But before I could do anything, I felt a contraction. I lifted up myself slightly and it slipped right out of me, effortlessly! My poor dh had to scoop it up – all warm, squishy and slimy into the basin 🙂

Then the baby started to nurse a little. But she wasn’t very interested. So I told dh that I wanted to go wash up and put on some clothes. I was starting to feel cold.

As I stepped off the bed and took a step towards the bathroom, a huge gush of water and blood flowed out and splashed all over the floor, walls, standing fan, dresser….It looked like a crime scene from the show CSI 🙂

While I made my way slowly to the bathroom, I started to feel giddy and started to hear voices drifting off. Not a good sign. I was going to faint. I quickly knelt down on the toilet floor and the giddiness went away. I managed to shower off most of the blood and made my way back to the bed to lie back and nurse the baby. This time she was very interested in nursing!

Meanwhile, dh had to clean up the entire mess all by himself! He’s been just so great! He not only had to clean up the bed and floow and walls, he also had to hurry since I wanted to get to the hospital.

As he finished off, I got up to rinse off more blood that had pooled as I lay nursing. Little did I know that as I stood up, I deposited another huge puddle of blood on the floor! He had to clean up AGAIN!

Again, I felt that I was going to faint, so I quickly changed and made our way down to the car as quickly as possible so that I wouldn’t faint on him!

And yes, we didn’t cut the umbilical cord. So we carried the basin containing the placenta with the baby to the hospital.

Admission to Mt Alvernia

Admission into the hospital was really funny though. They didn’t know what to do with us. Haha. The nurse on duty first asked me, then dh, “Do you have an apppointment?” Like huh? I just had a baby. I need an appointment?! They couldn’t figure out if I should go into the Delivery Suite or not.

In the end, dh just told them, “We’re going to the Delivery Suite.” Once there, they did their usual procedures while I waited for the dr to come and check on me. That was when we found out what a big baby she was! For the stats, do check out Birth Announcement Part 1.

The dr stepped in after a while and confirmed that I didn’t tear – Praise God! But advised that I should take the injection to help the uterus contract. Now that injection hurt more than the stretching of my cervix to accommodate the baby’s 36cm head!

Why Get Myself Checked In?

And if you are wondering why I chose to go to the hospital instead of staying home? That’s coz I really needed to rest! At the hospital, I was waited on hand and foot. And once I finished nursing the baby, I could just hand her over to the nursery while I got some rest. If I were at home, I wouldn’t have this luxury. Plus dh would have to look after 2 more persons.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Well, the birth wasn’t calm but I was! And that was due to the hand of God on us!

** On hindsight, it was God’s hand that allowed a longer than usual interval between the contractions. If it had happened anyfaster, I would have torn. But because it was so slow, the perinium had the chance to slowly stretch to accommodate the head without tearing. Isn’t God awesome?

*** Henson said that as her lips emerged, Anna started spitting out brownish liquid. I guess that would be the amniotic fluid being flushed out?

**** Check out my “What Did I Learn“, reflective post.

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