A Day in the Life of the Pregger: D-Day Edition 6/6
I have been scaling a human being for the past 9 months and I was ready to drop my single on the fateful date of 6/6.
3:20AM: I woke up in a sweat and I felt the rhythmic contraction getting stronger and stronger. This was not a drill.
4:00AM: As planned, I ensure I had bowel opening before I go to the hospital. The thought of fleet crossed my mind, but I didn’t want it.
4:30AM: I googled ways to relax before the delivery. I knew that I was in phase 1 of labour and it would take anywhere between 10–24 hours for the little one to arrive. Time to take a warm bath with some Epsom salt. This could be the last bath I take for the foreseeable future. Better be clean for the mess to come.
5:00AM: Yep, I am pretty sure that today was the day. A week ago, I was hoping that kumquat would arrive early given that my amniotic fluid index was borderline low. My womb wanted to evict the little child. Plus, I just did not want to count baby kicks anymore. When people talk about the last week feeling like forever, I totally get it. It felt like my belly would explode at any point in time. The haemorrhoids were real and the lower limb swelling was unbearable in the hot humid weather of June in the tropics. I slacked my coworkers to let them know that I gotta go to the hospital today. Maybe I would have time to set my away message later (I did not).
6:00AM: I woke my mother up and told her that today was the day. The breakfast menu was curry rice. I did not want to go to the hospital yet because I knew I was not gonna get any food the moment they wheel me (or I walk) into the delivery suite. I get hangry easily. I did not want to get hangry on my D-day. I sent A off to work and told him that I would call him from the delivery suite if it is for realsies. A was assigned to the operating theatre that morning.
7:00AM: I washed strawberry and blueberry. I cleaned the house… in case I was not coming back for a few days. I needed fruits to keep me going. The contraction was 15 minutes apart lasting 30 sec each. It was not time yet. Time to pack my hospital bag.
8:05AM: Thank goodness I decided to put on a pad. Bloody show! I am totally a textbook case of normal delivery.
8:30AM: Time for a nap. I have been up for like 5 hours! Ops, felt a leak of fluid. I called Grab. The contraction started to get painful.
9:05AM: Another gush of fluid… I was pretty sure that my water bag broke. My lovely husband arranged for his colleague to take over his work and magically showed up at the door of the delivery suite just before the water bag broke.
9:15AM: I finally made it to the delivery suite! Horray! 12 more hours to go.
9:45AM-11AM: Nitrous oxide gas… oh… it did not help with the pain. My contraction was erratic and my pain score escalated from 6–9/10 within 30 min. The side effect of giddiness from Entonox was not pleasant. I was practically Darth Vader breathing under my breath every time the nurse asked me to repeat my identification number.
11:30AM: Like always, the anaesthetist saves the day. Epidural was invented because labour is painful. I have suffered enough at that point. There was no way that I am doing this all natural.
12:30PM: Super itchy! The side effect of fentanyl. I had rashes all over my body. I could not stop myself from scratching until my skin bleeds.
1:00PM: Woot! 3 cm dilation of the cervix. We took a selfie to celebrate the last few hours of A and me together as a family unit of 2.
3:45PM: Ops too much oxytocin. Baby had a deceleration for her heartbeat. Time to dial it back to zero. A dose of salbutamol to reverse the synto drip caused my heart to beat faster than normal. I was cover in my own sweat/blood. So glad that I took that bath. Still, super drowsy…tried to read emails… failed. Dozed off.
6:00PM: 7cm dilation! I was cheering my cervix on. 1 cm per hour… I should be delivering by 9PM. My in-laws would be landing in 2 more hours while my mother waiting outside of the delivery suite.
7:00PM: I knew that I was nil-by-mouth, but I begged the nurse to let me buy some sour patch kids. Don’t laugh. You know you love the sourness when you stuff these candies into your cheeks. My only meal for the day was the curry rice… damn it… I should have eaten more in the morning.
7:20PM: A came in with my sour patch kids. I happily chewed it until I extracted all the sugar content then waited for the gelatin bits to melt in my mouth.
7:45PM: Ok, it was probably a bad idea to drink so much fluid. I vomited twice all over myself.
8:00PM: A went to get his parents. I had a weird bout of shivering. Apparently, it is due to the adrenaline rush that I am getting to prepare to delivery the bebe.
8:15PM: 10 cm! Cervix is ready to go. How about the passenger? Well, the baby was still at station 0. Time for nap while I wait for the baby to move down.
8:45 PM: A nurse came in to check on me. Bebe moved down slightly. Get ready to push anytime when I feel the contraction. Being on epidural was a weird sensation. I could feel the weight of my feet but I could not feel pain. I could feel the bebe pressing against my cervix. The nurse went through 2 practice runs with me to push.
9:00PM: My gynae came back after dinner. It was a long day for everyone in the delivery suite. My classmate, nurses, and other doctors were running around like crazy the whole day given that 6/6 was an auspicious day and the delivery suite was full.
9:00–10:00PM: I push and push and push and push… in the wrong direction for first 30 min. The effort was wasted because the bebe’s head was not moving down. My gynae was worried that I had maternal exhaustion. Well, I was pretty tired… not fed…partially covered in blood and some remnant of my own vomit. It was totally not glam. I vomited 3 more times during the last phase of my labour. My vomiting speed was so fast that the nurse could not get the vomit bag next to my mouth in time. Sorry… gotta get another gown. I never cried because I knew that it was a waste of an effort. I remembered the days that I spent in the labour ward. The mother who cried/kicked/shouted ended up wasting a lot more energy and often had to go for cesareans because they tired themselves out. I was quietly pushing as hard as I could.
Finally, a bebe was born.
