The Arrival of the Star!

Yesterday my panty liner had yellow discharge. Thought it was just normal vaginal discharge so I didn't think much about it. Did lots of cleaning too for a few hours. Slept at 5 am which wasn't my usual time!

At 8:30am, I woke up by myself because its usually my time to take my levothyroxin. Feel my vagina somehow a bit...cool. Wet? Deciding whether to check but thought maybe it's really nothing. Still I kinda followed my instinct to check. Found got some little blood on my panty liner! Woke Yang up for it and called nurse from my clinic on what to do. I didn't yet have contractions at that time. Nurse asked me to go clinic check first.

Feeling surreal, went to prepare stuffs. Before going out felt slight contractions but it was very mild. Started journey around 9:15am i think. After like 10 mins, decided to straight go hospital because i felt contractions too. Luckily the road wasn't that jam. Reached hospital in 35-40 mins! My contractions throughout the journey was 2-3 mins apart already! But they were mostly mild contractions.

On the way to hospital.

Got wheeled into the labour room while Yang went to register for me. The midwife who is a young Chinese girl helped me to check. She strapped me to a CTG to check baby's heartbeat. Strong. And active. Then she checked my dilation. I wasn't really dilated. Huhu. But she say my contractions are quite frequent. 2 to 3 times every ten minutes. But a bit irregular still.

After that she called doctor and doctor say I got two choices. One is to put something in me to assist me in my dilation and I can deliver. Or wait till 5pm for monitoring. We chose the latter.

Waiting for progress.

Had pizza hut - deluxe cheese and beef pepperoni with garlic bread and mushroom soup for brunch. Then tried to sleep but could feel contraction getting stronger. After 15 mins of intermittent sleep (disturbed by contractions), I felt some water gushing out. Went to check and saw got more watery blood on pad. So now Yang is going to the car to take my bag with pads. Not sure whether it's water bag burst yet. Hopefully it is!

At 5:30pm, a nurse came to put CTG on me. My contraction is still 2-3 mins apart. Still manageable but slightly stronger. Then the nurse checked my dilation. The cervix examination is definitely not my favourite especially during a contraction. Anyway she said it's barely 1cm open. She said I have two choices again. One is to go back home and let it dilate slowly which might take 2-3 days. Another is to induce at 10pm. After discussion, we think it's not feasible to go back right now and endure the pain for 2-3 days since my contraction is already 2-3 mins apart. The nurse said some people went back and then cannot tahan and came back again midnight. She also thinks that I should stay back. So we did. Best decision ever because after that the intensity of contraction increased!

Romantic lighting.

So since we have decided to stay, we got admitted. Took the 3d2n package for a single room. So....I guess this it is! Then they gave me my meal which was pasta, honeydew and grapes, and milo.

My first hospital meal!

Mum and dad came to drop things and food for us too. They are quite concerned lol. But I can't layan them cuz I need to concentrate.

Food that parents brought. It was so much though.
Anyway, I could not really eat because I was in pain.

Slept for a bit but disturbed by contractions again. It was getting stronger. I had big urge to poop. Tried to poop but can't. A Chinese nurse came in to get my details and put the IV drip thingy on my left hand. First time. Kinda scary to have a plastic tube in me all the time.

I no like.

Doctor came at 9pm. Before that, was strapped to a CTG again. He checked my cervix but he say still 0.5-1cm. No change. But my contraction is still strong and in every 2-3 mins which is good. So I no need to be induced. Just need to wait for dilation. He tried to open a bit for me by using his fingers. Hate it. Cuz it's uncomfortable and pain especially again contraction was happening. He said if I don't reach 2-3 cm at 3am, he has to do the manual thing again. D: if I reach 2-3 cm, then he can proceed further. Doctor say I not bad. Usually around this time, mothers will ask for painkillers already, but I still could tahan.

The upper graph is baby's heart beat and the lower one is my contraction

So now.... My contractions are getting stronger... Still quite frequent. It's getting more unbearable so I am thinking I might get epidural later haha. Tried to sleep but only managed to sleep for...15-20 mins I think. Then woken up by painful contractions again. After that went to poop a lot. Used my contraction to poop out more. Haha. Also a kind of practice I guess. Walked around the room and bounced on gym ball. Kinda sleepy actually but contractions are there. Now will try to sleep. Yang is bathing.

Nurse came to check at 3am. Strapped on CTG, contraction still 2-3 min with fairly strong ones. Dilation was still the same so nurse said might do augmentation by giving me oxytocin drip at 6:30am later. Yang turned on Beauty and the Beast cartoon to watch together. While watching, i couldn't really tahan so decided to get the butt opioid injection at about 4:00am so I could sleep! The injection was a little painful. Almost right after, I could feel the drug effect. Drowsy and was given a little sweet relief from my contraction. Managed to sleep until 6:30am when the effect of drug was less effective on my butt and spine contraction. The nurse came to check my dilation again and it was only about 1cm. She also mentioned that doctor asked to get pitocin drip (augmentation) since the strength of my contraction was a little lower than before. I was like...Huh need ah? I still feel it very strong! T-T So I was given the pitocin drip to help move things along. And. It. Was. Hell. It was so painful. My contraction got stronger. I had to squeeze Yang's hand but even squeezing sometimes made my contractions even worse. But it let me had something else to focus on 

Before the injection.

Another picture of the CTG

Okay after thelast entry, I just couldn't write anymore as the contractions were getting more horrible. I'll write as much as I could remember! After the drip, my contractions felt more and more like a pressure to push! The urge was so strong that my body automatically pushed! So I told the nurses about it. Some of them think that what I felt was just normal contractions because baby was very low. Perhaps it was! They checked my dilation and it was also 1cm. That time I think it was like around 9am? I was so distraught by my stubborn cervix. One of the nurses told that I shouldn't push. To try to tahan because if not baby's head will be bruised. So I did try. And the pulling back the urge to push was even more horrible because I had to work against what my body wanted. Couldn't opt for epidural because it can only be given when dilation is 2-3cm. So it was never ending painful contractions. Dr. Eee then came and try to speed things up by bursting my waterbag. Happy as at least there was some action!

In excruciating pain

At 11am, they checked my cervix again and finally this time I was 3cm dilated! Yay? Not yet. Because doctor which was told by a nurse was concerned that the baby's heart rate was not that good. Probably she was in distressed due to long contractions. If baby's heart rate is like this, giving epidural was going to be very bad for baby. So they gave me some drops so that baby condition would be better.

So anyway, they say the doctor wanted to speak to me first about this situation before deciding. He was in operation so couldn't come yet. So I waited till 12:40pm and it was so agonizing. Finally when he came, he explained to me his concern about the baby's heart beat. And c section also cannot because that would involve epidural too which is something he would like to avoid. He said scared baby too sleepy. Which I guess was bad. Before we could think of what to do next, doctor wanted to check dilation again.

Lo and behold, he said my dilation was already 7cm!!! It jumped so fast!! Doctor looked happy and he said ok! You can push now! I was like.. what?! For real? Haha! He did something with his fingers to open the hole and it was 8 cm then close to 9cm I think. He said to push when there was the urge. At that time, he had already asked the nurses to prep the room. Everything was so fast. I could only concentrate on my urge though which I had suppressed for so long. So I pushed!!! And the rest of my water came out! Doctor said good!! I followed my urges again and pushed. There was this thought that I would feel a lot of pain during the crowning but the thought quickly left me because I was so eager to apply the pressure and all. Could see the head and all and Yang encouraging. Doctor also. Nurses also. So I gave lots of long push in my three times contractions and out she went!!! They put Rei on my tummy and I just couldn't believe it! Everything happened so fast lol!

When Rei was on my stomach, my first thought was 'Huh, such a foreign being'. XD Talk about mother connection. I don't think I have it so fast. Then when they carried her away after a few seconds, Rei cried. Aww.. she wanted me. Doctor then asked me to push one more time to get out the placenta. I did and it came out in one whoosh! It looked quite long. Rather interesting. Haha. Then he injected some local anesthetic and stitched up my vagina. He said I only have 1 and half degree tear. Woohoo! Really relief everything was over. The hours before felt like a dream only. Rei got 9/10 for her Apgar test. Not bad. Then the nurse gave Rei to us and she nestled in front of my chest. I think I hugged her for 1 hour before she was wheeled away to the nursery. Finally ate my Snickers and drank some 100Plus. Mood was good. :D

Rei was out! 

Tiny little hand

Tiny little foot

Her habit of opening one eye begins from the very first breath of air xD

Daddy and Mummy with little Rei

I got transferred to a double-bed ward as single bed room was full already. It was fine though. Only Yang could not stay overnight with us. Dr. Ian came to meet us after checking on Rei. He said Rei got 99% for her overall being (heart and lungs I think) so he congratulated us. Rei was 2.89kg, her height was 49cm and her head circumference was 33cm. She was born on the 11th September 2020 at 1:02pm. No full name yet at that time. Just Rei xD

Her first swaddle

Hospital only allowed 2 visitors at one time so Mummy and Papicar came to visit first at 5pm. They brought me lots of things - food stuffs. Rei was there and she was already suckling on to me. Yang's parents came later at 7:45pm. Was pretty late but the hospital allowed them to stay after visiting hour for a bit. After that, everyone went back and it was only me and Rei. The nurse would wheel her to me every 2 hours for breastfeeding. I was not even sure whether Rei could suck out any colostrum from me. Lol. 

Alone with her. Loved those moments.

On the next day, Dr. Eee came to check me. When he entered my ward, he said 'My superstar!' XD He was very impressed with my pushing and pain endurance yesterday. Asked me whether I was a yoga instructor or gym trainer. Haha. Checked my wound and it was okay. No swelling. After that, Dr. Ian came and we went back Kajang. Could not use the baby car seat as Rei looked like too small for it! So I carried her all the way back. Hehe. In terms of my wound, I did not actually feel sore at all. Probably because I took painkiller. I took it for the next 2 days just in case. When I stopped, I could not feel much pain either. So, I guess I am lucky to not suffer so much.