Labor and Delivery Story

Having my little one is simply the best experience I have ever encountered. My little darling is born on December 29th, 2013. It feels like I have been pregnant forever with her, as my due date was set to be between December 24-26th, my husband and I have been anxiously awaiting for her arrival since Christmas Eve. We've actually had our Christmas dinner early just in case we were going to spend Christmas at the hospital. :P

40 Weeks and 3 Days

Thinking about it now, it was kind of funny how I have felt like every night during my due date that the baby is going to be here. I would experience serious cramps on my right leg (Yes, just my right leg, my mom said that maybe something is wrong with my left leg, that's why I don't feel it. Haha...) and serious series of contractions. I think they were just Braxton Hicks contractions afterall, because the contractions I had on my actual delivery is WAY different. Instead of getting cramps on my legs, real contractions feels like pain in your abdonmin and back at the same time. (That's how it feels for me anyway)

On the special night, I was actually watching a movie with my husband at 11:00pm. My husband have pulled up a funny comedy for me to watch while we were sitting in bed. Suddenly, I feel a gush of liquid flowing down me. It was not a heavy gush, but it definitely wetted me and a little bit of my sheets. My husband was very anxious, but I kept telling him that I might have just peed myself, even though I didn't think so. I was just so afraid of the disappointment again, since on previous nights I already have a series of braxton hick contractions. Nevertheless, I still decided to start packing up my essentials. I have already prepared a bag for the baby and myself, but there were still items that I was using that I haven't packed yet. At the meantime, my husband was researching online and found out that it's essential for us to rush to the hospital just in case something goes wrong with the baby. He thinks that it's a high possibility that my water broke, so I immediately called my OB at 11:06pm and have reached the on-call doctor for my OB. He told me to go the hospital immediately and so I woke my mom up and the three of us started heading towards the hospital. It's funny that my mom kept mentioning if we stop by McDonald's on our way. :)

Once we arrived, my husband dropped me and my mom off first at the hospital's entrance. Since it was late, we were stopped by a man in front of the desk asking where we were going. I told him that my water broke and he said "Oh, congratulations! Go on!" Then we immediately went to look for the elevators that brings us to the 6th floor "Labor and Delivery". Once we arrived, the nurse took me into the room and checked if I indeed broke my water. She tested if the liquid in my body is indeed amniotic fluid by using a PH paper, which tests the PH level of the fluid. The first time, it was green, that means it was just urine. I can tell from the room atmosphere that we were all very disappointed, but the nurse suggested a re-test since I have went to the bathroom, the surface sample obtained might be just urine alone. She recommended to do another test, that pokes the paper further down to see if there's any amniotic fluid in there. This time around, it was blue color! Indeed, my water broke! We were so excited! The nurse starting hooking me up with an equipment that tracks the contractions in my body. I was having 8-10 minutes contractions apart, she then transferred me to another delivery room. (Room 602, a room I will forever remember)

I was having serious contractions as soon as I was hooked up to the machine. (What a coincidence! Considering I haven't felt the real contractions previously.) Around 6am, my nurse rotated her shift and my new nurse is now Victoria. She is a real funny, full of energy kind of character. She HIGHLY recommended me to take the epidural right away and suggested that it will probably stimulates my cervix to dilate even more if I'm relaxed. I took her recommendation and it is truly a heaven sent! The anaesthetician came to my room shortly afterwards and the funny thing is that he is also Chinese and grew up from the same place as my husband. ( What a small world! This is called faith I believe! ) Anyways, I was scared to death about the epidural. Since all I heard from my friends was that the actual epidural hurts more than labor itself, I was dreading the procedure, but knew I would rather have a short pain than a long constant pain from contractions. The anaesthetician first numbed the area of where needle will go, then he told me to arch my back and injected the epidural in me. I felt a sting, but it immediately went away. NOT BAD! I'm impressed! Very soon, I can feel numbess on my bottom and the contractions seemed to fade away! I'm in heaven again! :P

Right after my epidural, I felt so relaxed that I was able to catch a couple of hours of sleep. I even started to read "What to expect when you're expecting" just to prep myself for the push.

When I woke up from my nap, my mom asked me to check with the nurse to see how much I've dilated. To my surprise, I was already 9.5cm dilated! Wooo Hoo~~!!!! She then asked me to wait another hour or so to see if I can be fully dilated to 10cm before asking the doctor to come down to the hospital. After an hour or so, I start to feel serious contractions again. I started pressing on the epidural button every now and then, but it only allows a new dosage every 20 minutes or so, but for some reason, pressing that button seemed to relieve my anxiety quite a bit. Haha... My nurse came to check on me again after an hour is up, still 9.5cm, so she told me to push a little bit. I did as she said and immediately, I was 10cm dilated. Now, the doctor's on her way!

Before the doctor arrived, Victoria told me to start pushing. She told me to push when I start to have my contractions, with the count from 1 to 10, in a series of three. It was not as much pain as I imagined, but I definitely used up all my energy trying to push her out. At one point, I was thinking to myself that I'm just to tired to continue pushing this baby. Magically, the idea of having a c-section gave me the nudge to continue pushing her. After an hour or so of pushing, my darling girl Emilia is finally here. She weighs 8.1 pounds at birth and have a high 99/100 Apgar rating. It was a real special moment when the nurse put her on my chest, instantly I can feel a strong connection with her.




Welcome my little darling!

 



Mommy's princess





Daddy's Little Girl





Emilia with nana



I was discharged out of the hospital on January 31st. My husband and my mom sent me to the Yue Zi center that day. I was a little sad, since I haven't parted with my husband in a long time and I really wanted to spend New Year's Eve with my family. :( Nevertheless, it is still a great way to end 2013 with Emilia introduced to my life. Wishing you all a Happy New Year!!!!!!!