The Wait is Over....

After 9 months of carrying my special prince, we decided to have a induced labour as in Japan, they do not have 24hrs epidural, so my gynae needed to time it accordingly. I did think of not having the epi, but i chickened out in the end for fear of being traumatised. Besides, i watched too many You Tube videos of natural births with no epi and man, was it scaryyyyy.

So, Terry & i decided to induce our bub starting 13th June 2011 and anticipated his arrival to be on 14th June 2011. And my delightful (i kinda think he likes to see me suffer) gynae told us he would use the 'Laminaria Sticks" method of induction first. I just stared at him thinking "Okayyy, now that doesn't sound too good"...sure enough, he gave us some reading materials and apparently these sticks were made of dried seaweed which resembles little toothpicks. Once inserted, the will slowly absorb in the moisture/liquid from the cervix area and slowly expand to dilate the area slowly. My gynae says this way the process is less painful & induction is faster, coupled with the drip method. In case you are curious, here's what it looks like :



Events of birth as follows:

13th June 2011

3pm-5pm:

Check-in to hospital & neccessary procedures performed

5.30pm-6.30pm:

Gynae arrives smiling away, tells me Ok time for laminaria sticks & epidural prep (i start to panick bad thinking about the pain). Watch too many Youtube epidural videos...turns out wasn't so painful after all, just a lil prick!!! happy happy...but Hubby later told me it was really scary seeing the needle.

Next on, gynae came in, inserted 9 (NINE)!!!! lami sticks into me....slight pain, but mostly uncomfortable.

6.30pm onwards

Rest in delivery ward. Couldn't sleep entire night, kept going to bathroom to pee and also feeling very nervous. Sent the Hubs home to rest.

14th June 2011

7am

Ate brekkie, was so hungry

9am

Hubby came. The it was time to take out the lami sticks & surprise surprise, i was 3cm dilated by then!! yay!!!! Gynae said well done...so far no pain. They then proceeded to start drip to induce labour.

10am-2pm

Before the drip i already felt irregular painless contractions, but once the drip started, within 10 minutes, my contractions was 2-3 times more intense & frequent. But still bearable. But by 12pm, the pain was quite bad, i asked for epi, they were reluctant. Checked and i was still 3cm dilated!!!! I couldn't believe it, it was painful and i had been there for few hours, still 3cm???? I was starting to panick. Couldn't imagine myself being in labour for 48 hours....Told me to hang in there, epi could not be given yet......

So being a trooper, i hung in there, but by 2pm, the contractions were so intense & frequent that i couldn't take it anymore & got the hubby to get them to gimme the EPI ASAP. I can't really describe the pain, but it's like your whole stomach cramping up and then you feel something pushing against your cervix. I was hanging onto the bedsheets for dear life and crying by then. The Hubby i think played a very smart move throughout, he didn't say much, some word of enouragement and some occassional rubbing, which i scolded him not to. But overall i was sooo glad he was there.

After the epi started it was heaven. Pain is there, but so much more bearable. By then i was 7cm dilated!! Can't believe i made it there without epi. But by 8pm my contractions didnt get strong enough, so nurse told me they would need to help pull baby out.

Finally, at 8.25pm, our first born beautiful baby boy Gabriel On Zhen Yu was born....weighing 3.09kg, a chubby adorable lil bub, our lil precious boy. Mum n Dad loves u baby.