Baby Lim #3 couldn’t hold on till July and decided he wanted 26 June to be his birthday! We had discussed an inducement on 1 July with Dr Siow if nothing happened before as Nick had a launch event on 28 June and dinner on 2 July which we were trying to avoid clashing with but I started having contractions early this morning. Here are the birth details of my 3rd and FINAL child. The factory is officially closed!
3.30 am
Started feeling some cramping which woke me up or maybe it was the sound of Nick going to the loo and subsequently bringing Sasha to pee that woke me up. But nonetheless I’m awake and the cramps are different from all the Braxton Hicks I have been having.
3.45 am
Hmmm, another spasm.
4.00 am
The cramps make me go to the toilet. Nick asks if everything is alright when I emerge and I lie and say yes!
4.40 am
The spasms have been rather regular at 10-12 min intervals. I decide to have a shower and get ready first before alerting Nick but he notices me going to the loo again. When I say I want to shower because it’s hot, he doesn’t buy it because he suggests turning on the aircon. Thwarted, I confess I am having contractions but that we can wait a while. But nope, he gets out of bed and makes himself an early breakfast. I proceed with my shower and come out to find out he’s already called Ma at 110. I would have preferred alerting her at a more decent hour!
5.00 am – 5.30 am
We get ready and pack the last essentials for the hospital kit. Ma arrives and I suggest having McDonald’s breakfast to Nick but he overrules. He just wants to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Luckily I bought some Breadtalk buns yesterday and take one with me.
5.52 am - 6.10 am
We arrive at Gleneagles Hospital and registration is quick. Within 10 mins I am up in the delivery suite and changed into a hospital gown. Before the nurse hooks me up, I nibble on my bread and take a couple of photos of the room.
6.40 am
The nurse asked if she can check dilation and I am 2.5cm she reckons. The contractions are closer together and I deliberate whether to call for the epidural yet. Since they need 30 mins notice, I decide to just request for it now.
7.15 am
A Dr Yvonne Lim comes in to administer the epidural, she reminds me of Nick’s cousin Jamie, tall and skinny and they way they talk. She’s all ‘darling’ and ‘sweetie’ this and that and wearing a purple terry cloth tracksuit. Just before she came, I was given some antibiotics for a previous history of GBS.
7.30 am – 10.10 am
And now we wait. Nick goes down to have breakfast while I try to snooze but it’s hard to fall asleep so I start Whatsappin.
10.15 am
Dr Siow comes to check on me and burst the waterbag and drain pee. Mid afternoon delivery he reckons.
10.27 am
I get a call from Canon asking me for the lens product number for my extended warranty. Nick can’t believe I even entertain the call and wants me to hang up, but hey, I’m not going anywhere and I actually have the lens with me so I make Nick retrieve the camera so I can get the requested number. LOL.
10.40 am
Time for Oxytocin to speed things up!
1.00 pm – 1.15 pm
Though I upped the epidural dose, am starting to feel a little discomfort. I answer an urgent work email and then Dr Siow comes to check again before he goes out for his lunch appointment at Dempsey. 8cm he says and another hour or so to go. I say I will hold on till he comes back from lunch!
2.00 pm
Nurse checks and its 9cm now. At 2.10 pm she calls Dr Siow and he says he is done with lunch and coming back. They want to reduce my epidural dose so I can feel when the contractions come but I decline insisting I can still feel the pressure.
2.30 pm
Dr Siow is back and before I have time to react, he tells me it’s time to start pushing! What? I’m not mentally ready yet!
2.30 pm – 2.47 pm
We do 4 sets of pushes and the baby is out before I know it. Nick pushes me from the back and I get a brain freeze again from all that strain. I need to learn to isolate my muscles! I can’t really see the baby but Nick cuts the cord and I snap some pictures.
The doc extracts the cord blood I am donating to the public bank and then I request to see the placenta which he takes out from the waterbag and shows me. Gross!
But he’s finally here, 10 fingers, 10 toes…2.78kg and 49 cm long.
I say ‘Happy Anniversary’ to Nick and ask if now I can book Perth trip…there’s a Bon Jovi concert in December I wanna go for and he said to wait till Koko Krunch was out.
After I am all stitched up, we wait over an hour to be observed for any complications. A nurse comes to sponge me down, how thoughtful. Then we are transferred to Room 636, some nurses wheel me on a bed and I feel like a science fiction alien experiment in the lift while everyone surrounds me.
In the room I am starving and try to eat a bite of a ham croissant Nick bought from Delifrance but the epidural makes me puke. Dinner is delivered, I had ordered a grilled fish with butter rice but the thought of eating it makes me queasy.
The kids come in the evening to see their new brother/cousin and they don’t seem very impressed!
Pops, Ma and Aunty Susie also visit and Ma tries to feed me my rice but I manage only a couple of mouthfuls. I feel like I have been hit by a bus, with pressure on my chest and a headache, plus the uterine contractions. Just shoot me now!
At night, Nick sends the girls home while Swana keeps me company till he arrives back. He brings me a pillow from home, thank goodness because the hospital ones are hot with a plastic cover. He is peckish and decides to get McDonald’s delivery, and I add an order of filet ‘o’ fish.
10 July update: Though the time of birth on the live birth notice is 2.37pm, I think the correct time should be 2.47pm as my camera has 2.48pm shots of him just out with cord still attached. Methinks a nurse must have written or heard the doc wrongly because no way I would have waited 10 whole minutes to take pictures! Too late to change now!
