It is quite ironic that I posted about a hospital checklist on Thursday, June 10, since I basically started going into labour on Friday June 11. Let's just say that I never got around to getting all the items on my list although I did pick up a few more things on Friday and Saturday, all the while dealing with labour pains.
On Friday morning, I was at work doing my usual routine. I felt very mild labour pains and even began to time the contractions since they were coming and going. I basically convinced myself that they were braxton hicks contractions and tried to go about my day. By about noon, I was not getting much work done and the Deputy Executive Director at work told me if I was feeling a little off, there was not anything important enough at work to make me need to stay. Although a little reluctant, I decided to go to lunch with my friend/co-worker Crystal, and then have hubby pick me up. We stopped by our friend Dick's place to feed his fish as we were taking care of his place while he was away, and then headed home for lunch.
Later on in the day, I felt this increasing need to get ready for the hospital. Hubby and his friend Samson had spent some the afternoon building the baby's dresser, which therefore confined me to the bedroom as a mother-to-be under Chinese custom is not supposed to see disruptions in the home. After they were done, I convinced hubby to take me to get some supplies (thankfully). We headed to Motherhood Maternity, and I purchased a nursing bra, nursing nightgown with robe, nursing pads, nipple cream and a nursing top, all of which I was intending to bring with me to the hospital. We also stopped by Babies R Us and refunded a couple of items and picked up a changing pad. By about 11 p.m. that night, I was sure I was in labour. I began to time my contractions with an online contraction timer. I did not sleep at all that night, and by morning, my contractions were about 6 to 7 minutes apart and about 20 to 30 seconds long. I asked hubby to call the hospital and ask if we should be coming to the hospital. I spoke with a woman at the hospital who indicated that we should wait until I had contractions that were 3 to 4 minutes apart and 1 minute long in length for at least 1 hour. The woman also indicated that I should not be able to talk during contractions.
I had originally planned to have lunch with my parents but decided I would cancel informing them I was in early labour and wanted to just try to be as comfortable as possible at home. I then proceeded to shower and have breakfast. My primary goal was to breathe through the pain. Having been practicing Bikram yoga for about six years, I have been taught to keep a straight face while focusing on the breathing, during some pretty challenging postures. I applied the same principle with labour, which as a result, led to some skepticism as to the amount of pain I was actually experiencing. Everyone kept assuming I was not actually experiencing too much pain and was in early labour, even as it was becoming progressively painful.
Saturday was probably one of the longest days I have ever lived through. My parents came to check on me after breakfast and visited for a little while. After they left, mother in law suggested that we should try to keep me busy and walk around, so I thought we could go to a different Babies R Us to pick up the video monitor and the crib mattress (they were out of stock at the other Babies R Us we visited). It was quite an experience to go to the mall all the while having contractions approximately every 5 minutes. When we returned home, Samson met us there, and he and hubby spend the rest of the afternoon building everything for baby including the crib, the playard and the stroller. Again, I was confined to the bedroom. By dinner time, I was in considerable pain, which was still met with quite a bit of skepticism. Everyone seemed to think that I was in very early labour and it would most likely continue for another couple of days. I took another shower to relax and headed for bed all the while still timing my contractions which were getting to be what the woman from the hospital had described, although I could still talk during them. I decided to wait until midnight to make sure that I was having contractions like she had described.
Once midnight came, I told hubby that we needed to go to the hospital. He seemed pretty nonchalant, as did mother in law. I think they were both thinking that we would probably be sent back home. We quickly packed up any items we could not pack earlier and headed for the hospital. Once we got registered, we waited for someone to bring us to assessment for what seemed like an eternity. I had at least five contractions while waiting there. Again, there was the skepticism, now from hospital staff. Finally, we were brought into the assessment area. In the next stall, we were sad to hear the news that the doctor was delivering. The girl's situation was that she was only 18 weeks and her water had broken leaving basically no chance of survival for the baby. She had a choice of either trying to make the baby survive inside of her until 24 weeks which is the absolute minimum although usually with many complications, or they could induce labour and she would deliver the baby now (the baby would not survive). I could not imagine what I would do in that situation.
We waited another little while until a doctor came to assess me. He also seemed skeptical that we would be staying as he quickly started explaining how it would be more comfortable if we were at home if I was only 1 to 4 centimeters dilated. However, as soon as he checked, his tone suddenly changed as I was 5 centimeters dilated so we were going nowhere and it would be the baby's birthday! They did all the standard tests on me, and found that my blood pressure was high. I was quite confused by this since I had never had high blood pressure. They decided that they would need to do some blood tests and put in an IV because of this.
Soon after, we headed for the delivery room. For the next couple of hours, I continued with my plan of trying to breathe through the pain as it got increasingly more and more intense. When the doctor came in next, he advised that I was about 6.5 centimeters dilated. He stated he would come back in 15 minutes to see where I was at, and to speed things up, he would be breaking my water. His 15 minutes turned into almost an hour, however, I probably should have been glad because I had no idea what was in store for me once my water broke. When he returned, he checked again and said I was about 7 centimeters. He then produced this long chopstick like contraption and said he would be breaking my water. I did not feel too much except for a huge gush. Nothing could have prepared me for the pain that followed once my water had broken. The pain of the contractions suddenly were magnified a million percent. The pain literally made me want to leave my body. I knew I had to ask for something for the pain. I first tried the laughing gas, but thought that was a complete waste of time. Not only did I not feel any relief, it was actually annoying to hold the contraption needed to breathe in the gas. I basically gave it to hubby after trying it for one contraction. It was at this point that I seriously considered getting an epidural, particularly since it seemed to take the nurses a million years to get the next level of drugs, which was a morphine like drug called Fentanyl. Thankfully, when it finally kicked in, it was just enough to knock me out in between contractions. While I still heard everything going on around me, I basically allowed myself to pass out in between, and then work through the contractions once they hit. Soon after, the urge to push began. However, the nurse instructed me that I should not push and just focus on the breathing because I was not fully dilated yet. This was probably one of the hardest things to do, not push when you have the urge to push and it seemed to last forever. Finally, another doctor came in and when she checked, she told me I was fully ready to push as I was "plus two". This was when I decided to full on start screaming, but I was instructed to instead internalize it and use it in my pushing. Another problem was that I was unable to urinate, so they ended up having to empty my bladder for me. That was probably one of the worst contractions for me as I could not push and the urge to push was so extreme. The pushing lasted about an hour and a half, which again seemed like an eternity. I was so relieved when the nurse paged the doctor for delivery. Hubby best describes this part since he had a front row seat. He told me that when the doctor came in, approximately half of the baby's head was out. He instructed me to push and as the baby came out further, the doctor "pushed me in" and then pulled our baby out. The umbilical cord was quite short so they got hubby to cut it right away and there he was on top of me...our perfect little baby boy. Little Jorian arrived exactly at 10 a.m. weighing 6 lbs. 7 oz.
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