hi,
congrats to shihui n sylk! n welcome stephanie.
thanks for all the encouragement. i'm telling myself that i hv to be strong, but it's still difficult whenever i bring her to the doctors, which is abt twice a wk. it's just difficult to watch her struggle n suffer like that, n there's nothing i can do to alieve her pain. her cleft is considered wide n like all cleft babies, she will need min 4 surgeries fr now until 16, 2 of which will be b4 her first b-day.
the first is in feb/march to fix her lip, soft palate (where our nipples go when breastfeeding) n her nose. in the meanwhile, she need palate dentures n tapes to prepare her for her surgery.
my birth story:
30 nov
told hubby after granny's funeral that i think bb is coming soon.
1 dec
4am: woke up due to contractions. tried going back to sleep, but keep waking up every half hour.
6am: woke up again cos now hving backaches 5-10 min apart. thot contractions should be more regular, so din wake hubby.
7:15am: whole tummy feeling really painful, but still in 5-10 min intervals. woke hubby up. decided to visit gynae since we hv appt that day. took my time to wash up n eat breakfast.
8:30am: show started.
9:15am: reach gynae's office. told recept that i am hving contractions but she not paying attention. told me to do urine test. dropped urine stick in toilet cos cannot coordinate movements. took my weight.
9:30am: nurse wanted to put me on ctg, but all ctg machines full. was told to walk downstairs to another clinic for more machines. downstairs machines also full. nurse told me to wait 30 min for a machine to become available. i told her i cannot wait liao. wheeled back to gynae's office n gynae saw me immediately. 3cm dilated. told to go delivery suite n hv waterbag broken n receive an enema.
waited around for 10 min bcos nuh has a stupid policy of not mixing up wheelchairs, so hv to wait for delivery suite to bring a wheelchair over.
10am: reach delivery suite. laid down n waterbag broke.
10:15am: nurse came in to check n was shocked by amount of water. was told to consider pain relief options. nurse told me that since i hv so much water, bb unlikely to be big, maybe abt 3.5kg range, which is quite ok for me to deliver. thot of skipping epidural.
11am: some junior gynae came in to check for dilation. 4cm dilated, but she said she cannot feel bb's head. ?!??!## told midwife to move bb. midwife basically put her entire weight on one side of my tummy during a contraction. made me scream for help.
11:05am: wanted to go toilet to poo. got up fr bed n realised mecronium leaked out along with waterbag fluids. stupid midwife n junior gynae, must hv sent my bb into distress. told the junior filipino nurse in the room, dun think she understood me. when i was in the bathroom, the midwife came in n started ordering me out of the bathroom cos there's mecronium. suspected distress. same junior gynae appeared to insert stent to bb's head. junior gynae told me rudely to relax else she cannot put in the stent. i told her to shut up until that contraction is over.
noon: gynae came in to check. 5cm dilated.
12:30pm: cannot take the pain anymore. asked for gas. after each breath, can feel myself going high as a kite. decided that i dun want to give birth feeling like this. opted for epidural.
12:45pm: anaethestist appeared. he decided i cannot hv full epidural cos of past history of adverse vomitting after ga. he said he will only give me local anaesthesia through epidural. la has short duration, so i will most likely still feel all the pains of labour. gave the ok. he told me he will let me know when the crucial stage is, so i won't move.
1:00pm: started inserting epidural. told to sit up. anaesthetist din tell me when crucial stage is leh. but i din move lah, can feel his needle anyway. relief! shivering started. hubby will hug me every time shivering started.
1:15pm: nurse came in n told me to lie on my side. told her i just had epidural, she said it's ok. laid on my right. after 5 min, can feel all the pain in my left side cos epidural flowed to my right. decided that i hate the nurse. kept buzzing the nurse station non-stop to request for topup.
2:08pm: gynae checked. full dilation. she had 3 labours ongoing. she will deliver another lady n come back to me in half hour.
2:30pm: given another la shot.
3:45pm: still no sign of gynae. midwife said my bb is v. v. low liao but gynae had to go for emergency c-section. midwife taught me to push. told me to start pushing, gynae should be coming soon.
3:55pm: midwife said my pushing is good, but contractions r too irregular. she asked gynae for permission to give me a drip to increase intensity of contractions. i told her i went on epidural so that i wun need to feel too much contractions, but she ignored me. midwife kept increasing dosage of drip fr gynae's recommendation to make my contractions closer, even though gynae is not there yet. pushed n pushed. can feel everything. bb moving. contractions. just not so intense.
4:25pm: bb's hair can be seen, but gynae still not there! midwife now told me to stop pushing n hold the bb in there for as long as possible?!!!??!##? begged midwife to turn down the drip.
4:45pm: gynae appeared. put on clothes, boots, made 4 cuts. i made 4 pushes.
4:55pm: bb madeleine's arrived. when her head came out, gynae exlaimed "baby has a cleft!" but i din hear what she said cos still pushing. gynae repeated the same remark 4 times.
whole room went into a frenzy cos nuh just dun hv that many cleft babies. nurses were trying to send bb off to nicu immediately, gynae was telling them to put bb to breast, bb was wailing non-stop. finally gynae took bb n gave her to me. bb stopped crying n some nurses left.
5:30pm: bb wheeled off to nicu. hubby went along. all alone in the delivery suite with another filipino nurse. this nurse cannot even understand english. gave up trying to ask her abt bb.
8pm: finally wheeled off to my ward.
9pm: catheter removed.
post-labour
midnight: nurses assisted me to bathroom. passed out in bathroom. next memory was of nurse slapping me n dragging me to bed.
2 dec 9am: woke up n tried sitting up. passed out again.
10am: nurse assisted me to bathroom. passed out again.
11:45am: gynae came n ordered change of pain medication. not allowed to get out of bed unassisted. only a bit of colostrum. gynae told me to visit bb once i feel better, else milk supply will never set in.
6pm: can finally sit up by myself.
8pm: hubby got a wheelchair n we went to see bb in nicu together.
9pm: returned to ward n cried the whole night.
But today hubby went back to work liao... so I'm alone again... sianz leh 
