AK/Babycoco/Serene - Hang in there ! it's natural to be nervous [IMG=http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/clipart/happy.gif] Jia You !
I delivered on Jun 15, my boy weight 2.645kg , length 49cm, normal delivery with epi.
I remember last Monday night (Jun 14) was the same for me .. I was scheduled to induce the following morning 7am at TMC, both me and hubby so nervous we decided to have a nice french dinner at St Julien, got home around 11pm and I started to repack some last minute stuff, while hubby prepared his cam and video cam, charge batteries, etc
We couldn't stop packing until about 130am, then decided have to force ourselves to sleep a bit.
Me being a first time mum, I really didn't know what to expect .. it's like after the long 9 mth wait, it's finally happening .. really like surreal .. cannot imagine that tomorrow this time I will finally get to see how BB looks like, hold him in my arms, a human being of our creation.
In fact, think my hubby even more anxious than me, I managed to sleep ard 2am, he didn't sleep till mebbe 430 or 5 !
Anyhow, at 7am the next morn I was brought to the delivery ward, given an enema & put on the induction drip. Then gynea wanted to do VE & break my waterbag but I couldn't stand the discomfort when she inserted her finger, so had to call the anaesthetist for epi. haha.
Finally at 10am got epi done, waterbag broken, was only 0.5cm dilated.
Doc told me to sleep or watch tv, since have to wait at least 8 hrs before fully dilated. By this time the epi was working well, my legs nicely tingling and slowly getting numb. Before I was always afraid of getting an epi, heard abt the big long needle that they poke into your spine made me so scared. But the anaesthetist was pretty good, he keep quizzing me on lots of questions & we were discussing the World Cup while he did a local anaesthetic, and then a second later he told me the epi is up and running, but he made it only medium strong so I still have sensation in the abdomen.
At 2pm I was still only 2cm dilated .. getting frustrated watching CNN, switched channel to HBO. Epi is a real life saver, cos u dont feel any pain or discomfort, can watch tv & read books, nap, etc . I was also relieved I didnt have any side effects from the epi, was still playing games with hubby to pass the time.
Suddenly at 430pm, I felt this strange urge like needing to poo, but through the vagina instead! LOL .. so i texted all my frens to ask what this should mean, and called the nurse. Turned out I was already 10cm dilated & ready to push.
So they called the doctor. But my epi was not weak enough for me to feel the contractions, they had to turn it down, so I had to wait another 1.5hr before starting to push again.
At 630pm we started again. The nurse was helpful in telling me when to push, my hubby helped to count 1-10, but I really didn't know where to push cos of the epi .. it's like your whole face becomes red, and ur thinking the pushing is going nowhere, quite frustrating.
Finally I found the trick is to focus on your diaphragm (just below your ribs) and look there, crunch your head & push there.
Baby came out after 15 min, all white and the nurse just puts it on your lap. It's like a dream .. haha! But very happy! By this time my hubby was crying already, tears of joy and emotion ..
In all it was a smooth delivery, 30 min after birth I was calling my family and texting frens, I felt so alive and energetic, haah!
They did an episiotomy on me so when the epi wore off (around the next morning) I was feeling quite sore & pained. Further I developed piles, so it was worse. For those of u who suffer from piles post-delivery, can use Desitin (nappy rash cream) to apply there, cos it helps heal very much faster. The vagina stitches are painful and take abt 7 days to heal, meantime u nd to wash the wound everyday n try to keep it dry.
Lochia was mostly water mixed with some blood for the 1st week, very heavy flow so I used abt 6-8 Kotex maternity pads per day, 2 each time placing 1 on top of the other so it's longer.
Now am well settled at home, still struggling with BF pumping as my boy eats very often, I m supplementing with half FM.
The confinement lady is a great help, if u can shd get one, cos she takes care of everything with bb, i just need to pass her my milk.
I get to sleep through 9 hours at night as I pump b4 sleeping enough for 3 feeds in the night. During the day she'll cook for me & do the marketing, on top of caring for bb.
I ll be hiring her for 2 mths so I get to rest more! keke
I also have Filipino maid to take care of the cleaning, washing, cooking for my hubby, etc so can't complain.
Just bfeeding alone takes up 80% of my day!
Oh, it is also a good idea to have the massage lady come massage u n do the binding everyday.
It's relaxing after the great job we've done, and the binding really helped to shrink tummy. Cos i was on induction drip, they finished 3 packs of drip on me, hence my tummy was bloated like 7 mths preggies even after birth! It's now 1.5 wks after birth n my tummy is almost flat, just some pockets of flab which need to be burned off by exercise after confinement! [IMG=http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/clipart/happy.gif]
Haha .. seems like I have written a long novel, sorry .. got carried away.
Mummies who are giving birth this weekend and next, jia you !!!! The labour is really not that bad !
