Giving birth the second time without epidural
The process is still pretty much fresh in my mind, so I thought I’d quickly have it all written down before I forget (like I did with most parts of delivering Blake).
I’ll cut to the chase this time though, listing it down in point form. I had this all typed out after everyone who came to visit me left – Thanks for coming!!
1. Real bloody show at about 7.40pm on 20 November 2012, Tuesday. I called my gynae and he told me to monitor for contractions that are 15-20 minutes apart.
2. Contractions followed after but I totally ignored them. I didn’t even bother to check if they were 15-20 minutes apart. I then got myself a big cup of cookies and cream ice cream. The only thought that was in my head then – if the baby’s coming, it won’t be another month or so till I can have this again!
3. Contractions intensifies after midnight, and I told myself to hold it out till morning, after sending Blake to school. I kept talking to Nakayla, asking her to wait.
4. I managed to wash up and get ready for bed, but I couldn’t sleep the whole night because of the contractions. Eventually, the contractions became unbearable, and I didn’t think I could wait any longer. The only thought that was on my mind was – I need epidural now! So I called my mom at 3am, and my dad drove all of us – Sean, Blake, mom and myself – to the hospital.
Blake was super tired. He was also in a complete blur as to what was going on.
5. We reached Gleneagles Hospital. Sean and I got off while my parents took Blake home to rest. They sent him to school when it was time, and he was really well-behaved according to them! 😀
6. Sean and I made our way to the delivery ward, and we waited for Dr. Lim to arrive. I could not have epidural yet as I needed his approval. In the mean time, the nurses gave me laughing gas to tide over the pains from contractions.
Yes, I was still laughing and talking like I wasn’t in labour then
7. Shortly after this, the contractions became more painful. Dr. Lim reached and did an assessment. He said the worst thing I could have ever heard at that point in my life – IT WAS TOO LATE FOR EPIDURAL. I was already in a lot of pain and under quite a heavy dosage of laughing gas, and when I heard that, I almost died!
8. Even though it was too late for epidural, it will also be a while before Nakayla was ready to be out. Dr. Lim then left the ward for a while, I vaguely heard him say he has another baby to deliver (I could be wrong. I was under a lot of laughing gas.). All of a sudden, the contractions intensified even further (who knew that was possible!?) and I started to scream and thrash around the bed. Sean and two nurses had to hold me down. I was apparently in distressed (that’s what I heard in the almost comatose state).
9. One of the nurses did a check for me and saw the baby coming, she quickly paged for Dr Lim before returning to hold Nakayla in till Dr Lim arrived.
10. To stop me from thrashing around, they told Sean to hold the gas to my face and soon, my body went kind of limp, but the pain could still be felt! I was screaming and my hands were grabbing whatever I could, although I don’t remember being able to move much. I do remember my grip on things though. I think I must have clawed and gripped Sean’s arms like mad during this whole period.
11. As a result of my screaming, cursing and swearing, I wasn’t taking in the laughing gas, so the pain got worse for me. Throughout this whole process, I could hear Sean trying to calm me down with his voice. Whenever I could hear him, in the state that I was in, I tried to do as he said. When he said to take deep breaths, I tried to stop screaming and concentrated on taking deep breaths. I don’t think it lasted very long though.
12. After about two hours upon our arrival at the hospital, Nakayla was born.
It was the most painful thing I have ever gone through in my entire life, and it somehow felt like passing motion in a strange way – a really painful one. I could even feel Dr. Lim stitching me up. I even remember mumbling that I could feel some pain down there during the stitching (no strength left, you see), and they gave me another jab, so that that Dr. Lim could finish the stitching. Recovery seemed much better than when I had Blake though. I didn’t manage to sleep at all, and I was surprisingly rather awake after I regained some of my strength some two hours later. I even began to post photos on facebook! Then, I was hungry, really hungry! My appetite was good, and I did not feel any nauseousness or anything!
I still cannot believe what I went through, and that I actually survived it. Now that it’s all down in words, I wonder if I’ll ever remember this day as clearly as it is now…
Anyway, here are some photos taken during my stay at the hospital. I’m off to rest for my confinement now!
And here’s our very first family of four photo! Taken the moment we all woke up. Hehe.
