My Birth Story - Baby Isaac Lee

Baby Isaac Lee

Baby Isaac Lee was delivered on the 17th November 2012 at 1:20pm. Mummy had to go through 25 hours of labor with excruciating contraction pain in the final hour when Mummy was pushing the baby out. Am still   in the hospital as the baby has slight jaundice and needs to be put under photo-therapy.

Seeing and cuddling Baby Isaac in my arms now makes it all worth it. And here is my birth story :)

- 16th November 2012 -

8:30am:

The day when I was to be induced. Took a nice long shower and washed my hair. Me, Bear, and my parents had our breakfast in a nearby mamak stall. Thank God for that because I was to fast during my long hours of labor, which I totally didn't expect.

9:30am - 11:00am:

Admitted ourselves into the labor ward and changed into my hospital gown. Was given enema to move my bowels. A light meal of porridge was served. A vaginal examination (VE) was done - meaning the midwives will jab their fingers down there and go all the way up the cervix to check for dilation. I couldn't even take the pain and discomfort so they kinda abandon plan and said that I definitely need epidural, which I totally agree. 

The labor ward in SJMC

11:30am - 12:30pm:

Was induced via insertation of pill in the vagina. And waited for contraction to start. It didn't and the midwives wanted to start me on drip to further induce. I was already quite scared at this point because I can't stand needles. And they took 4 tries trying to poke that drip needle because they couldn't find my vein. It was horrid. 

2:00pm:

Dr Delilah came in to check on me and was kinda agitated on why was I not on the drip yet. She inserted the drip herself in one try. 

2:30 - 4:00pm:

Start to feel the contraction pain which is once in every 2 minutes. Requested for an epidural first at 4:00pm because I was too chicken to go through the full force of contraction pain.

Epidural machine

4:30pm:

The anesthesiologist came in an administered the epidural. Truth be told, I was terrified because I know that a small tube will be inserted to my backbone where painkiller will be pumped into my system to numb the area below my waist. However, the procedure was pretty painless and the anesthesiologist was very gentle. Really nothing to be scared about. 

5:00pm:

The effect of epidural starts to kick in and I was pretty relax by now. So I sent Francis down for his lunch. He was pretty famished by then.

7:00pm:

The midwives did VE and I was 3cm dilated. Dr Delilah came and broke my waterbag by inserting a long thong-like scissors into my vagina all the way up to the cervix to poke. This will speed up contraction much significantly. Thank God I don't feel anything. Everytime when the VE is done, the midwives will also insert a catheter to drain out my urine (because of the epidural, I am unable to feel the urge to pee.) 

- 17th November 2012 -

2:00am:

Only 6 cm dilated. By now, I was already mentally very tired and extremely hungry. Sucked on sweets which Francis got my dad to buy and took sips of water. You are not allowed to eat or drink anything when on epidural because you may end up vomiting. Sent Francis downstairs to our single ward room to sleep for a bit as he was getting very uncomfortable sitting on the chair in the labor room.

3:00am:

Suddenly there was a beep in the baby's heart machine - seems like the baby was in distressed. I was so worried for the little one as I was in labor for so long and the waterbag has been broken for some time. Turns out that I was having low grade of fever and the midwives quickly gave me panadol and injected antibiotic intravenously. By now, my BP has also dropped and Dr Delilah instructed for the induce to be temporarily removed to stabilized by BP.  

6:30am:

I was 7cm dilated. Extremely slow progress so I was put back on the induce drip. By now, I was crying to myself because it was really tiring and I was mentally very exhausted. It was made worse with me having no food or water for hours, which makes me physically very tired as well.

9:00am:

Dilated to 9cm. Was getting very excited because I only had 1 more cm to go before I can push the baby out. And I knew the end is very near after the long waiting hours.

Really tired

11:00am:

Finally dilated to a full 10cm and the midwives asked to switched off the epidural so that I would know when to push with the contraction pain. I was extremely terrified because of the on-coming pain.

11:30am - 12:30pm:

Started to feel mild contractions as the epidural begins to wear off. I was asked to start pushing. By now, the baby's head has crown. Dr Delilah was suppose to come in at 12:00pm to assist in the delivery but she was held up in the OT and subsequently with another natural delivery.

Machine to monitor baby heart rate and contraction.

12:30pm - 1:00pm:

By now I felt the full-blown contraction and I had stopped pushing. I screamed, teared, and wanted to give up with every contraction pain. It was so bad I wanted to die (not being drama about it ok). The midwives had to quickly called Dr Delilah and informed that the patient was in distressed. I screamed for the epidural to be switched on again. It was done but only half-dose. It brought no pain-relieve whatsoever for me. 

1:00pm:

I was still screaming in pain when the Dr came in. Somehow despite the pain, I was relieved to see her because I knew that I was in safe hands. She quickly assisted me to help vacuum the baby out and instructed me to push when the contraction came. In the moment of confusion and daze, a few midwives had to hold my legs down. I was given a towel to bite to stop myself from screaming. My drip was pulled off from the commotion. 

1:20pm:

By God's grace and enabling, despite the pain I managed to push baby Isaac out with Dr Delilah's help and it was the most beautiful thing ever. She put him on my tummy and then instructed Francis to cut the umbilical cord. The minute the baby was out, I was almost going in and out of consciousness from the pain and tiredness. From now, everything was a blur. I knew that the placenta was pushed out. I knew Dr Delilah was stitching me up but yet I felt nothing. I knew that they took the baby to be weigh and warmed up under the heater but I just couldn't respond to his cries.  

Baby Isaac straight from the oven

After everything was done and I was cleaned up, I was allowed in the room by myself with the lights shut off the rest and sleep. 

3:00pm:

Once my energy was regained, I was wiped and sponged down. Thereafter, was transported back to the normal single ward. Food was served which I chomped down gladly. Around this time was when I had a good look at baby Isaac. 

There was such overflowing joy and love for the baby that all the pain that I had endured earlier was totally forgotten. 

Love;

Mummy Geri