So I’ve been meaning to write my labor story for the past XX days, but I’ve been so busy, never got around to it… the memory of it is starting to fade actually…

It started at 9am Sunday morning… I woke up bc I felt leakage… I wasn’t sure if it was my water or it was the mucus plug so I went to the bathroom… and just sat over the toilet for a bit… I was rather confused bc I thought water breaking would be sudden and more fluid…  and at one point I wasn’t sure if I was peeing or if it was my water that broke… so we decided to pack up, take a shower, and get to the hospital.  We forgot I wasn’t supposed to shower bc of risk of infection… but I was glad I did…

So we got to the hospital at around 11am, got admitted after they confirmed my water broke.  My contractions didn’t really start yet and I was only 1cm dilated.  The physician’s assistant saw a dip in his heart-rate in one of my contractions and decided to wait and monitor him more before giving me pitocin.  Apparently my ob had ordered pitocin right away after they called her.  So we waited… and around 2:30pm they came in and wanted to start me on pitocin… I said no… and they were trying to convince, and sent in my nurse to convince me as well.  We told the PA to give us half an hour… she’s like, why?  What’s another half an hour gonna do?  I’ve given you so many hours already, and you’re not progressing.  So Anson said, just another half hour, we’re going to pray first.  And the PA was like… oh, okay.  You need to pray for half an hour?  We’re like… yes.  Hahhahaa….

After prayer and tears, we finally decided it was the right thing to do… I wasn’t progressing… so my nurse Suzie came in and started me on a very low dose of pitocin.  I explained to her I wanted to do everything natural and with as little intervention and medication as possible.  She was really nice and understood me bc she just gave birth herself 2 months ago… I think she was nicer to me cuz she’s asian also.  Lol.  So we started the pitocin at 3pm… and things just sped along after that… Suzie kept asking my pain level every half hour or so… and it was progressing to a 4 or 5 on my pain scale level (based on 10).  It was getting increasingly painful… and Anson just sat back and was reading his books that he brought… cuz he thought this was gonna take forever… I did too… so I didn’t bother him.  And I think if he tried coaching me through breathing I would have knocked him out… I didn’t want anyone touching me or near me at that point. 

Soon it was getting to the point where it hurt so much I started screaming… I think I also cried after one contraction, more like wailed… so they got the PA to come in and check the progress, she said I was 6-7cm dilated, and 100% effaced.  We were so excited and happy it progressed so fast… and Anson started praying for me on the side to comfort me.  They asked if I wanted epidural at this point, it’s not too late.  I was seriously contemplating it.

 For some reason, the nurses kept making me lie on my side, which was extremely uncomfortable.  We kept putting the bed up, but everytime this other nurse comes in, she kept lowering my bed.  I have no idea why…but it was more painful lying down.  Next time, I’m definitely gonna sit up for the labor.  I was curled up in fetal position, and another PA came in maybe a few minutes later and checked me again, and told me that I still have a little bit of a cervix left.  So we’re confused at this point.  And this PA came out of nowhere, we never saw her again… she was there once.  And then the original PA came in again and asked if I wanted epidural.  We told her we’re still thinking about it. 

Then maybe 2 mins later, I started having really bad contractions, I was screaming at this time, I was telling them it feels like he’s coming out.  And the nurses kept coming in and telling me to hold it in, don’t push! Don’t push!  This was the most painful part of labor… the contractions were painful, but not as painful as not pushing.  The baby kept wanting to come out and I had to practice my Lamaze breathing to keep the baby in.  (I think that was the only useful part of Lamaze… they taught us how to breathe when you’re told not to push…)  At this point I told Anson, I want the epidural!!!  Suzie was preparing everything at this point by herself to get me ready bc she knew I was ready to go… even though the other PA said I still have a bit of a cervix left!  I think she was the only one in there that knew what she was doing…

Seconds later, a whole team of people rush in, put me upright, spotlights on… and a nurse on my left told me to push.  I was like… what the?  Meanwhile the resident that was delivering me said nothing… I was thinking what the heck… I’m not having a contraction, am I really supposed to push?  So we did a set of 3 pushes in a row… and I didn’t really try hard in pushing… and then the nurse said okay, let’s wait for the next contraction to push… and the resident was following the nurses’ orders… I was thinking… who is this nurse and where’s Suzie!  (I didn’t have my glasses on so I couldn’t really see anyone…)  So the next contraction comes and I gave three pushes and out came baby Ng!  even though on the 3^rd push they told me not to push, but I was concentrating on counting to 10 with every push.  (this is the problem with taking Lamaze classes for me, I stick to the books… and so I didn’t even hear, don’t push!)  The pushing part was the easiest for me… is that even normal?  Hahaha….  My doctor finally made it after I gave birth… it was just complete craziness and chaos, no one knew what was going on, no one was ready for how fast I progressed, and in the end, I was delivered by nurses and residents who didn’t know what they were doing… I was glad my dr came to stitch me up though… I don’t think I would have liked it with residents stitching me up.  The resident was so nervous… and there was a second resident that just stood there watching… I guess he was either in shock or really really new.

Lessons learned:  I’m sitting upright next time, the contractions feel less painful… and when I’m bearing down, I don’t think I’m gonna try holding it in next time… it’s just way toooooo painful.  They also put an oxygen mask on me at one point but I felt like I could breathe better without it… that thing just made me sweaty and uncomfortable.  And I’m not gonna push when there are not contractions, that just makes no sense.

I wonder if I progressed by myself, without the pitocin, if it would be less painful?  All the memories of pain have left now… I can’t even remember how painful it was anymore… hahaha…

All in all, I don’t think I could have done it without epidural if it weren’t for God’s grace and faithfulness.  In the months before delivery, we’ve been praying for a short delivery, specifically under 4 hours of labor.  And He was faithful, my actual labor was only 3 hrs and 41 mins!  I actually asked several ppl to pray about this, and specifically under 4 hrs.  People were skeptical… they told me, yes they’d pray, but I still need to keep walking and exercising (which I didn’t do of course, hahaha).  But God is faithful!!  He hears and he answers!

omg... it has started.... pre-milk....