the labor

Kay was born in a nearby hospital, less than five minutes drive from home. We took our own sweet time to go there, no rushing. Yen went with us, armed with a laptop full of soothing music to accompany my labor. I read Hypnobirthing: the Mongan Method prior to this labor, I did some of the exercises (not diligently), and thought that I have more or less prepared it.

We went into the delivery room at about 9 pm. My two sisters, Yen and Lan, were with us. I was strapped to the monitoring device for 30 minutes. Yen spent the time pleading to be allowed to see the labor process. When the doctor came to see me, she asked for his permission to be present during labor. The doc allowed her. Lucky gal!

I was doing good. I could still maintain my self control until about 11 pm. Then the nurse checked and said that I have not advanced much and advised to break my water. I nervously agreed.

Big mistake.

The contractions after the water broke was a lot more painful. I lost my self control and squirmed in pain with every contraction. The nurses and the doctor hold me, told me to be calm, and I wailed. They asked me not to lift up my butt and to stop squirming for so many times. Thirty minutes later, with two or three pushes, Kayla was born at 11:18 pm. Thank God that was quite fast.

I breastfed Kay soon after (while being painfully stitched) . My two sisters and husband hovered around the baby, taking photos. My sisters even carried the baby (and took photos) for a while before she was put inside the incubator to keep her warm. I had to wait for a while before I could go up to the room. Ling came with french fries from a nearby McD and the troops chatted while gobbling up the fries and accompany me in my waiting time.

Kay slept with me in the room that night. During the stay in the hospital, she drank two bottles of formula with my permission. *sigh* Jovan did not drink a drop of formula ever and I never ever expected that my second time would be harder. Kay kept on crying even after I have switched her to feed from one breast to the other several times until my nipples felt so sore. The nurse then offered to take her to give her some more drink from the bottle and the tired me agreed. Kay slept peacefully for a few hours after that, giving me time to rest and refill my tanks. I still have mixed feelings about that, though. Between being thankful of the rest and wondering if anything else could be done without involving the formula. Maybe I should just stick with being thankful. :)