Week 40 – Here he comes

Sunday late afternoon, I felt some mild contractions that felt different from the contractions I felt before. This time the contractions seemed to start from my lower back. Around 5pm, I told my mom and we decided to go to the hospital. So I took a shower, washed my hair, got the bag ready, and had an early dinner. Hubby and two of my sisters prepared themselves to go with me. The contractions were getting stronger and more frequent by the time we arrived in the hospital.

The nurses did a CTG check, an internal exam, and decided that they were not real contractions! This was my third CTG check. The first was on 21 June night, curious check. The second was on 22 June, false alarm, I thought labor was on the way. So this third time when we were told to go home while expecting a real labor, we were really disappointed.

We were back at home by 7:30pm. Hubby and I watched DVD in the room to divert our disappointment and my pain. Around 9:30pm, hubby went to sleep. The contractions were still painful and bothering me, but I decided to sleep as well. But I couldn't. At one point, I got the urge to poo but felt a sharp pain in the tummy when I got to the toilet. My sister looked at me squirming out from the toilet and called my parents. Now the contractions have started to be very painful, I almost cried. Hubby woke up and got ready; my father changed and started the car. My father drove to the hospital, hubby and my two sisters came along.

I was 7cm dilated by the time we got to the hospital. Mom has already called my gynecologist. My gynecologist was on leave but his colleague would replace him. That was around 10:45pm when I started my fourth CTG exam in the labor ward. My two sisters waited in the waiting room while hubby stayed by my side, holding me, my father went home to fetch mom and my other sister. Mom came bringing me socks and a cup of honey, then she waited in the waiting room too.

I lost track how long I have to withstand the painful contractions. When I started to push, I concentrated on one contraction at a time… one push at a time… The nurses and the doctor gave their full support. Then the doctor said that she could see the head already, she gave me an injection to prolong my contractions so that I could push for a longer time. For the last few pushes, I felt like I could not do it any longer, so I pushed as hard and as long as I could. The doctor made two episiotomy cuts then I felt something warm slid out and a second later a baby was kicking and screaming near my legs. I stunned. I did not know how to express my feelings exactly, but the pain that made me suffer so much suddenly did not seem that bad.

He was 3.415kg, 50cm, with head circumference of 34.5cm. He was born at 1:38am on Monday, 26 June 2006. He was perfectly formed and perfectly healthy.

The doctor stitched me up, the nurses cleaned the baby, and hubby busied himself taking photos of the baby, it was about 45 minutes later that I could finally hold my baby and nursed him for the first time.

The nurses let hubby called my mother in. The excited new grandmother came in full of smiles, said the baby was cute, quickly kissed my cheek then proceeded to see her first grandson. She then called my sisters and father to welcome the new bundle.

Dearest son, that was how you came into our world.