If you’re well into the third trimester, I can tell you this: you can never be too prepared!
I woke up at about 2.00 am last Friday, I woke up to pee and work on some stuff, I felt that my Braxton-Hicks contractions were happening a bit too often i.e. about 4-5 in an hour.
Since I still had two weeks to go, I continued on although the contractions were a bit stronger than usual. I decided to email Hubby to alert him and went back to bed…
THE REAL THING
By 7.00 am, the contractions were definitely stronger that I could not walk (I had to keep from making a sound because I was packing the boy’s backpack for preschool! I didn’t want to make him worry or suspect anything unusual.)
The bloody show came when I went to the toilet. Woke up my Mum and SMS-ed Hubby. I changed my hospital bag to a roller one, added some stuff and we were ready. But the boy decided that morning to be extra neat and wanted to keep his 30+ blocks into the box!!!
We reached the hospital at about 10.15 am and was wheelchaired up to the delivery ward. A nice Indian nurse prepped me up and then a Chinese nurse (annoyingly cheerful actually) came in to hook up the CTG and do a vaginal examination – 2 cm dilated 
I was definitely in active labour (good news) but when the ob-gyn came in to do a vaginal examination, he found that he was feeling the baby’s elbow instead of her head O_O
Then, her heartbeat started dropping from 140 to 70 and the ob-gyn declared baby in distress and ordered for me to immediately prepped for an emergency Cesarean section. His very words (calmly):
“We need to get the baby out as soon as possible, ok?”
THE EMERGENCY C-SECT
Hubby was calling me regularly for updates and I couldn’t hold back my tears when I told him the latest news. He was pretty stressed at his end because the earliest he could get here was 10.30 pm and after that, he couldn’t get any updates while I was in the operating theater because the hospital staff will ONLY speak to the Husband.
I wasn’t entirely prepared for a Cesarean section – only got a vivid description from an old friend during a lunch recently, thank God. After a shave and drinking a colourless liquid (to prevent vomiting), I was wheeled into the operating theater.
Nearly panicking, I took a deep breath and said a little prayer for calm and also for God to take care of my little baby.
In the OT, I appreciated the anaesthetist’s (Dr. Chien) firm, clearly stated questions/comments and no-nonsense approach. Since I had to co-operate well for him to set up the epidural /spinal block, he was OK when I asked him to repeat. I was in quite a daze in between strong contractions…
However, he didn’t tolerate squeals so he told me to say “Ouch!” or something else. Hehehe, I was good this time and the needle didn’t hurt at all actually. The contractions were more painful!
Like my friend said, you can feel the procedures but not the pain and I *truly* appreciated the thick screen (drapes, surgical sheets of whatever) put up between me and the surgical team because I could only hear muffled sounds.
It would have been really scary if I could hear their scalpels or exchanges which were very much from scenes of “Grey’s Anatomy” or “ER”. It’s one thing to enjoy a medical drama and another to be in one! The thing that got to me was that they kept repeating: “BABY IN DISTRESS”.
The anaesthetist was FABULOUS because I told him I was really, really scared and I NEED a friendly face – he tapped me on the shoulder and briefed me on what’s happening. The scrub nurse was also nice and she assured me that everything’s going smoothly.
BABY IN DISTRESS
In a few minutes she was out but there was no cry. The ob-gyn said that she’d passed meconium in utero and had aspirated quite a lot. I held my breath (and I think everyone in the room did) and waited as I listened to the ob-gyn sucking it out as fast as he could and muttering,
“A lot of meconium…”
Finally, we heard her cry and everything kicked back into action as they cleaned her up, swaddled her and gave me a quick glance before whisking her off to NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).
Then, the paeditrician came to brief me that she’ll be observed for 24 hours (especially her lungs). I nodded since I had the oxygen mask on and then started to feel a massive headache and could also hardly breathe.
I announced this to the anaesthesiologist who asked for the oxygen mask to be removed. The headache was terrible and he quickly injected something into the UV line – the scrub nurse said they’ll also give me a sedative so I can rest. Then, I blacked out.
J FOR JAUNDICE
When I came to, I was in the O & G ward and shivering like crazy! I was also really, really drowsy that I could only fall back to sleep after a short chat with my Mum and sister. I couldn’t even talk to Hubby who was mad with worry…
I was given a mug of Milo at about 3 pm and since I didn’t vomit it out, I could eat dinner at 6 pm.
It was depressing waiting for Hubby to arrive and I also couldn’t see my baby. I wasn’t that sore at him for not being able to be with me (it WAS an emergency) but still, it was no fun going through this alone. But when he told me that he’d gone to see the baby first, he was instantly forgiven
Thankfully, she was given the all clear the next day and could breathe on her own. However, she had 190+ levels of bilirubin, which means she’s jaundiced. We had to extend another night, my milk came in on Day 3 (ouch, engorgement!!!) and since she’d only sleep at the breast after a few sucks, I had to pump every 3 hours.
I was discharged but she was kept in the hospital, which meant we drove there once or twice to either drop off breast milk or fit in a breastfeeding session.
Our spicy little poh piah (spring roll) arrived weighing in at 2.3 kg and measuring 48 cm. Right at the other end of the spectrum, the kor-kor arrived weighing in at a hefty 3.87 kg and measuring ? cm. I’ve never seen 2 babies or siblings who are as unlike each other as these two 
***THANK YOU to everyone who kept me company at the hospital via the phone or SMS ***
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