the birth story of little PJ!

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" - Philippians 4:4

The story made simple...

3 June morning:
Went back to school to send my 4E students into the school hall for their O Level MT exam. All was good. No signs at all. We were even due for another visit to the gynae that night.

11am:
Went to the toilet and saw that I had some brownish discharge. 'Mucus plug' immediately came to my mind. I waited for a while. Started to feel some light contractions which were rather painless. I had a meeting with another colleague to finish some passing over of duties. Then I had another meeting with 2 external teachers at 12noon. Meanwhile, I also called up the gynae to ask for advice. He told me to go to the hospital first. So I informed the hubby, finished up the meeting and went home at 1300h.

3 June afternoon:
Came back home, took out my hospital bag, took a bathe, had lunch before making our way to the hospital. Nurses checked my dilation (OUCH) to be 1.5cm.

And this is a 'must-take' kind of pose for any woman before going into labour:

I'm going into labour soon!

6pm:
Gynae came, checked my dilation (OUCH again) and said it was 3cm. He then broke my water bag (OUCH OUCH) to accelerate the labour. Then I felt like I had incontinence. Haha.

8pm:
I was in the labour ward waiting. Contractions were stronger. Hubby and I spent the waiting time watching TV.

11pm:
Contractions were much stronger than before (though I think they were not yet at the strongest), and I was already in tears by then. (Please remember that I seldom have menstrual cramps and I am SUPER scared of pain). Asked for epidural, and the injection IS painful also! Had to bear with the contractions, curl up like a prawn and remain still while the anaesthetist injected the needle into my spine. But after the epidural, it was really bliss. The numbness spreaded across my lower body, pain became lesser and lesser. I even managed to catch some sleep. I cannot imagine suffering the pain of contractions through the night without epidural.

4 June, 4.30am:
Got woken up by the nurses to say that my dilation was 10cm and I could start pushing. But I told the nurses that I couldn't feel anything in my lower body at all, how to push? Nurses said I need to imagine. Uh huh. So I imagined and practised pushing. I actually got breathless while pushing.

5am:
Gynae finally came. Then came more intense pushing and more breathlessness. Yet it seemed like I wasn't pushing enough. I must admit that I was quite tired from the lack of sleep and breathlessness. Gynae had to activate the nurses to push my tummy to help the baby come out faster. After several rounds of PUSHING (from both me and the nurses), our little princess is born! :)

little PJ says HI~!