Being the final birthing experience, i believe this record would serve as a very good read for myself in 20 years time.

Having experienced a nightmarish c-sect previously with my twins, I was quite adamant to try natural birth this time. Still why the c-sect many asked?

 

Well putting other subjective factors aside, I would say it was all due to timing. If my due date wasn’t so close to CNY, I would’ve just chosen to WAIT….wait till the baby is due for delivery. But after knowing that my ob-gyn would go for leave days before my due date & will not return until a week after CNY, I changed my mind. Having another gynae to attend to my birth is the last thing that I wish to happen…given that he has been taking good care of me & my baby for the past 9 months.

 

We planned to do an early labour induce but a day prior to the scheduled date, a check on my cervix revealed that it was NOT READY yet. Baby’s head despite down facing was still very much above the cervix door hence the success rate for labour-induce will be very low. My ob-gyn did gave me option to proceed if I’m keen on trying but wanted us to agree that should the induce fails, we must agree to proceed with an emergency c-sect to ensure the safety delivery of the baby. He said he can’t let me go back if the induce failed. And if an emergency happens, it also means much higher COST comparing to a scheduled c-sect.

 

It was very frustrating when things don’t go along with plan esp. when I’m all READY to admit the next day. A thorough discussion went on with huby & after weighing all factors affecting our situation coupled with our strong desire to fulfil our dreamt baby’s DOB which is on 2/2, we eventually succumbed to the choice of an elective c-sect !!

Anyway, the most important is that baby arrived safely J

 

Since our decision was pretty last minute, we were told to admit hospital in less than 12 hours. So a quick last minute preparation was done & we left home around 9pm on 1st Feb during a heavy downpour. Everyone in the car was quiet. The boys followed suit but were obviously running out of battery late at such hour. Both huby & I were anxious, excited yet worry. Got our admission registered pretty fast. Customer service officer brought us to our room. The boys got excited checking out the room & start exploring the TV channels while I was hooked up to the heartbeat monitor. Not long after, huby has to bring the boys back as they still need to attend school the next day. That’s the different of having elder kids & that’s also when it hit me hard…..i couldn’t contained my sadness as they left me. Cried like a baby…. so darn “ng seh tak” L  

 

The c-sect was scheduled at 9a.m. the next day. After dropping the boys at school, it was only 7’ish so huby arrived very early. I have already cleaned myself up & changed into my surgery suit. We chit chat a bit & off huby went for a quick bite at the hospital café. Sharp at 8:30 the operation team in duty came & announced:

“WS, it’s time to move now ”

Saw the Stemlife guy following us to the OT room to collect my cord blood, must commend their punctuality J

 

That miserable & gloomy feeling drown me again during the journey I was wheeled from my room to the Operating Theatre (OT)….passing by many people with curious glares esp in the elevator. It made me feel so sick, so vulnerable & helpless. But the good thing is huby was accompanying me in the OT room thru out the surgery this time so it was a whole new experience to him too.

 

Once inside the OT room, huby was also asked to put on the surgical suit…he was sanitised all over and we were left at the waiting area. At least I have him to talk to while waiting anxiously. The anaesthetist & assistant surgeon came to do brief interview while waiting for my ob-gyn who had a last minute natural labour to attend to…….haiya, so my operation was postponed for an hour.

 

About 45mins later, our Dato lee-chong-wei-look-alike ob-gyn greeted us very briefly & shouted to all :

“lets ‘hoi-kung’ / start work”

I was transferred from the stretcher to the CHOPPING BOARD. The spinal epidural administration was a new experience to me & it was freaking scary. Painful yes but bearable. Within a minute, I already felt the numbness on my bottom half. They started blocking my view. I was so worried & nervous that I could still ‘feel’ when the knife was laid on my skin. As I was so alert, I tried so hard to bend my toes, shake my feet to check that the epidural was already effective but I couldn’t move at all. As the ob-gyn did not signify to me when he would start his job, it kept me wondering. And why hasn’t they allow my huby to come in yet???

 

Well, very soon, I felt huby’s hand holding on to mine & that scaredy cat ‘old man’ sat so far away behind my head. He already said he would not witness the operation. In less than 2 min (I think), I could hear the little sound of baby crying ‘ngek ngek ngek’.

I was like omg….i turned my head up to huby & asked him : out already ahh?? That old man was so elated that he didn’t answer me right away but all I could hear was his giggles (heh heh heh). So I squeezed his hand for answer & he said:

“yes out edi….wuah lots of hair”.

 

Then ob-gyn said :

“Wuah, yr son so fast ‘cham char’ / served tea already” ….

Everyone laughed including the dady. And since I was still blurred, I asked huby what he meant?

He said “or-liu jor” i.e. peed already, LOL !! That put a little smile on me. Yet I had so many queries in my mind. Is he normal, does he looked ok, is he healthy…???? Yet I kept mum & could only wait. But sensing the dady’s happy reactions, I guess he should be ok. The nurse cleaned baby up while the ob-gyn continued with the remaining of the surgery on me. Before baby was wheeled out to the nursery room, the nurse carried him to me to show me his gender & for me to plant a kiss on him. BOY….no words could explained how happy & relief I was seeing him. And as I kissed him on his cheek, I was amazed at his tender soft skin. He looked so purple & plumped then.

Huby then asked my permission if he should follow baby to the nursery room & without hesitation I shooed him off to check & ensure that baby was all OK.

 

Ob-gyn took another 30-45 mins to finish of the remaining of the surgery. This time, once everything was done, he did come up to me & informed me that it was all over. I’m glad that I decided to numb only my bottom half body instead of going for GA as during my previous experience I could remember I suffered terrible dizziness & coughing as a result of the side effect of GA.

 

Overall, the c-sect was fast & successful. Finally I’m done with my pregnancy, I could breathed a strong sigh of relief. Yet the pain & torture for the first 2 weeks after the surgery were so awful & horrendous. Many mothers said that they would forget about the pain once they see their little bundle of joy but I begged to differ. I will never forget about the pain I went thru (the entire pregnancy as well as the post-surgery recovery) instead I would say it was well WORTH the pain seeing a healthy little bundle of joy in my arm all over again after 7 years!

 

On a side note, I’m hereby declaring that I would try to enjoy bringing up this little miracle as much as I could & put behind the pain since this would be my final experience, bcoz I have already performed the “STERILISATION PROCEDURE”

 

‘Sterilisation’ means preventing the woman from becoming pregnant by means of various different operations in which her Fallopian tubes are blocked or cut through – thus making it very difficult for her eggs to reach her womb.’

 

Yes I ‘sudah ikat’…. Yippee, no more pregnancy !!

 

Dearest Little Stuart,

 

I’m pretty sure that you will be another spoilt brat in the family as you are so LOVED & treasured by all in the family. After nearly 4 years without an infant in the Lai family, everyone (grannies, your aunts, cousins & of course your beloved parents & twin elder brothers) was pouring their infinite love on you. Every other day since we brought you home, your grannies & aunts took every chance to pop by just to see, kiss, caress & cuddle you. Most of all, your beloved dady would spoil you just like how he has spoilt your 2 elder kor-kors. What a lucky little fella.

We look forward to having you to enjoy our life journey together & I’m sure you’ll find this world exciting.

 

Welcoming you with Lots of love,

Mummy, Daddy, Sean & Scot

02/Feb/2010

10:17am