Thanks for all the well-wishes!

And so the story goes…

It was Friday 25 April 2008, the day of my and The Sister’s respective check-ups at our respective hospitals (ya, choosing different hospitals, we are wicked liddat). Since The brother had an off-day he volunteered to ferry both sisters to both check-ups. Upon reaching The Sister’s place, she looked kinda funny, and that’s when she told us she’s been in labour since the night before. At 37 weeks. So we sent her to NUH and wished her and the hubby good luck.

01030 hrs: So there I was for my 39^th week scan and appointment at KKH. The estimated birthweight was 3.1kg, everything’s going fine and I was already 3cm dilated. Weird…I didn’t feel anything. The doc said why not be admitted and try have this baby by tonight. Ahaks…already imagining the kecoh/kelam-kabut us sisters have put our mother in . and so I called The Hasbern who took the day off and got myself admitted.

1700 hrs : Got into the delivery suit, got to know my assigned obstetrician Dr Arthur Tseng – he’s really nice and kind; would recommend him to anyone. Had surgical induction done, and waited and waited. We watched An Inconvenient Truth on HBO and got depressed over the state of the environment (and all those drama questions about the kind of world we’re bringing our kids into) and waited and waited some more.

2330 hrs: Met Dr Fun, the anaesthetist who administered my epidural (yes, I’m one of those with really low pain-threshold, definitely not Superwoman amterial) effortlessly and painlessly. Like, really, I didn’t even know she was done since we were talking about the prices of diapers and all as Nurse Low held my hand.

2400 hrs : the doc broke my waterbag, and I was still only 4cm dilated. Waited, waited waited…told The Hasbern to catch some sleep. The Sister safely gave birth at 2345hrs.

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning : the epidural wore off and I felt the contractions coming fast and furious. While waiting for the top-up I concentrated on that baby heartbeat/contractions detector and took deep breaths to tide over each contractions. Cannot tahan. Nurse Low gave me the gas mask. Had blocked nose so gulped the gas by the mouthful. I felt high. The Hasbern helped me focus with some zikir.

0900 hrs, 26 April (a new day!) : Dr Tseng said I was finally 10cm dilated. Time to push!

0906 hrs : 1...2…3…4 pushes…

0912 hrs : and Ilyas 'Izzuddin slid out! Alhamdullillah! 

it was a wonderful experience since I felt more in control and lucid throughout (as compared to the long labour and long and exhausting 3-hr push in the case of Ilhan which left me delirious with pain). Dr Tseng was kind and wonderful, as were my 2 midwives who showed great care and warmth through the whole experience (my first experience @ NUH was not as pleasant, nurses quite garang and kena marah for crying...hhrrmmpphh!!). I felt l-u-r-v-e-d and it made the whole thing so much easier and memorable.

Jadi itulah cerita saya, dan inilah buah hati pengarang jantung kami yang kedua :)