Felt contractions early Monday morning around 5am, but was hesitant about whether labour had truly started, having read stories of "false labour" where women have contractions which go away and restart 48 hrs later. Was a little stressed and frustrated when the contractions were still slow and irregular in the afternoon. Watched two episodes of Glee on dvd and actually forgot about the contractions! People were asking me whether I've started my maternity leave and I couldn't really give a definite answer..
Things picked up by 6pm though. I decided to shower, have dinner and then proceed to hospital. Thank goodness I decided to do all that cos by the time we were in the car, the contractions started becoming more intense, though still 6 - 8 minutes apart. There was the after-work jam along Farrer Rd and Adam Rd and Peter was getting stressed driving there.. I just kept quiet, trying to cope with the contractions.
Imagine my dismay when I reached the hospital at 7.45pm and the nurse said i was only 3 cm dilated. Apparently it takes about an hour to dilate by 1 cm, and the target is 10cm before the baby comes out, so that meant I had another 7 hrs to go! Tseng sent word to say that I can proceed up to the ward to wait if i wanted to, so off we went. The nurse gave instructions to let them know when I'm in active labour (i.e. contractions 2 - 3mins apart). We dutifully kept count, and nearly fell asleep watching CNN. 11-something pm, and the contractions were still irregular, about 5 mins apart. I was close to despondent and complained to Dr Tseng who came to visit me at 10sth pm that I'm wondering why I chose a natural birth philosophy of non-induction. =7 He explained that he could burst the water bag and speed things up, but the worry is that the pain that follows will be too much to bear. Although my labour is dragged out, at least the pain is bearable.
At about 1145pm, while P was keeping count, the contractions were still 5 mins apart but I had the 'show' and suddenly felt an immense urge to push. We called for the nurses but they took their time to come. They took me seriously only after I started yelling "Call the doctor! I want to push!" She looked irritated and asked me why i called them so late, asked me whether I could bear with it while she pushed me down to the delivery ward. I used all my inner reserves to fight the urge to push as we raced down the corridors of the ward and took two separate lifts down to the delivery ward.
The good doctor made it in time (turns out he lives near TMC), and within minutes of his arrival, baby Calista was born.
2.785kg, 47cm, 0025 hrs on 19 July 2011.
She was so alert and kept looking around with her big eyes.
Welcome to the family, our little one.
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