Labor & Delivery

Mon, May 3 -- So after taking some Tylenol/paracetemol, I was able to get 3 hours of sleep. The much anticipated contractions never came and she was moving less, so the hospital told me to come in earlier at 6pm (not 8pm). Huge thanks to Heidi & Dips for shuttling us there.

Because it had been 24+ hours since my water broke, the risk of infections increase so they opted for the quickest option to induce me -- the Oxytocin Hormone Drip, which was administered via IV at 8pm. Let me put this in perspective. Most women go through 6-72 hours of contractions (usually 4 contractions lasting 30-60 seconds in 10 min) to get to 4cm which is when they let you come into the hospital and you are considered officially "in labor". The Hormone Drip puts you into labor almost immediately, so within an hour I was having 5 contractions lasting a minute every 10 min. The doctors told me I'd likely not turn down an epidural as the experience is intense. Sure enough, at midnight I made the request and the drugs were pumping in me an hour later. I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep over 2 nights and intense contractions, that the epidural let me sleep for 4 hours. When I woke up, I was 10cm dilated (only good side about the hormone drip!), and that the pushing stage would be as long/short as my pushing effort. So my competitive spirit came out -- I began pushing at 6:15 and 4 pushes later she was out at 6:32.

So what did we feel? Nothing really, as it all happened so fast. I dont think Peter had fully woken up yet without his usual cup of coffee and I was groggy & on drugs. It looked a bit from a scifi movie as her head was shaped like an alien and there was lots of blood & poop (a true Wong -- taking a big one right before she came out).

It was more fun after they cleaned her up, trying to figure out what features were Indian, Chinese, and Korean. Peter thought she looked Chinese/Korean, and I felt she looked like my sister's baby pictures. She weighed 2.2kgs/5lbs 4 oz.

I was so blessed to have an easy delivery.

#1 We had THE most amazing midwife, and since they were not busy that night, she stayed with me the whole time.

#2 Peter was great -- patient and knowing how to translate my irrational comments (i.e. Me: "if 30% of all Hormone Drip patients end up with a C-section, maybe we should just skip the pain and go to the operating theatre and have this done in 15 min". Peter: "well, another 70% dont have to have a C-section").

#3: I had a straight forward delivery even with being on the hormone drip -- having her naturally with no forceps, suction, or C-section... and only needing 2 stitches. (Very low probability of this happening with the hormone drip).