Wednesday, October 8, 2014

The Arrival of 2nd Miracle

Dear readers,

I have safely delivered my 2nd baby boy, Lucas Tan on October 1, 2014 (Wednesday). I am currently in my confinement period, thus will only briefly record the labour milestones as below.

30 Sep 2014 (Tue)
Day time
Have been feeling some degree of irregular mild cramp on the tummy throughout the day. A small amount of blood strain continued to appear whenever I went to the toilet. In addition, I also had the feeling of wanting to pass motion the whole day, but nothing came out no matter how many times I had tried. Despite feeling uneasy, I did not dare to contact my gynae or plan to go to the hospital as I really did not feel any regular contraction yet, just in case what I felt was another false alarm like what had happened on 23 Sep. I had instead diverted my focus by doing some house chores like sweeping  and mopping the whole house just to make sure that the house was in order to welcome the new baby.

11:00 PM
Hubby asked if  can send Jaden to the school the next morning as he had an appointment in the heart of KL in the early morning. I said yes, but jokingly told him that he might not be able to make it to that meeting for I suspected he might need to send me to the hospital by then. I went to bed after that.

1 Oct 2014 (Wed)
12:00 AM
Woke up with a sharp pain in the tummy. The feeling was like someone had used all his strength to pinch my lower abdomen. Not sure if that was the feeling of contraction as again, it did not come back at regular interval. Somehow deep in my heart, I knew that was the beginning of a series of more serious contraction. I informed my hubby who was still awake at that time to  go to bed earlier because I planned to go to the hospital at 6am. I had also made a phone call to my younger sister, who had just moved to the neighbourhood a few months ago to come to my house by 6am to take care of Jaden while my hubby and I were away at the hospital. Everyone went back to sleep after that.

03:50 AM
Another round of sharp pain kicked in. I woke up to go to the loo. More blood strain were seen this time. I started to count the interval and the duration of each contraction. There were none that I can feel of for the next 10 minutes. So, according to information obtained from the Internet, labour is only near when 5-1-1 rule kicks in. Thus,  I believe I was not even near to the labour. (5-1-1 rule: Each contraction lasts for at least 1 minute, happens at an interval of  every 5 minutes, for at least  a period of an hour).

04:00 AM
I heard a sound of 'Pop', and instantly a stream of lukewarm liquid flowed out from my vaginal. Great! This was the obvious sign that I was familiar and confident of. In my first pregnancy, my water bag broke and Jaden was born after 20 hours! No more further guessing or false alarm this time!

I told my hubby that we need to go to the hospital now. Also called my sister to request her to come to my house immediately to look after Jaden, who was sleeping soundly.

I quickly took a hot shower while hubby got all the hospital bags into the car. I had also notified Dr. Paul through WhatsApp about my condition. I did not call him directly as it was 4AM and I thought baby would take at least another few more hours to arrive. I trusted that the nurses would know how to do an initial checking and would decide when to contact the doctor when I reached the hospital.

04:30 AM
We left the house after my sister arrived. I experienced 2 painful contraction at NKVE and Federal Highway. Hubby was under tremendous stress to see me holding tightly to the safety belt while curling my body on the seat. I was unable to walk by myself already by the time our car arrived at the emergency counter of the hospital. The hospital staff  quickly wheeled me up to the labour ward while my hubby parked his car.

05:00 AM
I shouted for Epidural to the nurse when I entered the main entrance of the labour ward. 3 alert nurses rushed me straight to the bed of one of the labour room.  After experienced the raw pain of natural delivery during my first labour merely 2 years ago, I was so determined to get an Epidural since week-16 of my 2nd pregnancy and had ever since reminded Dr. Paul many times about that. He kept telling me he had recorded my request, and promised that I would definitely get what I want if I don't drag too long to come to the hospital for labour.

A senior Indian nurse quickly did an internal check on me and told me my cervix had already opened 7cm. She advised me that there was no need to get an Epidural at that point as labour had begun and she expected my baby will be out before 6AM. She even said " You can save the RM 1,000, baby is coming out soon, you just need to endure a little while."

After hearing that I could not get an Epidural and have to go through one more round of the utmost labour pain, I 'automatically' dropped my tear without I realizing. Hubby, who was already by my side at that time was reluctant to see me in tears. He begged the nurse to call the anesthesiologist to check whether it was still in time to come in to perform the procedure.  Again, the nurse firmly said that I would only 'enjoy' the effect of Epidural only after I delivered, so there was really no point to waste the money.

"Oh my goodness! Please don't talk about saving money with me at this point of time. I feel like dying now! I want to pass motion now!" I shouted viciously in my heart.

"Dr. Paul is already on the way, let me checked your cervix again." The nurse said.

I thought she had just checked me 5 minutes ago? Why checking again? Please go and arrange the epidural!

"You are already 9.5cm dilated! Baby will be out soon. Don't push, don't push, Dr.Paul is coming" I was shocked with her answer. Why everything was going so fast? Was I dreaming?

"I want to pass motion, I cannot hold it anymore!". Knowing that I would feel embarrassed to pass motion on the bed during labour, I requested to be taken to the toilet.

"The baby is coming out, that is why you are feeling like passing motion. Can you still hold? Otherwise you just push!" The nurse finally had some mercy to ask me to push the baby before the Doctor arrived.

I just know that, there were 3 or 4 nurses running in and out of the labour room to perform the last minute preparation. Hubby held my hand tightly each time the 'ultimate' contraction kicked in.

In the delusional stage, I heard Dr. Paul coming in to the labour room. He greeted my husband and me. Sorry doctor, call me no manners, but I cannot respond to your greetings at this point of breaking down!

The next few minutes was all about taking deep breath and pushing. I knew I did better this time compared to my first labour. I knew how to hold my breath longer and push longer during each contraction. Unfortunately after a few round of pushing, baby Lucas, having the same fate as his elder brother, experienced distress with low heart beat. With the umbilical cord strapped around the baby shoulder, he had to be assisted by a vacuum to come out from the birth canal.

5:30 AM
The baby was out with a loud cry! Everything was over, without Epidural. Well, the nurse was right, I had managed to save RM 1,000.

Overall, I have a smooth and speedy delivery. No episiotomy this time. Only a few stitches were performed on some minor tears.

Stitches were performed while the baby was on my chest


10:30 AM
We were sent to a twin sharing ward while on the waiting list for a single room.

6:00 PM
We finally moved to a comfortable single room, which was not just more spacious but also with more privacy that allowed us to have a good rest.

2 Oct 2014
Baby and mummy were discharged in the afternoon.  Overall, I felt like I had gone for a vacation with my hubby and brought back a precious gift after the vacation.

baby Lucas, birth weight 3.3kg



Overall charges for baby and mummy: RM4,700

Conclusion
My hubby and I are very grateful to have our 2nd miracle baby joining our family. We used to think that we might not have our own kid, but things are totally different now.

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Paul Ng and the dedicated team at Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Last but not least, Dr. Prashant, who have guided me through my first trimester safely. He was also the man who told me that I do not need an IVF while the whole world told me that IVF was my last resort to have my own baby.

6 comments:

  1. Great news!!! Congratulations minzy. Lucas is so adorable and a good size baby too!! I enjoyed reading ur experience. U really waited until the last min to get to the hospital... salute ur bravery!!! Hope u have a blissful confinement

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    1. Thanks Parveen! I wouldn't want to wait until the last minute if given a choice. My ignorance in identifying the contraction pain led to this unforgettable birth experience. Don't follow my footstep, go to the hospital the earlier the better:p

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  2. Well! Congratulations ! People born in October are great! And those born on the 1st are awesome. I know because I was born on October 1st, many years back ! Thank you for sharing your experience and welcome to your bundle of joy.

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    1. Ya MeliMelho, I believe Oct 1st is an auspicious day too! Glad that you enjoy reading my experience!

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  3. Noticed that you opted for a package under Dr Paul for the first delivery but not for the 2nd. Any reason for that? Or is the package no longer available?

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    1. Dear Simply, as far as I am concerned, the package is still available . However, I was told by the hospital that Dr. Paul is no longer in the list for the delivery package.

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