Lucas' birth story (...Finally!)

Heh, i remember saying that i would do this post when Lucas was maybe a month old? but heh... he's now 5 months old! But oh well, better late than never so here goes! It’s terribly long-winded tho (sorry!!) so maybe you have to read this in parts? I’ve included about 80% of the details so if you are squeamish, er…think u should just look at the pictures? Hehe :P

On Wed, 13 December 2006:

I started having very slight contractions and some bleeding so, on hindsight, these were the initial signs that baby had spent enough time in my tumtum! But I read from those baby books these were only early signs so I wasn't too worried but I definitely started getting more nervous! I was gonna be a real Mummy soon?!!!!

On Thurs, 14 December 2006:

We started getting anxious to know whennnn exactly baby would come so Marcus decided it’s best we make a trip to the gynae to check things out. They hooked me up to a machine for 20 mins to monitor baby’s heartbeat and time the mini contractions. Then the Dr told me “nope…no action yet. Wait another few days.” I then asked her what we should do if baby is not out by his due date 18 Dec? She then said “no point talking about that now... we will see how when that happens!"

Meanwhile, we have a video of little Lukey exercising 2 days before he came into our world :) I'll get Tai Yi to post it later!

On Friday, 15 December 2006:
7+pm: Marcus picked me from my mum's house after work and on the way home, he told baby "Hey baby, I was thinking... how about you come out tomorrow instead... better than coming on the 18th cos tmrw is Saturday so more people can come and visit you". So after dinner, I told him maybe we should go for a walk around then estate cos it might induce the baby to come earlier... and we did!

On Saturday, 16 December 2006:
+/- 230am: My beauty sleep was disrupted by crampy pains in my abdominals and my lower back. I thought "hmm... are labour pains like that? It cannot be right? baby is really coming NOW?! Dowan lah..." Then i went to the loo and debated whether or not my water bag was leaking... Ever in denial, i said "no lah... don't think it's like that" then forced myself to go back to sleep. But the pain kept coming on and off...

+/- 4am: I laid in bed timing the pain and scribbled them down on a rough piece of envelope I managed to grab. E.g. the contractions lasted from 4.00:19 to 4.01:22 (63 secs!); 4.04:23 to 4.05:13 (50 secs!); 4.07:10 to 4.08:04 (54 secs!); then from 4.12:00 to 4.12:55 (55 secs!) etc etc! Yikes…

+/- 430am: I went to the loo again and GUSHHH... "Oh maaaaan..." i thought. Then i heard a knock on the door "Jie jie, are u ok?" It was Nick checking on me. So sweet! I said yeah then continued just being in shock.

Then maybe 5 mins later "Minty, are u ok?". It was Marcus this time! Then i said "yeahhhhh..." then came out shortly after and told him "I hope you are ready cos I think the baby wants to come out already." He was like "Huh? Now?! Must go hospital now?" You would think that he would have been shocked awake by then but nooo... true to form, our dear daddy-to-be was still half asleep and only sleepily attempted to reach out a hand to hold mine!! Then I told him to enjoy his next half hour of sleep while I go bathe and wash hair (before I couldn't wash it for another dunno how many days!)

5am: All packed and ready to go, Marc's mum made me a Milo and I had a slice of bread before we left the house. Apparently, after we left, Nick woke up and started to look for us cos he dreamt that we had gone to hospital and to his surprise, we did!! haha! Such a sweet boy he is!

5.30am: Out of my way! Zooming down to Thomson Medical Centre! It was a smooth drive cos there aren’t that many cars on the PIE at 5am! My contractions were getting more painful but still bearable cos they were still only coming in few-minute intervals. I remember the parking attendant asking me if I wanted a wheelchair but I didn’t want one! Marcus parked then went to check-in while they brought me to the examination room (think that’s what it is called) to “prep” me! Marcus said that, at that time, there was another couple that came a few minutes later to check-in. The preggy said “Can I have epidural now?!!”. Haha, clever girl!

6.00 am: The check-in took about 15 minutes then Marc was directed to the waiting room. He was told that the nurses would be preparing me in the examination room. He went to the waiting room where the lights were off and there were two or three guys sleeping there. He thinks he waited there for about an hour?

Meanwhile, in that examination room, they strapped on a monitor to my tummy to measure Lucas’ heartrate and another to trace the duration and strength of each contraction. Apart from that, hmm… let’s just say there ain’t much dignity when it comes to prep for birth! Haha! So I’ll leave out the gross details but suffice to say, the pain was getting worse and my water bag was well and truly leaking/ bursting by then!

Alritey... I'm not looking particularly glam in this pic so don't laugh!

7.10 am: Marc was told he could go and see me. So he came and saw that I was in a lot of pain. I was holding on to the side railing of the bed each time there was a contraction. He remembered from the antenatal classes we attended that he was supposed to help massage my back when the contractions came (prob to distract me from the pain). So he did! *awwww* But after probably half an hour of contractions, which were getting more painful by the minute, I was suddenly aware that the massaging was starting to be more and more ineffective… THEN I realised that my dear boy was falling asleep massaging me cos he was so tired from having to massage so forcefully every few minutes! So it was really funny – he was sitting in a chair next to the bed and I was lying on my side so that my back faced him. But before long, his forehead was resting on my bed with his hands stretched out above his head to reach my back but his thumbs were just kind of “floating around” in a circular motion without actually touching me!! Haha NOW it’s funny but at that point, there was too much pain…no time for laughs!

Check out the "pain peaks"!

8.30 am: Dr Eunice Chua finally came to see us then asked me whether I wanted an epidural. She checked my dilation and found that it was (only!) 2 cm and advised us that there was a pretty long way to go. She explained that dilation was typically 1 cm per hour, i.e. it would prob take another 8 hrs to achieve 10cm dilation for the baby to be delivered w/o epi.

We had previously told her during our regular gynae visits that I was thinking of going completely au naturel with nooo pain relief (*HAAAAAhahaha!*) She advised that if I decided not to take pain relief, I must psyche myself from the beginning and stick to my decision no matter what cos it’d be silly to tahan the pain for many hours only to cave in and ask for pain relief later. Her theory is that, if you are gonna end up taking it, might as well take it from the very beginning of labour since it costs the same! Haha! So that morning, she again asked if I was sure I didn’t want it and explained that with epi, labour would probably take 4-6 hours. I’m still not sure why labour is shorter with epi but oh well… 4 hrs was a lot of extra time to be in pain! She saw me shaking from the pain and grabbing the bed rails then told us that if I was in pain now, the pain would get much worse in the later stages of labour, not to mention the actual birth itself! She then told us to think abt whether we wanted to opt for the epi then let the nurses know.
Just as the Dr left, she commented “You really look like you could use an epidural lah”. Haha! And I always thought my pain threshold was very high!

9.00 am: According to Marc, I looked really pale and he told me to take the epidural cos if I was relaxed, he would be relaxed (i.e. he can sleep! Haha). We then decided, OK, I’ll take the epi cos I couldn’t imagine myself being in even more pain than I already was for another 8 hrs!

9.30 am: Epi Dr came in to administer the epidural. Marc was asked to go out and wait. The doc made me lie on my side, crouch over in a “C” shape and freeze so he could inject the tube thingy into the space between my spinal vertebrae! Those were a few scary moments cos I was so afraid I would move or cough suddenly and become paralysed or sthg (*choy!*)! The doc told me that in some cases, the epi may not be administered properly for whatever reason, so the patient 1) can still feel some of the pain or 2) has to re-do the epi injection! Noooo!

10.15 am: By this time, the epi was kicking in slowly and i was losing sensation in my legs! Also meant that I couldn’t feel the pain from the contractions although the graph showed many crests and troughs! Yeah-hoo! This is why so many mummies have told me that epidural is God’s gift to women. Haha!

By now, we were both so relaxed that we had time to think about charging the battery for our video camera and composing our birth announcement SMS and our list of pple to tell! Haha! Can’t imagine if I didn’t have the epidural… I might have needed a new bed railing by this stage! We each even had time for a snooze (“storing sleep” according to Marcus. Now, 5 months later, I can see the logic behind that!)

11.00 am: By now, we were still in the examination room (i.e. one big room partitioned by curtains). I thought we were supposed to be moved to the delivery suite by now (single room with TV etc!). Nurse explained that today was a very busy day and it was unusual that so many women came in with their water bags broken! So, delivery wards will only be made available on a first-give-birth, first-served basis!

The Dr came in to visit and checked that dilation was about 4 cm. I remember thinking “oooh that was fast!” cos I guess I really had no concept of time since I was just lying in bed the whole time – couldn’t move much cos of the epi tube in my spine! She estimated that delivery would take place at 2-3 pm. Marcus calculated 4 hrs from when I first got the epi and thought baby should come out at ard 1 pm.

12 noon: Altho I prob only had abt 10% sensation in my lower body (I tried to raise my knees but realised that I couldn’t even manage to wriggle my toes!), I told Marcus that I felt sthg weird “down there”. We asked the nurse to check on the dilation and before long, she told the other nurses that I would be next in line for a delivery suite!!

12.20 pm: We were finally sent to the delivery suite! By the Dr’s estimation, we expected that delivery was to be in about 2 hours’ time. We eagerly switched the TV on only to realise that the channel selection was weak, except for ESPN, so we left that on. Marcus explored ard the suite for abit and barely settled in when I told him that I thought baby might be pushing/ wanting out cos I had that same funny sensation again.

We asked the nurse in to tell her then looked at baby’s monitor and realised that his heart rate was going abit wonky – the normal rate was supposed to be ard 150 but now, it sometimes dropped to 80, then 50, then 90 then sometimes didn’t show at all! So we started getting abit worried and the nurse then went out to get the Dr.

12.30 pm: Dr came in and said that baby was coming out soon! The nurse told her about the scary-looking heart rate but she didn’t say much. She suggested the nurse place the heartbeat monitoring device on my tummy properly as it could be that the baby’s heart rate sound was merged with mine. Dr then asked Marcus to go and see the crown of baby’s head! Marcus told me before that he would accompany me into the delivery suite but he would only stand next to me to hold my hand but he would NOT want to look at the action! (because Daddy is also Mr Squeamish” :) But when the Dr asked him to, excited Daddy-O rushed to see and excitedly reported to me what he saw! *awwwwwwwwwwww!*

12.35 am: Dr washed her hands and put on her gloves and asked me to start pushing. With the epidural, I probably only had 2% sensation in my lower body so I tried to push as best I could although I wasn’t sure if I was actually achieving anything cos I couldn’t fee l it! I was straining and the Dr actually told me “don’t make noise, concentrate your energy and just push!” Haha so embarrassing! Then I remembered our antenatal class teacher (yes! I still had time to think!) saying that making noise is a waste of energy… might as well convert that energy into kinetic energy to push the baby out…haha!

What I remember most is that, in between pushes, I actually opened my eyes to just take a look around while catching my breath and guess what!? I glanced up at the TV and heyhey! Saw Steven Gerrard on the ESPN trailer! See?!?! If THAT wasn’t a sign that baby should have been named Gerrard then I don’t know what is! Haha! Lucas Gerrard Lee? Haha :P

12.40 am: Another ward paged the Dr and she had left our delivery suite! I remember thinking “WHAT?!?! She’s leaving in the middle of my labour??!! WHAAAAAT?!?!!!!” Meanwhile, the two nurses told me to rest and gave me oxygen to breathe – in a very smelly rubber mask! The oxygen was supposed to help me catch my breath and recover faster but it smelt so gross I considered not breathing…haha. At the same time, the nurses kept asking me to push but I thought “what if I push now and the baby comes but the Dr isn’t here?!!”

12.50 am: Dr came back into the suite and began to put on her gown and sat in front of me in her full battle position (haha). She now said that we have to try to get the baby out asap as the low heart rate was worrying her.

12.55 am: Baby was still not out. Then the Dr started having a pretty serious look on her face and I saw some worry on her face. She said that if baby was not out within the next few minutes, she may have to use vacuum to suction him out cos she was worried that his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. At that time, the nurses also whipped out a tray of surgical instruments (which were a silver plate of instruments with a green cloth drapped over)!

Marcus thought “Oh no, not the silverware, that means trouble.” He then told me that I just had to push harder and that we had to get the baby out. At that time, he was also praying and asking God to help get the baby out. I was so scared that I wouldn’t be able to get the baby out in time and something bad would happen to him.

Dr asked the nurses to standby a paediatrician (PD). She asked Marcus whether a PD was assigned, but he said no. She then got the PD on duty Dr Keoy into the ward.

13.00pm: After several hard pushes, the baby’s head was finally out. Marcus went and saw the baby’s head and kept telling me I was doing a good job! Just a little bit more!

13.03pm: After another few pushes, baby was finally completely out! By then I was pushing with all my strength so I had my eyes squeezed shut but when I opened them, I suddenly saw baby on my tummy. I didn’t even know he was out already so I started crying both out of shock, joy and relief! Marcus noticed baby’s head and face were bluish. Many months back, the Dr had asked Marcus if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord but he told me that he didn’t want to do it. But when baby came out, Marcus said he would gladly have done it! But because the Dr was worried about baby, she said “Sorry marcus, I have to do this first” then cut the cord and quickly passed baby to the PD.

13.04pm: Dr Keoy quickly stuck a suction tube into his throat to clear the mucous in his air passage. A few seconds after, baby started crying.

Marcus heard baby’s cry for the first time then instinctively said “Baby don’t cry”. But the PD said “Ohh… crying is good. Baby can exercise his lungs.” Marcus then said “ok baby, cry some more”. Haha! Dr remarked that baby’s cry was lusty and strong!

13.10pm: After baby was cleaned up, Marcus followed the old nurse outside to measure him. He was measured to be 51 cm long, his head circumference was 35 cm and he weighed 3.245 kg. We actually hadn’t decided on baby’s name yet at this point - Marcus wanted Lucas; I wanted hmm… a lot of other names (including Gerrard)! Haha! But outside, the nurse asked Marcus whether baby had a name. Marcus said “Hmm… don’t have yet…I think I’ll call him Lucas”, to which the old nurse said “Lucas, nice name”. (Caught on video! will get Tai Yi to post that too!) She then showed M that baby had 10 fingers and 10 toes!

Meanwhile, here are the 1st few photos of Lucas!

13.20pm: Marcus and Lucas then came back into the delivery suite to see me. By this time, I was shivering like crazy cos according to the nurse, I would have lost a lot of heat! Our little family stayed in the suit for a little while before being transferred up to room 303 to meet the rest of our family. Thank God! :)