My birth story
Day 1 7/20
After months of anticipation, our baby tigger has finally come to the world, into our arms. In the 38th week of my pregnancy, at around 4am in the morning, I woke up and started feeling pain in the abdomen/lower back area which comes and goes. The pain wasn't too bad, and I started to wonder whether those were contractions or not. I then got up and use the bathroom, and noticed small amount of blood, and I was convinced that that was the so-called bloody show (or the lost of the mucus plug), which usually is a sign of labor.
I woke Rian up and told him what happened. I was scared and nervous but I was also excited that I would be able to meet the baby soon. Rian comforted me a little and I got a little bit more sleep. I got up at around 7am, text my sister, and I decided to finish up the annual performance review, knowing that I would not have to work once baby arrives.
I have an OB appointment on the same day at around noon. At the appointment, I told Dr Kim that I might be in early labor. He said it's good - he said he'd like the baby to come a bit early since he could tell she wasn't a small baby. He told me to time the contractions and let him know once they are 5 min apart, which I could get ready to meet him at the hospital. He said it could be this afternoon/evening or the next day. Both Rian and I were excited - although I was hoping for a Leo baby, but the excitment of meeting my baby soon was overwhelming, and I didn't really care at that point.
The pain wasn't too bad. So we took a walk in the Downtown Bellevue park for about an hour, and then went to JC penny and picked up some baby clothes and a matching blanket. And we went home and I tried to get myself some rest.
I was timing the contractions, but they were kind of irregular, mostly between 10-20 during the afternoon, and them down to a little bit less than 10 in the evening. I waited patiently, the pain level has gone up steadily. That night, I had contractions around every 10 mins, and I woke up everytime. I kept recording the contractions in the log book.
Day 2 (7/21)
Not getting much sleep, I was pretty tired, but there wasn't much I could do. I continued to time and record the contractions the next day. Then I found that the contractions has become very irregular again, anywhere between 10-20mins. I was disappointed - I was afraid that was just false labor. I have given up logging the contractions at that point.
The pain level continued to pick up. Rian encouraged me to walk more, but the lower back pain has gotten worse and walking was quite painful. I took hot shower like 5 times that day. That was pretty much the only thing that can relieve the pain a little bit. Rian stayed with me the whole time, but we could do nothing but wait. He made me food, and we watched some random movies and a few episodes of Avatar.
At around 11pm, I was in the hot shower again, and I noticed the frequency of contractions has increase a bit. So I started timing again, this time we've got over an hour of 5-7 mins intervals. We've decided it's time to call Dr. Kim. He said it's good progress, and asked if we can wait a little longer, until they are 3-4 min apart. So the wait continued, only to find out that the frequency was then dropped back down to 7-8 mins during that night. Just like the previous night, I couldn't sleep at all. I sat on the rocking chair and got woken up by the pain every 7 minutes or so.
Day 3 (7/22)
The same pattern repeated - the contractions became very irregular again. The pain level has gone up but the intervals were not short and regular enough for me to call the doctor. I then did some research and find out that I might be in prodormal labor -meaning a very long early labor. I told Rian about this, and tried very hard to distract myself from the pain. The pain became worse and worse as the day went by, and I was pretty much in and out the hot shower the entire day. By that day, the pain now extended from lower back to my thighs.
At night, Rian moved the rocking chair into the bedroom and tried to setup a more comfortable place for me to sleep in. I was able to sleep, just that I kept woken up by the extreme lower back/leg pain. By 3am in the morning, I could no longer sit comfortably in the rocking chair even between contractions. I started to change position, leaning my weight against the foot stool and on my knees. That seemed to help a bit; Rian was woken up by my movement, and he said we should take a walk.
We spent the next hour or so to walk around in the living room/kitchen area. Every time the contraction picked up, we stopped and I leaned against him and he would hold me and comfort me. The frequency of the contractions were down to roughly 5-6 mins the whole night. He then prepared a snack for me, and we headed back to the bedroom. I went back to the rocking chair, and I was again coping with the contractions while trying to get some rest.
Day 4 (7/23)
I woke Rian up at 7am and told him that we have to give the doctor a call. The intervals stay at 5-6mins, but the pain level has become so intolerable, and I can't imagine going through another day with this pain. He called, Dr Kim suggested us to go to the hospital and see if I was dilated or not.
The nurse at the hospital checked me and told me that I was only 2cm dilated. She asked us to take a walk in the hallway, if things have progressed, I can stay, otherwise I would have to go home. I was really worried. So then we walked and walked for about 30 mins. When we got back, she told me that I was 3cm and because of my progress, they would take me. It was a big relief to me - I can't imagine another day in such pain waiting at home.
They moved me to the labor and delivery room. The nurse told me that I was having back labor (meaning baby was sunnyside up), which caused such intensity of lower back pain. Dr Kim arrived shortly after to break my water. After that the frequency and intensity of contractions has picked up a lot - probably down to around every 3 mins. I asked for hot shower for pain relief. After being in the shower for another half an hour or so, I've made a decision to do the epidural. I told Rian, and he got the nurse and they setup me up for epidural.
The procedure wasn't so bad. After they were done, I laid down on the bed, and started to feel the pain slowly eased away. It was the first time since a long while I had smile on my face. However, I was also shivering uncontrollably. The nurse brought me extra warm blankets and warm IV. That didn't help much. Another half hour or so, they found out that the baby heartrate was skyrocketed to over 200, and I was running a fever.
Everyone was in panic mode at that time. They removed my blankets, gave me tylenol, setup a fan, and put wet towel over me, and tried to get my doctor back as soon as possible. They all seemed to think they need to take the baby out right away - meaning that if they can't find my doctor, they would have the on call doctor to do it. My doctor came back, and as expected, they had Rian signed the consent to proceed with an emergency c-section. It's dangerous for the baby to have such a high heartrate.
I was then moved to the operation room. More epidural was injected into me. Rian was holding my hand the whole time. He handed the camera to the nurse for pictures. I was scared, but I was more worried about the baby. I didn't have any other choice. Under the influence of the drug, I was extremely dizzy, felt like I was in and out the whole time. I remember some cheers and they told me it's a girl, and Rian showed our baby next to me. Rian later told me he was very emotional and cried. I was disappointed that I missed that moment of joy. I was excited, but the only thing I could do at that moment was to battle to stay as awake as possible.
The nurses ran some checks on our baby, and everything seems ok. She was 7lb 15oz and 21 inches. A relatively big baby, considering I was almost 2 weeks early. The doctor finished the surgery and we were back to our room. I slowly gained back my conscious. I finally got to see my girl closely, and shortly after, they let me hold my baby for the first time.
Over 3 days/80 hours of early labor, lots of pain, frustration, worries from both me and Rian, a total opposite of our original birth plan, the delivery didn't really happen the way we expected. On the other hand, it doesn't really bother me that much what the labor and delivery was like, what is more important is the health of our child. Our baby is now 1 week old - she is healthy and adorable. Me and rian are still adjusting and learning to be new parents. The road might be rough ahead, but it's all worth it! =)
