My labor story................

For those who are interested, the following blog is about my labor with baby Ryan.. I probably will go into detail, so if you think it is too much, you can stop reading now..:)

My first signs of baby coming was the mucus plug. It came out on Friday night/Saturday morning while I was using the bathroom. This was followed by small cramps like the period cramps. I did not think much about it since I read that the mucus plug doesn't tell when the baby will be out.

We headed over to Simon and Lu Fun's house for their kids bday party and I continued to have small cramps. It did not impact me. As the evening came around, the cramps started getting worst, but nothing unbearable. Around 7pm, I decided to time the cramps to see how often they arrived and noticed it was happening every 10 minutes.

We left Simon's house around 8pm after eating a lot of food and headed to Circuit City to buy a hard drive for Soon Jin. We got home around 9pm, and I decided to time the contractions again (I guess the cramps were the contractions). This time, it was 5 minutes apart lasting for 30 seconds. Gordon and I looked frantically for the information sheet that says when to call the hospital and it did say to call if the contractions are 5 minutes apart. So, I called the Walnut Creek Kaiser number and told the nurse that I was going to come in. After taking all my info and me telling her I am coming in, I got a call from the nurse at the Kaiser facility. She said I should stay home for another hour and make sure the contractions were still coming in. I told her that we are 40 minutes away and we prefer not to wait an hour. She persisted in asking me to stay home, but we headed over anyways (good thing we did!)

In the car, I tried to stay quiet since my sis and mom were in the car as well, and I did not want to frighten Gordon, who may start driving to fast.... so here was I having contractions 5 minutes apart and trying to be quiet..:)

We arrived at the hospital and the pain was getting unbearable. We checked into the triage nurse area and they asked me to undress and wear a gown. The gown was such a pain! If a person is having contractions, how can they figure out how to wear a hospital gown with so many buttons? Anyways, in the room, the pain was so great, that I puked. Poor Gordon, he felt sick when he saw me puking that he had to leave the room for a while.

The nurse informed me that I was 7 cm dilated and I told her that I only had contractions for 2 hours and I want the epidural now! So, they wheeled me over to a room and started the IV work. I was in great pain and kept asking for the epidural which came like an hour after I got to the hospital. I think I got the epidural around 10.50pm and I was at the hospital around 9.50pm. I could have killed them! I think the worst part is knowing that the pain is going to arrive every 3 minutes and not seeing the anaesthesiologist around.

After I got the epidural, everything felt so much better. I puked one more time (yeah, all the food I ate the Simon's house came out!) and felt better. We waited an hour, and was told I had dilated to 10cm and could begin pushing. So, the pushing started. I could see the graph that shows when the contractions are coming and I pushed. We pushed for 2.5 hours. It actually did not feel that long, but the clock showed it. Then the mid-wife (Jennifer) said she did not see any progress in baby's head moving down. She said she would call the doctor and let him decide what to do.

Dr. Nan came in and he said that he would try and vacuum the baby out two times and if it fails, he would do a c. He was worried that the baby's head would come out, but not the shoulder. So, the prep work began for a c-section, in case all else fails, the doctor can immediately do a c-section. Gordon had to change into his scrubs and he decided he did not want to watch the c and just sit next to me..:)

So, I pushed one more time, the doctor saw no progress and said, we are doing a c and the work began. The great thing was, there was no pain! Just a whole bunch of waiting. They definitely gave me a lot of epidural...cos after the surgery, I could not even talk right and was slurring.....

Ryan arrived at 4.16am and shocked the doctor as he wasn't expecting a huge baby (9 pounds 8.2oz). There was no way baby was going to come out by me pushing...

All in all, it was a good experience. I will probably schedule a c for my next baby.....:)