the battle day...

ian's expected due date is 10th april 2007. chinese new year was on 18th february. it was not a great one as mum was admitted to hospital due to eye infection. she was attacked by eye infection somewhere around september 2006. she was retained for almost a month. under go all the test, surgery. we are worried that i might not be fit to visit her in hospital. but dr may wong assure me that is ok. you can tell the worry we had - for ian but at the same time that's my mum. she have been in and out few times. unluckily, again on the 2nd day of chinese new year. we went back to melaka and pay her a visit on cap goh meh. that was 4th march. she is still hospitalize till ian was born.

right after chinese new year my leg started to swell when i sit too long in the office. it makes it so difficult for me to drive home at the end of each day. we prefer for me to go to work rather than staying alone at home. is always good to be at place where there are people around in case for emergency. but due to my condition, we eventually decided for me to stay at home. arrange to work from home as it will be bored to stay at home to wait for delivery. took home all the necessary documents on my last day working in office, 23rd march.

actually i got show since early that morning. i did not inform papa as i know he surely very kan jiong. i keep monitor my progress each time i go to the ladies. anyway, tomorrow i am suppose to go for my check up therefore i decided to wait. i told my colleague, chooi ting and she tease me saying i can get ready for labour. haha..

the next morning, i saw fresh blood. i eventually told papa. told him everything - the show since yesterday. i told papa not to panic. ask him to calm down. actually i am excited with all the mix feelings. 1st time see. we get ready to go for my check up. but we bring along the bag i get ready to bring along when i get admitted. kee yan told me her sister took 2 hard boiled egg before deliver. people believe that it will ease delivery. yee cik told me to take essence of chicken before delivery as it will give me energy. i prepare ham for our breakfast and make the hard boiled egg. bring along the essence of chicken. everything ready, there we go.

the fun part is, while papa fill up fuel, i tried to eat the hard boiled egg. haha.. it was not hard boiled. is half boiled. haha.. lucky that i try to crack it at a tupperware so it only dirty that. then papa bought 2 hard boiled egg from the nasi lemak stall that cost us rm 1 (50 sen for each). i drink the essence of chicken as well.

when is my turn to see dr may wong, i told her about my case. actually, besides the show, i also started to feel some contraction. she check and said that it started to dilate. is now 2cm. she let us choose to go home and wait. only admit when i am ready for labour or i can admit now and wait for labour. she advise that if we want to have natural birth then is better not to induce. although we stay near but this is our 1st time. wouldn't want papa to get too kan jiong so we decided to get admitted.

we wanted a 2 bedded room but there is no available 2 bedded room so we get the 4 bedded room. is bored for sure. papa stay there a while with me but is not comfortable for him (sitting on a chair). anyway, we still have some last minute items to shop. actually we just bought some last minute items on wednesday from parkson, subang parade because they give out vouchers. the item included an avent manual pump set. we need an electric kettle but they ran out of stock. papa need to get that. besides, papa also need to spend the voucher given as it will expired soon. actually i still have a long list of things not done. list of things plan to do over that weekend. i did not eat my apple yesterday. i eat fruits everyday for ian. i still have the apple on the dining table to eat for ian...


(tada! my photo when i am pregnant. no photo when i am pregnant. only took when i get admitted. look so ugly with the hospital wear. actually papa testing out our newly bought nokia n73 handphone. papa persuade mama to buy as well so that we can use 3g. he can see ian using 3g. besides, our digital camera only 2 mega pixels. this handphone is 3 mega pixels. it will also be handy to take ian's photo. so mama bought one)


(papa on the chair, reading the nokia n73 handphone manual while accompanying me...)

i stay alone. read. is really boring. i took a nap. soon enough after i nap, ian must have taken a nap too. why? because he stop working - i don't feel any contraction anymore. goodness. i already admitted and he decided is not the time yet?

we keep talking to ian. tell him to work on it. papa talk to ian a lot. tell him lots of things. papa eventually got to leave. is pass 11pm. there is a lady just given birth admitted to the same room. over heard her story. her water bag brust. she induce and she is fast. very soon she given birth. yet i am still waiting.

tired. take a rest. soon after midnight, i started to feel contraction. that's when the battle actually starts. (hmm.. ian choose 25th march, a date we set for him, pa. hehe..) not too bad. i still can rest but i have to lift up the bed so that i can rest in a sitting position. hardly get to sleep. can only rest because of the contraction from time to time. (papa told me that he hardly sleep too. how to sleep while mama is in the hospital. he can't see and know what's the progress. is definitely hard for papa. you can surely tell. the non-physical pain of waiting.)

i monitor the interval. pass 5am the the interval is close to 15 minutes. i told the nurse and she put on the belt for me to monitor ian's heartbeat. i have to lie down. when the interval goes close to 10 minutes, the contraction is really unbearable. i can hold on better if i am in sitting position but because of the belt i have to lie down and is really killing me. i still can clearly remember the discomfort at that time. i press the bell for help for many times and it take so long for a nurse to come and check me. eventually a mid wife came and she checks and said that is almost 7cm. i am going into the labour room. is pass 7am. she ask whether i want to contact anyone. i ask for my bag and while she push me to the labour room, i called papa. he is already getting ready to come over.

soon after i went into the labour room, papa arrived. the mid wife ask whether i want any pain relief jab. she advise me that it is just to relief my back pain as she can see that my back might not be able to take the pain. i will still feel everything. so, we decided to take the jab. she also induce me to speed up the dilation. the mid wife ask papa to have his breakfast as it will take a while. papa took a quick breakfast. soon dr may wong is here. i keep reminding papa to tell me when to push as he is standing beside me. i need someone to guide me. eventually dr may wong said she will vacuum ian out as she can see that i am exhausted. still remember that's the moment i shouted for pain because i have to hold from pushing which is already very bad and yet dr have to insert the vacuum. the feel of going against the force is really horrible.

"sorry ian, mama can't avoid you being vacuum. mama had tried my best."

finally ian was delivered. mid wife announce the time. 10.55am. ian's weight 3.15kg. i still remember that dr may wong ask the mid wife to repeat as she can't imagine that's ian's weight. she told us that we will expect a small baby below 3kg. other than that, last week when we came for check up, she estimated ian's weight to be 2.5 to 2.6kg. she only hear ian's heartbeat last week. she did not scan him. the battle ends... we attended classes. we are advise to let ian to suck - breastfeed in the labour room. however, ian refuse to suck. hmm... never mind. i were then push to the room. we took a double bedded room instead of a single bedded room. i am too tired and drowsy. really had a good sleep...


(ian in my arms... another piece i found missing. i see friend's photo taken with their baby after delivery. then i realize this is another missing piece. we never take photo with ian. our 1st family photo...)

actually does that really ends the battle or the battle has just began? i think i choose the second one...


the beauty of talking to ian before he was born:
after we attended classes, we came to know some sort of the different rates you will be charged base on the delivery time - office hours, off office hours, weekends, weekdays, holidays, mid night etc.
we keep talking to ian from time to time. at least once a day. especially since after mama need to drive to work. we tell ian to pick an appropriate or more to a comfortable way to signal us. it means no panic moment. tell him to pick a correct time to be born as due to the rates. tell him we shall work towards natural birth.
he did listen. look at the outcome? show on friday, where the next day we have check up. no trouble in getting admitted. only get into labour after 7am. pass mid night rate which is expensive. natural birth. thanks ian!