the Longest 2 and 1/2 hours of my life

I've gone through the longest 2 and 1/2 hours of my life. Simply, I've been to hell and back. The date was 17th June.

As you can see from my earlier post, I was just lamenting that I was freaking out on 17th June at 130am about the impending birth of baby K. After that post, I headed for bed.

0130hr
I headed for bed, praying that I will have a good night sleep since I had been tossing and turning as of late.

0200hr
I felt contractions. Which is quite normal for my 2nd pregnancy. I would have quite painful ones during the night for as long as 2 hours before I drift off to sleep.

0230hr
The contractions kept coming. I told the sleeping dar that I am having contractions again. He said to wait and see, as they may be just the usual ones.

0245hr
I felt the contractions getting lower. My usual ones are more focused on my tummy area. This time round however, they feel much lower; under my belly button area. And I am starting to feel the need to pass motion. I was quite ignorant of the signs of labour as Kaelyn was induced the last time round, hence I didn't really know what to expect to feel.

0300hr
After several attempts to the toilet and realising that I have nothing to pass out, I realised to my horror I may be in labour. As I've read that the feeling of passing motion is one of the signs of labour. And I realised that I can't stand up straight and walk while the contractions are in motion. And the pain is getting worse. I woke dar up and we decided that it may be time to go to the hospital. We called up Raffles Hospital and woke up Kae and began to pack to leave. Which was quite difficult, as I was in pain and bringing Kae along was not easy.

0330hr
Kae was quite surprised that she was woken up and that mummy was in pain and talking very loud and making weird noises. But being the brave girl she was, she just looked on and didn't really cry. Although she did look frightened when we were in the car as mummy was trying literally to endure the ever growing contractions with loud "hah hah hah" noises while trying to breathe.

0400hr
We finally reached Raffles Hospital. I had to overcome the challenge of walking to the delivery ward, holding to to dar's one hand, while he carried Kae with his other hand. Come to think of it, I think he was freaking out too as he had to handle me and Kae while driving us to the hospital in the shortest time possible. But he can't really show that as he had to be in control of the situation; if not, I will freak out even more.

Dar immediately called my parents when we reached the hospital, as we needed someone to care for Kae when I'm in delivery. No such luck. The nurse on duty checked and informed me that I was 8cm dilated! My worst fear came true. No epidural! I was cursing under my breath then. I think I went ballistic. I was afraid. And yes, I cried. The pain was unbearable.

I was given the laughing gas to lessen the pain. And frankly, the gas did help a bit. How? Erm, it kinda made me feel high. So everything was fuzzy. I knew what was happening, but somehow, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. I knew I was screaming whenever the contractions came. I knew that Kae was still in the delivery room with us and dar couldn't be right next to me as he had to carry and comfort Kae.

And my gynae finally arrived. I wished that I would faint from the pain and skip all the contractions, but no such luck. Seriously, I wished I could die, and I wanted to scold everyone. That's how much pain I was in. And when my gynae said the magic words: You can push now, I didn't hesitate and pushed with all my might.

0436hr
And Baby Kerri was finally out. I remembered it didn't take me long to push her out. I was dying to get her out of me. I can still remember my gynae asking me to not push too fast while Kerri was coming out.


And as I was not on epidural, I could actually feel the gynae stitching me up after the whole birthing process. I was still high from the laughing gas yes, but I could feel her "sewing" on me. Although it didn't feel painful; just felt like ants biting on me.

I still cannot believe I actually went through the whole birthing process without epidural. I have always admired those who chose not to use the drug, as I am a person who is damn afraid of pain. I hate injections or when they need to draw my blood. I am that timid.

But I am glad that Kerri chose to arrive on the 17th. She chose the correct date I suppose. If she chose to arrive 1 day later at the same time, I would have given birth at home, as dar would not be around at the same time the next day; he was supposed to go to the airport and fetch the parents back from their trip. And with Kae at home with me, I seriously cannot imagine what would have happened if that was the case.

Yes, we were lucky indeed. If we had gone to the hospital any later, I would have given birth in the car on the way to hospital. So everything turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Except for the pain I suppose.