A child is born

He is finally out. After weeks of anxious waiting, Christopher Lai Yong Chang finally arrived into this world in style on the 22nd of May 2008. He made mummy go completely au naturale, without epidural. Anybody who knows me knew that I was not going to deliver without epidural. Little did I know that my baby had a different plan for me. This is how it all happened:

1.00am : My water broke. I was sleeping soundly when suddenly I felt liquid trickling out. As more liquid continued to flow out, I knew this was it.

2.00am: Keat and I checked in to the specialist clinic, 2 minutes away from my MIL’s house. The midwife examined my cervix and said that it’s already dilated by 2cm. Great! All that hard work done without any contraction.

2:30 am: I proceeded to change, clear my bowel, do all the deeds. After all that, the midwife checked my cervix again and said that it’s already dilated by 4-5cm. This was again, without any contraction. Yippee, things couldn’t be going any better.

At that point, I asked the midwife if I could take the epidural now. Her reply was, ”What epidural! You’re too late for that! At 4cm, you can’t take epidural anymore.” "What! That's not what I've planned!" Protest all I want but there was just no turning back. Fear started creeping in. All I could do was wait anxiously for the contraction to kick in. I really didn’t know how bad it would be.

3.00am: still no sign of contraction. The dilation had also slowed down. No improvement since the last check. I was beginning to think that Chris had pulled a fast one on mummy - get her to dilate fast in the beginning so she couldn't use epidural and then let's take it easy.

3:30am: some mild contraction, nothing I could not handle. I continued to chat with the nurse and midwife to ignore the discomfort. Despite the contraction, not much improvement in the dilation

4.00am: The gynae arrived. Dilation was about 6-7cm now.

4.45am: the contraction suddenly escalated and became unbearable. I started to squeal in pain.

Things became hazy after that… I lost track of time. At about 5+, the gynae checked my cervix for the last time and announced that it was time to push. I had this urge to push badly too to get the baby out and end the suffering. The pushing started. I don’t remember how long it took but it felt like forever, having to battle with the pain and exhaustion. Boy, I thought the pain from contraction was bad, but the worst was actually when the baby’s coming out.

As baby Chris came out and his crying pierced through the peace of the dawn, all the pain just disappeared. Keat had the honour of cutting the umbilical cord. He said it felt just like cutting calamari. I was just soooo exhausted but exhilarated to see my new baby. Welcome to the world baby Chris.

Barely 1 week old, doesn't he look like such a big boy in this pic?