Baby Joel's expected delivery date was on 8th January 2009 so my wife and I had decided that 2nd January 2009 (Friday) would be the last day of work for her if Joel's not out by then. She would start using her 4 months maternity leave from 5th January 2009.
On Friday morning, we talked to Joel, asking him to be a good boy & let Mommy finish her last day of work.
That night, she worked late to finish up most of the work, leaving work only at about 9.30pm. While having dinner, she commented on how especially tired she was that particular day.
After a shower later, my wife confided that she suspected that the waterbag has burst! She kept wanting to pee and the liquid that flows out seemed colourless and odourless. Not wanting to take any chances, we decided to head for the hospital immediately. Thank God we had packed our bag for the hospital a week ago!
Upon reaching the hospital a little past midnite, we were promptly ushered into the delivery ward where a nurse proceeded to inspect my wife.
"Nope, the waterbag's still intact!" the nurse annouced. "But she's 1cm dilated!"
This is it! The process has begun!
The contraction started soon after. "Not particularly painful but quite uncomfortable!" she said. We bravely decided to forgo any pain relief for the moment.
For the entire night, neither of us caught any sleep! She because the contractions were keeping her awake and I because she was keeping me awake!
The nurse came in every other 2 hours to check on her dilation but each time, we were told there hadn't been much change! By the morning, Dr Lee ordered an induction drip to hurry it along as there didn't seemed to be any progress after a full 8 hours! The contraction became more frequent after the induction and a little later, Dr Lee came by to burst the waterbag to hasten the process. By noon, she managed to dilate another 2cm. At this point, we decided to go for an epidural to manage the pain as Dr Lee predicted that it was gonna be a loooooong wait! We were very anxious about how painful the epidural procedure would be! All our fears proved unfounded as my wife declared that it was no more painful than a mosquitoe bite!
All this time, the contraction and the baby's heartbeat was being monitored via a couple of instrument strapped to my wife's tummy. Through the graphs that these two monitors showed, we were able to track the contraction frequency and the baby's heartbeat.
By 3.30pm, we were all getting really worried and my wife was really tired of the constant contractions! Dr Lee said that the baby was beginning to show signs of stress as the heartbeat had dropped a couple of times. Not wanting to take any chances, we decided to proceed with an emergency c-section. Kinda disapointed because we had been trying so hard to have a natural delivery! The worst part was that in an emergency c-section, the father's presence was not allowed in the operation theatre! Bummers!!!
As my anxious wife was being wheeled into the operation theatre, I could only pace up and down the waiting area nervously. Kinda like what you often see in the TV! To take my mind off, I called my sister and parents on the phone.
After roughly 35 minutes, a nurse pushed a clear bucket out and called out my wife's name! Joel is here! I hurried over for my first peek at my son. He had the most expressive and alert eyes! At less than 10 minutes old Joel was already turning his head about and surveying his surronding! I touched my son lightly on his tiny shouldered and whispered to him, "Hi Joel! Daddy's here! Welcome to your new world!" It was really hard to fight back my tears!
I followed the nurse as she pushed the baby to the nursery room to warm up the baby (kinda like leftover food! Ha!) before proceeding back to the operation theatre as my wife was still in there! It was the strangest feeling! You want to celebrate the birth of your son but until you can be assured that your wife is safe, you still have to remain sombre!
Before long, my lovely wife was being wheeled out too! She was shivering quite badly. I was told that it was an after-effect from the epidural and that she would be okay soon.
Finally, I could start rejoicing the BIRTH OF OUR SON!!!
So everyone, put your hands together to welcome my firstborn, Joel Tay Ee Yang born on 3rd January 2009! He's still a RAT BABY!!!
Proud Mommy with her preciousssssss......
Our 1st Family Portrait!
Joel in his own cot.............
Drifting off to dreamland.......
Our PRECIOUS SON, JOEL!!
.jpg)
.png)
