Jie Wei’s Birth Story
22 June 2005
Hubby and I were so excited the whole night, and we didn’t manage to catch much sleep. Even before we went to bed, we took some photos of my last day in pregnancy. We will show our dear son how he was like, in mummy’s womb, just few hours before birth.
6.30am, Ken had his breakfast while I re-checked the bag packed for hospital. Catching a cab to Gleneagles Hospital in the morning rush hour was no joke, but we thought we could be a little late since we had already done my hospital admission one month ago. We finally reached the hospital around 8.20am after the heavy traffic jam. I was assigned the ward #523. (not easy for delivery?)
Ms Oh, the midwife was very friendly. I changed into the pale blue hospital gown, and she shaved me carefully as I revealed my fear of shaving near to the keloids. After the enemas was administered about 20 mins, I cleared my bowel instantly. And there, we were waiting for ‘the time’ to come.
Around 11.30am, the nurse came to the ward to push me to the operating theatre. As compared to my last June’s experience of going into OT for the myomectomy, I was more at ease and I didn’t feel as cold. (Imagine I was covered with 3 thermal blankets and still shivering in fear the previous time for the GA ops.) Gynae, Dr Chan, had earlier on explained about the estimated 1% risk involved of rupturing the uterus if I would choose for natural delivery. As hubby would like to see dear son asap, I had opted for epidural c-section during the 38th week. Hence he could go into OT with me and witness the operation.
At the OTs’ entrance, hubby was stopped as he had to wait for my anesthetist to administer the epidural before he could go into the OT. The staff were very friendly and they chatted with me while waiting for the anesthetist, who was late for about 20 minutes.
12.20pm my anesthetist, Dr Chin, arrived. I was told to tilt to my left, curl my knees towards my chest and keep still. And I really became an obedient mum-to-be as I kept reminding myself to think positive and remember that I would be seeing my hubby and son real soon. Bee Gees’ songs were played while Dr Chin administered the epidural. He was so relaxed at work that he was singing and humming while poking into my spine. It wasn’t as painful as I thought. I felt icy cold at my spinal cord. It only took about 10-15 minutes before I totally became numbed at my lower body. Once the procedure was completed, I asked for my hubby, who was still not in the ward. I wanted to make sure that he would be on time.
My gynae, Dr KH Chan, came with a smile and started to prepare for the delivery. I began to feel intense about the operation. A big piece of cloth blocked my view of what he and the other few were doing. All I felt was some pulling and tugging. Hubby finally came and stood beside me. While I was more relieved on seeing hubby, I was a bit confused as to what would be taking place next.
Maybe it was the epidural that took effect or my confused state of mind. I could not keep track of time as I was not wearing contact lens or spectacles. I was caught in surprise when Dr Chin told me that he would help me push my baby out shortly. And he really pushed at my tummy. Hubby looked over the cloth and at that instant, we heard a loud cry! Our boy, Jie Wei, was crying when only his head was out from me. Hubby said he was coughing out some amniotic fluid. I was sobbing instantly as I heard our boy cried. Our precious son was born at 1243 hrs, weighing 2.97kg. Dr Chan scoped him to the nurse to clean up, hubby walked towards the warmer and stared hard. (Tearing ?) I could see our son’s small limbs swinging in the air while the Indian nurse was cleaning him. She commented that he was a clean baby. After a brief clean up, the nurse rested Jie Wei on my chest. And it was the first time, I set my eyes on Jie Wei, our precious son. He was in my womb for 9 months and just born a few minutes ago. And then he was safe and sound on my chest. He tried to open his tiny eyes and turned his head around. Hubby and I were stroking and kissing him. Nothing could have expressed our joy of receiving him in our arms.
Then, the nurse wanted to push baby to nursery for warming him up. I told hubby to follow him and come back later. Actually before the delivery, I told hubby I was very scared and that he must accompany me all the way. But after seeing our baby, I’ve overcome my fear and my baby came first. I wanted to make sure he was tagged properly and had his daddy escort him to his nursery.
Meanwhile Dr Chan continued with his skillful stitching and I was feeling a bit exhausted and dozed off a while.
Shortly after I was pushed back to the ward, the nurse brought Jie Wei to me for breastfeeding. And this time I got to see him clearly with my spectacles on. I asked the nurse for help as I had no idea how to hold my tiny new born for nursing. The nurses helped me to position my baby and latch him on the first time to suckle. It was rather difficult to position him as I was on drip on my left hand and also had the abdominal binder to secure my wound. And the epidural was still in effect! I tried to move but could move the lower body at all. It was a few hours later then I regained my strength to move a little. And during the first day, I kept dozing off except for the every 2 hourly intervals when the nurse pushed my son to me for feeding. On the second day, I was able to get off bed and walked slowly to the toilet. My hubby commented that the daddy was more exhausted than mummy during those few days.
A surprised hamper from Mah Kian Yan. 
Our first visitors : Father, mother and Pei Ling
Ling Ling with her favourite victory pose. Yeah! One more fellow to bully!
