Entering into parenthood
It would have been 40 weeks today but Michael has decided to join the world two weeks earlier. For one, I never got to wear my red little T-shirt at 39 weeks (not that it would fit!). And yes, somehow I squeezed my giant baby of 8 lbs 9 oz out of me naturally and drug-free. Even I am at awe everyday on how I did it!
It started out as a tummy ache which kept me up all Thursday night. It was so bad that I had to sleep on the couch. The next morning was still very uncomfortable and I started listening to the Hypnobirthing relaxation on IPOD! That helped to take things off my mind. When Ian woke up, I told him I could be in Labor and he told me to take a shower and see if the pain still persisted. It did – we then went through one of the many books I had to distinguish between a “false” or “true” labor. From the description, it was “false” labor! At any rate, I got the birth ball out and started to monitor the contractions, real or not. From 11 a.m., Ian started to meticulously jot down the contractions frequency (like any good engineers do!) and at around 1 p.m., we decided that it was “5 minutes apart lasting 1 minute per contraction” and it was time to ring the hospital. The nurse was livid that we didn’t check in earlier and immediately ordered us to go in!
As soon as we checked in, they offered us drugs (remember it costs HK$ 6,000 for an epidural, seeing that we are staying at semi-private room, so the incentive for them to recommend it is there!). I kindly declined and this is when the wait began… contractions were coming regularly but not too unmanageable. Ian started to read me the hypnobirthing passages and I made him tell me his childhood stories (although I have heard of them hundred times before!). It was just relaxing and soothing to hear his voice and got things off my mind. Dr. Ma came around 5 p.m. (ruining her public holiday) and said I won’t deliver until late at night and that she would see me much later! Great, I thought, “this is going to be a long night”…
Contractions kept coming and going and by around 7 p.m., I had the urge for the bathroom and when I was there, I realized my water had broken. We called the nurse and she wanted to move us to the delivery suite. They offered me a wheelchair, which I declined thinking that walking 50 m will further help monkey engage into the birth canal making things happen faster!
When we got set up at the delivery suite, the nurse offered me TV (LCD, mind you!), but the last thing on my mind was to watch TV!!! Kindly declined that again and also said no to the drugs (the nurse was really frustrated that I didn’t want any!). At this point around 8:30 p.m., the contractions were really intense and it was getting near “unacceptable”. Ian kept talking to me all the while which helped tremendously and my yoga breathing has come in really handy (didn’t ease the pain though). At 9 p.m., they called Dr. Ma who arrived 15 minutes later. At this point, all I wanted was to push Monkey out! The nurse kept asking me at my ear to take Pethidine or laughing gas to the point of annoyance… both Ian and I kept having to decline them!
Dr. Ma came in and started to teach me about a breathing method which is to push the baby out without making any sound (it totally contradicted to EVERYTHING that I have learned from hypno and yoga). But at this stage, all I wanted to do was to get it over with. Ian could see the baby’s head crowning with lots of hair and all the nurses / Dr. Ma / Ian just kept pumping me up with “we are almost there, you can do this!” So with four big pushes, our Michael has come out.
As they say, the rest is history…Michael was as big as previously promised, measuring 52 cm in length and weighed 8lbs 9oz. I swear that if we tried to fit him back in my tummy, it would be scientifically impossible. He must have practiced Yoga while in the womb with all the flexibility trained in the past few months!!
We are now home safe and sound. Things are a little chaotic but we are slowly but surely getting used to the life of being parents. There are lots to learn and hopefully Michael will have the patience to bear us amateur parents.
For new photos of Michael, click below:
We will probably write once a month from now on, but there will be plenty of photos being posted, so keep checking in weekly for photos and our new life journal as parents.
Thank you for your support, love and encouragement in the last few months. We hope you enjoy reading about the pregnancy blog, from now on, it will be all diapers, milk and sleep routines!
Much love from Hong Kong,
Ian, Stacey and Michael
November 4th, 2007 at 5:27 am
He is so cute …. I really want to hold him. Stacey ~ You look so good and it seems recover very fast. Hope I can hold him when I visit to HK next year – See ya!!!