50 hours: Ep 02

If you haven't read the previous eps, you can read it here:

Prologue
Episode 01

21 Aug 2013

The day started early for me. Ikue came by around 8am, accompanying me and my husband for the whole day. All of us thought it was baby day. On this day too, my parents were coming from Malaysia, and hubs was supposed to pick them up from Osaka, but since the night before was  a no-baby night, the trip was cancelled, and we gave my dad instructions on how to get to our place instead.

I started to have difficulty walking/waddling from the painful contractions  the night before. Everything was slower as I was getting heavier and being tired made me feel like I weigh a ton. On this day I was monitored all day, in the labor room; and the first NST session's result was the same as the night before -- so Tomokage sensei put me on the hormone pills for induction. He said my contractions should get stronger after each pill, and should help the baby progress. I was also still on  antibiotics to control the infection from the leaking amniotic fluid, and my blood was drawn to check for the infection levels.

After the first hormone pill, I did feel contractions getting stronger, so instead of grabbing my husband's hands, I asked him to massage a reflexology point at my feet to ease the pain, while i breathe in breathe out like I learned in sophrology class. Surprisingly this helped me a lot, so I taught Ikue as well. From this point onwards, everytime the numbers went up on the NST machine, they will massage my feet until the numbers went down again. I am telling this works, at least for me, because I didn't have to take any painkillers or medication for the pain, although I thought about it.

An hour later, they gave me the second pill. The nurse informed me that Tomokage sensei will do a cervical check after the third pill.

One hour later, another pill. This time my husband was out to pick up my parents from the train station. Few minutes after, Tomokage sensei came, checked my NST graph, and said

"Ok, your contractions are getting stronger.
Now.. we do the cervical check, ok?"

--_____-- huuuu  (dalam hati)
pls dilate pls dilate pls dilate pls efface pls efface pls efface (dalam otak)


*cervical check*
*cervical check done*
*Tomokage sensei threw the rubber gloves in the bin, and washed his hands, his face looks like he's trying to think how to explain to me in English*

"Mmm.. baby.. still high up."


whaaattttt


"i cant reach your cervix."


hmm


"cervix is behind baby's head"


ooo okay.
trying to repeat his words - cervix is behind. behind head.
then i said "eh? what? how?"

Luckily Ikue was around. Tomokage explained to her, and she explained back to me.
Apparently, if the baby is moving down, then the cervix will finally be in place.
So at that moment the cervix was posterior.
No wonder the cervical checks were so painful.

So when the doc and nurses left, i googled 'cervix behind baby's head ' (biasa lah nak, mencari kepastian )
Glad I was not alone. and the thing was actually quite normal.



After a while Tomokage sensei came in again, to tell me that he will continue the hormone pills to the max which is 6 pills a day to see if I progressed. I was allowed back to my room and will be checked after the 6th pill. The nurse was taking off the NST belts when I heard familiar voices. My parents and my niece! They came into the labor room, salam2, brief intro to my gynae and they went out to wait in my room.

Lucky for me; to waddle between my room to labor room takes only 2-3 mins, so I was able to walk in between contractions. I went back to my room to rest and chat a bit with my family before hubs sent them home. Nurse came and went, giving me antibiotics and also the hormone pills.

After the 6th pill, i was called again to have NST session in the labor room. This was around 9pm, and I was clearly tired but my contractions remained strong,sometimes 4mins apart. I had to stop in the middle of the session as I needed to do some 'pelaburan', but nothing came out. This happened few times at the hospital.

In the labor room I was accompanied by a midwife who was really kind to me and tried hard to converse in English. She was happy to see the contractions are very strong and told me she wanted to do a cervical check. She even asked me, 'you want the doctor? or is it okay for me to do it?' I just let her do the checking. She did it, pull out, asked me again if she could put in more fingers. @_@

I just said ok.

"hmm maybe 3cm, maximum 4. maybe, maybe... but baby still high up"

After washing her hands, she said "it's okay, maybe baby --- come morning"

"really? yayy"
Three of us were excited.

After the NST was done, she allowed me to go back to my room, told me to rest.

But, there was no rest that night.
Ikue spent the night at my room and took turns with my husband to accompany me as I couldnt sleep at all. Contractions on and off, and I wasn't able to read Yaasin and Al-maryam anymore so my husband put on the ones in his phone so I could just listen to them, while reciting Nabi Yunus' prayer over and over again in my head. I was so grateful I have both of them to continue massaging my feet during the contractions.


The night ended.. and again, no baby that night.
 T_T


Next episode -- The birth.

50 hours : Ep 01

Read  the prologue here (over sik rasa mcm buku cerita)

20 Aug 2013

It was supposed to be my last checkup day. Week 40, 2 days before my due date. Checkup time was like always, 10 am, and the routine was also like always, record my weight (god I was a whale, heaviest I have been in my life), and then checking my blood pressure, then wait for my turn to see my gynae and do my non stress test (NST) to see if there are any contractions.


That day they called me in for the NST first before meeting Tomokage sensei (best gynae ev-ver).

during NS test. no one else in the room, so, selfie time!

After the 30min NST, I have to wait for few minutes before meeting my gynae. Since week 8, we were always a crowd in the doctor's room, me, my husband, and Ikue, my confidante - as my translator (love you babe). We were always noisy and everytime we see the baby through the sonogram, it was always like the first time we've seen it. the oohs and the aahs.

So anyway, in the doc's room, my NST result was on his table, and he told me while drawing circles on the paper;

'you are having contractions, 6 mins apart'

and I was like

'mm i dont feel anything yet, but these last few days I always feel too sweaty down there'

then he was like

'ok let's check, just in case it is the amniotic fluid' - gesturing to the next-door room - the dreaded room. I dont really like the next-door room, where all checkups through probing inside my body are handled. So he checked, and the baby was still high up, and took a sample of the 'sweat'.

Back to his room, he showed a strip and said,

'yes it was the amniotic fluid, you remember when it starts leaking?'

I said no.
In my head I was pretty confident it was sweat caused by me waddling around with my elephant thighs. haha. I was wrong.

So the doctor told me that I should stay at the hospital, to monitor for infection, and because I might have started my labor due to the 6min apart contractions. And I was forbidden to take any showers from then on - takut infection.

While waiting for the room service staff to bring us to the room, my husband asked -

'so should i bring all the bags'
'yes'
'oh okay'
'let's wait after they showed us my room'

I think we were not prepared to be admitted yet at that time, because we always imagined the emergency ride from home to hospital, in the middle of the night.

The room service staff brought us to my room, give me a full bag of supplies (wipes/various kinds of pads/toothbrush set/towel);  explained few things and told me the hospital will prepare my meals starting from that day's dinner. I loved my room.

that small door is a door of a closet

this door is the door of my toilet

that sofa is a sofa bed

After settling in my room, I took a rest, one of the nurses came by to ask if I want a blue, pink or beige pyjama. I requested for blue. and then she told me that the next NST will be at 12:30. Hubs went home to pick up my stuff, and buy me lunch.

Hubs was still away when I did my next NST, and that time it was 5 mins apart. Lying there alone, I was thinking;

Ok, im ready.. *breathe in breathe out* maybe.
uuuu i will meet my baby soonnn, yeay

the NST session lasted about 40minutes, and I couldnt understand Japanese on TV so I just looked around the room. It was one of the labor rooms, and my name was already at the white board.

hmm. blanket ysl gitu

A nurse came by to give me some antibiotics to control the infection from the leaked amniotic fluid. Few moments later, my husband came back with all my stuff and my lunch, and i got some time to eat and rest before the next NST at 3.30pm. So we took this picture just in case baby will be out that night. hehe.

During the next NST session, my contractions were still 5 mins apart and I have started to feel slight pain at my lower back and lower belly (or was it because my body knew I was at the hospital, I'm not sure). Tomokage sensei came by, to ask how I was feeling and to check if I was doing ok. He changed into a pair of blue scrubs (usually during appointment he was wearing this white doctor suit and white coat), and he looked like someone from Grey's Anatomy; if they have a Japanese guest star. I asked him when he expected the baby to arrive; he said probably that night or the next morning.

And I was already getting nervous.

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That night around 8pm, I had my bloody show. That was quite surprising -- not because the labor should be near by now, but because I havent seen blood in 9 months! haha.

I told the nurse about the blood during the next NST session, and she called Tomokage sensei to my room, and Tomokage sensei informed me he will do a cervical check.

Ok. I have to say this.
No one told me that cervical check was painful! (sometimes more painful than the contractions!!) From that moment on, I cried inside everytime he mentioned about cervix check. Tomokage sensei said that if the baby gets lower, then the cervical check would be less painful or not painful at all.

He told me the baby was still high up -- and I was like..

Still?
And contractions are still 5 to 6 minutes apart?

I thought that the bloody show would mean something, that I have effaced or dilated a bit. Was kinda sad/frustrated at that time. Tomokage sensei informed me, if in the morning the baby is still in the same position, he will give me hormone pills for induction, to help things go along.


So, no baby that night. :(

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I started having painful contractions around 1am onwards, esp at my back, and I asked my husband to roll the tennis balls on my lower back to ease the pain. I was kinda sorry to disturb his sleep. but oh well, might as well practice early right? hehe. I was up every 6 or 7 mins, but I didnt know how I managed to sleep in between. Maybe too tired, maybe I have consumed too much anitibiotics for the day (i think hehe)

Ok, Kaori nangis.
Sambung naip malam kelak k. More pictures coming up! stay tuned :)


xoxo

50 hours : Prologue

I have always imagined how my labor moment would be like. I thought it would be in the middle of the night, me and my husband panicking and grabbing our packed mummy and daddy bags, speeding for Araki Hospital, while calling Ikue and reminding her to calm down before also speeding separately to Araki Hospital.

2 weeks before my due date, I was always in the state of imsomnia, and spending my sleepless nights drowning my phone battery, reading all labor stories - signs of labor, silent labor and whatnot, from babycenter, babygaga, circleofmoms, while trying to imagine myself in that situation. These nights too, my husband will wake up in the middle of the night, or probably change his position, and I will sneak my phone under the pillow, half trying not to disturb him with the phone's brightness, and also --- so he would think that I was also asleep. hehehe. he would be mad, but i know deep down he would understand.

I have been blessed with an uncomplicated pregnancy, there were no problems at all - blood pressure, sugar levels, health, baby conditions; so a normal birth plan was in my mind from the start, without any medications. I did enough exercise, I walked - both on the road, and in the pool (the look from kids everytime I got out of the pool never gets old; they were surprised by the huge belly).

But I have learned; pregnancy, labor and delivery is one of the clearest case of - Manusia hanya merancang, hanya Tuhan yang menentukan.
(human plans, but God will decide)


...will be continued