Monday Morning Punch

We went to the hospital at half past midnight on October 9. Lee Hong's contractions, while still tolerable, were 10 minutes apart. I called the hospital and they said that we better go so they can check.

It turned out that she was already in labor. Her cervix has dilated to 2cm. Hmm, at 1cm per hour, we have another 8 hours to go. Thankfully, a couple of hours later, she was already at 4.5cm. Hopefully, she'll be in deliver way before lunch time.

I'm glad she didn't deliver so fast. Admission took maybe 40 minutes. There was one guy ahead of me and Susan took forever to process him. She's helpful though so it's hard to complain.

By the time I reached the labor ward, Lee Hong already requested for epidural and signed the required release forms. She was going to have a continuous epidural, which means that a bedside pump continuously infuses her epidural space with pain-relieving medication. The book we read said that with this technique, her “blood pressure will be more stable, and overall, a lower does of medication is needed.”

Within an hour, Lee Hong’s legs were numb. She can still move her legs and wiggle her toes, but it was strange. At times her legs felt itchy, but when scratched the itch, she couldn’t feel her scratching herself.

The tough part was having to go to the hospital at night. We didn't get a good night's sleep, so we're going to be woozy tomorrow.

Five hours later... okay, so there is no day two.

The fetal heart patterns on the electronic fetal monitor suggested something was wrong. Dr. Liauw said that during contractions, the baby’s heartbeat drops. This may be a sign that the bay may not be getting enough oxygen. While the baby’s heartbeat recovers, continuous contractions may stress the baby more and may prevent his heartbeat from going back up to safe levels. She said that the baby’s well-being may be in jeopardy unless he is delivered quickly.

So due to fetal distress, we agreed with the doctor to go for caesarean section. The decision to go for it and the actual operation was surprisingly quick. The only surprise I saw was a doctor pushing the baby out of the incision.

Lee Hong was very strong - she didn't scream and complain, even though she was under a lot of stress and was shivering because of the epidural. She still managed to smile for the camera.

Click here to see more photos of our baby.