the past 2 weeks had been a blast!

and i learned that you will never know what pregnancy, childbirth & motherhood really means, until you go through it yourself. and im glad i have the opportunity to go through the once-in-a-lifetime experiences which the guys can never!

i'll try to make the childbirth process sound less painful, in case i scare off any future moms-to-be. 

0100: contractions started hard & fast, coming 1 in 3 mins.

0100-0500: stupidly endured contractions for 4 holy hours thinking it was false labour.

0500: contractions got unbearable. decided to move my butt, nudge snoring Mr Tan awake, grab bag & head to Mount A.

0530: admitted to Mount A delivery suite in a wheelchair. nurse took my temperature, connected fetal monitor to my tummy, prep shaved my *ahem*, enema to clear my bowels, taught me to use laughing gas, checked cervical dilation. i was 3cm dilated, and 10cm means ready to push. meaning i was 33.3% into labour then.

0600-0800: no idea what happened. SERIOUS. i was kind of feeling high knocked out by the laughing gas so i have no idea how i survived the most painful contractions.

0800: started pushing... and pushing... and pushing. was almost there cos i heard the nurses saying Shanice's head was visible, BUT not quite there yet. Mr Gynae resorted to vacuum extraction.

0832: baby Shanice meets the world! 

when i finally regained my strength to open my eyes and look at the digital clock above me, i was expecting an 11+am. instead it was only 8+am. i surprised even myself with the quick labour.

if you ask me how painful labour pain is, i would say it is slightly worse than my bad menstrual cramps. i often have horrible menstrual cramps which leaves me rolling on the bed groaning, so probably my body & mind are conditioned for such strong uterine contractions. a mother of two previously told me:

labour pains = (worst menstrual cramps x 100) + (banged by a car)

COME ON LA. not that dramatic.

the labour pains were bearable, it was actually the pushing at the last mile that was bad. it was plain exasperating. you are pushing with allllll your might till your eyeballs bulge but the baby just refused to nudge. furthermore i was exhausted from the 7 hours of pain. it felt exactly like trying to get a very, very big & hard piece of poop out after constipating for 1 month. in fact that was what the midwives & nurses kept saying to me when i was pushing.

"push!!! it's like pass motion like that only! just PUSH!!!"

and they were repeating that to me the whole time i was pushing. quite hilarious actually.

also, many people said my threshold for pain is very high because i didnt take the epidural jab. i dont think my threshold is sky-high, maybe just slightly higher than average. then again, our mothers didnt even had the choice of the epidural. so it's all in the mind. the epidural is an easy way out for some moms i guess.

this is Shanice in the 1st hour of her life. my poor shivering baby fresh from my cosy womb. she was crying quite loudly without anyone having to whack her butt. in fact her cries were so loud they woke me from the pain. you can also see her clamped umbilical cord. 

aww, my doe-eyed baby. ♥

the very chui me 1 hour after Shanice arrived. dont know where i got the strength to force that smile.

my appetite was really bad for the 1st day, barely ate anything. i was just very, very thirsty and kept asking for water. and after drinking so much water, i didnt pee at all until the nurse had to come drain my pee at the 8th hour. peeing after delivery is important for contracting of the uterus, without which complications can occur. the draining honestly felt more painful than labour pains. a horrid experience!



then while i was resting & watching tv, i saw these familiar faces:




the program was introducing SP's FIRC. wahh, in hospital still have to be haunted by SP.



some shots during the stay.




two-day old Shanice!





and Shanice turns three-day old. full of expressions every moment, confirmed my kid! i love it when she smiles. it makes everything worthwhile. ♥ and i love her fringe!

and i went for my post-natal checkup on tues. my weight now is 45.6 kg. there are still an extra 5 kg on me from my pre-preg weight. Mr Gynae did an ultrasound scan to check my uterus size and for bloodclots, and also checked my stitches. he seemed surprised and said my tummy has almost regained to normal. so happy! of cos there's still some soft meat dangling from my tummy, but it's more than i can ask for cos i was not flat-tummy pre-pregnancy anyway. i happily told Mr Tan what Mr Gynae said. he stared at my dangling meat for 4.7 secs and said, "huh? regained already meh?" so encouraging.

then Mr Gynae introduced us the types of contraception available, such as the IUDs & contraceptive implant, and he asked which one we would like to have. totally stressing! Shanice was not even 2 weeks old and he was asking us that. my mind is too clogged up with my baby to think about anything else. i barely even have the time for meals & sleep. and before we left the clinic, the nurse said to us, "see you again for your 2nd child!" CHILL GUYS.

then again, the feeling of seeing Mr Gynae for the post-partum checkup was a little emotional for me. 8 long months had passed since i 1st saw him for the pregnancy test. so much had changed from then, and im sure he was really happy to be able to deliver Shanice into this world. i could tell from the way he shook Mr Tan's hand and congratulated him in the delivery suite. =) all's well that ends well!

more photos of Shanice next time, till then!