Labour #3: The whole ordeal

Unlike the first two pregnancies which were both inductions, my third labour was finally a NATURAL one! Praise God!

I really was not prepared for the third baby's arrival because our kitchen was still not ready yet (as we had been renovating since March and the house was still in utter mess!). So my obs was highly suprised by how I did not request for an induction at week 20! Instead during my 39th week check-up on the 24th April, she asked if I wanted to be induced later on that day. I freaked out and said no! I then told her I would only like to be induced 3 days post my EDD so that she would be born on the 29th (vs my EDD of 26.4).

When I look back at my final labour, I marvel at how God had orchestrated the entire thing. You see, Mr M had been sick for 2wks and I had finally convinced him to take a sickie so that he could 1)rest & 2) get the kitchen organised with the tradies. Finally, Mr M agreed to take a sickie on Tues 24th (when he could've chosen any day!) and arranged for the plumber and the kitchen cabinet makers to come in that day to finish up the kitchen. So at 7am that morning, our kitchen guy rang to say as always that they couldn't make it because it was raining heavily that morning and blah blah blah.. all excuses. That meant that the plumber would also be cancelled for the 20th time b/c the bench tops had to go in first before the sink could be installed by the plumber. Anyway, as you can imagine, I was totally pissed off and disappointed yet again by the delay! That meant that Mr M would have the entire day free and I secretly thought to myself.. oh man what a waste of a sickie (even though he was really sick!). lol. In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise because if Mr M had been working that day or pre-occupied with the tradies at home, he would've 1) not made it for the birth of our third child and 2) I may have delivered myself at home!

The Labour Story:

Mr M accompanied me to see the obstetrician at midday as I was already getting braxton hicks from 7:30am that morning and the pain was getting more and more intense that I just couldn't drive. After my obs had examined me, she was highly convinced that 1) my 3rd labour would come super quick and she warned me that she may not even make it to the delivery. This terrified me! 2) she was confident that the baby would come either that night or latest on Anzac Day (the following day). I told her that I had hoped the baby would not come on a public holiday as I would hate for Makayla to miss out on getting some love and attention on her birthday from her friends at school. Hence why Dr Chew had persuaded me to get an induction later that day in which I was highly reluctant to. She even made the phone call to the hospital to see if it was possible and the midwife had told her it was not possible b/c they already had 6 planned c-secs and the beds and birthing suites would be all full. Just great I thought, I better not have this baby on the 24th then!

Anyway, after seeing the doc, Mr M & I went to Rich Maha for some roti canai as I was craving for it. Mr M had Nasi Byrani with 3 different types of curries! I joked and asked him if he was trying to induce the baby himself. I decided to also take some curry to self induce the baby but not too much just in case I did go into labour and end up vomitting it out since curries are very hard to digest. After lunch which was around 2pm, Mr M wanted to go to Bunnings to buy stuff for the kitchen renos. I told him that my labour pain was getting more and more intense and that it may not be a wise move since we might run out of time. (Another good decision made in hindsight). So as we were driving home, we finally decided that it was time to ring our parents to help us mind the two kids just in case I was going to give birth that day even though I wasn't quite sure if the pain I was enduring was in fact the onset of labour or still braxton hicks (false labour). To our horror, none of our parents had picked up their phones. Luckily my MIL carries her mob with her and she finally picked up her phone. We had asked her to come to our place to pick up the kids' clothes and then to go and pick them up from childcare. She was more anxious than us and immediately dropped everything and told us she would come by 3pm.

By 2:30pm, we were home. I asked Mr M to take a photo of me and my belly since it would literally be the last time I was going to be pregnant and I wanted to preserve the last moment of my pregnancy. After that, I finished packing my hospital bag for both Makayla and myself. I also started to pack the two toddlers' clothes in prep for their one week holiday at their Ah Mah & Yea Yea's house. At that time, my contractions was still bearable but occasionally they would be painful so I had to stop what I was doing just to breathe through it. I remember cutting my fringe in the bathroom and epilating my legs and underarms and basically taking my sweet time even though I was literally at the onset of my labour. By 3pm my MIL had arrived and boy she was so anxious that she even yelled at my husband for being downstairs checking his work emails instead of being upstairs with me going through each contraction. She then went upstairs and gave me a hug and wished me best of luck. It was so funny to see her more nervous than I. She then took the luggage bag of D & Z's clothes and left our house to pick up the kids from childcare back to her place.

At 3pm, I also wrote an email to my parents (since they still did not pick up their house phone after I had tried unsuccessfully to ring them five times) to let them know that I was having labour pains and telling them what would happen the next day with the kitchen renos should I have the baby or should I not etc. My father wrote back within 15mins (instead of ringing me!) to say 'noted. Take care & God bless'. lol.. He must've wanted to leave me alone and let me do my thing..

I remember Dr Chew had always told me since Pregnancy #1 that 'Labour is when your contractions are so painful that you can not even talk'.  And fair enough by 3:30pm, all of a sudden my contractions were soooooo painful. This entire time, I had been timing my contractions. They were firstly 10 minutes apart, then they were 7 minutes apart and I was waiting for it to be 5 minutes apart before I would eventually call the hospital to let them know I was coming. However, what scared me was that I never had the 5minutes apart warning because right after the 7 minutes apart contraction, it immediately dropped to 2 minutes apart! So at around 3:40pm, I rang the hospital and I remember the midwife was so understanding and never questioned whether or not I was in labour (since it was my 3rd child after all). We talked for about a few minutes and I remember her asking me 'so whilst we were talking, did you go through a contraction where you couldn't talk?' and literally right at that moment, I said to her 'Give me a second' and I literally could not speak for 30secs. After that, we both said on the phone 'Ok I think you should come now.'  'Ok, I'm coming now!'.

By that time it was about 3:50pm and I had to rush Mr M to pack his clothes too as he was taking his sweet time thinking that my labour would be like my past where it would last for at least an hour. I had to rush him by yelling at the top of my voice just so he would know just how much pain I was in and how serious I was that the baby was about to come.

Finally at around 4pm, I remember sitting in the car in my PJs cos I had no time to change into my labour clothes (thinking I would do it when I'm at the hospital) with a towel on my butt just in case my water breaks. I remember Mr M was taking his sweet time driving yet again and was ever so generous in giving way to other cars to go in front of him. When I saw that, I yelled at him and said 'IT'S REALLY PAINFUL! THE BABY IS REALLY COMING!! HURRY UP!'.  That's when he panicked and started to drive like a mad man just like in the movies. I must thank God that the hospital was only a 5mins drive away because just before we hit the hospital's car park, I screamed to Mr M 'I NEED TO PUSH!' and that was when my water broke (first time in my life I had experienced my water breaking naturally). When we finally reached the car park, there was only one very narrow car spot available and it was super hard to park our car in. I remember Mr M going in and out about twice and that's when I screamed out 'give me your phone and RING THE HOSPITAL NOW!'and he was a bit confused and asked 'but we are just at the car park'. I then wanted to shoot him screamed out to him 'I CAN'T WALK, I NEED A WHEELCHAIR, RING THE HOSPITAL NOW!' So he was trying to ring and park and of course couldn't multi-task and I got so frustrated I took the phone off him and spoke about gezillion words per second cos I was in so much pain. The midwife had to calm me down and asked exactly where I was. As soon as I hung up the phone, I told Mr M to just park the car right outside the front door of the hospital to drop me off so that he could park the car later. Literally within seconds, I saw 3 midwives sprinting with a wheelchair as if they were in some sort of para-olympics sprint race heading my way. They helped me out of the car and I immediately sat on the wheelchair. After that everything was a blur as it happened super fast. I did however remember screaming out to them while they were racing me into the birthing suite 'I NEED TO PUSH!!' and they had just wheeled past the reception area at the front of the hospital where I remember seeing two ppl in the waiting area. I hope to God what they saw did not put them off from having a baby altogether.

I also remember the midwives banging me into the elevator and then banging me again onto the door of the birthing suite. They then said 'oops sorry wrong room, this was a C-Sec room and it's not cleaned up yet'. 'Just great', I thought. As soon as I got into my birthing suite, I remember thinking to myself 'oh yes, I remember this place! (shudders)'. Then one of the midwives asked me 'what position would you like to be in?' and I told them I just couldn't sit down as it was too painful. So I stood up as I remember having read all the labour books & websites that you should always try and standup if possible to work with gravity with each contraction. I was panicking that I would tear and litres of blood would come gushing out of me since I was already wanting to push after only about five very intense contractions. I kept on saying to the midwives I need to push and they kept on responding back to me 'Push then.. just work with your body.. listen to what your body is saying'. This was quite a contrast to two years ago giving birth to Davina when I had wanted to push and the midwives said, 'no you can't, you have to breathe through each contraction otherwise you will tear if you push now.. ' which totally freaked me out! I later found out the reason for the contrast is b/c with Davina it was artificial hormones being injected into me to cause the labour so the brain thinks it needed to push when the body hasn't really reached that stage yet. Whereas with a natural labour, what is happening with the body is in fact in real time.

It must've been only 5 minutes in the birthing suite that I overheard a midwife saying to another 'where is the husband?'. This made me very nervous as it implied that they knew the baby was coming very soon. Thank God two minutes later Mr M came into the birthing suite and became my lamp post to lean on through my contractions. Silly me then said to Mr M to bring my labour clothes as I thought I would still have some time and I remember the midwives saying to me like a mother to a child 'now listen Vicky.. if you are comfortable with what you are wearing then just leave it as it is' (they must've thought I was out of my mind). Then at around 4:35pm I started to push and on my second push, I could feel the baby's head literally in my cervix. Basically it felt like a cantaloupe was stuck in btw your legs! Then the midwives told me to bend my legs with the next (and final) contraction and push as much as I could...and true enough on the third push at 4:43pm, Makayla literally dropped out of me (standing up) and the midwives were all bending down ready to catch her. The second stage of labour probably only lasted 6 minutes I reckon whereas with Zach it lasted for an hour! I remember seeing the baby below me with this long cord in btw the baby and I. The funniest and probably the most undignify moment was when the midwife said to me 'now Vicky, lift your left leg up around the cord, spin yourself around and then hop onto the bed  and lie down so we can place the baby on you'. I remember it was like playing with the skipping rope made of elastic bands back in high school days where you had to untangle yourself and jump as many times as you can except that the 'rope' this time was made of an umblical cord! It was just all too surreal. Within seconds, this purple baby was placed on my chest crying her lungs out and I remember looking at her blinking several times thinking to myself.. 'Am I in a dream re-living my first labour again?' as she looked exactly like Zach. Her eyes, nose, mouth, head shape and even the number of hair on her head was identical. Moreover the way she cried and stopped crying was exactly the same as Zach. Here I was having my final child but I was transported back to 4 years ago when I had my first child...

The fact that the labour happened so quickly, my obs didn't even make it for the birth which was exactly what what she had predicted. About seven minutes later, she finally came into my birthing suite and performed the last stage of labour (ie the pushing of the placenta bag). She even had to place her hand on my tummy to help push the bag out which mind you was also painful. Then she examined me and said 'you have a second degree tear but it's not as bad as when you had Zach or Davina. You don't need any stitches at all'. She then popped in a nurofen in my cervix (yes pain relief can be inserted too!) and then that was it! My entire birth was over!

Mr M & I were then left alone in the birthding suite with our newborn. We spent the next 1.5hour soaking in what had just happened and ringing the family to notify them of Makayla's birth. I remember hearing my mum speaking to Mr M asking him 'How is Vicky's labour? Is she in much pain?' (as my mum thought I was still in labour) to which Mr M replied 'Mum can you hear the background?' (which was Makayla's cries) and my mum was soooo shocked that I already had the baby. She was shocked again when she found out we had a girl as she was convinced that my pointy belly meant that we were having a boy! Two hours after the birth, I got up, had a shower and then walked to our recovery room with a baby in my hand thinking, I am definitely still dreaming...