Nurhannan. Born 21 Oct 2009 1:45 am. 3.1 kg and 49 cm at 38 weeks gestation.
The birth was quick and relatively easy -- 1+ hour, 1 push, no pain killer.
After work, we went for my 38th week checkup. Dr Zana took a look at my past record and did a VE, and said 'see, you're already at 4-5 cm.' I told her the contractions weren't painful and weren't consistent enough for us to get excited about. Actually, it had been hurting *a lot* when I walked, regardless whether it was contraction time or not, but that was not a reason to go get admitted to the hospital.
Anyway, this time she let me go home and have dinner and told us to come back at 10 pm. So we went home. Had dinner, had my shower, solat isya' then did solat hajat. This was a little different as with the previous ones except for Amjad, we had to rush to the hospital.
The kids came back from their Quran class, we said goodbye. Then we went out for ice-cream and finally at 10.40 reached the maternity centre. They were ready for us, the midwife asked if I was in pain, I said no, she said, 'hmmm.. that's magic.'
We went straight to the labour room. They did the triage their, the contractions were there alright, but I was happy not to feel the pain :). I was at 5 cm. at 11:30 I was still at 5 cm. This was looking to be like a long night. So they decided to hurry things up a bit, put me on IV. The nurses came at 12 and was like surprised I was sitting up and reading the newspaper -- it was the most comfortable position anyway. Another VE, still no progress. So at 12:30 they broke my water.
The big contractions began. After 1 it got progressively painful.
But still with enough presence of mind, at one point I told Rozi "I don't know how to manage my pain anymore", and he said something like 'it's just the age thing' and that got a slap on the wrist from me and a shared laughter, much to the amazement of the nurses :).
1:30 am, I told the midwife I needed to lay on my side so that it wouldn't hurt so much, and it did actually work, and then suddenly I told them, I feel like pushing, and they were like wait, hold on, let's call the dr first, plus I was on my side, I'd squash the baby. The urge came and went, I didn't fight it but I didn't not fight it (?).
So the dr came. They prepped me up, gave me a little refresher on what to do. And then... nothing.
There was no urge, no pain. But the dr just said we'd wait.
And then a little urge ti push, that turned into a big one, and I wasn't really expecting the baby to come out yet, after all, it was the first push, but it was so surreal when I actually felt the baby coming out, and I was so relieved, I forgot to push anymore, and the dr had to tell me to push a little more for the shoulder.
And Nurhannan came into the world, all delightfully covered with vernix -- forgot that part too :).
She was put on my tummy while Papa got the honour to cut the umbilical cord.
