Emre to the World 看媽媽把你生出來

Labor is like running a marathon that I was never trained for. 

~ ~ Emre's 30+ hour birth story ~ ~

My sister had four babies, and she always had easy labors. The birth of her oldest daughter took 4 hours and other three took 2 hours or so each time. This gave me a (false) faith that I am going to have a short, relative painless and perhaps smile-all-around labor. I was STUPID. 

Day 1, 11/27/2013 40 weeks + 1 day

    I was anxious about passing the due day. I always believe being active is good for labor, so we went to walk around in a shopping mall this afternoon. By 6:30pm, my water broke at Target. Luck it was not a gush like what we always see on TV. How could I ask someone to mop off the water for me at Target? We went home, called the doctor, had dinner and went to hospital around 10pm. 

    My contraction was 5 min apart, very regular but not yet too painful. Baby's heart beat sound normal. Dr. Delach told us to go home and come back to the hospital when the contraction becomes more frequent or latest 6am the next day. Dr. D and us thought baby is going to come at Thanksgiving day. When we got home I went straight to bed because I knew I will need energy in the following 6 hours  (correction) 30+ hours.

Rehearse the labor positions and relaxing techniques before going to the hospital. 

Day 2, 11/28/2013 Thanksgiving day

    3am, the contraction got too intense for me to stay on the bed. I woke Nihal up and started to time the contraction. It was not regular, two minutes here, five minutes there, so we waited at home. To distract my attention from pain, we watched an episode of Almost human and an episode of Homeland. When contraction hit me, we paused the show and I did yoga breathing, and resumed watching when the pain passed. At 6:30am we went to hospital for the second time.

    We waited in the triage room for Dr. Liau who was delivering a baby at that moment. There was some screaming from few rooms down the hall. I guess that's where the doctor was. An hour later, Dr. Liau checked me and announced that I was still in the early stage of labor and sent us home. Off we went, home sweet home, with no baby in my arm.

    For hours and hours, I bounced, walked, squatted, danced and did all humanly possible positions a very pregnant woman can do. Around 5pm we decided to go to hospital for the third time and hoped the baby will come tonight. I changed to the dreadful hospital gown and got internal checked for the first time. 2 cm dilated, gosh, all the work for 2 cm. (10 cm is consider fully dilated and ready to push.) Nihal gave me cups and cups of water to keep me hydrated. The funny thing is I didn't need to pee, all the water went straight to my lower body. My feet and legs got much thicker as time progress, the worst edema ever happened to me. By 9pm, I was 5cm dilated. Good, some progress I thought, Emre should come before the day ends. Usually from 5cm to 10cm is much faster. 

    It was painful, very painful.  Every time the contraction hit me, I could not stand and had to hang myself on Nihal. (No wonder he complained about his backache the next few days. But compared to what I went through, his backache was rather insignificant in my opinion.) 11pm, another internal exam. 5cm, no progress. My contraction was irregular. They came in doublet or triplet; before one contraction is over the next one starts, I had very little time between contraction to rest. Dr. Liau said my body is too tired to proceed naturally, we need medical intervention. 

I could not smile to the camera at this point. 

    We decided to have epidural for pain relief which will allow me to rest. The anesthetic team came in just a few minutes. They asked Nihal to wait outside. I ask the nurse why can't Nihal stay. She said a lot of dads faint during the procedure and they have to spare someone to take care dads. Its just easier just to keep dads out. I must lost quite some blood, because I heard someone whispered "I can't stop the bleeding". But I was too tired to care. After the catheter was in place and medicine went in, I felt sore at first and then nothing. Pitocin, an inducing agent, was added to the IV. Before long I fall deep sleep. 

    

Good night. See you tomorrow.

    ~~ The day ended with no baby. ~~

Day 3, 11/29/2013 Black Friday / Mei and Emre's birthday! 

    

    5am, finally fully dilated and ready to push. But, wait, no one had ever told me how to push. Some people say its like having a colossal bowl movement. For me, its like doing hardcore sit up for a very long time. Contractions were two minutes apart. The nurse half yelled at me "deep breath in, and push push push...., more more more...., harder harder harder.....". I found the yelling very helpful. I didn't have to think, I just followed the instruction. While active pushing, the doctor said she can see the head in the birth canal. But there was a mysterious force that pulled baby backward when I stopped pushing. Later on we found out that the umbilical cord was wrapped around Emre's neck, which might be the reason for the mysterious force. Like this, baby was taking one step forward and one step back for an hour and half. Then I had a fever, and antibiotics were added to the IV.

    Because I was not making progress (I am not very good at giving birth, am I?), we decided to use vacuum to suck the baby out. I don't know why the doctor had to show me the suction cup. It was a big cup (thanks God I was on epidural.) With the vacuum Emre came in few more pushes. The neonatal team quickly took him for check ups. Stuck for almost 2 hours Emre was born blue.

    Soon after they put Emre on my chest. I was crying and laughing at the same time. It was a feeling that no words can describe. The first thing Emre did was peeing on me. A hot wet pee. I think he was just marking his territory. Very primitive and effective. What a smart alpha baby!

First contact! Welcome to the world, Emre!

    Did I mention today is also my birthday? We share the same birthday. Can there be a better gift? Welcome to our family. You already stole my heart.

Happy birthday my little one.