Whoever said her labour was easy or smooth must either be lying or she is a damn fortunate woman. My labour experience was so bad it might prevent me from having a second child. Or at least the thought might hold till the memory of this labour fades a little. I started experiencing cramps (like those you get on the first day of menses) a few days before I was admitted to the hospital. On that fateful day, the pain intensified and I felt the contractions getting more regular. So I made a quick call to the gynae in the afternoon and he said I could be admitted if I want to. Tried calling hubby on the phone but couldn't get him. Luckily I decided to wait till past midnight (to save on the hospital bills) before admitting myself. So no hurry there. So we had a quick dinner and settle down to watch telly, like what we did every night. But the experience is different, of cos. Hubby was excited although he tried to contain it. Finally, we made our way to the hospital and was sent to the delivery suite. Just at that moment, we heard a woman moaning damn loudly and I freaked out a little. "Ok, nvm. Her delivery must be a difficult one," I told myself. So we were left alone to wait for dilation and all till the next morning. At 8am, the nurse came in and my ordeal started. She poked something into my anus and poured liquid into it so I can clear my bowels. Then at 9am, my gynae appeared and ruptured my water bag. That wasn't as painful as I feared or heard from others. I could tolerate that quite well and my gynae was wondering if I really needed epidural. Then the anaesthetician came and administered the epidural. That was more painful, but still tolerable. So we were left to wait and at that point my dilation was only 2cm. The gynae estimated that I should be giving birth in the afternoon. By about 4pm, my dilation was only about 3-4cm. Gynae pushed back his estimation to 9pm. By early evening, I was on my third tube of epidural and it doesn't work anymore. I was feeling every damn contraction and it was getting more painful by the minute. I started crying at this point. I couldn't take the pain anymore. At about 8 plus, I was running a temperature and fearing that infection has set in, the gynae ordered an emergency c-section and I was wheeled into the operating theatre. After a day of waiting, it was like everyone immediately sprang into action and in less than 10 minutes I was staring at the white walls and ceiling of the operating theatre, with the whole team of nurses and doctors going about their business. I was first injected with epidural. When that didn't work, they had no choice but to administer GA and hubby had to then leave the OT.
By the time I woke up, I was being transferred to the bed in the ward and was shivering uncontrollably and started to vomit. There was a whir of activities going on around me but I was oblivious to them all. I was just feeling so cold and shivering. After I settled down, Hubby wanted to wheel the baby in for me to see him. But I wasn't up to it physically and drifted off to sleep. That was how I spent my first day in the hospital and my gruelling labour experience.
