(it’s April 2012 and is suddenly realised I have completed Hannah’s birth story – I started some months back but left it hanging, better do so now before my foggy memory starts changing the course of event..)
It’s 5 am and here I am, eagerly typing my birth story. (Must be crazy ah?) All thanks to good care, rest, support and nutrition from my husband and my wonderful confinement lady (everything about her is wonderful except some misconceptions about breastfeeding which almost caused my breastfeeding journey to become more difficult)
There will be no drama stories of waterbag breaking, rush to hospital etc.. (although i was secretly keen for such drama, minus the pain but i know it’s not possible. haha)
If you have been following this blog, we scheduled a c-section under epidural with the advise of our gynae, Dr Irene Chua, from KKH The Private Suite as the baby was getting bigger than average Singapore babies (average=3.2kg, Hannah came out at 3.58kg) I did my fair share of research and concluded that in this case, although natural birth was very likely, birth trauma and damage to baby was also going to be possible if i opt for natural birth (be it spontaneous or induced). For the c-section, the only risk to baby was premature which I knew was not a problem as I knew her exact date of conception and we scheduled the op on the 39 weeks and 4 days. There were more risk to me, the mother, but i was willing to undertake, the baby was more important.
So on the morning of 8th April, I was up at 530am to have a quick breakfast and started fasting from 6 am for my 130pm operation. Dylan was up soon after (we both slept pretty well despite the excitement) and we proceeded to get the dogs ready to go to Mutts & Mittens for their 5 days stay. Dylan left soon after with the dogs and I started watching Wall-E to decrease the anxiety.
by 1030am, Dylan was not back yet! He was running late for our 11 am admission, but i was feeling fine, just worried that something had happened! eg. the dog ran away ??
20 min to 11am, Dylan was home. We quickly loaded all our camping stuff (we literally camped out at the hospital with 5 bags of stuff, and mind you, they all came in useful) and off to KKH!
Feeling excited yet peaceful, mostly unable to believe that 9 months have passed this fast! and on this route that we take every month to see Dr Irene for our pre-natal scans… we are going to see our baby soon!
Dylan decided to say a prayer for me and baby on the way since there’s a traffic jam and our car was crawling along. I feel great. 
Finally, we arrived!
Unfortunately, the journey at KKH started on a little sour note, there were no A1 beds available! Can you imagine that? We had a scheduled admission and yet there’s no bed for us???? Wah! I requested to upgrade to deluxe suite for free but it’s full too! They almost had to put me in B1!!!!(I would have killed them) Finally, they got me an A1 bed in a non-maternity ward, i took it but didn’t feel so good about it since the nurses in this ward would not be as experienced as the nurses in the maternity ward. But what to do?
After settling down at our room in Ward 72 Room 7, Dylan decided to take a tour of the maternity ward to see if it’s worth demanding to change to there once a bed was available. He came back and told me the place was like “heaven” and we insisted to the nurses we wanted to change ward, so we were placed on waiting list. On hindsight, ward 72 was pretty nice too, just not “heavenly”.
Apparently, April was a month filled with babies and KKH was bursting.
Soon after, Noel, Dylan’s good friend arrived specially to video this special moment for us. Unfortunately, no video or camera was allowed into the theatre. So Noel was stationed right outside the OT to film Hannah’s first movie.
Wow, the porter came for me by 12 plus! It’s time! I felt good still, in fact, I wanted to walk to the OT by myself but decided to take the wheelchair out of laziness. The 3 of us made our way down to the OT. Just a while more to seeing baby!
(Our last pic as a couple… with baby inside me)
(I look funny with the cap… signing consent forms here, and periodically laughing at Dylan who was trying to take photos of me every time the sliding door open)
Very soon, I was placed in the great hands of the OT staff, I must say, they were really good. From nurses to porter to surgeon to anesthetist, they were all friendly, warm, made me feel soooo at ease. I was placed in the preparation area to check baby’s heartrate and go through basic interview by the anesthetist. He was slightly concerned about my slipped disc at precisely the area which he was going to administer the epidural but I had full trust in him (later I would find out that among the two anesthetist on duty that day, he was the better one! Lucky me) Got a bit freaked out about the possible side effects which I had already researched on but kept praying about it, I know God will take care of me. Everyone kept confirming my name and IC no., I believe this is one day in my life I had repeated my name and IC no. 1 million times. But I know it’s necessary, I wouldn’t want to be tagged wrongly! The one I check especially carefully was the sticker they were going to tag on baby’s leg. No way can there be a mistake in this!
anyway daddy dyl later on said that there is no way there could be a mistake as Hannah was an exact photocopy of me at birth. LOL. in the video he took, I kept hearing him gush to the nurse “she’s so cute! aiyo, she looks just like my wife!” (honestly, I felt quite pai-seh cos he couldn’t stop!)
I remembered being pinned down to the cross-shaped operating theater bed. it’s really literally pinned down as in they will strap your arms and legs. the feeling was quite invasive as I knew I was also naked! although they placed a screen to block me from seeing the operating site but I felt really vulnerable. though i did feel peaceful but i had the thought “sigh, everyone is seeing me naked.” and honestly, after everything, I no longer care if pple see my breast or not, haha.
Hannah was born at 1444h, pulled out by Dr Irene Chua (who has since left to start her own practice in Glen E.) Dr Irene was nice, she asked my husband to quickly stand up and watch when baby was pulled out. However, due to silly rules of KKH, husband was NOT allowed to cut baby’s umbilical cord. SIGH. At that moment, honestly, I felt quite excluded cos it’s my body and my baby too but everyone got to see her first but me! I was lying there but they quickly whisked baby out to get cleaned. SIGH!
Dylan left to watch them clean up the baby, obviously he was so excited, as for me, I was in tears due to feeling really emotional about the moment, Dr Irene even asked me “is that tears of joy or pain?”
Husband came back soon and the nurse brought baby to me to count her fingers and toes in front of me but everything was a blur to me! I couldn’t remember seeing her face at all. Husband and baby quickly left and I got to catch up on what happened later only on video, so video-ing is a good thing! Though KKH also does not allow phototaking nor video taking in the theater. ARGH.
The stitching up was pretty fast and very technical and it was over, they wheeled me to a recovery room for 1 hour and I just rested there, my mind blank but relieved. I was not allowed to nurse baby or see baby yet.
Finally, I was wheeled back to the room and after some time, they wheeled Hannah in to me.
Actually, I was just in a state of shock, I was looking at the baby but I did not touch her nor desire to hold her. it’s weird, it indeed takes time to bond with your baby!
Later on, a nurse came in and attempted to get me to breastfeed her, well, that’s another long story by itself as breastfeeding in the hospital was really hard, esp with my inverted nipples so you can read up on my breastfeeding stories (click on the tags).
So that’s it, that’s Hannah’s birth!
