Week 40 : In Labour and the Birth of our Prince

Olaaa..

Dalam my previous posts berkenaan kehamilan ni, one of my concerns was bila nak apply leave. Isu itu telah diresolved dengan berbincang dengan my ob/gyn dan boss, maka ianya telah ditetapkan bahawa I would be utilising my 14 days annual leave balance beginning 10/11/2016 sebab kerja-kerja tertangguh di pejabat telah pun dilengkapkan dan I was basically doing nothing kat office.

Biarpun ob/gyn kata this baby would be born on the due date (21.11.2016), ketika kat pejabat tu, rasa macam nak beranak dan dan tu jugak sebab naik turun tangga dan bergerak ke sana sini.

So, I left Bandar Sunway for Ipoh on the 10th with my husband. 

Ketika ini, I have already decided to give birth di private medical facilities kerana dua sebab utama:-

a. Tidak mahu dijadikan "bahan pelajaran" doktor-doktor pelatih; dan

b. Tidak mahu doktor lelaki menyambut bayi

Jadi di Pusat Pakar Permata Raoofah, Ipoh, I got both I wanted for. Antara lainnya yang membuatkan I chose this "hospital" adalah kerana privacy dan keselesaan selain dari mereka encourage for spouse/partner to be with the expecting mother sehingga hari discharge. Berbanding lain-lain hospital swasta di Ipoh ni, I believe Pusat Pakar Permata Raoofah ni agak murah untuk normal delivery.

So, byebye QHC Medical Centre, Subang Jaya (the hospital which I had my pre-natal check ups) - (ye saya tak de buku merah) and hello Pusat Pakar Permata Raoofah.

Check ups with Dr. Raoofah adalah simple, mainly because I did not have any complications. I believe I had a very healthy pregnancy journey tanpa sebarang masalah kesihatan mahupun fizikal atau mental. Namun, towards the end of my pregnancy, into my 39 weeks, I developed mild hypertension. Very mild but enough to put me into daily blood pressure check ups di Klinik Dr Raoofah. Dr. Raoofah suggested that since I have mild hypertension, beliau tidak mahu ambil risiko letting my pregnancy go beyond 40 weeks and suggested for an induction. Aduh, the things I read tentang induced labour scared the shit out of me. She planned to induce the baby on 21/11/2016 at midnight and see how things progresses from there. I hoped sangat sangat that I won't be needing that. And also, Dr Raoofah scanned my baby and found that my baby had now weight at approx 3.6kg. Mak aiiiii.. Rabak laaah.....

The rest of my 39 weeks of pregnancy was a breeze. Tiada tanda atau apa-apa signal yang I will be in labour anytime soon. Even Braxton Hicks pon tak de. 

However, pada hari terakhir into my 39 weeks (20/11/2016), I remember specifically at 4.50 am, I felt satu rasa contraction yang berombak di ari - ari. Gambaran sakit tu umpama sakit period pain tapi lebih intense. I did not know it was a contraction. At the same time, ianya rasa seperti nak terbuang air besar. I continued with my sleep biarpun dalam keadaan yang amat tidak selesa. I counted. It came every 15 - 30 minutes. I told my mother and she said "itu contraction la tu". Later that day, I still managed to move around buat itu ini, thinking "ahh lambat lagi ni".

Following Dr. Raoofah initial plan, I admitted myself into PPPR on 20/11/2016 at 9.00 pm hoping to be induced at midnight. I informed the midwife on duty that I had been feeling contractions since Subuh and tetiba, I am already in the Labour Room. 

So, ini pertama kali lah merasa apa itu "vaginal examination" atau lebih popular dengan gelaran "kena selok". Not... fun..at..all. Now, I understand kenapa ibu mengandung benciiiii sangat  VE ni. Memang sakit, memang akan buat kau terangkat buntut, dan memang sangat traumaizing. Upon checking, midwife kata dah ada bukaan 3cm. "Oh, that's nice", I thought. "That was not that bad". Little did I know about the huge wave of pain that was about to come later.

Since dah ada bukaan, Dr Raoofah tak jadi la nak induce. The plan to induce me at midnight dipostponed kan ke 7 pagi keesokkan harinya (21/11/2016). So, malam tu, I spent the night kat PPPR with my husband. I did not get any sleep, though sebab dalam sejam dok ada contractions 4 5 kali. Agak menyeksakan sebab tiada apa-apa posisi boleh membantu, nak nak katil hospital kan tak best. Lucky, I brought my own pillow to calm myself and my husband's presence in the ward with me helped a lot.

Masuk jam 6 pagi, I took my shower sebab the contractions buat I sweat a lot. Elok je lepas mandi, nurse pun datang bawakan baju baru dan beri ubat lawas agar I tidak terberry ketika in labor. I actually did not know that they were preparing me for the labour room. I thought they all macam nak check progress and let me rest until the time comes.

Jam 7 pagi, 21.11.2016, I was pushed into the labour room for VE and ianya amat mengecewakan apabila bukaan maintained kat 3cm. Punya terseksa malam sebelumnya, rupanya tak de bukaan langsung. So, Dr Raoofah akan induce lah jawabnya.

My husband was with me during the whole process bermula dari drip dimasukkan di tangan, sehingga la selokan selepas ubat induction diberikan dan sehingg habis beranak lah kiranya.

This much I can remember, I was given ubat untuk induce di tangan, air ketuban dipecahkan, ubat tahan sakit dicucuk di buntut, I was asked to 'mengiring' to help with the crowning of the baby's head and I was sweating heavily with my husband kat sebelah giving words of encouragement, which langsung tak membantu. I just needed his presence, really.

Selepas induction dan air ketuban dipecahkan, bukaan jalan jadi bertambah cepat. From 3cm to 5cm and tau tau je dah 8cm and everything went chaotic dalam labour room as they prepared for the baby to come. I remember seeing Dr Raoofah scrubbing and there were two nurses, each on my left and right and my husband kat belah kanan near my shoulder. 

I was asked to push 3 times kot, and I could not. Memang tak mampu kerana contractions itu adalah sakit. I don't know if sakit is the right word sebab ianya lebih kepada ketidakselesaan yang amat melampau. Memang over the top punya tak selesa sampai disalah tafsirkan sebagai sakit (for me lah).

One thing I remember I did was mengeras everytime contraction datang. They did not tell me that contraction tu adalah "the baby was coming out". All I heard was "pushhhhhhhhhhh". Asyik asyik suruh push, sampai aku nak naik marah. Kenapa nak push, kan? Yes sekarang boleh la fikir, "they are the experts, they know what they are doing. Kau ikut je" tapi masa tu, tak boleh fikir apepe yang positif. I also remember Dr Raoofah kata "good good, pandai pandai and lastly, the baby is here. I need you to geram panjang panjang. Now geraaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmm". Aku pon geram laaa... (Husband kata at this point, I asked him to tell them I wanted a C-Section which of course I did not remember). I could not geram panjang and Dr. Raoafah kata if I can't push, she would have to vacuum the baby. One final push and I failed and I heard she asked one of the nurses to get the vacuum.

Lagi sekali, kali ni Dr. Raoofah mintak push as baby sangkut kat shoulders. As I pushed, baby pun divacuumkan. Orang kata lepas baby keluar, legaaa rasanya. Bohong, lega tu sekejap sangat. Elok je baby keluar, Dr Raoofah angkat dia so I would declare him a boy and took him away. Elok je they took him away, I saw dua jarum panjang dicucuk kat situ. Ya Rabbi, Jarum panjang-panjang macam lidi sate. Rupanya itu ubat bius, kena jahit beb. Jahit banyak beb sebab baby vacuum memang biasa koyak besar. 

Habis je dijahit, I told my husband "tak mahu dahhh.. sumpah tak mahu dah" and he was there holding my hand and cry. He cried. I saw him cried dan angguk angguk.

So, there, at 21.11.2016 @ 9.01 am, lahirlah Putera kami, Firdaus Fitri bin Fazli weighing at 3.45kg.

Sumpah babies are all cute, but mine is the cutest

Hari ke-5

It is now 7 days after I gave birth and it is a complete life turn around for me. MasyaAllah. Nanti di kesempatan lain, I share how it has been in the first 3 days at home after being discharged from the hospital.