Welcome Annika!

Well... famous last words!

Annika Chui Yuen Yue was finally delivered on 22nd July 2010 at 0014h.

Quite an experience. Completely different from Madison's birth. First of all, Annika turned transverse at the very last moment, leaving me in a conundrum as to what to expect finally.

SO... on the morning of the 21st, I was woken early in the morning by somewhat painful and fairly regular contractions. Initially I brushed them off as Braxton Hicks, since they didn't seem as bad as the ones I had with Madison.

The pain continued throughout the morning, but I went on the day as usual. Had breakfast with Madison. Then dressed her and took her to Bibinogs for school. Driving there I still had the contractions every 5 to 10 minutes or so, but they weren't too bad. The rest of the morning the contractions continued and I started feeling some pelvic pressure. But my only thought was that since the baby was transverse, I'd end up with a Cesarean section if I wanted to deliver now. So I was hoping they were just early contractions that would stop.

In the afternoon the contractions eased off, and by late afternoon they were almost gone. I was supposed to go to tea with a friend, but asked him to come over to the house instead. ( A good idea, in hindsight!) We chatted until he had to leave for dinner. Then Celine and Aaron came over for a playdate. Soon after the contractions seemed to start up again, especially during dinner, which we had at 8PM since everyone at home was busy. Chris was out with the Hand surgery department for a farewell dinner.

After dinner, Geok drove my car home since Chris wasn't back yet. I managed to put Madison to bed, then rested while waiting for Chris to come home. The contractions were happening every 7 minutes or so. Finally he returned close to 10 PM. We waited another 30 minutes, then decided to get checked at KK hospital.

We called Pa to drop Warni off at our place to babysit Madison while we went. Thank goodness KK hospital is but a 5 minute drive away. I felt slightly embarrassed because the pain still didn't feel completely unbearable, and at times was a little erratic. After all, I had survived the entire day!

At the delivery suite, after explaining the situation ( during which they figured I was a medically trained person, considering I knew more than the average pregnant woman!) they quickly strapped me onto the CTG for monitoring. Just so happened that my obstetrician had been called in for another patient, so I didn't feel too bad making him come in at midnight!

When he finally finished his delivery, he was accompanied by the midwife who told him (surprise, surprise!) that I was indeed in labour, with contractions occurring every 6 minutes. And that I had pretty strong contractions too! Wow! The first time with Madison I thought I was dying and the CTG didn't pick the contractions up!

Dr Tee palpated my tummy and bad news still. She was now somewhat between a breech and a transverse (? oblique). He did an internal examination (ouch!) and I was 5 cm dilated with membranes bulging. He thought he could feel a limb presenting as well. So that did it. Emergency Cesarean section. It was already close to midnight by then.

There were forms to sign, sodium citrate to drink, shaving, changing and finally all the various people explaining the usual things: risk, procedures, consent etc... The anaesthetist decided on a spinal block for me. The block itself was fine, and seemed to work pretty quickly. Only thing was that it wasn't a dense block, but since I'd never had one I assumed that was normal.

The operation was difficult. Coupled with less than satisfactory pain relief, suffice to say it was probably the worst experience ever. Curse words flowed freely from me... Apparently her hand popped out first, and Dr Tee was trying to put it back and look for a leg to pull out. All I could feel was an endless excavation of my interiors! I guess it was made worse by the uterine contractions that continued during the operation.

Finally she was pulled out ( thank goodness..) and that was still not the end! Still more pain while he was ? removing the blood clots and presumably removing the placenta. Argh. Anyway, gory details aside, it did end and I was in bliss. Was shown Annika but seriously, at that time my brain was focused on survival!

So... I spent another hour or so in the recovery bay, managed to sleep for awhile, then was taken to the ward. The good thing this time around I asked for anti emetics before the operation and was given the goodies. So no nausea, unlike the first time when I suffered for almost a day.

Welcome Annika to our family! Birth weight 3550g, length 49cm, head measuring 34.5 cm!