My Pregnancy Diary: The Arrival of Our Little Princess

Date: 30 Jul 2013 Tuesday

The day was finally here at last, we would be seeing Rainie for the first time today!

I woke up at 5:45 AM in the morning to eat something light because I was required to fast for 6 hours AM before my caesarean section operation this afternoon. Also drank a bottle of chicken essence for energy. We left home at 7:30 AM.

We arrived at Gleneagles slightly before 8 AM. The lobby was empty as it was a weekday morning. It didn’t take us long for the registration since I had done my pre-admission a week earlier to reserve a room of my preference.

After completing the admission registration, a porter brought us up to our room on the 5th floor. There are 2 of maternity wards in Gleneagles. The rooms on 5th floor have parquet flooring while the rooms on 6th floor are carpeted. have chosen a room on the 5th floor as parquet floor seems to be cleaner and the room looks bigger.

My single bed maternity room, with parquet flooring. Getting a single bed room means that the husband can stay overnight and also mummy can have more bonding time with baby.

Looked like a hotel stay instead of a hospital stay.

Shortly after arriving in my room, a group of 3 nurses came into the room, pushing a big machine with them. After some brief introduction of themselves, the 1st nurse started to take my temperature, the 2nd nurse took my blood pressure with the machine and the 3rd nurse tied tags around my wrist. I was made to change into the ugly surgical gown. After changing into the gown, the nurses did some basic checks on me and also Rainie’s heart beat. Everything was normal. I was then told to take some rest as it was still early.

My identity and allergy tags.

They came back at 9:45 AM, to perform an enema on me. I called it the “shit inducer”. An enema is a procedure of introducing liquids into the rectum and colon via the anus. The liquid will cause rapid expansion of the lower intestinal tract and will evacuate the lower intestinal tract. There wasn’t any pain in the procedure, only felt cold liquid going into the anus. The nurse told me to hold it in for as long as I could. The cramping began after a couple of minutes. I felt as if I was having a bad diarrhea. The pain was gone after I cleared everything out.

JR busy selecting his meals for lunch and dinner. We had to fill up these forms every evening for the next day’s meals.

Me & my gigantic tummy… I looked so BIG and ugly…

Soon the time was here. The nurses came in at 11 AM with a gurney aka trolley bed.

Putting on the bouffant cap. My face showed how I felt at that moment – felt lost. Actually I couldn’t remember what I was thinking at that moment.

Climbing onto the high trolley bed.

I was pushed up to the operating theatre. Before entering the operating room, I was made to wait at the waiting area where all my details were checked again. JR was also made to changed into his scrubs.

JR and his white raincoat

JR was allowed to accompany me. My nerves started to race. I felt terrible, feeling tensed and nervous at the same time, not knowing what to expect.

My anesthesiologist, Dr. Dicky Tay arrived, introduced himself and did some simple pre-surgery examination on me, confirming that I was suitable for elective caesarean section with epidural. Right after that, I was wheeled off to one of the operating rooms. Dr. Tay accompanied my bed, greeting the working staff in the operating theatre cheerfully as he walked. JR had to wait in the waiting area while they get me ready for the c-section.

I was carried onto the operating bed and the nurses prepared me for the c-section. There were so many of them performing different tasks at the same time. I was feeling slightly light headed, probably due to the excitement and the confusion. My friends who had past experiences told me to stay very still else I will injure myself and have back problems after delivery. I was praying hard that I could survive this. Dr. Tay injected the back of my left palm and squeezed really hard, extracting my blood for the cord blood collection.

I was then told to lie on my left and curled myself up, with my knees touching my chest as far up as possible. A nurse helped to push my legs and held me still. I kept thinking “Am I getting the epidural now? Is it now?” I was anticipating a big fat needle poking my back. I tried to hold very still, didn’t even dare to breath too hard. Next I saw Dr. Tay injecting something into the drip on my left hand. I was knocked out instantly, perhaps for a couple of minutes. I didn’t know when it happened. I was lying on my back and not on my side when I woke up. Dr. Tay told me that the epidural was already performed! He told me to pinch my tummy to ensure that the epidural is effective. It was really weird to do that. My tummy felt like rubber. I kept pinching my tummy for 2 reasons – 1. ensure that I do not feel anything and 2. it was very fascinating to pinch my rubber tummy and not feel anything. A screen was drawn up before my tummy so I couldn’t see the process of the c-section.

It was already noon and we were all expecting my gynae, Dr. Chan. Ling arrived alone, with a CD player! She turned the music on and inserted the urinary catheter into me. It was painless since I had done epidural done. We all waited patiently for Dr. Chan to arrive. One of the lady nurses came over to talk to me, maybe she thought I was bored. She told me 母爱是最伟大的… made me super emotional and I started to tear again. She made me feel worse.

Dr. Chan finally came in and someone shouted “Go call the husband in now!” JR came in, sat on the stool next to me and held onto my right arm. It was only then that I realized my right arm was strapped down onto an arm rest. We couldn’t see what was happening since the process was blocked out by the screen. I didn’t know when the actual cutting took place because I couldn’t feel a thing. It didn’t take too long before someone shouted “PUSH!”. Someone (I think it was Dr. Tay) rushed over, bent over my head and gave my tummy a few hard pushes. We heard another comment “Get ready your camera daddy; baby is coming out in a minute”.

Welcome to the world!

Rainie was placed on the cleaning table and the nurses did some checks on her, counting her fingers and toes. Once she was swaddled, they placed little Rainie on me so we could touch her. Dr. Tay helped us take our first family photo with Rainie.

The feeling was absolutely surreal. Our Rainie, who was inside me for the last 9 months is now in my arms. Rainie was removed from me and brought up to the nursery in the 5th floor maternity ward for further checks. JR followed Rainie out. Dr. Chan didn’t take long to sew me up and left the operating room. I was left behind and the nurses cleaned me up. It felt weird having so many nurses around admiring my tummy. One of the nurses exclaimed that the stitching was really pretty.

I was pushed out of the operating room to the recovery bay, feeling very drowsy but was still conscious. Dr. Tay had stayed behind to ensure that my pulse and blood pressure were normal before leaving. I didn’t experience much pain so far. Dr. Tay is indeed a very good anesthetist but of course we also paid quite a lot for him.

It felt like a very very long time before I was released from the recovery bay. They had to ensure that I could move my feet after the ops before releasing me from the operating theatre. JR, mummy, WeiLing and MIL were waiting for me outside the Operating Theatre. I started tearing again when I saw them.

I was wheeled up to my room and moved onto the hospital bed. The side effects of the epidural started. I felt cold and couldn’t stop shivering. I also had bad itching around the wound. I was bedridden on the 1st day. The drip on my hand, urinary catheter and epidural tube on my back were removed on the 2nd day. My wound hurt a lot on the 2nd day. It got better as time went by. Moving around did help to reduce the pain.

Photos of Rainie:

Father & daughter

Long nails

Tiny foot

It’s the duty of a father to change diapers.

She scratched herself.

Burping Rainie

Parent craft session on caring for baby:

Photos of our hospital meals:

The welcome drinks sent in on the 2nd day

Papaya soup

This was nice.. yummy.

The days went by quickly. Everything went well. Our stay in Glenagles was quite good except for some small issues that I couldn’t help noticing.

1. Ants
I hate ants. Found them everywhere.

2. Hospital gowns
The hospital gowns provided are ugly and old. Some of the buttons were dropping out / missing which makes it difficult for me to wear them properly.

3. Confinement Food
The confinement food menu was designed by Eu Yan Sang. However, I found that some of the food items weren’t suitable for confinement or rather for one who just had a surgery e.g. chicken, eggs, etc. On top of that, the food caterer missed out some dishes on some occasions. I didn’t get my seaweed soup during one of the meals.

We had extended our stay by a day because Rainie had mild jaundice. Her jaundice level dropped back to normal after a day of phototherapy. We were so happy to hear the results. After JR confirmed that we could go home, we changed, packed up and hurried to the cashier at the hospital lobby. We settled the bills and went off.

Ready to go home.

Just when we drove out of the car park slot, the hospital called me. They had not discharge Rainie from the nursery! Her health booklet was still with them!

Back to the nursery to sign the discharge papers. So drama.

Rainie with XX and YY

Home Sweet Home