Arrival of the princess

Date : 05 April 2006

In the morning after Lina had her shower and was preparing to dress for work, she noticed there's a small amount of pinkish coloured discharge. I told her to rest at home and to call up Douglas's clinic later in the morning. Then, I left for work.

At around 930am, I received a sms from Lina saying that the clinic assistant told her to monitor the amount of discharge again after 2 hours. The assistant said it might be normal or a false alarm of going into labour. I told her to call me as soon as anything comes up.

At about 1230pm, while I was taking a short break from work, I sent Lina a sms, asking her if everything was alright. Instead of a reply via sms, I got a call from her. She said the discharge was more and that the clinic assistant asked her to head down to Mount Alvernia's labour ward for a check.

So I told Lina to get a shower and I got changed, didn't have the chance to shower cos someone else was hogging it, drove back home, pick her up with the "emergency kit bag" and we arrived at Mount Alvernia's labour ward sometime around 215pm. The staff at the counter brought us to the labour ward where the staff nurse checked Lina into Delivery Suite 8. After a thorough check by the senior staff nurse, it was determined that her cervix has opened 3cm. I proceeded to the registration counter to process her "check-in".

At about 530pm, Douglas came by to take a look at Lina. Her cervix's opening is now between 4 to 5cm and Douglas confirmed that she's in labour. Douglas left intruction for the nurses to check her cervix again at around 830pm and to put her on drip if the opening is still 5cm, to help open the cervix faster. Lina was put on drip. Her cervix opening was still 5cm.

When the drip was on, Lina could feel the contractions coming, becoming more frequent by the minute. There were two sensors being placed on her tummy. One to gauge the level of contraction and the other one is to monitor the baby's heartbeat.

At around 920pm, there was a loud 'POP' sound and she grimaced. She said it seemed like something broke. She only realised it was the waterbag that burst after all the liquid gushed out onto the bed. From then on, she could really feel the pain. By 950pm, her cervix opening was 8cm. Douglas was contacted and he was on the way.

By now, I could sense that the pain was getting more and more unbearable but Lina still held on. She showed no signs of fear. She breathed on the Entoxin, more commonly called the 'laughing gas' to help ease the pain but it was sapping away her precious energy. With every contraction, she was tempted to push. But the nurse strictly said no pushing until the cervix opening was at least 9cm. The contraction is getting more and more intense, more and more frequent.

About 10 mins before Douglas arrived, the senior staff nurse agreed to let Lina start pushing. There was nothing I could do but to stand beside her and support her. I cradled her neck and held her hand. The nurse knew the pain was very intense and told Lina to push away the pain. Lina has rejected each and every attempt by the nurse to get her to use epidural.

Douglas arrived some time around 1015pm. From then on, Lina was to push whenever a contraction came. At the first sign of the baby's head, Douglas called me over to take a look. I could see hair on the head. We all encouraged Lina to push harder everytime until around 1030pm when our little princess Ellie finally arrived. That moment was one which I could not define in words. Happiness, thrilled, etc etc... I waslost for words. Douglas had to remind me to take pictures. Before, I was standing there, eyes glued to our little Ellie. She's so beautiful !

The nurse started cleaning up little Ellie while Douglas stitched Lina up. I shot some pics and took some movie clips. Then I sent out a mass message. I know that some of them did not receive the sms even though they were included in the mailing list.

Then, we got our room. It was in Our Lady's ward, Room 327. We actually chose a single bedded room where I can choose to stay with Lina as a companion. However, all the single bedded rooms were taken up so the staff got us a twin bedded room and I could sleep on the other bed. This is so much better than the single bedded room! I would have gotten only a sofa bed to sleep on, only one TV and one telephone. In the twin bedded room, we had two beds, two TVs, two telephones, basically two of everything. Price of staying as a companion was the same. $65 per day, inclusive of daily newspapers, choice of food menus for 3 meals, 1 tea-break and 1 late-night hot beverage.

I know this sounds weird to some of you but I actually enjoyed the stay there. My main purpose of staying was to be there for Lina at all times. The first night, I couldn't sleep as early as I could 'cos of all the calls and sms's I was getting. I could take calls and I was dead beat. Lina rested and tried to sleep as soon as she was settled into the room. I was replying both my and her phones' sms's. At one time, I had 40 over un-read sms's to reply. Gee... I would like to thank all those who sent their regards and best wishes to Lina and little Ellie.

The next few days will be hectic. Especially once we got home. But that's another different story.

Lina was discharged on Friday at around 12pm. Her mum would be helping us during Lina's confinement period. Both Friday and the whole of Saturday have been really hectic. I think we both really have to adjust to a new lifestyle with the arrival of our little princess.