Introducing….

little Gaven!

After what seem like a forever labor, he was finally born on January 18th, 2011, weight 6 lbs 15 ozs, 22 inches long. I did have him naturally with the help of epi and forceps!

From the picture above, he doesn’t seem too happy after being stuck in the birth canal for almost 3 hours! Check out his cone head! 

My life saver: epi.

Monitoring closely my contractions.

In labor and delivery room. Waiting anxiously for the time to push….

Finally at 10:45 am,

We are proud parents to our little boy, Gaven! Excuse moi for looking like being hit by a truck and as if that is not enough, I look like I was then run over by a bus over and over again.

My labor story

Monday morning at around 4 am, I started to feel pain in my stomach, like I need a bowel movement. So, I went to the bathroom and sat. Nothing came out. Sorry, this may be TMI. I went back to bed after an unfruitful effort of getting my poop out. So with each pain, I ran to the bathroom thinking I need to go! After several attempts, I went back to bed frustrated and still in pain. I woke John up and told him I have bad case stomach ache.

John: Are you having contractions?

Me: No. I just need to poo but I can’t.

John: How far apart are those pains?

Me: I don’t know (miserable from the pain).

After several more attempts running to the bathroom, I finally realized that the pain I am enduring may be CONTRACTIONS! Lucky for me, I had my weekly dr appt that morning at 9:30am, so I decided to wait  and see what the doctor says. An hour before my appt, I finally was able to go to the bathroom. The pain was then gone.

John went with me to the doctor’s office. When the doctor did an internal exam, I was already at 3cm dilated and 70% effaced! So baby can come anytime now or a few days later. I took the rest of the day easy and timed my contractions. We learned in the Childbirth class to go to the hospital when the contractions are 5 min apart. Finally at around 7pm, we decided to go to the hospital although it wasn’t 5 min apart. My contractions were getting more intense.

7pm: Checked in to the hospital. Was 5 cm dilated.

10pm: Given my epidural after 2 bags of IV.

Ok, so now I thought I will probably have the baby around 2 or 3 am. However, my labor was progressing very slowly. Finally at 6am, the nurse gave me pitocin to nudge things along.

7 am is when the nurse on duty shift changes. So now I am with a different nurse. I like her so much better.

7 something am: Doctor broke my water and I started pushing. I was too exhausted and hungry to push effectively. I was only allowed to have ice chips the entire time. Even then, I was too afraid to have too many of it because the nurse warned me that I might get nauseous from eating too many ice chips (I didn’t like her too much!). I thought I would never be able to get the baby out.

9 something: I was given about 45 min break.

10 something: Doctor came in and gave me several options to help get this baby out. I was up for anything because I didn’t think I could push any longer. So when doctor said he will use forceps to help our baby out, I happily obliged. After all, he knows best right.

So finally at 10:45am, baby Gaven was born! I can’t help to think, if I have a different nurse and doctor on duty, would my labor story be any different? You see, I was hoping the doctor I like would be on duty that day, but unfortunately he wasn’t. Also, there are a couple nurses that I know and like that weren’t on duty that night either! Just my luck! So there… that’s my long and hard labor story. All in all, I was in labor for 30 hours! John was by my side the whole time (not sure how I’d do it without his moral support), promising me that he will get me my Jamba Juice once the baby is out. You see, the whole time I was pushing, I was begging for Jamba Juice. Not sure why, but I was really craving for Jamba Juice. That reminds me that I still haven’t had my Jamba Juice till this day!