Julianne

Julianne Foo

Born 01.11.11

Weighing 3.33kg and 51cm long

After some 15 hours of labour, our precious Julianne finally decided that 21:33hr was her appointed time to finally say "Hello world"!

31st Oct 2011

9pm: Settled into our room at Gleneagles all excited at the prospect of meeting our precious one soon

9.30pm: Sister Koh comes in and gives me my pitocin which is suppose to help soften the cervix get the dilation going.  I was that my water bag may burst and I may still go into labour that night.  She straps me to the machine to monitor my contractions and Julianne's heart rate for the next hour.

10.30pm: Machine off.  Dearie and I even sneaked in an episode of the DVD drame we brought with us. 

12mn: Off to bed with some mild contractions believing that maybe, just maybe Julianne will give me all that night-labour drama. 

1st Nov 2011

5am: No drama last night.  I'm awaken by Nurse So who administered enema to help me clear my bowels

5:40am: Was served some toast and milo.  I only managed 1 slice of bread no knowing this was the last meal I was going to have till 23 hours later.

6am: We make our way to the delivery suite, spirits all high! Dearie armed with his camera and ipad all ready to document Julianne's birth!

7.45am: Dr Tay our anesthetist comes in to give me God's best gift to mothers in labour - the epidural or what Dr Chan calls the happidural! He did such a wonderful job, pain score was really 0.  He was chatting with me all the time, taught me some breathing exercise and it helped to take whatever pain there was suppose to be away.  He even said I had zero fat in my back when he administered the epidural and how I must have been spared of Dr Chan's nagging on weight issues.

8.30am: Dr Chan arrives, breaks my waterbag painlessly, checks my dilation only to inform as that it was barely 2cm.  "8 more hours to go" was all I heard after that.  I thought he was joking really.  But no, he was dead serious. "Your cervix isn't cooperating, still very tight".  I got a little discouraged but he didn't seem too concern, I guess he has seen many of such cases so he just told us to rest and wait.       

11.30am: The nurse does a check on how far we have progressed and I was told, barely 2.5cm.  Wasn't it suppose to be 1cm every hour?  We should have been around 5cm by this time! I started to get worried that at this rate, Julianne may go into distress or that I may end up with an emergency c-section.  

1:45pm: Dr Chan returns to check on me.  *Still* at 2cm!  But we were told the cervix had soften significantly and hopefully things will start moving faster from here.  He instructs the nurses to increase my oxytocin doses to move the contractions along.  

2pm: I start to feel I was running a fever.  But this time, 8 hours since we arrived in the delivery suite, I was losing all excitement and steam.  Dearie was a champion, reading the news to me, feeding me small little sips of water which was all that I was allowed in case we had to go for c-section.  

2.30pm: Rev Joel messages me to check on things and I update him that it seemed we still had some way to go.  I asked him to pray for us.  Moments later, he called and we prayed over the phone.  We claimed God's ways to move the labour along and that I will not fear for He was in absolute control. 

3pm: Dearie and I start some breathing exercises to help manage the contractions that seem to get stronger.  We kept praying, commanding my cervix to open up in the name of Jesus.  

5.30pm: 11 hours later. The nurses check on me again.  5cm with very very thinned out cervix!! Plus I started to have some "show".  Praise God! We continued with the breathing and praying!  I was very drained out by this time.  My face was all flushed, I was tired, in mild pain and worried all at the same time. 

7pm: Our every helpful nurses return for another check.  7.5cm I was told! Almost 8cm.  She helped me stretched my cervix as the contractions came on.  Just needed to get it to 8cm and we would most likely avoid a c-section.  So the nurses helped me along and proceeded to update Dr Chan who was still in his clinic on my status. 

7.45pm: Dr Chan arrives and measures me! "Just fully dilated" was all I needed to hear!! God is good!!  But Julianne's head was still pretty high so we continued the wait.  The contractions were getting stronger. The nurses stood by me, encouraging me to breathe and to push at the right time.  

8:30pm: I was told to start pushing each time I felt a contraction.  They lowered my epidural dosage so that I could feel some degree of pain which was helpful in the whole pushing business.  I did as told with my husband by my side encouraging me along.  

9pm: I was close to giving up.  The feeling was like heavily constipated 100 folds over. I was screaming "Get her out, I can't do this anymore"!! Julianne's head was huge and it seem that I wasn't making very good progress with the pushing although the nurses and dearie kept cheered me along, telling me I was doing good.  

9:15pm: Dr Chan arrives and suggest that we go with an assisted delivery using the forceps.  At that point, I was just exhausted and worried that she would go into distress so whatever, just get her out! He even bothered explained that the forceps was centuries old instrument and made sure we were clear about some side effects it would have - marks on the face which will clear up within days.  I really didn't care and I knew there was no harm in using them so I just nodded and nodded hoping he would just get on with it. 

9:30pm: I was asked to push as Dr Chan worked his magic and as the nurses assisted him. 

9:33pm: Julianne Foo arrives into our world, placed on my bosom.  As her eyes met mine, I found myself falling in love all over again.  This time, with God's beautiful creation.  Every minute of the last 15 hours was so worth the pain.