The Arrival of Baby O

Inspired by my brother's 2nd baby log (http://hiewchoksien.blogspot.com.au/2006/12/2nd-baby-log.html), I could not wait to release a record of my own childbirth experience from the day prior to giving birth to the following 3 days after. Adrian has kept notes of the sequence of events, so I am basically just extracting them out to publish.

Day 0:

• Reached hospital at 4:15pm
• Allocated Room 4
• Midwife (Wendy) hooked me up with the CTG
• Baby's heartbeat was high, averaging 170 bps; baby was moving a lot, probably stressed by the monitoring strap
• My obstetrician (Dr Weng Chan) came in around 6pm; he decided to continue monitoring heartbeat before inserting the gel that stimulates dilation on my cervix
• Gel was applied at 6:30pm, I was only 1cm dilated at that time
• Baby's heartbeat was still high. I tried to position myself side ways, hopefully it would be better for baby
• Heartbeat was not stable for the first hour. The midwife sent for Dr Chan but he advised to continue monitoring further
• Dr Chan came in at about 9.30pm and concluded baby had steady heartbeat after analysing the scan

Ba & Ma with me waiting at the Waverley Private Hospital

Monitoring baby's heartbeat in Room 4

Feeling a little frustrated and hungry after monitoring for a long time

CTG product from HP

Whatever it means, I want my dinner served SOON!

Finally having my dinner at 10pm as midwife has forgotten it twice :`(

Day 1:

• 7:30am: Dr Chan was already in while we were having our breakfast
• 8:00am: Entered the delivery suite
• 8:30am: Dr Chan broke the water and started the drip (oxytocin) at 60ml/h
• 10:00am: Contraction began, still bearable
• 11:00am: Contraction was too frequent; 1 per minute
• 11:15am: Reduced oxytocin to 30ml/h
• 12:00pm: Contraction slowed down; oxytocin increased to 45ml/h
• 12:20pm: Dr Chan came in to check; dilation at 3.5cm
• 12:30pm: Contraction started to feel very painful
• 1:30pm: Midwife assessed that the oxytocin level is now more balanced at 45ml/h; contraction at 1 per 2 minutes
• 2:00pm: Started to use laughing gas to relieve pain
• Gas level increased and decreased in between
• 3:25pm: Pain started to become unbearable, asked for pethidine, which was injected into my thigh
• 3:40pm: Baby's heart rate dropped to 80/90bpm; nurses called in to check; Dr Chan was paged; oxytocin was stopped; 4cm dilation
• 3:50pm: Oxytocin level set at 15ml/h; I felt better with the contraction more spaced out and thought I would be able to refrain from asking for epidural at this rate. Baby's heartbeat came back up to 140bpm
• 4:10pm: Dr Chan arrived to check. Baby's head was deflexed - not fully facing down. 4cm dilation is considered slow as normal rate is 1cm per hour. This may be due to baby's head position. There were a few strong contractions before, so it is expected that dilation should be bigger. Oxytocin was again increased. As this was the second time baby's heartbeat has dropped, we may require Caesarian if it dropped a third time
• 4:20pm: Oxytocin level increased to 30ml/h
• 4:35pm: Baby's heartbeat dropped twice below 90bpm during contraction (i.e. had 2 readings below 90bpm but was not consistently low). He could be distressed.
• 4:50pm: Oxytocin level set back to 45ml/h to increase the rate of contraction
• 4:55pm: Started experiencing sharp contraction pain
• 5:10pm: Dr checked that dilation was then 8cm!
• 5:35pm: Midwife could see baby's head during contraction
• 5:40pm: I was fully dilated now and was told to start pushing. 
• 6:05pm: Dr had to perform episiotomy as baby's head could not fit through my vaginal opening.
• 6:11pm: Oswald was born!
• 6:45pm: Started first breastfeeding.

Resting in between contractions

Finally out came a healthy but overcooked baby boy

Handsome boy - Oswald Kam

Holding my own son! Indescribable feeling

Baby weighed exactly 3.00kg

Day 2:

Oswald slept well on his first night in this world. We left him at the nursery so both of us could get some rest. The midwife pushed him in at around 4:30am for a feed that lasted for about 40 mins and he slept well after that.

Baby was checked by the paediatrician Dr Lurie in the morning. He had done a poo right before doctor's examination. Dr Lurie had to clean up his meconium while we just watched (we had not been taught how to change nappies yet :-)) Everything was fine but he had tongue-tie. This was then snipped by Dr Lurie which costed us $100.

Visitors started to come in around 3:30pm. Baby was breastfed from 2:30pm to 3:00pm so he slept well during the visiting time. Baby became a bit restless around 5:00pm when I tried to breastfeed him. The midwife came in to help out and baby was more settled.

I kept breastfeeding Oswald from 6:00pm to 9:30pm with 30 mins break. After that, we gave baby his first bath at 9:40pm with the help of the midwife. He liked the water over his head but not with his body submerged. Perhaps the water was getting cold.

Oswald continued feeding after bath for another 15 mins. He slept well after that, at around 10:30pm.

Peaceful sleep. Ignore the words on his sock!

小螞蟻 - Oswald's nickname. Look how small he was.

First bath

Another peaceful sleep

Day 3:

Our trouble started on Day 3. We had trouble settling Oswald down. After a feed, he would cry and wanted for more milk. He might not be feeding correctly during this time. His behaviour was different compared to Day 2 where he now did not appear to settle after feed.

Baby had mild jaundice. Midwife advised that sunlight would help.

I started having chicken soup brought by Ma. My breasts, legs and hands have swollen, and both nipples started to ache. Sleep deprivation crept in on both of us. That explains why Adrian stopped taking notes at Day 3. The rest is history. Today, Oswald is close to 21 weeks and weighs around 7.5kg - 8kg.