Ta Da!!!!

So for those of you who choose a more "direct" way of giving birth, here's what really happened to me on 9 October 2007...

In Indonesia, when you have C-Section, people automatically assume that you chose the date not just because of pretty date, like 7-7-7, but the date has to be "good" for the baby. For example, Ming and I were born on this date and that date. At this hour and at that hour. That means, it is best that our baby girl is born on certain date and certain hour.

The first choice was of course, October 20th, at 9:30am. The goodness scale exceeds 6. See, for a baby girl, she is consider having "average luck" if the scale is above 3. above 5 is good, 6 is great, and 7 they said has the luck of a king!

But since my baby is ready far before that date, we have second opinion, on October 9th, between 7 to 9 am. It must not be at 11 am for some reasons. Anyways, if it's between 7 to 9 am, that means the baby has "luck factor" above 5 scale, very smart and creative, will enjoy a good old age, and loves her dad very much.

And so, we figure that this date is as good as we can expect for second choice and I request my obgyn that the baby has to be delivered before 9am. My obgyn put the schedule at 8:30 am.

So I had to go fasting the day before, starting at midnite. Suggestion: since you won't be able to drink or eat after the surgery before you fart, drink a lot before you fast. So I set up the alarm at 11:50 pm. I drank two glasses of warm water.

By 4:45 am, the nurse woke me up for a shower and a shave. Yup, I guess you all know that shaving down there is a must before C section. By 7:00 they put in the IV, give me horrible injection for allergy test.

They moved me to operation room at 7:30, and kept me there for observation of the baby's heart beat and to calm me down. At 8:00, they moved me to the room where they're gonna cut me open. By this time I'm worried sick and almost have a nervous breakdown. I've never felt so alone. I mean, when I have curretage, I was unconscious, so that was okay. But this time I will be half awake!!!

At 8:15, the anasthesyst (I gave up, don't know how to spell this) came and gave me the injection to my back. First I had to lay on my side, my back facing him. Then I had to pull my knee to my tummy as far as I could, and hold my knee with my hand. Then I have to bring my chin to my tummy to form a fetal position, and one of the nurse hold me down like that.

He gave the injection, which really doesn't hurt that much. Most people said it's horrible, but it's the same with having the IV in (the allergic test injection is much worse). Then my feet began to have goosebumps, then the skin felt thicker and thicker until I basically couldn't move them. I still feel something, and when the nurse gave me a light touch I can still tell, but I cannot feel.

Anyways, the nurse told me that I would have difficulty breathing because after the drug kicks in, the muscle on my tummy relaxes and will press my lungs. And it did happen that way, so I was okay with it.

What they forgot to tell me was, as I rapidly lose any sensation on my lower body, I also had difficulty speaking and I felt like throwing up. But since I had problem breathing as well, this must-throw-up sensation has the effect of OMG-I-GOT-CHOKED feeling.

I started to panic, especially since both my hands were restrained on the sides. I could not move, could not scream, and could not breath. tears were streaming down and i thought for the briefest 5 seconds, this is it, I'm going to die. my heartbeat was quite frantic by then, going horribly fast, as announced by the monitor.

Then the OR nurse coached me to take deep breath and exhale through mouth. She said everytime I panicked, I should do that to keep my heartbeat under control. Otherwise it won't be good and the obgyn cannot start.

I've heard my obgyn's voice, but i cannot see him. The room started to spin and the voices started to echo. I told the OR Nurse to please accompany me, to always by my side. The thing is, I can only whisper at this point, and I was worried that I felt something's wrong, I wouldn't be able to scream. So it's comforting to know that the nurse was near me and could hear me.

Anyway, I became very sleepy and started to drift off to sleep when I heard the nurse saying that my obgyn has started to cut me open. I was waiting for what my friends told me the process of "yanking the baby out", which they all said they could feel it, but it didn't hurt.

However, i didn't know how much later, but the next thing I knew, I heard a faint cry. Was that my baby??? the nurse told me, yes, I have given birth already. I asked the time, it was 8:50 am. Then I asked how come the cry was so weak...but my obgyn assured me that my baby cried just fine, that the baby was born 3.25KG. Quite big considering I was having the C section two weeks earlier than my due date.

Then they brought me my baby...she was all wrinkly, her lips were blood red, she was crying, and all I could think of is..."Felicia...what are you doing outside my tummy??!! I'm gonna miss your kicks...and...is it really you??? You look SO different from what I had in mind..."

I kissed her, and at that time, my tears were streaming down my cheeks...I'm so happy...

Then I passed out.

An hour after, in the observational room, I woke up to Ming's voice. He told me the baby is 3.25KG. she was 48 cm. And everyone says she looks exactly like Ming. I tried to talk to Ming but I couldn't say much, felt so sleepy. After that brief chance, they told Ming to wait outside.

But by then I couldn't keep my eyes closed. Thanks to this great medicine, I didn't feel any kind of pain, while the two new moms next to me who also had the C section were moaning from the aftermath of the stitches and the gradual loss of the pain killer.


They took me back to my room at 11 am. by 14:00 I was able to jerk my feet, by 16:00 I could move my feet as normal.

For the rest of the day though, I had to lie down on my bed.

They brought Felicia to our room at 21:00 at our request, and she looked different already in 12 hours!!..

This morning I had the IV out, the cateter stopped.

Felicia came to our bedroom at 6:00 am. They taught me how to change the diaper, to wipe her when she pooed or peed. to give her formula milk, the right position to breastfeed. I haven't been able to breastfeed yet, but they said to keep trying everytime before Felicia took the formula milk.

Anyway...So I spent the whole day with Felicia, changing her diapers, feeding her, and by 14:30, I was spent. I asked the nurses to bring her back to the baby room and I had a great 2 hours nap.

The guests came all the time: my bestfriends from highschool, then my cousins, then my former colleague, then my mum in law, then my co workers, then my sister and dad in law, then my uncle and aunt.

By 8:30 (now), I could barely type this post with my eyes open.

and I was just on my first day as a mom....