Birth of Nathaniel
January 18th, 2006
About the Birth…
I wanted an epidural from day one, and am a total wimp - hate pain, hate needles, can’t look at blood or injections. Would have been glad if the baby could have come in an egg shell that we had to keep warm for 9 months 
My waters broke (but no contractions) at 9:00 am 10 January 2006. I was sleeping and was having a dream in which Alex fell in water… woke up wet!
I called Alex, then the hospital, and they said to pack a bag and come soon.
Alex had three business partners from the USA here in HK, and on Tuesday he was supposed to have a very important meeting with them… needless to say, he came straight home!
We arrived at Matilda Hospital at mid-day, had an epidural within an hour, then a drip with something called Sentosin (or something like that, we kept calling it Sentosa, like the island off of Singapore) to induce labour.
Once the epidural was in I was very relaxed. As soon as I felt anything I asked Angie for a ‘top up’ - and wooosh! They add more medicine and it takes about 10 minutes to work and it is magic. They even have something I called the ‘super duper top up’ which was really amazing… like my lower body being on Novocain at the dentist.
It is called a ‘walking epidural’ – but walking means with Alex on one side, and the midwife on the other, practically carrying me to the toilet. Even so, it was good to think I was mobile.
The Anesthesiologist was Dr Henry Au, he is wonderful - he even came to check on me a few times. Once I had some strong pains in my lower left groin area, and he had to reset the epidural, once he did that it was all perfect again.
The midwife, Angie, stayed in the room with us the entire time – we were never alone and felt we had excellent care. We watched 3 really bad DVDs and Alex was able to order hotel quality food. Alex compared it to being on a flight. The funny thing was one of the movies had a rap song in the background about LoJack, Alex’s company!
Dr Lam, our Obstetrician, came to visit us at 2:00, and again for the actual delivery at about 6:30. Dr Richard Chui our Pediatrician was also there for the actual delivery and at one point even helped hold my leg!
Around 6 hours after it all started, it was over (or life with our baby had just begun!). My cervix had fully dilated, they gave me one last heavy dose of epidural drugs, then as they wore off, I started to push.
Angie held one leg, and Alex the other – this helped me to push. And it was quite funny at one point because Dr Lam, Angie and Alex were all counting to 10 aloud to encourage me – it was like having a cheering section.
I could feel the contractions and knew when to push (I felt like I needed to poo and I felt my stomach get hard with a contraction). I had 30 minutes of pushing (imagine being constipated and trying to poo a basketball, and that is what pushing feels like). The last 15 being real pushing which hurt, with the last 10 being very painful (with me screaming ‘Get It Out Of Me!!!!), and in the end they needed to use a vacuum delivery - but this was not because of the epidural, it was to do with other factors.
I can’t say what a relief the process was - it was painless until the last 15 minutes, yet I could tell when I was having a contraction and had control over the pushing. It was pretty fascinating to recognise the contractions but not have the pain.
We could not have asked for a better delivery – it was really minimal pain and discomfort.
Alex said the worst part was watching me get the epidural - he was in front of me and holding me so I wouldn’t move. The midwife held my feet. He could see the needle and it made him feel faint - especially because I was really scared and he knew it (I really hate needles!). But it was a worse experience for him than for me.
After the delivery, I asked them if they could leave the epidural in - but alas, they said no
After the delivery I was shaking for a while, and that evening needed Alex to practically carry me to the toilet as my legs were still weak - that was my only side effect and it was gone 6 hours after.
That night, I had too much adrenalin in my body and could not sleep, I was able to get up at about 2am and walk to the nursery on my own. For the first time in ages walking was easy, my hips did not hurt – WOW, I LOVE not being pregnant!
Entry Filed under: 1 - Family