The Story of Gingerbreadkid's Birth

So I think I'm ready to tell the Birth Story of Gingerbreadkid now. Warning: It is a long entry.

On 24 Dec 2011, we walked into the hospital to induce the birth of our son at 2pm. 55.5 emotional roller-coaster hours later, he was introduced to the world.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start the story in early December, when we asked the doctor and I quote the wife: "when should we start to panic?" "5 days later" was the reply. That's when the baby is full term technically.

So panic we did, the wife started packing the hospital bag and I googled for "signs you are going into labour". At work, I kept expecting the phone to ring and be told to haul ass to the hospital. I have visions of me rushing to the hospital while being stuck in a jam or something. The wife starting thinking about the worst places to go into labour. She once greeted me with "no I'm not going into labour" when she called me regarding something else.

1 week passed, 2 week passed, and almost 3 weeks passed. Nothing happened. Nada, nil, nothing, no baby. That was when we entertained the idea of having to induce the birth. We always thought natural is better. Let him decide when he wants to come out. So when the doctor gave us an appointment to induce him on 21st Dec, we declined at the last moment and opted to wait.

On the 23rd of Dec, we went to the doc again, and still no contractions. Being impatient and mang zhang people(actually just the wife) we decided to schedule an induced birth using Prostaglandin gel starting on the 24th. Prostaglandin gel is used to thin the cervix and to kickstart labour. In some cases, 2nd or 3rd doses are applied 12 hours apart. We scheduled this so that Gingerbreadkid will be a Christmas eve or Christmas baby.(I know, play cheat. But we didn't care) The nurse from the clinic gave us some friendly advice that night: "Go eat whatever you want, then go home, do squats and have sex to help induce the labour" So being obedient people, we did all three that night. The choice of food was the BESTEST hokkien mee ever in Ang mo kio Ave 10 market and the choice of.. erm nevermind, I'm just going to skip the rest of the night.

I woke up on 24th Dec thinking I could be a Dad by the end of the day. We checked ourselves in KKH at 2pm and in true I'm-pregnant-and-I-suddenly-have-a-craving fashion, the wife requested for a drink of coke literally just before going into the room to be induced. So I went to buy and pass her the drink while she's waiting at the door of the room. A sip of coke later and she disappeared into the room to have the Prostaglandin gel applied. Then came something I will have intimate knowledge of for the next 55 hours. The Waiting Game. I killed the first 2.5 hours by loitering kKH mall. I quickly realised 3 things:

1. The food at the food court sucks.
2. I will eat a lot of McDonald.
3. I'm fucked because no other shops are opened since it is Christmas eve.

Soon, we were sent up to the ward to wait since nothing happened after the first Prostaglandin gel. We started watching the first of many movies on HBO channel that were showing through the festive period. We were told to relax and to press the red button if she felt severe pain. But nope, nothing happened, which is becoming a recurring thing in this story.

25th Dec, Christmas Day. I woke up thinking I could handle being a Christmas Dad. The wife already had a 2nd Prostaglandin gel and nothing has happened yet. (see what I mean?) Her cervix had dilated a grand total of.....2cm, which is nothing because we need about10 cm for birth. Being a resourceful man, I googled "how to induce birth" and one of the ways stated was to take long walks. So we started patrolling the wards like doctors. We quickly finish our rounds on the 8th floor and proceeded to the 7th, 6th, 5th floor and 4th floor. For good measure, we loitered the ground floor as well and found a mr bean shop hidden away. Over soya bean milk and pancakes, we wondered when he is going to come out. And that's how we spent Christmas day. Patrolling KKH.

26th December, Boxing day. I woke up thinking if he don't come out, I'm going to have to box him out. By now, a third Prostaglandin has been applied and contractions were still weak.(cervix 3cm) The decision was made to induce by sticking a needle and pumping the inducing meds into the wife. So we started the day at 11am in the delivery suite with a drip in her. That was when we found out she can't eat or drink until the baby comes out. Perfect, because a breakfast of 2 chee Chong fang and 1 soon kueh is enough to last her through the day. NOT. So the wife's lasting memories of her labour will be the hunger and thirst throughout the day.

With her bound in a bed on a drip, we had nothing to do but watching HBO while waiting. The midwife started to advice us about the pain relief options, namely epidural. By now, the contractions can be felt but is still tolerable. However, the midwife advised us to take the epidural early because it is more risky to take the injection when in a lot pain. We mulled over it and then something happened that help made up her mind. The most gut wrenching, high pitch wailing could be heard from another room. It was so shrill and high pitched we looked at each other with eyes wide open. The nurse said that was another lady giving birth with no epidural. Ok, decision made.

She opted to take it early and it went without a glitch. Everything was ready for Gingerbreadkid to come into the world. Except he had other idea. After about 4 hours, her dilation were only 4cm. Even the midwife was saying :"your dilation very slow leh" The decision was taken to break the waterbag, which will in theory hasten up the dilation. A quite chio Dr Tan came in to break the waterbag. It was not as scary as it sounds, 'breaking' the waterbag involves poking it with a hook like thingy to burst it.It was over in about 2s and without pain, even the wife didn't know it broke. There was no gush of water or anything, just some weak flow of water. Take that Hollywood!

After that, at 7pm, her dilation became 5cm! A record so far! But not enough for anything. Thus, the decision was made to review the dilation at 9pm, and if still no improvement, we will go for cesarean. 2 hours and a movie later(I think it's Salt) still 5cm dilation, so the doc had our permission to do a cesarean.

Once the decision was made, all hell broke loose. It seemed like the entire hospital stuff swarmed into the room. One was shaving her, one was unplugging the tubes, one was injecting anesthesia into her and they were all talking to her AT THE SAME TIME. Another one was shoving the forms to her face so she can sign it. It was all done with great haste and urgency, it was like they couldn't wait to get her into the operating room. I was standing by her side bemused by all this.

Within minutes, they wheeled her into the operating theater and the longest 30 mins of my life begun. I paced like a mad men outside thinking all sorts of stuff. Like what if something happened to both or one of them. It was the single most helpless moment of my life. 30 mins later, they called my mobile(strange right) to go see the baby.

The first time I laid eyes on him, he was lying on his side, eyes open, with his little hands covering his mouth. That is the lasting image that I will always remember. First thing I said was: "Naughty boy! don't want to come out right" The wife told me later, that was the first thing she said too. The staff were very clinical and busy showing me that he has all fingers and toes intact and that he has 2 birth marks. I just held his little hand and didn't dared to hold him. In fact, I didn't hold him until the next morning. A few brief minutes later, they wheeled him off and I was left to wait for another 10 minutes before they wheeled the wife out.

And thus, that concludes the story of Gingerbreadkid's birth. But the real story of his life has just begun.