*have to get in my zone to remember all the details since 2 years ago*
Pre-Delivery
9 September 2014
HEAVILY PREGNANT. I capitalised and bold that because I was literally heavy. My last recorded weight before delivery was a whopping 82KG.
My mom kept saying she gained a ton of weight when she was pregnant with me so its all normal and just in our genes( probably just trying to make me feel better) but gaining 25 KILOS IS JUST CRAY. SERIOUSLY.
So we had the normal check up, we were 2 weeks away from the due date. Suddenly our doctor said the baby was big and she's scared if we wait for the actual date, the chances of me getting a c-section would be higher. So she proposed for me to be induced THAT VERY NIGHT.
*FIRST TIME PARENTS PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PART*
Obviously having no experience whatsoever, we were SCARED SHITLESS when the doctor dropped that bomb. The 'dream' or more precisely, 'the pressure' society puts on us mothers is to have a 'normal delivery'. Like "wah so hebat you normal delivery" blablabla (don't get me started, that's another story. haha) So we weren't too keen on the idea but who are we to go against the advice of the doctor? I mean, she studied YEARS to get to where she is and I've studied from google for like 9 months? So back home, we googled (again, lol) ways to "naturally" induce labour like eating super spicy food, exercising, dancing, but nothing worked. We redha and packed our bags, checked in PCMC to start the inducing.
*PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN*
People forgot to mention THE PAIN of induced labour is said to be 10 times more painful than natural births (quoted by mothers who have experienced both)
And honey, I believe them and wished I'd read about it sooner!
So they broke my water bag (which hurts too btw) and I'm already induced and it's 12ish am?
*sorry been 2 years*
The contractions started coming in, hard! Like every 5 minutes for just 2 seconds but it hurt! I'm gonna try my best to describe the pain. probably like if you're being stabbed in the lower abdomen repeatedly? Or something along those lines. You get my point. And every time the contractions hit, I stiffed up my body to numb the pain (didn't work) and we repeat this lovely process until 12 pm the next day. 12 PM THE NEXT DAY. The nurses came in every hour to check and propose I take an epidural because I'm too stressed and if I was too stressed, there's no way I'll open.
INDUCED LABOUR PATTERN NO ONE WILL TELL YOU:
1. Once you're induced, prepare for the pain.
2. Once the pain kicks in, prepare to be told to get an epidural.
3. You need the epidural to stop the pain so you can relax.
4. Because you wont open if you're not relaxed.
5. So once they give you the epidural, you can finally sleep, rest and chill.
6. Then you'll open.
After all that pain, I was still only 1cm open. Fer real. Like basically nothing happened la, and I gave in to the epidural and within 20 minutes, I was 4cm open. Although I was on epidural, I could still feel the pressure, which helped me know when to push. I need to give some credit to Mel here because he was super awesome in the delivery room. Like way way beyond my expectations. He was holding my hands, giving me all the support I needed and he actually went in front to look. Like I don't even think I would look in front, it's seriously gross. (like have you seen the videos on youtube? That ain't for everybody) As soon as he saw Ariana's head, his face light up and he said "I can see the head, sikit lagi Ya!" and with one final push at 7:11pm, Ariana Adzalea was born. All the pain, confusion, and anger just went away in that moment.
But it's been 2 years and now I can recall my anger, my confusion, how I felt like I was somehow tricked because she was not "big", she was only 3.18kg. But we took that experience as a real lesson. And now that we're expecting our 2nd child, InsyaAllah we're more prepared.
I'm sharing this so first time parents know what to expect, or maybe other mothers who had induced labour can share their experience too? Hopefully it can someone in a way.
It's important to know that all pregnancies, deliveries are different! Never compare, never judge. And please please please do your research. This applies to the husbands as well, know the facts, information, and always be there for support.
Adjusting to life after a baby? Now that's a whole other post.
For now, I leave you with the first picture we ever took of Ariana.
Till next time!
Love, DD
