Labour Experience - Part 1

From the start, Dr told me that my EDD (Expected Delivery Date) shall be 2 Jan 2009. But cautioned me to get prepared starting from 2 weeks before EDD.

I was thinking to only get ready like few days before EDD. Even my leave application was stated from 26 Dec onwards. But God knows better.

On the 17 morn, I woke up as usual - go take my bath but without my syg. My syg has gone to KK for an audit and was expected to be back only on the 19 Dec. That morn, I felt something differrent. My stomach was having kinda contractions rather frequently but not that painful. I took my bath as usual and then off to work. As these contractions are happening rather frequently, I gave a call to my syg... I even cried on the phone (mo mintak simpati kan) but I know he couldnt do much... I looked up on the internet on the difference between Braxton Hicks contractions and labour contractions.

So, here I am - thinking that "Ok, this should be false labour contractions. Nothing to worry about."

Mind you, the interval for each contraction was every 7 mins one contraction. And that has been going on since morn. My mum was rather concerned about my state especially during night when Egbert is not around.

Finally I decided to give a call to my Dr but he was not around so I spoke to the nurse - Kak Zai, who was assisting my Dr all the while. So, I explained to her my current conditionsand she got a bit worried. She told me she will call up my Dr to ask for guidance and later, will return my call. So I waited for her to call. That was around 2.30 pm. When she called me back, she said Dr's instructions was to admit to hospital ASAP for a checkup. I got a bit panic. But still ok - I called up my syg and my mum and told them about going to the hospital. I was planing to drive to hospital alone as I was still working that time. So I told my colleague about my plan to leave early. They in turn got panic hearing that I was planning to drive to hospital alone. One of my colleague manage to talk some sense into me that it isnt safe to drive alone, and that he will send me to the hospital.

So, I packed my laptop and other things but I didnt manage to hand over my work to other colleagues but I guessed it couldnt be helped. So Hamid, my colleague drove me back to my house to grab my labour bag and then we head to hospital.

At the hospital, I went to the Emergency straight away. As they had been notified of my condition prior to my arrival, I was taken to the labour room for a checkup. And indeed, my contraction intervals was every 7 mins and when the nurse inspected me, I was already dilated with 2 cm and I need to be admitted to the hospital immediately.

"Oh no, this is it." And my phone battery went dead. I got a bit scared as I fear I will be alone during labour. So I search for phone charger frantically. Failing that, I went in search for a public phone. Thank goodness I had coins with me.