The day Athirah was born

OK... here is the story about me given birth to Athirah (finally). Note that the last entry I wrote before I delivered Athirah was about baby preparation. Days following the entry, I was getting heavier, until on Thursday night (that is 3rd Jan), I asked Atang to massage my feet. During the massage ordeal, Athirah was busy moving in my tummy, maybe because the sensational of the massage got into her as well. Suddenly she made a really big move. Both atang and me saw a huge bulge on the right side of my tummy. Looking at the bulge, I felt the hair on my neck stood up. This was the first-time Athirah did that, and it gave me a shocked. Later I went to sleep....

After fajr I went back to sleep as usual (because it was still very early). Later at around 8.20++, I woke up, feeling an urged to wee. You know that we can control ourself if we want to relieve right, but this urged could not be control. So I rushed to the loo, and relieved myself, only found that, it was not urine and the water kept on leaking. When I felt it was finally empty, I rushed back to the room and woke atang, hysterically said to him " I think I broke the water bag". I was 37 week and 3 days. EDD is 22nd Jan. Panic, anxious, overwhelmed I said to the baby, "please wait baby... it is too early". "Atok and Wan have not arrive, please wait for 1 more week." But I kept on leaking.

I called up the hospital (Royal Brisbane Woman Hospital), and explained to the person who answered the call what have happened. "Are you wearing pad mem?" ohhh why didnt I think of that. "No" I said. "Please put on a pad and come to the hospital. We would like to check what is going on?". So, I called up Ida, asking a favor to look after Yaya, while we were at the hospital. Upon arrival we went straight up to level 5. They put me under observation. I was still leaking, but no contraction, and the doctor confirmed that the membrane has raptured. However, since there was no contraction and the baby heartbeat was normal, they hospital told us that we could go home and monitor the progress ourselves.

We picked up Yaya from Ida's house. Had lunch. I did feel exhausted. Called Mak n Along, told them not to worry, explaining them if I have no contraction until 8am the next day, I need to be induced. After cooking dinner (dinner was the fav oxtail soup), I started to feel mild contraction. And there was spotting. At 6pm ++ again I called the hospital and told them I had spotting. "How regular is you contraction mem?". "errr... i am not sure whether I am experiencing one." And so they said,"Come to the hospital when the contraction is 5 minutes apart or if the spotting turns green or if you are worried." 5 minutes apart ehh... My sis Along was so worried when I told her what the hospital had told me. If I was in Malaysia, they surely put me under observation the first time I walk in. But things were different here. I will tell you why in the next entry.

So after dinner, I called up Ida, to tell her that we are sending Yaya at 9pm. We wont want to wake them up in the middle of the night, if suddenly I need to go to the hospital in that hour, so we decided to send Yaya early. While we were still at Ida's house, around 9pm++, I started experiencing regular contraction, but it was 30 minutes apart. At 10.30pm the contraction was 10-15mins apart. Thought that we should headed for the hospital, we went back home and grabbed the suitcase and stuff and rushed to the hospital. At 11.20pm I was admitted. At 12 midnite, the pain was getting stronger. In comparing to Yaya's delivering ordeal, this time the pain was stronger and frequent but short. Thanks to my beloved Atang, who was on my side the whole ordeal. I could control the pain much better by breathing properly, in and out during contraction. The nurse who looked after me was very calm, motivating me, telling me what to do, the experience was so different here, soo relax.

At 1am (5th Jan), I was moved to the birth suite. The room is big, like a single room ward in a private hospital in Malaysia. So you can imagine how big the room is, with complete birth equipment. Here they offered a lot of birth delivery option, eg. deliver in the water. Actually I opted for epidural, but since my contraction was less than 5 minutes apart when I came in, so the epidural would be useless. So when they asked me whether I wanted the 'gas' to help ease the pain, I immediately response, "Yes!!". Almost 1.20am I felt the urged to push. With two strong push, Athirah came to the world at 1.30am. That was my first normal delivery (totally). Yaya's was normal but with the help of ventouse.

Feeling Athirah the first time, laying on my belly was so wonderful. No exact word could really describe what did I felt during that precious moment. Atang couldnt wait to hold the baby. He managed to bring dates this time. The midwives let us rest, while waiting for the time to move us to the ward.



At around 6 am on the 5th of Jan, we moved to the ward.