Labor of Love

The purpose of writing this story was to share and keep the memories of something I never knew I would do again and go through this labor of love after 11 years. So after so long my body had to start all over again, I know this time around I have to work harder and be more prepared. So glad I did just that and made the whole labor process easy.

I am not gonna brag but my labor was only 3hours and 43min, I think I deserve a pat on a back for this. Actually I am so surprise that it was that quick. I thought it was be another 12 to 18 hour labor....

I would say mentally and physically preparing myself for this day to come wasn't an easy ride, so much challenges that I faced and it was worth every pain. If you are asking me, will I do this all over again for the 3rd kid? I say "hold on! who say I would do this again?" Honestly I have not come to my senses to do it again.... as for now we are good with 2.

Here's what I did in order to prepare for the labor:

Pre-natal Massages

I don't how to emphasise enough that pre-natal massage is one of the important and key thing that help me get through 3hours of labor. I started pre-natal massages from 1st trimester which was around 3rd month of the pregnancy (my pregnancy was normal and I didn't had any complication), but please check with your mid-wife or gynae if it's safe for you to start the pre-natal massage. So my massage are basically done every fortnightly which I always look forward to. You see, massage helps me to ease up on all the tension in your body and with regular massage it also help me to avoid some of the pregnancy woes for me. It also a time for me to relax and each time after the massage and to avoid pregnancy insomnia which I was having through out the pregnancy.

During at the last stage of the pregnancy leading up to the labor, I actually had the massage on weekly basis. And during the last few massage the makcik urut also check on the baby position and to see how low the baby was. And it was rather crucial for me to have this massage coz it help to lossen up all the muscles and making my pelvic area relax. I believe this is one of those key thing to endure the fast labor.

Eating Habits & Supplement
I think during my pregnancy I didn't have like any crazy cravings.... actually there was no cravings but it's more like binging on food that I want to eat. I really find it to snack in between meals coz I was never a snacker to begin with but during this pregnancy I do take a moment to focus on eating healthy snack with fruits, muesli bars and more veggies. Keeping myself healthy was also an important factor.

This is also because my morning sickness didn't went away till the early stage of 3rd trimester. So I realised that piling on nutritional food is key here. This also help me not to gain excessively and also my baby was at the right size. You know size does matter especially for someone like me, if baby too big also it can cause complication during labor. Baby Sofia was 3.05kg at birth. To avoid getting c-sect, Dr Aziz did mention that size of baby matters as we don't want to have any problem trying to push out a big baby.

One of the most important thing, is supplement it definitely great at helping you stay healthy and having a balance diet with all the supplement. I do make sure that I take my fish oil supplement which is good for you and baby on top of the usual Obimin....

Exercise
Oh yes, I did a few pregnancy workout. I did squats, walk, shaking the hips and doing house work (hahaha) all this was done when ever I have time to do it. I don't know if this work best for you but it does for me. All this workout I got them from my pregnancy book and also online.

So basically on 17 Feb 2014 was my gynae appointment, Dr Aziz was gonna decide if I should be induced on that day but when he check my cervics it was already dilated with 3cm and no induction was needed at the same time I really wanted a natural process so the induction part wasn't part of my plan. So we were instructed to head over to the hospital by 2pm and get things going. While at the clinic I was already experiencing contraction which was like 20-30min interval..... I thought since labor is gonna take sometime why not have lunch before we head to hospital.

I had to do a Selfie just before contraction come in like crazy, hahahaha

Reach Parkway East Hospital around 1:45pm, it was a breeze and we walk to the labor ward and the nurse did all the necessary checking and paper work done. At this point of time, contraction was pretty much the same. Waited for the Dr Aziz to arrive around 2:30pm and hook me up on the IV and I think they put in some pitocin to speed the contraction and my dilation was opening promptly. By now my contraction are speeding up. Suddenly contraction was coming in 10min, 5min, 3min, 2min apart by 5:43pm the baby was out.

While in labor the nurse kept asking if I needed painkiller? I said no.... she ask if I wanted epidural? I said no..... All I need was mu husband's hand and hold on to my dear life. I told myself over and over again not to gave in to epidural as the last time it didn't went so well.

Some of you might be wondering how come I labor so fast.... honestly I heard some lady did it within 1 hour but the reason why I went into a quick labor was because we found out that I was dilating very quickly and baby had passed motion and the waterbag was turning green, Dr Aziz was worried that the baby might accidentally swallow the liquid. But alhamdullilah everything went well and baby was healthy and perfectly fine.

Fresh from the oven!

To me it was more of a blessing in disguise, quick labor means lesser time to endure pain.... Big question will I be doing all of this again? Well I am not sure currently Sofia is a little overwhelming and we both are still trying to adjust our new life.