How to Have a Baby in Hong Kong: Part 9

Disclaimer #1: I am unfortunately not able to provide you the exciting Helicopter-VBAC-over-Victoria-Harbor kind of birth story. If you were hoping this blog post would be the source of your entertainment today, I suggest you start thinking of other options.

Disclaimer #2: This is a birth story. If you are not aware that birth stories contain discussion and description of various bodily fluids, I suggest you go read something else. Also, if you do not know what a cervix is or if the word cervix scares you, again, go read something else.

Ok, here we go. Sorry this has taken me so long to write, there's been this small parasite taking all my time and energy. :)

Monday morning, I got up to pee about 5:15am. While peeing, I felt/heard a small pop... and there seemed to be some extra liquid other than urine involved in the process. I had the thought that my water had broken, but wasn't sure as there was no certain gush involved. I went and sat on the couch for a bit, looking at Facebook, and noticed my undies and sweat pants were getting a bit wet. Not wanting to get too excited, I simply remedied the situation and laid down on the couch to wait for Nathan to wake up.

By the time Nathan was up, sometime just before 7, I had felt a few cramping sensations, but certainly nothing I would call a contraction. But I was forced to acknowledge out loud that my water had broken. I was actually so.very.excited! I had started labor on my own!

Nathan called Papa so that he could get ready to come over to care for Josiah. But I knew that labor had not really started, and resolved to not rush to the hospital. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck in a hospital bed with nothing happening. Papa got to the house relatively quickly and I was SO THANKFUL that my water broke at a convenient time for him to get from Lamma to Mui Wo without us needing to stress about Josiah's care.

The morning moved slowly. I still wasn't having regular contractions and so we continued to do some chores around the house and get ready for the trip to the hospital. I resolved to go on a long walk, but Nathan requested that we at least go ahead and take the ferry over to Central and walk there so that we could get to the hospital relatively quickly if necessary.

So we left the house about 11:00am. Nathan rode the Family Bike (picture in another post) so that he could move me if needed. And I walked. During the 20 minute walk to the ferry pier, contractions started to pick up both in intensity and frequency. We caught the 11:30 slow ferry to Central.

Contractions continued, but I could still walk and talk through them and we were hungry. So we went to Subway. After eating, we walked up and down the ferry piers for a bit and actually timed contractions. They were lasting about 45 seconds and were around 3 minutes apart. I was generally having to stop for each contraction, so we figured it was time to get in a taxi.

We got in the taxi at 1:00 and were at the hospital in about 15 minutes.

I knew the correct building and correct floor to go to, but when we got off the elevator, I was surprised to not find any signs really directing us where to go. Thankfully, a British couple was sitting in the hallway and pointed us in the right direction. We rang the doorbell on the ward and the nurse let us in.

I sat down in a chair at a desk and answered all kinds of questions about labor thus far and other typical medical questions. My blood pressure was taken and I was given strips to test my urine and pink pajamas to put on. So far, I was doing pretty well, but when I had to go to the bathroom to try and pee on little strips and change into ridiculously large pink pajamas, the contractions were really getting in the way. I was being very slow, as I was having to stop for contractions. Plus, there was the whole issue of amniotic fluid spilling from my body. But the nurses seemed unconcerned, perhaps because all the other women in the ward were casually hanging out on their beds.

The Pink Pajama Ward is the ward that husbands are not allowed in, and I knew this. This is the beginning labor ward for women who have not reached the magical dilation number. Nathan was sent to another place in the hospital to get my admission paperwork. During his absence, I went into a little room with a doctor to have my cervix checked. My contractions were strengthening and I did not want anyone messing with me during a contraction. The doctors and nurses were fairly accommodating with this, though they seemed somewhat inconvenienced by my desire to not obey their requests during a contraction. I was thankful that my contractions were already pretty intense by the time we got to the hospital and was hoping to be dilated enough to get out of the Pink Pajama Ward and into the Purple Pajama Ward, where Nathan could join me.

But then... no dilation. WHA??? How was I having contractions so close and so strong and my cervix had not bothered to join the party at all?

So back in my bed I was hooked up to monitors. All this I expected. They also put an IV port in my hand, but I was happy that they did not actually hook me up to an IV. I expected contractions to ease up a bit once I got in bed, since so many people warn that labor will stall when you actually get to the hospital. But it was quite the opposite. They were coming every 2 minutes, lasting for a minute. I was doing a pretty good job of getting through them, especially considering that Nathan wasn't there. Things around me were a bit of a blur.

(Nathan did come back from the admission place at some point. Then they sent him back downstairs to buy a different kind of under pad (see previous post). He brought those back up and then was told to wait outside the ward in the hallway. I am uncertain about the specific timing of his comings and goings.)

I started being more verbal during contractions and my noises brought nurses over. Or midwives. I'm not really sure, as I had previously been told that midwives attended laboring women. Anyway, despite their use of Cantonese, the words "c-section" and "fetal distress" came through clearly. And despite being in a bit of a blur, I wasn't surprised because I had been listening to Daniel's heartbeat, and with every contraction, it slowed quite a bit. And though his heartbeat did pick back up after the contraction, that was a lot of slowing, considering the frequency of contractions.

After monitoring my contractions, the nurse told me that the strength and frequency of my contractions should indicate that I was getting close to delivery. She knew the doctor had checked me recently and that I was not dilated. She mentioned her concern about Daniel's heart rate and had Nathan come in from the hallway. She checked my cervix once more and said there was still no dilation and that Daniel's head was still pretty far up. Since delivery did not seem close and Daniel's heart rate was a concern, she recommended a c-section.

Did I mention that there was a group of medical students wandering around the ward staring at patients? And by ward, I mean each woman had a bed surrounded by a curtain. Except the curtains were rarely closed. The medical students were fascinated, I'm sure, by all the activity happening around the white girl. Since, as I stated previously, all the other woman were very chill, just hanging out on their beds.

So a bunch of paperwork got shoved in my face for me to sign. And I was asked a bajillion times if I had any false teeth. And when I ate last. And they gave me a catheter in preparation for surgery. And of course... they put the Purple Pajamas on me. Because clearly I could not produce a baby in Pink Pajamas. All this was a bit of a blur. I remember begging the nurse to let Nathan come. She was sympathetic, but said it just couldn't happen because it was an emergency.

Nathan got sent back into the hall. And then we saw each other for 3 seconds more as they wheeled me past him in the hallway on my way to the operating room. Well, he saw me. My eyes were closed and I didn't really know what was happening or where I was going, except I heard him say "I love you" while I tried to manage contractions.

The nurses that took me to the OR were not as nice as the previous nurses. They kept yelling at me to breath and get oxygen to the baby. I was not aware that I wasn't breathing, but they wanted me to breath through my nose, not my mouth. So I did my best. And they kept telling me to be quiet and not make so much noise. And then they were yelling at me not to push. Again, I wasn't aware that I was pushing and kept telling them that I wasn't. But suddenly I realized that though I was not trying to push, my body was pushing. With each contraction, there was a very strong bearing down feeling and it was all I could do to stop it. So unless my cervix went from 0 to 10 in about 10 minutes, I was trying to push a baby through no hole.

It seemed to take forever to get to the OR. And it was an additional forever before they gave me the spinal. And then... the sudden lack of pain and warm tingly feeling came over my body... the only good part about a c-section! :)

It took quite a while before they actually pulled Daniel out. I'm not sure why. But I felt like I was waiting forever to hear his cry. And finally he was out. They checked him over quickly and brought him over for me to see. I think the nurse showed me his face first, but that was quickly followed by his genitals because they wanted me to verbally confirm that he was a boy.

Daniel was born at 15:59, 3.3 kilograms, 51 cm long.

They took an hour to close me up. I felt like I was laying on that table forever. Finally at 5pm I was rolled into recovery. The nurse in recovery asked if I breastfed my first baby and for how long. I told her 22 months. She exclaimed at how long I had breastfed, but then told me I needed to breastfeed this one 24 months!

Thankfully, I was only in recovery for 20 minutes. They put Daniel in the bed with me, and wheeled me out. And finally, after about 2.5 hours of sitting in the hallway with no news, Nathan saw us. The nurses were taking me to the post natal ward and as Nathan approached us, they stopped him suddenly, "Wait! Who are you?" I was unaware of the time or the fact that Nathan had not known anything since the quick "I love you" in the hallway, so I was a bit shocked by his boldness. He made the nurses stop before putting me on the elevator and was very direct that he was going to see his new son and his wife. They softened towards him and gave him a minute. Then he was directed back to the Pink Pajama ward to get my bags and told to meet us on the 6th floor.

(By the way, I think the reason that Nathan was left waiting for so long without any news was because of how quickly things happened once we got to the hospital. Or possibly that's just how things happen with emergency c-sections.)

By 5:30 the 3 of us were on the post natal ward in my 8 feet by 8 feet curtain area. Visiting hours were from 6pm to 8pm and thankfully they just let Nathan stay with me, even though it was early. We had 2.5 hours together before he had to head home, unable to visit again until 12pm to 1pm the next day.

So there you go... the birth story. Not what I was hoping for, but I am thankful for a healthy baby, of course! I have more to say about my 48 hours on the post natal ward and my recovery, but I'll save that for another post!