At the beginning...

He was the most beautiful newborn I ever saw (said with the biased

stand of a proud parent!) I thought babies were supposed to be all

purplish and wrinkled when they first arrived. Sean was powdery fair

with rosy cheeks. Perhaps it's got something to do with his being

carried to full term. In fact, he arrived two days after his e.d.d..

Whenever people ask me how the labour went, I would say it's just like

a bad case of constipation or menstrual cramps. Then again, my labour

only lasted about 4 and a half hours from the time I woke up at 3am and

discovered the 'show'. Got Weng Cheu to time my contractions and

realised they were five minutes apart. Finally!

One thing I know - the laughing gas didn't help with the contractions.

What worked better was hubby's advice to not concentrate on the pain. I

remember trying hard to distract myself with nice beautiful thoughts.

Strangely, an expense of green pasture kept cropping up in my mind.

The best advice I can give to would-be mothers is that squatting helps.

In a bid to clear my bowels once and for all, I squatted on the bed pan

in the delivery ward, and discovered that the dull aching sensation on

my back which accompanied every contraction disappeared. So, when the

next round of contraction came, I anchored myself piggy-back style onto

Weng Cheu, who sat at the end of the bed and pushed like I was having a

severe bout of constipation. When the nurse next came in to check on

the dilation, it had increased from 2cm to about 8cm! All that was

needed after that was simply to wait for Dr Phyllis Liauw to come and

burst the water bag!

Out with the amniotic fluid burst baby, before doctor had time to make

a snip. Imagine the tear ... jagged and reaching down all the way! So

for the short labour that I enjoyed, I suffered for the next three

weeks from the stitches.

I remember crying to hubby in the maternity ward (after all the

visitors had left) but once the nurse wheeled in our precious bundle

for breastfeeding (make that TOTAL breastfeeding) I simply tell myself

that all the pain was worth it!

Done