It started out when I woke up on 16 Dec. I remember the date clearly because it was one week till habibi was due to come. It also turned out to be a memorable day because my Syrian friend had her baby that day.
I noticed some wetness as I got up. Thinking it was nothing, I headed to the hall to have my breakfast. The leaking continued and then I started panicking. At the back of my mind I was thinking, the signs look obvious, but something was not right. This couldn't be it. To add to the panic, I did not want to go into labour without my habibi around. By 11am I called him up (yes, it was 6am in Ruh on a weekend - sorry baby) to tell him what was going on. Tell him wouldn't be an accurate description, more like crying to him. I kept saying I did not want to go into labour without him and that I couldn't do it without him. The sensible thing was to get myself checked at the hospital yet I kept thinking, "if this is it, and I go get myself checked, I'm sure the doctor would induce me." My brains got the better of me and as habibi said, the right thing to do was to get myself checked so that baby wouldn't be in danger if I procrastinate.
Bracing myself, I walked into Sakura's room and tearily told her I was in labour. The poor girl, half asleep, looked a little shocked and asked why I was crying. So I repeated again that I did not want to have baby without his father around. Sigh. Sakura being the clear headed lady she was, very calmly asked me to start my breathing exercises. She then freshened up and even warmed my rice sock for me. We called Auntie to ask if we should go to the hospital, to which she said we probably should. She sensed my panic and tried to calm me down and "warned" me that if it was the real thing, I should prepare myself, even without Mr F, since it was best for baby. After the breathing exercises and regaining my composure, I told myself I could do it. I had Sakura with me afterall.
I still did not believe what was happening. Yet, even Sakura said she could smell my "labour fluid", or whatever it was. I prepared myself; removing the nail polish from my manicure (darn :P), packed my hospital bag (or the last minute stuff that had to be packed into it) and we headed off to the hospital. My mum said she'd meet us there. The taxi driver took my mind off things by joking a lot along the way. He said stuff like, don't worry, when I drive, there won't be a jam on PIE. Then he said I should ask my baby to wait till new year so that he can be a new year baby. Thanks uncle for keeping me calm! Till now I wonder if he knew, or perhaps he was just being his usual jovial self.
To cut a long story short, after a long hour or so in the delivery suite, Dr S came to check if I was truly leaking amniotic fluid. The CTG machine was annoying me so I was eager to get the procedure over and done with. By then, I had psyched myself that I was able to have baby without Mr F around. After checking, Dr S gave the clear and said it was probably some other fluid, and I wasn't in labour. PHEW. Silly me, there I was panicking during the wait because I thought the peaks on the CTG machine meant I was having contractions. Seems they were just baby moving inside me. All the while, Mr F was "by my side" sms-ing and calling me asking for updates. Even my MIL sms-ed to tell me to be calm. How sweet. After the long wait, I went to tell Sakura and mama the good news and we headed home after that eventful day.
Thank God I had my wonderful family around me. Calm Sakura, who later said she was just pretending to be calm (she did a mighty good job - I wouldn't have known); darling mum who rushed down from her tuition to be there with me; cute father who finally saw the urgency of getting a mattress for a cot after we told him about the (false) labour; and Auntie who came from her duty even though she was busy to check on me.
During all that excitement, Sakura and Auntie had told Mr F that the day might come anytime soon so it would be good if he could come down earlier. Unfortunately flights were fully booked and Mr F couldn't get much more leave anyway, so it was a wait and see thing whether he could come. Being practical as he was, he even said there was no point in him coming early if "nothing was going to happen". Gah.
In any case, labour part zero was a good preparation for the actual day; had I gone into spontaneous labour. More to come about things that transpired up to the actual day...stay tuned... ;)
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