A Year Ago: Another Amazing Birth Experience

With such a long overdue, I finally managed to write about Sophie's birth. Yes, Sophie is ONE year old today! How time flies...

Monday, 20 October 2014 was my due date for this second pregnancy. My second pregnancy had been great so far, no particular complaints other than sleeping a lot for the first four months and the last month of pregnancy :). With the exception that we preferred to keep the baby's gender as a surprise until birth, everything was the same like the first pregnancy. I reminisced the same process again like two years ago, came regularly for check up, undertook the same tests for me and the baby, and I had Dr. Prapee Tangnavarad, who assisted David's birth, as my Obgyn. A little note on this, me and my husband agreed that we felt the "chemistry" with her since our first encounter, therefore, under her care, being pregnant and giving birth have become a "so-called" addiction for me as she has been very professional and supportive all the way and the most important, she has met our (especially me) expectations of an ideal Obgyn.

Similar to our first baby, there was no sign that the baby would arrive on its due date. Monday ended and Tuesday came, we still had no signs, except that David surprisingly agreed to be accompanied by my mother to his daycare on Tuesday morning. Tuesday night, we had an invitation from my husband's friend/ex-colleague for an apéritif which was also the first time for us leaving David with my mother at night. Knowing that I am already overdue, my husband's friend jokingly said that once she invited two heavily pregnant friends for dinner at her home - each on different occasions - and both went to the hospital for delivery right after the dinner, so she said same thing might happen to me as well. We had a nice chat accompanied by fruit juices, tortilla chips, veggies, yogurt, and guacamole dip. We decided to leave before dinner as I wanted to be home before 9pm. To my surprise, everything turned out well. David was already asleep with my mother when we arrived home around 8.30 pm. 

I was in the middle of my deep sleep when I felt water leaks at around 2.30 am early Wednesday. I knew instantly that it was about time to give birth, sooner or later. My feeling that early morning was somehow mixed because I had to leave my son behind with my mother to give birth to our second baby. As for pain, I felt nothing at all. We waited for the taxi to come and I even took my time to spread the towel on the passenger seat in case my water broke, which luckily did not happen. We were admitted to the birth room around 3.30 am and I was already 3-cm dilated with constant contraction every 4-5 minutes. I applied hypnobirthing for my first pregnancy and this one as well so the only thing I kept in mind was "I want to meet my baby very soon". I have no idea whether it was either the second experience or the different nature of each pregnancy, I felt more relaxed in coping with the contractions. I just let myself to feel the pain with no resistance at all resulting the "I'm OK" face every time the nurse showed me the pain tolerance level card, not smiling though, but still bearable. 

The clock at the room showed 7 am when my Obgyn came in and checked me, I was 6-cm dilated, started to feel stronger discomfort and each contraction was followed by water leaks. She later instructed the nurse to perform enema to clear my bowel. Honestly, I hearted enema as I felt much better and more comfortable afterwards so I had a reserve of energy to deal with stronger contractions. 

At around 8.45 am the contraction was getting stronger and came every 1-2 minutes. There were moments where I felt being pushed to my limit thanks to the contractions while my husband was in and out of the room several times trying to reach my mother who was supposed to be on the way to the hospital after sending David to his daycare. At one point, I felt such an intense pain and needed a hand to hold on, but my husband was not there, so I held the bed rail tightly while thinking "this too shall pass" even though another voice in my small head said "this is a natural birth without any medical intervention as you always wish, and now, do you still think that you can bear the pain??". I tried to remember the breathing technique during labor and applied it as much as I could.

My Obgyn was already in the room but my husband was still out of sight. Finally, in the middle of very intense and painful contractions, I suddenly had the urge to push and at the same time, my husband showed up saying that my mother was already on her way to the birth room. What I remembered at first push was my husband saying "it's open" followed by "I can see the head" on the second push, and within seconds I felt I had the biggest yet relieving poo ever as the baby was pulled out, Alhamdulillahi rabbil 'alamiin.

I asked the pediatrician - the same pediatrician who took care of David - whether the baby was a boy or a girl, to which she replied "a girl" :). Unfortunately, due to the mucus in her respiratory canal, she had to be treated and transferred right away to the other room. She was also put in the incubator for sometime due to her unstable breath. Meanwhile, Dr. Prapee worked on me and around 15-20 minutes later the placenta was born. In the middle of doing her work, she said that she read my blog, especially the birth story part which surprised me. How could she find my blog? Any way, not long after that, Sophie was brought back to the room and we had the chance to meet her in person..she was widely awake when my husband recited adzan on her tiny ears. She smells like heaven! Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah SWT for blessing us with another angel to our life and for the smooth delivery process.

Our precious daughter was born on Wednesday at 9 am, measuring 50 cms and weighing 3,210 kgs, after being comfortably snuggled in my womb for 40 weeks 2 days. It has been a year already, a great year for our little family and we look forward to embrace more wonderful years to come of being parents in raising our beloved children, Insha Allah.

Right from the very first time we held you in our arms, we knew that you were special, the most beautiful gift ever. May Allah SWT bless you with love and joys abundantly, protect you all the way, and may you grow up with kindness, strength and wisdom of a beautiful and loving person inside out, shaleha and qurrata'ayun, aamiin.

Happy 1st Birthday, our dearest daughter, Sophie, we love you so much.

Our little Sophie