a year and a month after giving birth i can finally fit into my pre-preggy pants. kaya ngayon, i have lots of pants for office attire. too bad i gave away my jeans already. i didn't exactly expect to be back in shape. so negative ba... anyhow, i thank God that i did got back into shape. hopefully, i can stay fit and sexy for another year or two. ngehehe.

9:00 AM |

four weeks after childbirth and i can say that i have recovered from all the physical pains brought by my pregnancy. no lochia, no episiotomy pains... however, i still have the linea nigra, 34 inches waistline, unruly hair, and darkened skin on some areas.

besides all this, i am now adjusting to a mommy-life of sleepless nights, cramped time, and need for lotsa patience. nde naman ako nagko-complain as smile pa lang or hagikgik ni Lance, sulit na.

5:02 PM |

as what my sister told me, i woke up 12:20 AM due to pain that brought me a "nde maipintang mukha". at first, i have no idea that this was what they call as "labor contraction" but with pain after pain of 10 minutes interval, i just knew that this is it! i woke up hubby at 12:50 AM and told him that this might be the big day. he asked me to wait for another 10 minutes to confirm that it is the day that we've been waiting for. =) after another contraction at 1 AM, hubby immediately went out to get a car (c/o their company, hehe). i also woke up my sister for her to dress up and ready our things for the hospital trip.

we reached the Corniche Hospital at 1:30 AM. paika-ika ako when there's pain but most of the time, i can still smile in between. =) after taking my blood pressure and urine sample, the nurse (?) assigned at the emergency clinic asked me to go to the examination room for an internal exam. grabe, the internal exam made me cry. feeling ko, parang hinalukay yung kaloob-looban ko. =( then, the nurse was amazed to find out that i was already 7cm dilated!!! she praised me for being able to smile despite of my situation. then me, my sister and hubby were asked to proceed immediately to the labor room. yep, the hospital allows one male and one female relative to go with the patient inside the labor room during the delivery. the pain was tolerable still that i took the elevator and walked to the labor room pa huh! =)

inside the labor room, the midwife (a kind indian national) oriented me with their facilities such as the oxygen mask which later became my bestfriend. =) she also briefed me about the advantage of an episiotomy for first-time mom's and whether i opt to have one or not. with the information she gave, i told her that i do prefer to have an episiotomy as long as she promised that she will have an anaesthesia injected on me. panigurado lang..hihi.

as time passed by, the contractions remained to be in intervals of 10 minutes until 3:00 AM. it was then that the midwife suggested to break my water bag and rupture the membrane. i was hesitant at first, but changed my mind later on when even me became bored of the long wait. hehe.

come 3:30 AM and after a couple of sermon from the midwife that i was not relaxing enough, she then broke my water bag. i felt a sudden gush of warm "water" from within. as for the rupture of the membrane, nde ko na naramdaman as i was busy with my squirming already. emote na ako ng emote as the contractions progressed to every 5 minutes interval. the midwife asked me if i wanted a pain reliever. of course, i said yes! she then injected a pain reliever on my thigh which made me swirl dreamily and thereby eased the pain. contrary to what was expected, habang patagal ng patagal, the contraction decreases that i was sleeping and dreaming in between. =) the second shift of midwife (a british national) came to take over which was around 7:30 AM. however, before the actual taking over, an IV was inserted on me for an induced labor. past 8:00 AM, the contractions increases to around every 1-2 minutes. i wasn't able to track of the interval anymore as each contraction was sssooooo painful and seemed like a hundred minutes of pain. napapakapit na talaga ako sa sidebar ng bed and then the midwife asked to PUSH!!! grabe, performance level talaga ang bawat ire!

the midwife guided me in performing two different positions for pushing but the traditional position (lying/half-sitting on my back) was the one that made me eject my baby's head out. after that amazing push, i was asked to make another one for his body. the second time was supposed to be more difficult (dahil mas malaki ang width ng body versus the head) but since i was able to "learn" the technique with the head push, naging easier tuloy yung body push. i also did not mind the pain of the episiotomy since the actual delivery was much painful to the highest level. yung sinasabi nilang pain like you are about to pass a stool was an understatement. the pain was like passing a one-week old stool (ngahaha). nde naman sa nananakot ako sa future moms-to-be, but it was super sakit talaga! but at that time, all that i was thinking was to give the greatest push of my life to finally end the pain. anyway, it was 8:54 AM when my baby finally welcomed the world (or the world welcomed my baby??). my baby weighed 3.165 kilos and measures 49 cm long.

i was not able to focused on him since i was so tired (bad mama, hehe). i was aware of the cutting of the umbilical cord though but i was not aware anymore of his "crying" as part of the APGAR test which he scored 9, by the way. soon after the delivery of the placenta (which i was able to see like a big blob of liver-like mass), the surgeon was called for the episiotomy. due to the pain of the delivery, i did not even mind the pain of the repair of the episiotomy despite feeling the threading being done. after she finishes the "sewing", i felt my baby was placed to latched on my breast. then, i was asked to get up and sit on the wheel chair where they also placed my baby for me to cradle while they wheeled us to our room.

after we have settled on our room (Ward A, Room 11A), i have slept most of the time because i was overly tired. i still looked like 5 months pregnant due to my big tummy and edema plus bonus red spots on my bloated face. i also wore two napkins at a time to absorb the lochia (menstrual-like blood) coming out from me. my baby on the other hand, is at his best. smile na ng smile and is showing off his dimples already. as to whom he got his features, is still too early to tell. however, his eyes and eyebrows are from his daddy while his dimples and being balbon are definitely from me. =)

11:06 PM |