I can't believe I'm writing a second birth story post in the span of a year. It's insane how I was pregnant twice in this pandemic because that wasn't easy at all and I was scared for my health the entire time that I basically spent every day of my pregnancy just cooped up at home. Anyway, I gave birth to a baby girl on October 1st via elective caesarean section. Since my first delivery was a C-section and the spacing between the first and second is just a year, the doctor advised me for a C-section to prevent any complication that would arise if I went for vaginal delivery. I straightaway gave an okay because I didn't want to go through labour contraction haha.
September 30th, 2021 (37 weeks 6 days pregnant)
I checked into the hospital around 3 pm. My Covid PCR test came back negative and so did my husband's RTK test. We left my son with my mother-in-law because obviously with Covid and everything you can only have one visitor/caretaker and kids are not allowed. Later in the afternoon, the anaesthetist came to my ward to explain about the anaesthesia that I had to take for the surgery and basically just breaking down what was to expect from the anaesthesia. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and mentally preparing for the surgery.
October 1st, 2021 (38 weeks pregnant)
I had to start fasting 6 hours before the surgery that was scheduled at 11 am, so my husband got me a tuna sandwich from Starbucks as my last meal. I took a shower and then the nurses came to bring me to the operation room. In private hospitals (not sure about gov) they will shave your under there for you so that's really nice. They wheeled me up to the operation room. The whole time I was mortified. I cried a little while waiting because my conscience was clear this time around (with emergency C-section you really have no time to think about how scared you are) and all I could think about was "wow I'm really going under the knife, aren't I"
They brought me to the operation theatre. I sat upright on the operation table while they anaesthetised my back. I can feel really long needle getting in, and when they pushed the drug in I felt sort of a tingling sensation on my abdomen. The process took a few minutes. And then they laid me on the table and inserted urine catheter (urine bag) once I lost all sensation. During the surgery, I was just chatting with the nurses and doctor. My face got all itchy from the anaesthetic which did not happen with my first C-section. I had a hard time trying to catch my breath. The whole time I was just struggling to breathe which terrified me a lot. I really thought I was going to die.
And then I could feel them just pushing my body to get the baby out and after a while I heard a loud cry. The nurses and doctor were all gushing over my baby "oh she's so cute" "what a chubby cheek". They brought her to me after cleaning her and I got to kiss her for the first time. I was just overwhelmed with emotion. I'm a momma of two now. 😭
After the doctor has finished sewing me up, the nurses were just cleaning me before wheeling me to the recovery room. I waited there for about an hour while they made sure my vitals were all good. At 2 pm I was already in my room. I felt lightheaded from the anaesthesia. I drank some water but I was not allowed to eat just yet. I tried to eat in the evening but I threw up in a vomit bag. Apparently my intestine wasn't working just yet so I could not hold any food down. They brought my baby to my room at about 11 pm as she was held in Special Care Nursery longer than it should be as the paediatrician wanted to make sure her breathing was okay.
October 2nd, 2021
The next day, the nurses came to clean me in the morning. I drank a lot of water so that I had clear pee. Once my pee was clear in colour, the nurse finally took out the urine catheter, yeay! I got up and walked around albeit very slow. It felt so good to get up and walk after a whole day in bed. In the afternoon, my baby's paediatrician came to my room and told us that my baby has to be put under phototherapy due to jaundice so I had to go to the nursery to feed her. Oh! I can eat solids so my lunch was rice porridge and fish fillet with sweet and sour sauce. It was so good I'm actually craving for it now. My doctor that did the surgery came to check me and she told me that the surgery went well, my organs were in good condition (haha!) and I don't have keloids yeay!
October 3rd, 2021
So my baby's jaundice reading hasn't been good but fortunately her paeds discharged her so she can go home with me. But she had to have her jaundice reading every day to make sure it wasn't getting worse. My husband went to pay the bills and later in the afternoon we went home.
Elena is turning two months old tomorrow. I can't believe how fast time flew by. What feels even more surreal is I have two kids. Two! Kids! It's not easy being a mom of two when both of them are under two year old (my son is turning 15 months) and the first year is going to be a struggle for me but once both of them have reached that age where they can play/eat by themselves, I know that everything will get better but right now, this momma is struggling. 😂
Thanks for reading! x