We went to see the doctor (Alexis Becker, N.P.) for routine pregnancy visit on Wednesday Feb 12, 2003. I was 38 weeks pregnant, and the doctor said everything was fine. My cervix was not dilated yet and the baby had not dropped into my pelvis, so according to the doctor the due date is still yet 2 weeks away. We listened to the baby's heartbeat, it was 150 beats per minute, a beautiful sound to our ears.
I felt some contractions for the next few days but it was very irregular. On
Wednesday afternoon (Feb 19, 2003) I called my mother, we talked a lot about
having baby, and I told her too that we still have to wait for 2 weeks more,
but if the baby wants to come out today then so be it. By the way, at that day
I caught a cold, my nose is so stuffy. Later that night I could hardly sleep
because of the cold. I woke up every couple hour until dawn.
Around 5:30 am I woke up and couldn't fall asleep again. Suddenly I felt some
mild contractions, but I try to ignore it. As I tried to go back to sleep I
noticed that the contractions started every 5 minutes. Soon I woke up my husband
and told him that I am having contractions. We started to pack the stuffs that
we need to go to the hospital. Tonny called the hospital and they asked us to
wait and see the progress and call again in an hour. After an hour the contractions
still the same, in fact I felt it getting closer. We called the hospital again
and they said we could come anytime. We waited another half hour and then we
went to Kaiser Hospital at Santa Rosa.
We arrived there around 8 am. They examined the baby's heartbeat and the contractions.
The contraction is still 5 minutes apart, and I was dilated 1 cm. So they asked
me to take a walk around the hospital. After hours of walking around, and checking
a couple of time, around 4 pm I was dilated 4 cm and the midwife decided to
break my water. The next 3 hours the contractions were getting stronger and
stronger that I decided to take some pain reliever through the IV. After the
first injection wore off, the nurse told me to take a hot shower to help ease
the pain but then I needed another injection of pain reliever.
At 7 pm I couldn't hold the urge to make a push. The nurse told me to hold it
and we tried many ways to distract me from pushing. But the pain was so intense
and I couldn't hold it anymore. So I started to push the baby… but it was a
long way to go.
After almost 2 hours of pushing I still couldn't get the baby's head to crown.
The doctor is ready, and the nurse felt sorry that I have pushed for so long
and looked very tired. So the doctor decided to do episiotomy and use vacuum
to pull the baby's head. I was so tired and really wanted the baby to come out,
so I agreed.
On February 20, 2003 at 8:46 pm with one push and one pull, he's finally
here…. Michael Jonathan Hadiputra.
They put him on my chest while they cleaned him. Tonny
cut his umbilical cord. We are so happy… I hold him and looked at him very close.
He's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and after 9 months in my tummy,
he is finally in my arms. He cried for a few minutes and then fell asleep in
my arms. After a while, the nurse gave me some food to eat and she took Michael
and gave him his first bath, at the same teach Tonny how to bath a baby. Later
that night we moved to the postpartum room. Now I am a proud mother and Tonny
is a proud father. We are the proud parents of Michael Jonathan Hadiputra.