Friday, April 17, 2009

three is a magic number

when i became pregnant, rands emailed to me the mp3 file of the song three is a magic number... i've never heard of it before, and when i listened to it, it was fun and at the same time touching.

three was a significant number in my birthing story. taking off from my last post, i was lucky because i was the only one in the labor room when we arrived. i was immediately asked to lie down, and the resident conducted my first internal exam at 12:15am (i can see the wall clock from my bed); i was still 3cm. the contractions were becoming more intense then, and i asked the interns if the aircons were turned off, because i was sweating profusely! i swore to myself that i would not cause the same 'scandal' of screaming in pain as my sister did during her labor (hehe, peace!), so i quietly endured it by just distorting my face and body. i did this in between the questions the interns asked me about my pregnancy, personal data, medical history, family background, and i remember the most absurd question i answered was "ano pong tinapos nyo?" (napasagot talaga ako ng mataray na mataray na "ano???" "course po nung college." i thought, anong significance nun sa nangyayari sakin ngayon???)

at 1am, my 2nd ie showed that i was still 3cm. the resident offered a painkiller that can also put me to sleep, so i accepted it, but she said it will not work anymore "pag sinisiksik na ng baby yung ulo nya sa buto mo." i must have dozed off in a few minutes because the next time i woke up, the resident was conducting another ie at 2am, which showed that i was 7cm already. this time the contractions were making me squeal a bit already, and squirm a lot. i was already crumpling into my fist the top of the bedsheet over my head!

at 3am when the resident told me that she will be conducting another ie, i desperately asked, "na naman?" honestly, masakit kasi sya talaga, no joke. the resident was also apologetic but she said they had no choice. to my relief, the moment had come! very calmly, she said, "table na 'to." to me, it seemed like forever for them to lift me to the stretcher and wheel me to the delivery room.

my view from the bed was like how i saw it in grey's anatomy or er, the bright circular lights, tiled walls, interns with heads wearing shower caps. i did not have the chance to see their instruments anymore, but what i noticed was that there was no pain anymore! as in! on hindsight, i thought i was just too excited about the birth to notice the pain, but my sister later told me that it was gone because the baby's head was past the pelvic bone already (which made sense). the residents were giving me final instructions in pushing. i was so proud of myself when i heard them say, "very good."

a short while later, i heard my ob's voice, and saw him at my feet. "sige ne, ire." i pushed. "good. sige hiwaan nyo na yan." he was giving instructions to the interns to conduct episiotomy. then that was the last i remembered...

i opened my eyes. i was in a dark and quiet room. i realized that i was back in the same labor room i was in a few hours ago. i was wondering why. then an intern approached my bed, "kukunin lang po ang bp." i was so disoriented that my first question to him was, "tapos na?" i thought that it was only a few minutes after i last heard my ob. but when the intern said, "opo," i looked at the clock and saw that it was already 430am! but i was so groggy i couldn't keep my eyes open.

later still, another intern checked my bp. i asked her, "miss, kumusta yung baby?" "ay mam, sa nicu (what they called the nursery in our hospital) po ang baby." it was 5am. another intern checked my bp 30 minutes later, and i asked her, "miss naincubator ba yung baby?" "mam hindi po namin alam eh, sa nicu po yun." i thought, for heaven's sakes, was it so hard to make a call to the nicu to be able to answer a mother's concern?? but i still felt sleepy.

i woke up to loud voices and bright morning sunshine. it was already 730am. they prepared to move me to my room on the 3rd floor. when i was transfered to the bed, my mom was there to greet me. "hi, ma. naincubator ba yung baby?" i was so concerned because he was just 37 weeks and 3 days. "ay hindi ko alam, sige puntahan ko." when she left me alone in the room, my sister called. she said she called rands about the good news. we chatted until three residents came in to check on me.

i checked my cellphone, and i saw tatay rands' message, "i love you! THANK YOU GOD! see you hon and baby!!!! at 5:53am. (when my sister called him, he booked the next available flight, and surprised me at the hospital on friday morning) then i started texting all my relatives and friends about the good news. my mom came in a few minutes later with even better news... the baby did not need the incubator! i was so thankful!
my whole labor was three hours (in the labor room, that is...not counting the supposed labor i was having the whole day at home). baby aren was born at 3:30am. i loved referring to him as my "3cm baby" (see previous blog). as rands said, the song three is a magic number would be applicable to us in february. (we had no idea it would be advanced by three weeks... flashback january 14, wednesday 8pm, while i was watching csi in my room on the 2nd floor at home: he called me on the cell and asked me "kumusta ka?" which he didn't do every call. so i answered him with the very simple and straightforward "kung hindi tonight, tomorrow." to which he replied, "talaga?" i was right all along!)



aren is now three months old. rands and i are now a family. three is a magic number. :)