<2h in the hospital & no epidural - birth story

We welcomed our bb2 about 2 weeks ago!

I’m happy to report that we managed to have our ideal birth - unmedicated and natural :) (no needles inserted, except when dr was stitching me up)

It was such an empowering and beautiful experience, and I want to remember every bit of it.

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Birth log (from what looked to be the very first signs of labour):

**6 August**

38w1d

3-5pm - was out and about and felt belly tightening and slight cramps every now and then

6pm or so - reached home and saw 3 tiny dots of blood on the pad. Googled and asked doula what “bloody show” should look like, but doesn’t seem like it

**7 August**

38w2d

3-6am - woken up by crampy feelings, went to pee. Doesn’t seem like contractions yet as they last quite a while each time, coming every 10-20min. Rested on the bed and focused on breathing. The contractions felt like the upper belly tightening and pushing downwards, so together with a lot of downward pressure.

Told Mr Soo about it and that I preferred if he stayed home with me.

7.15am - rx woke up and we changed her and got her ready for school

8.15am - on the bus ride, surges continued, but very bearable

9.30am - reached home with breakfast with work emails and messages awaiting my response. Worked on them for a bit, and i think this was when labour stopped/paused? Either i was too occupied to notice or they rly stopped

10.45am - my mum arrived to help us alter our curtain and i was occupied with talking to her and calling my dad so I didn’t notice any surges here too

1pm - lunchtime

2.45pm - headed to nap while listening to early labour meditations

3.50pm - got awoken by a call from my ahma, then fully woke to go for a nice shower

4.30pm - snack time!

5-5.45pm - 抄经 and chill, no noticeable surges still

6pm - head out to pick rx with bluesg. Started to notice some lightning crotch pains and surges

6.45pm - back home, realised my back starts to hurt (like cramps) when i carry rx 😅

7.20pm - dinner, surges on and off

8.30pm - bedtime routine with rx was when surges seemed to pick up and were quite close tgt, but stopped once i walked out of the room 😮

9.40pm - shower again and head to bed (since I guess it wasn’t happening yet)

**8-11 August**

Lots of belly tightening/ practice contractions that came every now and then. Decided to get on with life, so we even had 2 rounds of gathering at home on 9 August hehe - tiring but I'm so glad we didn’t cancel them :)

**12 August**

39w

3/4am - crampy feelings started, this time it felt more like menstrual cramps (larger area), and surges were coming every 8-15min. I was scared it was going to be false alarm again so I didn’t ask Mr Soo to stay home with me - he went to work as per usual.

8am - RX woke up and I sent her to school as per usual, with the helper

9.30am - bought breakfast and headed home. Texted Mr Soo and our doula, Lorraine, about the situation as surges continued coming rather consistently.

10++am - Lorraine arrived, we did some body work, stretches, massages etc. to prep the body for labour. She said things may seem to take a pause for a while but will probably pick up later in the day. Before she left, the surges were coming every 10 min or so. Here I texted my mum, who was supposed to help us take care of RX while we went to the hospital.

11.30am-2pm - we went to take a nap and things did take a small pause, but it was shiok and probably much needed.

2pm - lunch! then we even had a popsicle each as we chill and breathe through the contractions, waiting for them to come closer together.

3.30pm - mum arrived. Continued to breathe through the surges, which were getting stronger but still manageable.

5.30pm - Mr Soo left to pick up RX. Surges were getting more and more intense, and I have to really focus and try to relax and lean into the sensations to get through each one.

7pm - dinner time! it was challenging managing a toddler along with the strong surges, but luckily everyone else was around too so once I was done with dinner, I went for a warm shower.

8pm - stayed in the shower for a bit longer, letting the water from the shower 🚿“massage” my lower back. Surges came about every 3-5min now and were very very intense. Mr Soo was busy with RX’s bedtime routine so I was struggling alone… texted Lorraine to hopefully summon her here, but she said she will come about 11pm initially (?!?!?!)

I told her I would prefer if she came now because it’s getting quite unbearable… she said she will drop groceries off at home first before coming

9pm - mum took over taking care of RX but she was crying a lot because we were around but not giving her any attention 🥲 - added to the chaos.

I was crying and screaming by now during the surges because they were so intense and so close together I felt like there wasn’t much of a break in between each one, and I was very tired being on all fours (which was the most comfortable position then). Mr Soo helped me put on the TENS machine, which helped slightly…

I kept thinking “omg when is Lorraine coming? I’m dying here” as she was going to drive us all to the hospital

9.30pm - Lorraine finally arrived! She cleansed the space around us and then helped guide me into relaxation a bit (screams became moans). She wanted us to labour longer at home and suggested to do a meditation/hypnosis first, but I was feeling overwhelmed by the surges and started to feel the urge to push (?!) so I wanted to go nowwww (can’t remember if i managed to verbalise this or everything was in my head haha)

I was honestly a bit scared/nervous/worried that we will end up having the baby at home ha ha ha 🥴

10pm or so - Lorraine said ok let’s go to the hospital and we headed (i struggled) down to her car. I was kneeling on the car seat and holding on to the headrest the whole journey. She started to guide me into hypnosis and that really helped me regulate my breathing and get into the zone. Not much screaming or moaning now, only deep breaths and occasional groans when there is the urge to push.

The car ride felt so longggg and later I found out from Lorraine that she made a few wrong turns hahaha. At some point I lost her (can’t hear her anymore) and Mr Soo volunteered to take over reading the script, which helped a lot. So proud of him for this 🥰

11pm (?) - we finally arrived at Thomson and I slowly entered the building, inched towards the lift and at some point, I put the birthing ball on the floor and just knelt there through a surge - hahaha mostly had my eyes closed and honestly didn’t care what anybody thought

We took the lift up to level 2, where the delivery wards were, and got directed to birthing room 6 (just nice it was the one with the hydrotherapy tub, but we didn’t use it la).

The nurse said they have to do a cervical check and asked me to get on the bed when the contraction stops. Honestly they were so close together I couldn’t tell the start and end of each one so I told her that. Managed to breathe a bit when there seemed to be a break and then felt my water break a little right before going up on the bed (what perfect timing!)

The cervical check was not as painful as I remember, and the nurse said I was 8cm dilated, with baby at station -1 - which is great!!! (in contrast, the first pregnancy when I went to the hospital after a day of contractions, I was at 4cm)

They put the CTG monitoring on me and I was on my back for a while (which was uncomfortable) before turning to the side (hands grabbing the bedside railing) for the rest of the labour.

The nurses asked a few times if I felt like pushing and I said yes so they called Dr Paul in - he came and just stood there to watch me contract and push (LOL so cool right?) but I think it wasn’t time yet so he said he will be outside for now and to call him when bb is coming.

At some point, the urge to push became very strong (!!!) and I could feel baby’s descent and his head emerging. Lorraine said she could see the hair already and asked if I wanted to touch him - I tried but I couldn’t reach haha and I think the attempt made him go back in a little (?) lolol

Dr Paul was called back and then after a few more pushes, he asked if he could help stretch the perineum with his hands (I said yes) and he asked me to try to push in between a surge (which even Lorraine was surprised by). Within what felt like 2 more pushes…

**13 August**

39w1d

12am - just a little past midnight, bb2 arrived! They put him on my belly/chest area and waited until the umbilical cord turned white before Mr Soo got to cut it.

I was then guided to exert a little to birth the placenta, and bloop - out it came.

Dr Paul said i had first degree tear which is very minimal, then administered some local anaesthetic before starting to stitch me up. I could feel the stitching, which was interesting, but there were particular places where it hurt quite a bit (but very bearable compared to intense surges, and because it was a very small spot as compared to large area pains during surges).

After Dr was done, I had undisturbed skin to skin with bb while Mr Soo went to register (which took super long??? He came back closer to 2am). Bb managed to latch on the boob so that was nice :)

When he came back, the nurses took bb’s measurements (we asked to wait) - 2.965kg and 47cm. I was surprised because at our 38 week appointment Dr Paul and the ultrasound estimated bb2 to be 3.3kg (which I was lowkey terrified about haha).

2/3am - we got transferred to our room and surprisingly got a free upgrade (?) to Premier Single although we booked a 1-bedded. Still not sure why but thankful for this nonetheless :)

I was hungry but in our mad rush out of the house we didn’t bring any of the snacks I packed and there was no food available too, except for milo and biscuits (can’t remember if we got them then???)

I can’t remember much else in terms of time but I think I tried to feed bb for a bit before sending him to the nursery for some formula milk to top-up and then we finally caught some rest.

Spent the rest of the day feeding baby, eating, catching sleep, getting checked etc etc.

Oh we also registered his birth and got his birth cert! :)

My mum came to visit over lunch and my brother and sis-in-law came to visit over dinner.

**14 August**

After Dr Paul and PD’s visit for the day, we were clear for discharge, woohoo!

Was initially expecting to stay for 3d2n but honestly couldn’t wait to return home to my firstborn, and can save $$$ so we happily took the option of early discharge.

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This birth experience was so different from the first, and i would give the biggest credit to hypnobirthing, our doula and Dr Paul.

The first time, nurses were telling me to hold my breath and counting to 10 each time i have a contraction, and i was struggling to keep at pace with them. They also pushed hard on the top of my belly to “help push the baby out”.

You can read my first birth story here 👧🏻

This time, nobody told me what to do and I simply followed my body and baby, pushing only when the feeling comes. It was so nice and I’m so thankful for the nurses too, in retrospect.

In hypnobirthing, we learn that pain is due to fear and tension, but if we simply relax and allow the body to do what is naturally knows to do, the pain will be minimal.

In my imagination, the ideal hypnobirth is painless, but in reality it wasn’t (of course), probably because there were still fears in me that were not fully addressed. However, the meditations, relaxations and positive birth affirmations practised over the course of the pregnancy, along with the hypnosis/hypnotherapy done really help.

Getting in the zone (deeply and quickly) is key, and releasing any tension in the body and mind really helps allow the body to do what needs to be done.

All in all, I’m so happy and proud of us to have done this together - my baby, my husband and I. Of course, not without the help of our amazing doula @Lorraine doula and our super chill and pro-natural Dr Paul. 💖💖💖

Fun fact: in our hypnobirthing class we had two other couples with us, and both the mamas had amazing unmedicated births as well!

Head over to @Amanda Ong ‘s page to read her birth story 😀

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What a long post (oops). Also, here’s to life with 2 under 2 🤪

How was your birth experience?

I would love to hear about your birth stories, and happy to answer any questions ☺️

Till next time,

Beoz

#RealTalk #summerdiary #birthstory #birthexperience #naturalbirth #labourandelivery #hypnobirthing #doula #momsoflemon8 #2under2