Well well, just last week at this very moment, I was in the hospital surviving through the contractions and squeezing jw's hands with all my might. Today, I'm officially a mummy and my baby is sleeping peacefully in the playpen beside me right now. How my life has changed! Angel is finally here with us!

So, every labour story is unique and different. And every first labour experience is usually a very long lasting memory, remembering the pain, the agony, the joy, the elation, the relief and all the mixed emotions within. So, here goes my story.

1.30am Mild contractions are felt. But I continued watching jw play the mahjong game on my laptop, thinking that it's probably just Braxton Hicks since I'm still 2 weeks away from my due date.

4.45am Can't zzzz the whole night. Tossed and turned in bed, feeling the contractions time and again but still wondering if they are the real thing or just false contractions. I have no idea! Tried various positions to zzz on the bed, but in the end decided to wake up and google the difference btw real contractions and Braxton Hicks. Finally, my hubby woke up a teeny bit and realised something was not right with me. Haha. I decided to take a hot bath, and felt three contractions within a short 15min bath. Ate some bread and cheese after the bath and hung around the house.

6.30am Jw timed the contractions for me and realised they are on average 5-6mins apart, lasting for roughly 45sec-1min each. He said "You have all the symptoms, call the hospital k?" I felt excited but apprenhensive, and kept delaying before I finally rang the number. Nurse told me to hang around at home longer if I could take it. So I laid on the bed while still feeling the contractions.

7.45am Called hospital again. I guess nurse was doubtful cos' she saw my edd was 6 Dec in their records. So she asked if I had taken painkillers, taken a hot bath blah blah. In the end she said I could go to the hospital, but if I was still in the early stage they would ask me to return home again. Well well. We decided to make the trip down. By then, we have packed all the stuff and were ready to go! I can feel jw's excitement too as we drove our way to the hospital.

8.20am We arrived at the hospital and the nurse was ready for us. I could still walk, esp in between contractions. The nurse brought us to a room, measured my blood pressure and it wasn't accurate becos' so qiao I had a contraction then and I realised it made my blood pressure shoot up! Haha. After that, the midwife came in and placed some monitors around my tummy to measure the baby's heartbeat as well as the contractions. Interesting! I could still pose for the camera, as well as helped my hubby to take some pics because he was behaving wacky then, faking he had contractions too. Keke.

9.40am The 'tick' appeared on the screen and we called the midwife in as instructed. She examined my cervix and informed us that I had dilated 2cm. Hmmm. I would have thought it'll be more cos the contractions were less than 5mins apart. 2cm sounded little, but well, at least she said we did not need to go home and could stay in the hospital to wait. Yay. We got a ward of our own as we waited.

10.15am Midwife decided it was time to burst my waterbag to see if it sped up the contractions. It was quite an experience too and the string that she inserted to stick on baby's head really made me feel ticklish. Keke. Jw was abit overwhelmed as he witnessed the whole thing and he took a video! waha. I wonder if he could tahan seeing the birth experience then later.

11.15am Dilation increased slightly to 3cm. Midwife decided to use oxytocin on me to help accelerate the contractins. Well well. I could still watch TV initially without much problem, slowly as the contractions got strong and more often, I had to squeeze a pillow or jw's fingers whenever there was a contraction.

12.00noon At around noon, we shifted to the delivery room. The pain was quite intense already at this point in time. The midwife encouraged me to go to toilet and I had to do so with jw's help, pushing the oxytocin stand with me and enduring a contraction as I was in the loo. I was glad when the midwife brought the gymball, just like the one we have at home. I was also given the option of a standing support with two bars at the front for you to hold on to. The midwife asked, again, if I needed anything to help cope with the pain. I was unsure of how long the labour will be, and told myself to hold on longer before I took any pain reliever.

1.00pm After around one hour, the nurse taught me how to use the laughing gas. I was told by many that it will make me dizzy and even puke. But to admit, I didn't feel dizzy at all. I thought I would feel high and ecstatic, like after drinking alcohol, keke, but neh, it wasn't what I expected, but it did help to make me feel better (perhaps psychologically). So I tried swaying on the gymball side to side and tried standing using the support. Everytime a contraction came, I would grab jw's fingers hard and asked him to breathe with me. Deep breathing. I could hear him chanting "In, Out, In, Out" and it did help to keep my breathing in check.

1.40pm We pushed the button for the midwife to attend to us, because she said we should do so if I felt an urge to push. And gosh at the last contraction I really did! Like there was something pushing down and wanting to come out. An unique first time feeling. Hee. I was thinking, well, seemed like baby was going to come out soon! BUTTTT, guess what, the midwife did a check and I was only dilated 5cm. You can imagine the demoralization jw and I felt. Externally I acted brave, internally I was like "what??? only 5cm?? How long more will it take then??"

2.00pm The midwives changed shift and soon the new midwife and her assistant came in to check on us. I was much in pain then, and honestly at a point in time I wanted to give up. Even jw could tell the intensity of the contractions on the screen and he could see the pain on my face, and for once, he asked if I wanted epidural. HAHA. The hubby who was so against the idea of epidural, actually asked! I guess it made his heart ache to see me in so much agony, and he was also wondering how long more it would take to fully dilate and if I could endure it. I asked the first midwife if I could now take her suggestion of increasing the laughing gas to a higher dosage, but guess what, the new midwife said she thought I shouldn't do so and told me to take a bigger breath instead. She asked if I wanted the next step of pain relief, I asked her what and she said epidural. I was like, sigh, I wanna try again since I'm already halfway there!

3.00pm The next hour was one of the worst I ever had. The pain was intense, the contractions so strong and frequent. The one big motivation that kept me going was the thought of my mum. Whenever I felt the pain setting in, the picture that I took with her in my graduation gown would float across my mind. I wanted to do it for her, for jw, for myself. If mum could do it, so could I! The worst feeling I had was the urge to push in this hour but yet not allowed to because the cervix was not fully open. It's like trying to stop your poo from coming out or trying to swallow your puke in. Haha. Eeeewww. I could feel baby's head already but yet I had to stop it from coming down! It was good I had the gymball, I sat on it for the whole hour, and rocked left and right in btw the contractions. Jw was beside me the whole time and I believed I must have hurt his fingers with my squeezing. Haha. But well, I asked him to punch and push my lower back whenever the contraction came to distract me and I kept asking him to use more strength, thus I think I hurt my back too. HAHA. Anyway at one contraction I really felt like I pushed more than I was allowed to and it set me in panic, and as I breathed in the laughing gas, the tube came out and I still kept breathing into an empty mask, at the same time signalling jw to call for the midwife. She came in, did a check, and she was also surprised to announce that within a short time, I was fully open and could start to push!

3.47pm Everything happened fast after that as the midwife and her assistant prepared the necessities. I was told to lie on the bed sideways to deliver and I held both of jw's hands tightly as I started to push. With every push, I felt abit of baby's head coming out and jw said he could see it! But everytime I stopped pushing as the contaction died, the baby's head went in again. Arrghhhh. At around the 5th contraction, I gathered all my might and pushed hard and I even shouted and screamed because it made me feel better. Wahaha. I was told the baby's head was 3/4 out already and jw told me to jia you and give one final push and she will be out. So I did try but alas the contraction died and as I started to push, the midwife grabbed my hand and told me to stop. Boohoo. Gotta wait for the next one then. Luckily, with the next push, Angel came out head and all. She was born!!!! Yippie yay!!!

Once she was born, she was passed to me and it was such a magical feeling as I held her for the first time. Despite we were both dirty and bloody, it still felt like the best feeling in the world. My baby girl was here with me! I had to ask jw if it was boy or girl when she was out and the nurses were making sure she was okie. Somehow, it made me very happy when he said "A girl!" Hee. We spent the next half an hour singing to Angel as I completed the rest of the labour by pushing out the placenta and letting the midwife stitch me up. Honestly the antiseptic wasn't much help because I could feel it when she stitched me. But well, I didn't really care except for letting out a few "woooos" when it hurt, because I was so engrossed in my baby. And thinking how amazing she just popped from my tummy after 9 months.

I was happy and glad when the ordeal was over, and dear was so proud of me for doing it naturally and not taking epidural as he had wished. Hehe. I was glad too, because I was still energetic and active after the labour, chatting with the midwife assistant and gobbling down my dinner. =) Sleepy, yeah of cos because I hadn't slept since 1am, but more excited and elated than anything else.

Well, we now have a family of three! Angel daddy, Angel mummy, and baby Angel. She's such a darling to look at (I guess every baby is!) and jw and I just wanna love her and protect her for the rest of our lives. Seeing the tiny and fragile her now, I finally know how it feels like to be a mummy. Ma ma zhen wei da!!

And dear little Angel weighed 2.97kg at birth, so qiao it was the date that jw and I got together 6 years ago as well as the date when we got engaged on Eiffel tower. 29th July!

For the next three days of our stay in the hospital, we learnt to get used to baby angel, to bond with her, to take care of her, to understand what she wants, to realise what she likes and dislikes. It's the start of a discovery journey for us! Poor jw had to make trips to and fro home to take our meals, had to help to change diapers, to coax baby to sleep. He really looked tired too! Haha. That's always the case with new daddys, right? And for me, I had to learn to breastfeed, learn to change diapers too, and learn more about my baby's needs and wants. I was glad for these three days of undisturbed, quality family time together, just daddy, mummy and baby. We also brought Angel for a series of checkups and it pained our hearts whenever she started bawling like no tomorrow and her lips would quiver. It also made us lost and confused when we realised we didn't know how to burp her properly or change her diaper properly and made her suffer as a result. Lousy us! But well, we are learning fast and well now!

Now that Angel is home, we are trying to get used to her and get her used to us and her surroundings. She's a sweet little darling most of the time, and I'm really looking forward to spending every single day with her. I'm starting to miss her if I don't see her for a few hours! Hee. And daddy loves to carry her and kiss her and sayang her and I'm sure he will dote on her lots like how he dotes on me!