I am a tough cookie – Part 2 (giving birth)

Part One nochet come.

14 years ago…

I was pregnant with my second son.  My eldest was 2 and a half years old.  I got contractions and know that I am due to deliver.  My eldest son was delivered by caesarean because he was too big, at 9 lbs 1 oz or 4.1kg.  I stayed in Bukit Jambul and the hubby has gone to work.

So, with a contractions that is like 20-30 minutes apart, I drove my eldest son and I to my sister’s house in Sungai Nibong where my mom stayed.  Usually, when I go to work, we will drop the eldest son there every morning.  Over there, my sister was frying Malay beehoon.  Me, being the kaypoh of all, volunteered to fry the beehoon for her because hey, I am the better cook, ok?

Midway while I was frying the beehoon (which is a huge wok of noodles), I felt some bleeding.  After checking, yeah, I got the show.  This is another sign of labour.  But heh, I told my sister to ‘Let’s finish cooking first’.  Then, only she drove me to the hospital.

The dear hubby worked in Kulim, Kedah which is 60  minutes away.  He couldn’t just run off because he expected a long weekend (due to Merdeka holiday and paternity leaves).  After I reached the hospital, I told my sister to wait for me to get back my IC.  I went there with only my IC (or maybe credit or cash deposit, I can’t remember).  So, there, due to give birth but still can drive and cook.

To cut a long, gory and dramatic story short, I delivered by VBAC, i.e. vaginal birth after caesarean.  I reached the hospital around 2pm noon but only delivered the next morning around 9am.  It was a loooong labour.  Lucky this second son was only 3.85 kg, i.e almost 8 lbs.  The reason was because I was watching my food intake so that I get a smaller baby. I wanted a VBAC because there is no experience like pooooting out a human baby through your pet-pet. LOL.

My ob-gynae and his very experienced nurse told me “Lilian, I guarantee this is a girl.”  The nurse said, “Kau sap pat siin (90%) hai lui lei keh (is a girl)”.  So, I bought everything pink.  Pink bath basin, pink dress, pink beddings, pink clothes, pink towel, pink……LOL, I  even fixed a girl’s name, i.e Loh Ling Poh (ptuiii…what a horrible name chosen by the fengshui master employed by my in-laws).  So, when I got a baby boy, I messed up his name.  He should have been named Loh Yet Hoe (blek) but I goofed up with another name.  (see my baby’s name selection here)

Oh ya, of all the five sons, this #2 son’s birth is the only one witnessed by his papa  The other three were delivered by caesareans (he is not allowed in the OT)  and one more was delivered too fast so the father missed the important event.  The poor man got cussed, scolded and both his upper armed bruised because I held on too tight when I was pushing.  Haih…the fun of giving birth.

Question – To the Dads – Do you dare to witness your baby’s birth?

To the moms – Do you find your husband annoying and pesky in the labour and delivery room?  Hahaha.

26 thoughts on “I am a tough cookie – Part 2 (giving birth)

  1. Hahaaha you still remember! lol

    YOu know, I’ve heard men said they do not wish to witness child birth. Why? Because it’ll seriously affect their future sexual performance wor… 😛

  2. LOL!

    Yessss! Husbands a ARE annoying in the labour room. We are in so much pain and they keep asking silly questions like, are you ok? DUH!
    Then they tell US to hurry up coz they are getting tired holding our hand. When the time comes to push, HELLO, you are supposed to be holding me up but NOOO, he cabut to be rigth next to the Dr to see the baby coming out. AWESOME!

  3. No different when they are there. My hubby just help me to wipe my sweat on the forehead. He’s to scare to even move an inch. But, but, my first birth, he drop the tears of joy after seeing the baby was out. So touching!

  4. How I wish my husband will go into labour room with me when I happen to deliver. But hor, old people always said that it’s pantang for a man to go into labour room. Very swey. How true it’s? i’m just afraid my in-laws would be so conservative that they actually will advice my husband to stay out rather to stay IN. Do you believe the ‘swey-ing’ part, Lilian? haha

  5. My hubby was in the labour room with me. I asked him to stay. Mana aci, buat anak sama – sama beranak I satu orang.
    I agree with u Hijackqueen, no different when they are there. But it was a very precious moment when I saw my hubby holding our baby for the first time…

  6. hubby was in the labor room with me but he don dare to see the baby comin out. For us, it wasn’t me holding his hand too tight but he holding my arm too tight until i kebas…LOL.Guess that’s his way of showing support.

  7. err…..my hubby oso a dr..so no difference for me la…he didn’t even hold my hand..he was just there…checking if the gynae do everything right..DUHH…but i will trade anything to see the expression on his face…when he wiped clean the amniotic fliud fr my girl’s face…he was beaming..almost tearing..aww……then he quickly came n reported to me i got a 1st degree tear…aiyoyo..dem paiseh…

  8. Don’t know yet – just married now so baby should be in next year or two. But hubby being there is useful – someone to scratch, scream, cuss and bruise because you’re having too much fun and you wanna share too! *LOL*

  9. Apparently, my dad wanted to be in the delivery room with my mum when she gave birth to me. Unfortunately, he never had the chance to do so coz he passed away in an air crash 2 months before I was born. I’ve always think that he’ll be super excited to be there to see my mum give birth to me should he be alive. 🙂

  10. My hub was there..all the way..sort of. First birth, he slept mostly throughout my labour,but managed to wake up in time to see the baby coming out and cut the cord. Second birth (c-sect), was there, but eyes focused on me. He was too scared to see me cut up. HAHAHAHAHA!

  11. My first daughter I can’t reason because week before I was hospitalize from dengue fever, too weak to be with my wife.

    My 2nd son , I was well prepare and ready this time, even ready to tape it but my wife was crying of pain so I just forgo the idea of taping and lend my support to my wife during the “PUSH PUSH MOMENT”. After the delivery only I did the taping.

    The feeling inside the labour room with my wife and witnesing my newborn son is just amazing and money cannot buy

    My suggestion to all daddy, don’t miss this golden moment, not only create a special kind of bonding with the baby, the wife really need the husband around for the support.

  12. my hubby was there with me. He did what he can help me to push the baby out faster in the labour room, like his hand supporting my head, support the pushing and look at me and check the baby in n out. What so annoying was during the contration pain time. The longer he wait he more he mumbling there why u take so long.. not patient to wait anymore..haha…anyway he told me that the feel was so touch the moment baby out…encourage all dad-to-be be wit ur wife in the L&D room. Mostly my friends who delivered also hav hubby by their side. Just remember dun disturb the doc when pushing time.

  13. Mine was a c-section.. but i still wanted Papa BoK to be with me.. 😉 if he didn’t go into the OT with me.. you can be sure.. he will not live to see tomorrow.. hahahhahaha!!

  14. When I was in labour, I was quiet trying to “tahan” the pain lar, didn’t even respond to what my hubby asked me, he commented that I was so stuck up then, didn’t want to talk to him. Like bakerina’s hubby, when the baby was coming out, he cabut to be right next to the dr to see the baby coming out. I could see tears in his eyes when the baby came out! The birth was forcep assisted bcos I was not able to push him out by myself and hubby actually commented that I didn’t push correctly as if he has had experience giving birth!

  15. My husband tried to act so cool. First son, no problem but he is really annoying. Feel like tumbuk him. Second one, he was in the room with me. But no where near becuase he knows that I’m very violent and not got for him. But unfortunately, during my second birth, my placenta got stuck to my uterus. So the Doctor have to korek my tummy. While doing that, my doctor was explainig it to him, and my dr. hand was full of blood. My husband looked as if he’s going to faint. So pelik one….

  16. Aiyoo… I’m from Sungai Nibong too… What a small world… A small village opposite of Masjid Sungai Nibong. My house situated at centre of the kampung. My parents still live there. 😉

    My husband only witnessed the birth of our second son recently as on 1 Jan 2006 :). My first one (boy) had to be vacuumed. What an experience, kan? *wink*

  17. Not married so dont know..but I think I wouldn’t mind witnessing it…I think..will keep u posted if and when I do have a chance for this great event

  18. I was in the labour room with my wife but the doctor and nurses saved me from a lot of pain (though i was ready for it)! They have these padded vertical bars attached to the labour bed so they asked my wife to hold onto those instead of me! YAY! Imagine, i had one hand sending/replying SMS, another hand taking photos with my huge camera and talking to my wife. Who says a man can’t multi-task! *blek!*

    Also, the nurse told me not to touch my wife as she’s very sensitive/touchy at that point in time.

  19. Wuah….so many feedbacks. Thanks to all the moms there, now I feel so ‘normal’ for the unexplainable aggresiveness when on the delivery table. Hahaha.

    piggy – Sorry to hear about that. I am sure he is watching you from above.

    helen – Ya, an ob-gyn told me ‘secretly’ that men did get problems like temporary impotence. Hahaha, I don’t know if they recovered after that or not. Poor guys.

    #6 lady – Well, it is a matter between your hubby and you and how important his presence is to you. I suppose he would dropped everything and be with you and not held back by some old pantang-larang. After all, if there is anyone who is going to be so suey, then all ob-gynaes will kena. LOL, but they are the richest doctors wor.

  20. My husband was there for both births. He got to cut the umbilical cord for #1. I will never forget how he cried when he saw her, and how protective he was of both as soon as they came out.

  21. I was there for my daughters birth. In fact I whatched from the pet-pet end of things. My daughters head come out one side of the skull then the other side. The skull was like over lapping then after the top end of the skull cam out the two sides popped together to form the whole skull… I remember we were chatting. Mama, the specialist and I were chatting coz she got an epidural so apparently practically no pain (I wouldn’t know). Only some pain during pushing. I helped by telling Mama when to push as indicated by the machine (I can’t remember the name). The numbers rise a bit when the contractions come. Because of epidural she couldn’t feel the contractions properly. My daughter was 3.3kg at 45cm.

Comments are closed.