Belabor Me

I now understand why they call it labor. Or why we use the phrase "labor pains" to refer to some difficulty encountered when trying out something new. 

Because it is indeed painful! 

We had been waiting and waiting weeks prior to Camille's due date.  Hoping that she would start her contractions and give birth before her due date.  But no, the baby wanted to come out in his own time.  Due date was April 6/7.  But he refused to budge.  We thought maybe he wanted to come out on April 9, the National Day of Valor or Araw ng Kagitingan.  Wala pa rin. Sinimulan na namin ang novena kay St. Therese of Lisieux.

Then on the evening of April 10, Camile went to the hospital to have herself checked for a suspected leak.  It turned out that while she was starting to have contractions, the main water bag was still intact and it was only the fore bag that had ruptured.  So we went home.  By 1130pm, the contractions started to become more intense.  Intervals of 7 minutes all the way up to the following day.  I was actually catching up on facebook between her contractions since I couldn't get any sleep anyway. 

We decided to go back to the hospital the following day before 9am.  Camille felt the pain.  When we got to the birthing room, the doctor said she was only at 2cm.  But she was in pain.  So we moved to a regular room and wait it out. 

It was time to apply all those techniques we learned in birthing class. Use a tennis ball to massage her lower back! Swing your hips as you're standing!  Sit on the birthing ball! Massage her back! Cleansing breath! Breathe! Focus on something other than your pain! Offer  your pain! We were fortunate to have 20 hours of doing that every 10 minutes. 

Camille couldn't eat. Camille couldn't drink. She felt nauseous.  She finally agreed to take Demerol by noontime but it didn't really help much.  Whenever she was hooked to fetal monitor for testing, her contraction intensity was off the chart despite the fact that she continued to be at just 2cm. 

This was all Camille's pain. And all I could do was just be there and do whatever she wanted me to do. 

By 6-630 pm, she progressed to 5cm and the doctor gave the go-ahead for epidural to relieve her of the pain. 

So the contractions, effacement, dilation continued to progress until 10cm at past 11.  It was time to push. Three times but it was not going to be possible.  The baby kept getting stuck and couldn't really go out. 

Dra Henson sadly advises us that she will have to do a CS.  I was just dumbfounded.  After 26 hours, Camille was not going to have a vaginal delivery.  She was going under the knife.  But  Camille just kept her cool and calmly said, "OK."

That moment was my most humbling moment.  I had a newfound respect for mothers. And particularly for my wife.  I never underestimated her resolve.  I had faith that God would pull us through.  But I never expected the calm and collected reply despite everything.  And I said to myself, I owe it to her to be even stronger.  I owe it to her to be even more present and supportive.  That is what gave me the strength to watch the operation. 

Oh and yeah, seeing my son being raised up and hearing his first cry was such a major bonus.