The arrival

I woke up, felt funny. A very strange sensation in my lower abdomen. Felt like a period cramp, but a mild one. Looked at my phone, it was 3:20am. Then the cramp went away, I fell back to sleep.

Then the cramp came again. It was 3:40am. And went away. Went to the loo, a bit more blood strands but nothing major. I went back to sleep again.

3:55am, 4:10am, 4:30am... The cramps were tolerable, but I was thinking, could they be the contractions? Woke hubby up (as if he knew what contractions were, haha!). We decided to give birth suite a ring. The midwife asked if I could still take the pain, to which I said yes. The cramps were mild anyway. So she advised me to use heat packs, maybe take a shower, and take some simple analgesia, but to keep monitoring.

Then the cramps became more frequent. From every 15-20minutes to every 10 minutes, then to every 5 minutes. By then it was 10am, mom made me breakfast but I didn't have much appetite to eat, mind was pretty occupied by the cramps. So I just had a piece of biscuit and water. Rang birth suite, then headed off to hospital. Gave mom my extra SIM card so she could call us (and later realised there was no credit in that card! >.< so much about planning eh!)

On the way to hospital, cramps were getting more and more frequent. Hubby was excited, but there I was asking him to drive slower as any slightest hump and bump of the car would make the cramp worse.

By the time we arrived at hospital, cramps were 3 minutes apart. Walking from the car park to the birth suite was a bit of a mission, stopped over 3-4 times, but managed to make it to the birth suite safely.

Our midwife examined me, 5cm dilated. Hmm still a while away. She asked me if I needed epidural at the point, I said I'll let her know when I need it. Then she gave us a huge yoga ball, and taught me to sit on it to relieve pain. That really helped, together with hubby's crooked sense of humour, I was actually laughing my arses off most of the time.

Then at 1pm, midwife examined me again, I was 7cm dilated. Dr. P came, and they decided to break my water. A gush of warm water was felt, and the cramps got even stronger and more frequent. I was given Entonox. Midwife asked me again if I needed epidural, and I said I can still wait. Then they said that was probably the most painful it could get - so I thought to myself, if that's the case, don't think will need any epidural then! Plus Entonox really did wonders anyway (and hubby's crooked sense of humour)

2 hours later, I suddenly felt a strange urge of pushing. They examined me - 10cm dilated. There I was screaming my lungs out, but was told not to scream as it's not gonna help with the pushing. At that point, I had no control over myself at all, just did what I was told.

Those several pushes seemed forever (although later was told that the pushes were quite effective so didn't take very long) and finally, E made her grand arrival, screaming.

That was the most wonderful music to our ears!