I know some birth stories can be long and winding so I will try to spare you with the boring bits and will just try to put the essential part of our son Zech's birth story for our families and friends who may be interested on how things went thru leading to the anticipated birth....

16 March 2008 (Sunday)

I was already 2 days overdue at this day. I woke up around 7.30am to prepare our brekky so that we can attend our Sunday service. Around 8am, I felt some gushing down there though no pain. I went to the loo to check and as expected, there was the so called bloody show (see post previously). Woke Mr K to let him know what was happening and he asked me if im feeling ok. I said yes, but inside me im anxious and excited and scared at the same time as I know it wont be long till bubba will have his appearance. We still went on doing what we need to do. We had a visit to the hospital in the afternoon of this same day as the bleeding is not ceasing and the midwife just wants to see how im progressing. Everything is still ok so we were sent home. Mr K went to work and I did my usual tasks ( I believe I even made an entry to this blog that afternoon)

17 March 2008 (Monday)

Around 3am, I was awoken by some pains more than the usual that I am feeling. I tried timing it, its every 10mins. Its still bearable and I can still do what I normally do, its just abit more uncomfortable at this stage. After sending the littlemissy to school, I told Mr K that I want to get out of the house and so something more productive. So we went to do our banking that day, did some shopping at McArthur Square and even managed to have a lunch date together at this Thai Splendid. We had like 3-4 hrs of good walking that by the time we got home, I plonked to bed.

Come dinner time, the pain was getting intense and thought the intervals were getting short. I timed it again, this time, they are coming at 5minutes apart. Mr K jumped on contingency #1 and asked littlemissy after dinner to prepare her clothes and other stuff just in case we need to go to the hospital in the evening, we will just have to drop her off to one of our friends who kindly voluntered to look after her.

I was in this hot relaxing bath for a good hour around 10 - 11pm as the nurse recommended this to ease the pain. I said to mr K to head to bed as there was nothing much we can do at this stage but wait and if there was anything significant or if I cant bear it anymore, then I will definitely let him know. So while the K household was sound asleep Ion the other hand was pacing up and down from our room to the lounge room to the kitchen while panthing during the uncomfortable contractions. I have seen the late shows and all the paid ad home tv shopping things already. This continued until 5am the following day.

18 March 2008 (Tuesday)

By 5am, I can no longer bear the pain so I woke Mr K up and in an instant was already up and about. Fifteen minutes later and we were all heading out the door. Another five minutes and mr K was already knocking on our friend's house. By 5.30am, we were already in the emergency department waiting for someone to bring us to the delivery suite.

By 6am I was placed in my bed and was examined. I was only 1cm dilated. When I heard this, I thought, this pain is only at that stage? I was given the gas to relieve the pain which helped abit. By 11am, I was examined again and was measured to be 4cm. I was delighted to hear it as I said to myself, we were nearly the half mark soon. By 1pm, I am having the urge to push already everytime the peak of the contractions would come. The nurse/midwife came to measure me again. She said 3cm dilated - to which I asked if im going backward as it was already 4cm awhile ago. She said its a stretched from 3-4cm. Mr K was very supportive of me and my pain from the beginning and have never forgotten to remind me to breath thru the pain but when I started pushing while bearing the pain, thats when he became assertive but all I can say was that Im trying to breathe thru the pain but I cant help having this involuntary pushing.

The nurse then said that the baby is engaged and ready to come thats causing the involuntary pushing but my cervix was not dilating as fast as they hope it would. By 4.30pm my water was broken hoping things would speed up that way. They observed me and gave me Pethadene after that to help me cope with the pain which was becoming unbearable due to my cervix apparently being swollen by now due to the involuntary pushing.

By 7pm I heard the nurse and Mr K talking that if within then night, nothing significant will happened then they are looking at an emergency CS. By 9.30pm I was administered the Epidural --- whew that was so much better - I can still feel the contractions but only as a pressure and nothing else. They checked me again - still no changes.

By midnight, they all have decided that CS was the way to go as I did not progressed since the morning. After much deliberation about the blood issue (due to our belief as Jehovah's Witnesses) I was wheelled in the operathing theatre by 1am.

19 March 2008 (Wednesday)

A 1.17am, I heard the best sound ever, the cry of our son. He was healthy and alert and was so perfect. Everything lese was a blur after that as all I wanted to do was have a cuddle with my li'l man but I was left in the theatre while mr K went with bub. An excellent score of 9 was esablished at 1 minute and 5 minutes respectively.

It was a long ordeal but it was all worth it when I look at the face of this lovely li'l man.