Well, Sarah arrived after just 3 hours of labour, though technically speaking, wifey didn't really think she was in labour for 3/4 of that time. Wife had thought it was braxton hicks contractions for the 1st 2 hrs, only agreeing to go to the hospital cos she couldn't bear with the "braxton hicks contractions" anymore and wanted to get epidural to relieve the pain against these "fake" contractions.
Arriving at the hospital at 9.30am, was promptly told that she can't have epidural anymore cos she is 90% dilated and will be delivering in 1/2 hrs time. Sarah Lee came out in a flash (in my eyes, wife may beg to differ, considering the amount of pain and pushing she had to do) and came out screaming and kicking at 1022am. Kudos to wife for being able to go through the full labour with no epidural, no artificial assistance, not even needing to change into hospital clothes :).
Here's the 1st few photos of Sarah Lee, her eyes opened within the 1st 5 mins.
Wife did such fantastic job at such a fast pace that she looked perfectly normal after the delivery. I was commenting to her that she looked like she was the night before :) We even took a photo of ourselves after the delivery :)
Well, Sarah having been pretty vocal when she first came out, probably tired herself out and was totally knocked out over the next 1/2 day.
All this while, gor-gor Caleb had been at home playing with grandpa but joined us that afternoon and slept over together with me, mummy and Sarah in the hospital. Well, he couldn't really get use to the hospital bed and I had quite an "interesting" 2 nights sleeping with him. Here's him after the fact, eating breakfast happily.
Here's Mummy and Sarah on the way home today!
Yee yee was nice to us and came over to our house to cook lunch and dinner for us today as we checked out. We even made her take a photo of the newest look of FamiLEE before she started cooking :)
Finally and most importantly, I must say that all these that you've read in the above had truly been well planned by God. We had prayed that
(a) Sarah's delivery timing will be good
(b) the delivery will be quick
(c) the delivery will be natural, without even needing the use of epidural
(d) Sarah will not be in distress in any way
and God answered every single of those prayers in a manner that is so unimaginable.
The timing was so perfect that we were able to
- say goodbye to Caleb in the morning, telling him that Mei Mei is coming out soon
- drive to the hospital quickly as there was no traffic on a Sunday
- get a parking lot in the hospital (the hospital is notorious for poor parking facilities)
The delivery was so fast that wife didn't even get the opportunity to change into the hospital clothes.
The delivery was natural, without epidural, even though wifey was screaming for it entering the hospital. In fact, the very fact that she had thought the contractions were braxton hicks helped her to go through the contractions thinking each was the last even though they were very very painful (I can tell from the strength of her hands squeezing my arms and the marks that were left behind after that).
Sarah was not in distress in any way at all and even manage to suckle for milk a full 1/2 hr after the delivery.
Indeed, God is such a wonderful and meticulous planner. We need not worry, we just need to abide.
