My Birth Experience of Jordan Lu

Finally I have some time to sit down and write this before I forget all the details. On 9 March 2012, at around 4am I awoken to slight contraction, initially I wondered if it was contraction pain at all because I was still in a dreamy mood. Then, after confirming, I quickly woke up and started timing my contractions. I found an app on the iPhone that is free and does the work great (review later). I put my phone to charge and jumped up everytime I get the contraction and initially it was like 7 minutes apart, which is actually quite close. I thought I was gonna give birth anytime soon, so I told John who started preparing the baby bag to put in the car. Well then we waited and I tried to rest some more. Morning came and we went to have breakfast at Subway, I just wanted to have that before delivery haha. Then I went home and cut up some cloth for my baby wet wipes as I won’t be able to do it after delivery. We even found time to go out to find some sewing shops to do the finishing on the cloth, finally found the shop that did 20 pieces of cloth for RM10.

Then I got home to rest, still timing the contraction. It still wasn’t close enough, my sis in law said it need to be about 2-3 contractions within 10 min to count as labour starting soon. I had no show or water break so far. Then around 2pm, I decided we should go to Kajang Hospital already. So, finally we checked in at the labour ward. I was quite nervous about what the ward is going to be like after all the horror stories I read. We registered and the nurses all had wide smiles and were very nice. But the place is worn down and I was asked to lie down on a makeshift bed that is not even in a room but a corner of the living room of the labour ward. There was just a curtain to cover and a partition to separate another bed.

I was then strapped to the machine to monitor the heartbeat and contraction of the baby

After some time, a doc came to ask me lots of questions and then another lady doc came to check the dilation. She couldn’t seem to find it and got a nurse to do it instead. At that time, I was only 2cm. Another doc came and asked if I wanted to go home to rest first or check into the ward. I chose to go home, but later she wanted to do a scan. So I was moved to another room with an ultrasound machine and after some more waiting, the doc came to give me a scan. She took a really long time somehow, like half an hour. Next to me was a lady in so much pain who kept groaning. Hhm. By 5pm, the doc decided that I should just check in the ward, so I thought fine. John finally came in from waiting outside in the hot sun to register me for the ward.

I was brought to my bed which is quite depressing, as it was a floor bed in the hallway. It seems all the rooms are full and all the pre-natal cases are just put on the hallway beds. I just lie down to rest and this time my contraction was getting a little closer and stronger, like 3 min apart. I still managed to take my dinner first taken from home. I was just chatting to John and telling him that my contraction is so near that I think I might give birth on this bed anytime soon. We alerted the nurses a few times but was asked to wait to check the dilation. Finally suddenly, I felt the contraction pain change to something strong and bearing down. I quickly ask John to alert the nurse again. At that time it was nearly 6.30pm. So a nurse came and I got into the ultrasound room earlier to check the dilation, and lo and behold she said it’s 5cm already and I should enter the labour ward. Finally the moment has come. So I was asked to get my stuffs, baby clothes, a napkin, a swaddle cloth and a diaper. Here at Kajang Hospital, we don’t have to provide the lotion, shampoo etc like in Putrajaya Hospital.

So I took my stuffs and followed the nurse to the labour ward, at that time my contraction was getting really strong, so strong I had to stop midway while walking a few times. I got to the room and it was a four bedded ward. One bed had a mother who just gave birth, while in front of me, there were two in active labour. Yes I can just see them like that coz the curtains were not closed completely! So I climbed on one bed and was put on the ECG machine again. I looked at the clock and told Jordan he better come out before 7.30pm.

At that time I saw the nurses and docs busy attending to another patient in front of me but no one attended to me. I tried to endure the pain as much as possible, it was terribly painful this time because there were no painkillers, no gas whatsoever. Finally when the pain became unbearable, I realise I have to shout to get the nurses’ attention. I told them, “Saya terasa nak teran”, that is like their term for the feeling of something going to come out from down there. Then only did the nurse started calling other nurses to come and check on me. The doc came and I asked her why nobody break my water, coz last time they break my water immediately. Maybe it’s different for the 2nd child? So the doc checked my dilation and said, oh it’s already 10cm. She then break my water and got me ready to push. It’s like immediately I can push the baby out already.

So they pull out two gear sticks from below the bed that I have to hold on when I want to push. I can only push at the peak of the contraction. So when I was ready, I will tell them and they will start encouraging me to push. Unlike my previous experience, the nurses and doc here are super encouraging. They kept telling me just a little bit more, you’re doing a good job etc. That time it was past 7.30pm and I pushed a few times to no avail. It was really energy consuming, I was glad I ate quite a lot throughout that day.

Finally I told the doc I need someone to hold me neck as I couldn’t hold it up anymore. They told me that I don’t have to pull up my whole body when pushing but just lift up the head only and to concentrate my pushing energy below rather than on my face. Apparently I had been pushing with my face? So finally I knew the right technique and tried pushing again. Lo and behold Jordan came out at 7.50pm, it was like only an hour of active labour that felt like eternity. Immediately, they placed Jordan on my chest and asked me to lift up my shirt. They said it’s important to have immediate skin to skin contact for a few minutes. Wow I looked straight at Jordan covered in blood and he looked straight at me with open eyes. Then they told me he was born with the cord around his neck so now they need to take him away for some oxygen. I was so relieved coz all the pain was gone. Of coz, now came the pain of stitching me up and the worse pain being when they press me down so hard to remove the excess blood. But I guess that was all necessary.

So I waited and rested on the bed and it was more than 1 hour before Jordan came back to me. I was quite anxious as I wanted to nurse him immediately. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to do it as I was about to nurse, I had to get up and get into the postnanal ward already.

And there he was, Jordan Lu Yew Jie born 9 March 2012 7.50pm at 3.4kg. Covered in sweat, I took him and was put on a wheel chair to be sent to the ward. They would normally wheel the mother and baby out to the lobby for the father to see, but I had asked John to go home as he had to take care of Josiah. So John didn’t get to see Jordan being born and his first day. I just went to the ward, which was supposedly a 1st class room converted to have 3 patients inside, so you can imagine, it was really tight. We have to push each other’s baby cot around just to get to the washroom. I spent the night there, all sweaty and hot, by the way the air cond wasn’t working at the labour ward. I laid Jordan next to me throughout the night to nurse. In the middle of the night, he spit out milk and I saw myconium stain, so I alerted the nurse who took him away to do more suction, just in case.

By the next morning, the specialist came to check on him and I was discharged by 3pm. So that’s the birth story of Jordan Lu. Kajang Hospital is not as bad as one can imagine, it is only the facilities that are run down as they are doing renovation on the hospital, so there is at the time now no 1st, 2nd or 3rd class like other hospitals. But it was dirt cheap, RM48 is all we paid for the delivery. I am quite satisfied with it, much much more than at Putrajaya hospital as the staffs and nurses and docs are all super nice.