From a father / husband's point of view...

I guess many may ask what I felt in the delivery room? Well, it was a mixture of feelings. Seeing Shirl going through pain at the beginning made me very uneasy. Of course I tried to make things as easy as possible for her. I was relieved when she asked for the epidural because then I knew she would probably feel better later... which of course she did. Could smile for some photos!

Then it was a waiting game. I was restless after a while. I started to pace around the room. The nurses came in periodically to check on Shirl. They told us that it would take some time for the baby to come, so Shirl and I decided that I should go eat downstairs. Managed to update a few more friends when I was at the cafe.

Coming back up, I met the doc. He said by 2pm we should see the baby. Boy was I excited then. But we waited till about 4.15pm. By that time, I was getting a little tired from walking around the room and outside. Then the doc appeared to deliver the baby. Well, that was when I really felt a little lost. I held Shirl's hand and with me whispering into Shirl's ear and the encouragement from the nurses and the doc, she pushed and pushed and pushed. Well, the baby came out silently after about 20min or so. It happened so fast..... I was like huh?! Then everything went fast.... nurses cleaned him up, doc stiching and cleaning shirl up. I was like... ok what do I do now? After wrapping the baby up, the nurse dumped Nathaniel into my arms. I was like... ok....then brought it over to Shirl. Shirl looked at him, smiled and then went into recovery mode. I placed Nathaniel down and was stuck in between shirl and Nathaniel not knowing what to do. Imagine that..... not sure what to do??? I was happy of course that both were fine, but its just strange. Everyone left the room except the 3 of us. Shirl was shivering because of the epidural and slept. Nathaniel was like wondering what happened, and I in the middle, blur like sotong. Well, of course things went normal after a while. They wheeled Shirl and Nathaniel to our room, with my family and Shirl's mum and sister in tow.

A working Monday it was...till....

I woke up at 6.15am on Monday (19 Sep 2005) as usual and got into the shower. I came out and was about to reach out for my work clothes, when Shirl showed me her discharge. It was blood. I got a fright..... of course not showing it. But it was a good thing I was just reading the notes out loud the night before about "show". I told myself... now that is "show". I then started to change to jeans, because hey.... we will definitely be going to the doc. We started to do our last minute packing of both our hospital bags. The doc called Shirl at 6.30am or so. After describing to him what she found, he told her to come to his clinic at 9.30am. So we had time to kill. I suggested eating at Macs. We did just that at Great World City. I had an event that coming weekend and I had to do some delegation work before we went to the clinic. After doing that at work, I rushed down to Macs to get Shirl to the clinic by 9.30am. By that time, and way before that already, Shirl was in pain. She could still walk to the clinic man! Doc saw her, she told him about the regular contractions. He checked her and said.... definitely in labour AND that she was already 3cm dilated! He told us to make our way to the labour ward. I then drove her to Mt. Alvernia. I managed to send off a few messages to family and friends about the labour. When we finally got her into delivery suite 9, she was already 6am dilated. This was about 10.30 to 11am. She asked for epidural because she felt that she could not take the pain any longer. The anaesthetist came and gave it to her saying that it was almost too late. Well, the epidural was great. You could see smiles from Shirl now.



At about 12.15pm, the doc arrived. He broke the water bag and said that she was fully dilated. The baby could come anytime! He estimated by 2pm. But he did not appear. We waited till about 4.10pm before the doc appeared again and said, let's deliver! It was over by 4.38pm, after quite a bit of pushing and encouragement from all parties. Of course the nurses were very vocal. At 4.38pm, little Nathaniel Isaac Lim was welcomed to the world. He cried almost immediately. The umbilical cord was cut by the doc and a quick clean was done. He was then measured. He was 2.98kg, 50cm in length and 33cm in head circumference.



Shirl was finally wheeled into our room at Mt. Alvernia after she was recovering in the delivery suite for almost an houor or so. Our room was located at St. Raphael's Ward, St. Bernadette Room, Room no. 351. She was tired but happy to have Nathaniel at last!

Oh... one of our regular visits

Friday 17th September, it was a regular check at the Obstetrician. Shirl was now 37 weeks (term by definition, and she could deliver anytime from now onwards). Doc felt her tummy as usual and measured it as well. Said it was on track. He said unlikely to deliver so soon. Oh well..... its a waiting game.

And before I go on, we attended an antenatal class at Mt Alvernia. And I have to say it sure helps you be prepared on what to expect. I was always meaning to revise what we learnt, especially about the breathing at labour and all that, but I managed to do that in time. Thank goodness.

Shirl had quite bad water retention at times and had pains at her pelvic area on the side too. She walked slowly and I felt for her man. I was hoping for the little one to come out for Shirl to feel better soon.

The infection won't go away!

You can imagine Shirl going crazy about this cheesy discharge. I was affected too, but I managed to be a "cool customer". I was getting a little doubtful about the infection.

On the 2nd September, we went to the clinic for yet another visit. This time, doc ordered another culture as Shirl was still talking about the discharge. Guess what.... when we came back the following week on the 8th September (visits were now weekly), there was no growth in the culture...... GOOD NEWS!! NO MORE INFECTION..... but the chees was still there! My wife is special... she defies all the books that talk about a cheesy discharge!

Oh yes, from now onwards, no more printed scans..... We did not demand them anymore.

August... an eventful month

I was at a retreat when this happened. Shirl was at home and found a streak of blood in her discharge. I got a call and sensing a need to come home, I did just that. When we finally got hold of the Obstetrician, he told us to monitor and to come in to see him the next day.... 1 Aug 2005 (Monday). After a night of worrying, we made it to the clinic the next day. A culture was done and it was found that Shirl had a fungal infection. If not controlled properly, there might have been a risk of pre-term labour. Shirl was paranoid and wanted to get this healed as fast as she could. An antifungal medication was prescribed. And we continued to monitor.

On the 12th of August, we went back to the clinic and Shirl told doc that she still had the cheesy discharge. She was advised to watch her sugar and carbohydrate intake.

On the 23 August, after complaining of the cheesy discharge, Shirl was given another antifungal.... in the meantime...... this was the scan for the 23 August....



Notice the square jaw again and look how big he is becoming!

Guess what we saw in July...

Wow...... this was exciting. Of course Shirl was already sensing movement early in pregnancy, but for me.... well.... it was kinda fun to see something moving under Shirl's skin atthe tummy area. Well, check out this scan taken at the O&G clinic on 11 July 2005.

When I first saw the scan, I was telling Shirl.... "hey! he has my square jaw! just look at that!!" :)

A stressful month May was

The month of April, May, June were relatively stressful as we were doing some work to our new place at Whitewater. Meeting designers and all. Finally finding one, starting the work and looking for furniture was just time consuming. But we managed to get everything done and moved in by the end of May. Now we just had to look forward to having our little one.

Its May 2005!

Time sure passes quickly. And the date is 19 May 2005. We are back at Thomson Medical Centre for the detailed scan at the fetal assessment unit.

As the radiographer was doing the scan, she was saying.... ok here is the lips, the abdomen, the femur. All we saw were black and white. BUT... we could see the spine. Then the question about gender.... here were some of the results:

EDD by ultrasound: 7 October 2005
Head circumference: 167.0mm
Femur Length: 31.1mm
Humerus: 30.6mm
Cisterna Magna: 4.5mm
Genitalia: Male

So small everything was.... so small and it will continue to GROW, GROW, GROW!

OH YA.... there were a few scans.... see if you can tell what is what!

And the blood test was normal too for Mum.

In April 2005

Well, this scan was from the April visit to the Obstetrician. Now we see the head and all that but we were still clueless about the gender. We were told that Shirl would have to do a more detailed scan in May (our next visit) and a blood test.

Oh yes...... I don't really remember when we told our parents about the pregnancy, but I think it was in March. Well, my dad was quite cool about it (though I think he would have been jumping for joy... for those who witnessed my wedding banquet last year, dad expressed his suggestion to the whole world that Shirl and I should be aiming for 8 children as the Chinese say 8 is a good number).

One month later...the second visit....

Shirl and I were then deciding on whether we would continue with the first Obstetrician we saw. We were lucky to speak to one of Shirl's friends who said she was using a doc from Thomson Medical Centre. I then realised by his surname, he would be somehow related to two of my Dad's partners. He was indeed related to them. He was a brother of one and a cousin to the other. He went to the same church at St. Iggies. So we decided to see him. And from what Shirl was saying, he is quite handsome. He is quite good looking I must admit, suave too. So I guess it does not hurt to keep Shirl happy right? HEHEHEHEHEHEHE! :)

He did an ultrasound scan as well and we saw this. Can you imagine how fast he was growing???

The EDD was estimated to be now 6 October 2005 or so. The foetus was then 4.51cm. WOW!

First visit to the Obstetrician....

It was 24 February 2005. Shirl and I decided that it was time to visit the O&G. We decided on one at Camden Medical Centre on a recommendation from one of our friends. My My.... did he sure charge us!

Anyway, the doc did what they called a trans-vaginal scan. and the findings were:
CRL in mm = 12.2mm which corresponds to 7.6 weeks gestation.

The EDD (estimated delivery date) was 8/10/2005

Fetal heart pulsations present at 153bpm

When we heard the heart beat, I think many thoughts went through my mind. It was like wow! I am going to be a father. And that it was so amazing.

So that tiny little blob in the scan will soon grow... grow.... grow!!

And oh!! By the way, after the first visit to this doc and a damage of SGD 256 for the first consultation (SGD 50 for vitamins, can you imagine), we never went back though we knew he would do a very good job.

Suspicion

It was sometime in February this year when my significant other missed her period. I noticed that she became very sensitive whet she was feeling about her body. From what I hear, not many people are that sensitive to small changes. Shirl was suspicious and she decided to see a GP. I got an SMS at work saying that she was pregnant... and congratulations.

To be really honest, the two of us had mixed feelings about the pregnancy. We were happy but yet not sure what to expect for the future and all. But we got passed that phase slowly but surely.