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!