Memoirs from the Maternity Room

I have a daughter now!! :-) She's already 6 weeks today and it's also immunization time. Hope the poor thing will not find it too hard to bear the pain...

Anyways, just so that I can read it later sometime, I want to write an account of my time so far. So here it goes...

December 28, 2010
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What should've been a routine waiting day has suddenly turned the D-day. When I wake up from my regular rest at 12:30 p.m, I realize that the liquor(when I read this word the first time, I thought it was wrongly typed, but no!!) is leaking. I call up my doctor who says I should get admitted if it repeats.Nothing happens for a while so I go ahead with my lunch. But my mother is cautious and serves me a bit more saying I may not have the dinner at home. To confirm it, the liquor leaks again after the lunch. I'm all set to pack now but my mother is optimistic this time - she says let's wait once more. I say fine but call up my husband at office nevertheless to come home right away. By the time he reaches home half an hour later, my leakage has intensified, my mother is all set to go and I'm at boiling point. We rush with my son to the hospital with me getting labour pains too and definitely not in a good shape as far as liquor is concerned. I'm wheeled into my room as soon as I reach the hospital but much to our disappointment, it is not the room we had asked for and a much smaller one - the other one is still occupied as we are two days early. Anyway, that's hardly my concern at the moment - I don't know what to make of the leakage - is it normal or bad? I ask every nurse that enters the room but they just say it's fine, doctors will know more. Soon an in-house gynac comes and examines me. She calls up my doc right away and says I'm far from the normal delivery yet but the leakage is bad. I talk to her too - she says she's coming right away and it's going to be LSCS again - my second one. I'm only relieved but the OT is occupied even when my doc arrives half an hour later. She reprimands the nurses about not having checked the baby's pulse which worries me a bit too. They do it after a prolonged search during which time my already-high pressure must've gone up definitely. But I do faintly feel the movements inside which relieves me a bit.

It's status-quo as far as OT is concerned till 4:30 p.m and I'm worried that my doc may disappear from the scene. But finally around 5, I'm made to change into the hospital gown and enter the O.T. Anesthesia etc follow and I can almost see my lower tummy being cut and pulled apart like a plastic bag. Some more cutting and pulling and I'm feeling giddy and I tell the assembly of doctors and nurses so. They say it's fine and I continue staring at the overhead bright light which blurs occasionally. The spell is broken when I hear the baby cry as they remove it from my tummy. It's music to my ears and I can't take my eyes off the baby as they place it under the warmer. I can see the face but I can only figure out that it looks healthy so I ask what baby it is. My doc says it's a healthy girl and I'm pleasantly surprised as somehow everyone had made me believe that it was going to be another boy. I can hear the blood gushing with a 'whoosh' while my doc does the sewing. She leaves the room after a while for the nurse to give the final touches and as I move out of the room I see the poor baby still under the warmer wailing sweetly. I ask why it is not coming with me and they say they'll keep it there for a little more time. So I come out alone and as they wheel me up to my room, I meet my mother, husband and son waiting outside, my son looking anxious all over. I wink at him and he gives me a faint smile and we all enter our room.

The baby has not yet arrived even after an hour and my husband has bought the necessary things. My father and in-laws are informed about the baby and my mother is talking to my aunt. I'm wondering when I would feel alright below the waist and my mother out of her call informs me about the death of a lady out of high dosage of anesthesia. Some help that is!

In another 10 minutes the baby comes in, wrapped in white and all fuss over her, my son very excited at her sight. I'm still numb below the waist but after another hour the pain has set in and how! When my sister, brother-in-law and his father step in after a while, I can hardly suppress my moaning and ask some civil questions. Thankfully the nurse comes in after a while and gives me the painkiller and I look at her with reverence when she says there will be more of them for the night.