My EDD is on 22nd this month.

The story starts on 11th Dec, evening. I began to feel a slight pain, but I did not have any worry as the pain was just like a menstrual cramp. As usual, I was sitting on my gym ball busy surfing the Internet, listening to music... but on the safe side, I decided to pack the bag for the hospital stay. (It was half packed for quite some time.)

About 1am midnight, I began to feel surges coming more regularly. As lying was not comfortable, I sat on the gym ball to ease the discomfort and hang on to the back of a chair to get some sleep. I noted the frequency of the surges and it was about 10 minutes apart. I started to use the breathing method to relieve the pain and it really helped a lot. As my first labour was very long (more than 24 hours), I didn't wake my husband to the hospital.

At about 6am, I started to get myself ready. While eating my breakfast, my husband was kind enough to shoot some pre-delivery photo for me, haha... And off we went to the hospital.

We went straight to the labor ward and pass our birth plan to the nurse on duty. The nurse requested to monitor the baby heart beat for the first 30minutes and requested to check my cervix's dilation, which was only 4cm. At that moment, the surges were at about 5mins interval. We thought it was gonna take some time before the real action starts, so we ordered a breakfast to share (3 slices of bread and hard boiled egg with Milo.)

*ting ting* Highlight moments - while eating, I sensed my lower body having a strong surge. The next thing I knew, we heard a "puff" and my water bag burst. (I tried to confirm with my husband if it was water or blood..) I quickly droped my remaining bread and jumped back to the bed.. At this moment, I could no longer remember which breathing method I have to use, I just kept telling myself to relax and let my body do the job.

In a split second, my body signaled me to push. The next thing, I heard my husband telling me he can see the baby's head. While my husband was busy pressing the "nurse button", the baby's head slid out from the birth path. With the second push, the shoulder and the rest of the body slipped out. "Whew"..... I received my baby in an upright sitting position with a little upward tilt in order to make space between me and the bed. The bed was not messy at all. No bloody scene like I thought it'd be. When 3 nurses and the doctor rushed into the room, the baby was already born into my own hands. The nurses and doctor were then busy walking around and putting all the equipments in place. The placenta was expelled on 1 "pushing" when doctor asked me to push.

We had wanted to be the first one to hold the baby when she is born (I guess my baby knew it too), and she made it happened for all of us. This will be the most precious and unforgetable moment of our lifetime. I am glad that the whole birth process is drug-free and the placenta was birthed naturally. I remember saying we wanted a fast birth in HB class. Well, everything ended in merely 2 hours.

Baby didn't cry nor open her eyes when she was born. But when I started to breastfeed her, only then she peeked at my breast and made her first sound. I couldn't believe what actually happened... still too excited and busy giving my baby the first taste of milk. I planned a breast crawl, but well, I was too excited.. cannot wait to hug my baby.

While I was breastfeeding my baby at the very moment, my husband told me he didn't have the chance to eat his hard boiled egg yet. *boing* *boing* haha!!!!

He finally ate the egg when we were left alone for 1 hour bonding. He said he needed to replenish some energy :) as he has played a very important role in the room. He couldn't believe that it happened so fast and was very happy and excited. He didn't have enough time to reach for the camera (we brought camera, video cam and handphone to standby :P), only managed to capture the photo of my placenta, haha!! He helped me with the massages he learned in our HB class - a little different style.. I think he has forgotten some parts, but it worked well. He paid close attention to what the nurse and doctor were doing and reminded the nurse that no suction on baby when one of them was calling for suction. He also managed to get a 20% discount on doctor's charges.

We would like to thank you so much for everything, as your homebirth story inspires us to have that dream of receiving our own baby.

P/S: Our doctor agreed to all our wishes in the birthplan except to let my husband to be the first one to hold the baby. But my baby chose to arrive when he was on 3 days leave. kakakaka!!

— Rebecca (Dec 09)

Baby Ying Huey