Entering a new world

Alhamdulillah it has been 16 days since I gave birth to my baby girl Sofiya. She was born on the 12th December 2010 at 1642 hours. After about 2 rounds of pushin, she made her way thru to the new world. Alhamdulillah, for there is noone else to thank and be grateful to except for Allah.

The journey began on the eve of her birth day, Mama (me) was craving for Papa's trifle. So we went out to buy the essentials and just before Maghrib we both attempted to make our own trifle but needed Mak Uda's ( Halimah) help via phone anyways haha. Throughout the evening I felt uncomfortable and my tummy felt tight and i found it was a bit hard to walk. I wasn't in labour yet as there were no regular painful contractions, no show, no broken water etc. My parents came back from the airport at 8pm and we decided to just go to the hospital as I insisted on delivering the baby the next day. Hehe instinct you call it! Aiman helped me with the stuff and brought my pre-packed bags.

The midwife performed an internal examination on me and found that my cervix was 4 cm dilated, 50% effaced and positioned midway. CTG revealed no contractions and the fetal heart rate was within the normal range, though the baby was tachycardic initially of around 170 beats per minute but it only happened when she was moving vigorously. Woohooo way to go! I was admitted and Aiman stayed with me.

The next morning, I woke up took a shower, prepared myself and prayed Fajr. Put on light make up! hahaha and had breakfast with Aiman. I was all comfortable and still had no uterine contractions. I was pushed to the labour room which was located opposite the ward. I was given enema and you know what happened next :))

The nurse inserted a mild dose of Prostaglandin, (Cytotec) following the instruction of my super cool gynae Dr Seri Suniza :) I was accompanied by my husband and later my sister came. My supportive in-laws also came to visit. My dearest parents arrived slightly later and brought along my trifle :p

At 1pm, Dr Seri came. I was only 5cm dilated and she performed ARM on me and said "We'll see whether you'll still be smiling after this :))" and she was right.... after around 30 minutes I felt contraction pains. It kept on coming and started to be stronger. I held Aiman's hands and could only cry when the pain came. I wanted mum and Kak niah to be in the room with me. The nurse came and wanted to start me on pitocin drips and offered epidural or pethidine. After being persuaded by my family, I agreed to Pethidine. My reason for not wanting to take any pain relief was because I wanted to see how far I could handle it hahaha. What and egoistic decision, but I'm glad I took some pain relief. The pain was getting stronger and more frequent, and so was the effect of Pethidine. I was sedated and sleepy. I remember waking up to great pain and saying 'sakit sakit' bla bla.... hahaha I actually remember people laughing at me too! Suddenly I felt the urge to PUSH! but the nurse told me to hold on to it as the cervis was only 9 cm dilated and there was a bit more left. I couldn't hold it, but thanx to the sedation I slept again. Soon, as I began to want to push so much I heard Dr Seri's voice and she calmly said "You can push now, I'm here" I was so relieved and I started to push, but the nurse taught me to push properly and Alhamdulillah after 2 rounds of pushing the baby was safely delivered.

I was still sedated and in between my pushing I slept! Hahaha they had to wake me up to push. The baby was then put on my chest, and they woke me up again!! to see the baby. MasyaALlah she was beautiful, still covered in blood with a head full of black hair, eyes opened wide. It was the first skin-skin touch between the baby and mama. I slept back and they took the baby. I woke up in between, as I heard my husband saying the beautiful Azhaan and Iqamah to the baby. SubhanALlah. Afterwards I got cleaned up, I was alone in the room with the nurses as everyone else went to the nursery to see the baby. Cute! They pushed me back to my room and on the way I saw Ayah, Yusoff and Abg Ngah outside the nursery looking at the baby.

Later, they pushed the baby inside and the first breastfeed was given. The latching was a bit tough at first for a primid like me :) but alhamdulillah I managed to give her what she needed. Allah is the ultimate Creator! How He has instilled in a newborn baby, the instinct to latch and feed. SubhanAllah. I was surrounded by more than enough support, Aiman, Mak, Ayah, Kak Niah, Mak, Halimah, Abah, Abg Ngah, Abob and Imran. For I thank Allah for blessing me with a great family Alhamdulillah. Mak busu, Uncle, nurul and Hajar came later. So did Alia and Adli :) Thank u all.

It was a dramatic feeling, holding a baby in my arms and feeding her. Still groggy from the pethidine but it was a sensational experience for me and my husband. I collapsed in the toilet because it was the first time I got up after the delivery, fortunately to be accompanied by 2 nurses who helped me out from the moment I got out of the bed. Aiman went into the toilet with a panicked look and I straight away came back to my senses after passing out into some weird dreamy like feeling. Alhamdulillah it was nothing, and the nurses told me it was a normal event that usually occurs after the mummy stands up after birth since the body has to adapt to the new weight and blood pressure etc. After all was settled, we both slept after everyone went back home soon to be woken up by the baby's cry at 1230 am for her next feed and the whole night was disturbed with her cries for a feed. The whole new chapter has just begun! I soon realized it.

We were discharged on day 3 of Sofiya's life. Alhamdulillah. We have been at home since then and life has changed a lot for me and Aiman. At this point that I'm writing we have adapted to the new system and to the new addition. I love her more and more each day. May Allah bless her with good health insyaALlah.

I'm so sleepy now and better be sleeping before Sofiya wakes up for her feed. InsyaAllah I'll pen down my thoughts and experience in the future but as for now I have to go!

To my daughter, may you be a knowledgeable and a well read muslim woman insyaALlah! I love you so much and may we enter Allah's paradise together. Ameen.

To my dearest husband, life has extremely been in the fast pace for us ever since we met in June 2009. masyaALlah. I am grateful and happy that Allah introduced you into my life, this is just our beginning may our future years be filled with happiness together. I love you!