I am born

Saturday June 7th 2008 10:02PM -

Finally the time has come for me to announce that I have arrived in this world, in all my beautiful whole self without umbilical cords attached !

The story started on Friday night (June 6th). I slowly started nudging mom (read - minor contractions) and that resulted in giving her back pain. We had gone to Dr.Rashmi Acharya's clinic that evening for a routine check-up and the Doc mentioned something about low fluid level (5.5) and asked us to check back the next morning. So, Dad did the 40-minute drive again next morning with Grandma and Mom. This time the Doctor was not very pleased with Mom mentioning something about a very low fluid level (2.0) and asked Dad to take Mom right away to the Hospital.

So I heard this instruction and knew silently that the day had arrived. At 1:30 in the afternoon we "checked-in" to ward that had been given to us. I continued to give mom small contractions. But it seemed like the nurse in charge wasn't too happy with my pace as she gave Mom a little something (Oxytocin) that really set the pace for me. Mom's cervix was now dilated 3cms and my head was positioned at station -2. Things settled at this pace...Mom felt reasonable pain every 5 minutes although the pain was subdued by the pain-killer she was given. At 7pm in the evening, a new nurse came in. First thing she checked the Oxytocin flow level, wasn't too pleased and turned up the flow level. Things really picked up pace now. Mom was in pain...serious labor pain...I was really trying to push through and my head was in Station 0 by 8pm. I was really in a hurry to come out now...by 9:20pm I had reached Station 2. Mom was ready now to push. Problem was Dr.Acharya wasn't yet ready as she didn't expect Mom would move from 4 cms dilation to 10 cms dilation in 2 hours. So the nurse asked a really stupid question to Mom - do you want to wait until Dr.Acharya finished her operation and come over ? Mom was like "nooooooo...I need to push....NOW!". So the nurse asks Mom to lift her legs up and widen it...really wide.
At this point, my head is actually visible to the nurse and she is suprised...she thinks this might all be over in a few minutes. The in-house doc comes up and asks Mom to really push when her contraction comes up. So Mom goes like "eeeeeeeooooo...ah". Not much progress, another 2 pushes...still no luck. The doc takes a scissor and like a pro does a episciotomy. Now, I have a little more space to wriggle out. But even after couple of pushes, we dont make much progress. Now the Doc brings out the next trick in his bag, a vacuum pump. The Doc puts in the pump and clamps into my head..and in Mom's next push, pulls it out. Now we are almost there...I can almost feel the air outside, the chillness of it quite different from the warmth within my embryonic den. In the next push, I am out and dry in the open. I give out a final shreak...waaaah ! I see a whole lot of people outside running around like crazy.