Master Tobey

He arrived on the night of the 10th June 2007 and changed our lives.

The Drama

Went in for induction on the 9th June at 9 pm, 10 days overdue with posterior cervix and baby head facing upward rather than downward. The plan is to bring on contractions and hope that it would fix both issues. Contraction started at 2.30am, 2 cm dilated at 4.30am and 6 cm at 8.30am. After 7 hours of labour pain, took Entonox and Epidural to block it out. 8 cm dilated at 12.30pm and baby's head faced the correct direction, water being broken artificially. Dilation went back to 6-7 cm and discovered that earlier dilation reading was partly caused by the engorgement of the sac to the cervix. Waited till 9 pm to be fully dilated, with the help of the augmentation hormone Syntocinon - a synthetic form of the hormone oxytocin and another dosage of epidural. Unfortunately, baby's head turned and faced upward again. Given the narrow passage of my pelvic, the size of the baby, the angle the baby's head was at and the long labour I had , it was deemed too dangerous and harmful to deliver the natural way. Hence, emergency C- section was scheduled. Was given the 3rd dosage of Epidural, shook uncontrollably, vomited bile and tried hard to stay awake and make them understand that I needed 5 mins alone with my husband to think things through. Of course I wasn't taken seriously after all the drugs they pumped into my system. Less than 2 hours later, I heard Tobey's first cry. I remember thinking that I was going to pass on if I fall asleep then and would not be able to hold my son, so I fought with whatever energy left in me to stay awake right until I have him safely by my side in the high dependency ward.


The Aftermath

Mixture of happiness, sadness, helplessness and most of all tiredness. Still coping one day at a time. Slowly but surely, we are getting use to this new 'normal' and finding more and more bittersweet joy out of this thing call parenting.