moving on...

alhamdulillah...my little imtiaz is already 6 weeks old....creating this blog is about sharing my pregnancy experiences with little imitaz...pregnancy is the most wonderful thing that happens in a woman's life....knowing that another life is growing inside you is just a miracle...i just could not describe that wonderful feeling!

from now on, i will continue blogging about my life and my 2 precious gems in my main blog, A Mother's Discovery....feel free to drop by and share and exchange our experiences there....

the labour

On 5th march, I had vaginal bleed upon waking up from sleep in the morning….aha! it’s almost time….but I couldn’t feel any contraction and the bleed just stop…so, I decided to go the hospital just to check my status and my baby’s status….

As my husband had a course to attend, my parents drove me to the hospital….we reached there at around 10 am and luckily not many patients were there….i had my cardiotocograph (CTG) done to check on my baby’s well being….i still can’t feel any contraction, just a minor back pain…the CTG was reactive….and vaginal examination (VE ) done showed that my os was sill closed…..so I was sent home, waiting for regular contraction….if not I would be admitted the next day for the induction of labour anyway…..

At home, the vaginal bleed was only minimal, regular contraction has not set in yet…I had a good lunch and dinner that day….i slept early that night but woke up at around 1 am due to regular contraction of 1:5…it continued until I cannot stand it anymore….at around 4 am, I woke hubby up, feeling that the contraction was more regular at 3:10….we got ready and drove to the hospital at around 5 am….had my CTG done and it was reactive…VE done and I was already 4cm dilated!!! It was quite similar to my first delivery experience 3 ½ years ago….artificial ruptured of membrane (ARM) done and the liquor was clear….i was sent up to the labour room at around 6.30am….

The labour room was empty at that time…I was placed in LR 4, the same room where I delivered Jihan 3 ½ years ago….the midwife gave me ravin enema which made me poo-poo…at that time, the contraction was already very strong and regular 4:10….i asked them to ring the anaesthetist for epidural….probably I have to bear the pain until 8am before the next shift doctor took over from the oncall doctor…in the meanwhile I was given enthonox, a mixture of oxygen and nitrus oxide for the pain relief but it made me dizzy..at that time, whenever I felt the contraction, hubby had t rub my back to ease the pain…and hubby who was supposed to have a mock exam, had to excuse himself from attending the exam…..alhamdulillah, at around 7.30am, Prof Joanna came to give me the epidural…it was such a relief…I couldn’t feel the contraction at all….

I was able to have a good rest for about 1 hour and 15 minutes before the sensation to bear down was felt at around 9am…I was supposed to be reviewed at around 10 am, so I thought I could wait until then…but the sensation became greater and I felt like pushing…I knew that I was fully dilated by then….i told hubby to call the midwife and asked them to check my os….and true enough I was fully dilated…the contraction was unbearable, at that time was 6:10….i held myself from pushing while waiting for my obstetrician, Prof Jamil to come…

i started pushing at around 9.40am with all my heart…..i found it a bit difficult to push efficiently …the contraction was strong and frequent but short, and I was out of breath…maybe because I’m getting older (hahahah..)..i felt that I’ve been pushing for ages, but Prof and the midwives were cool and encouraged me to push hard….at one point, I really felt the head was halfway out of the perineum and it just stuck there…and I gave my best for the last push and the head was out…I was so relieved, alhamdulillah….then the body was out, and a loud cry was heard, time of birth 9.58am and it was a boy!….hubby was preparing to take my baby’s first photo but Prof asked him to wear gloves to cut the baby’s cord…! Although he had cut many cord before, cutting his on son’s cord was a memorable one….he looked tiny compared to Jihan but the look was similar….i gave him my first kiss before he was taken to be weighed and cleaned…

in the meanwhile, I was in the 3rd stage of labour, awaiting the placenta to be expelled….i had a 2nd degree tear and a few stitches need to be made….my baby weighed 2.96kg, a little bit smaller compared to his sister 3.18kg….but both of them were born on Friday and I was glad that both my labours were easy and I didn’t have to endure long hours of pain and fatigue…I straight away gave my baby my breast for him to get the goodness of colostrum…

we were brought up to the ward later, the same ward when I was warded with Jihan but a different room, Baldu 1….. I roomed-in with my baby so that I can exclusively breastfeed him, which I gave every 2 hours….the boy sucked very hard to get the colostrum out….Jihan came with my parents at noon and she was happy to see her little brother was already out of my tummy and mama was no longer fat anymore…!!!

We were both well and discharged the following day…..we decided to name him Ahmad Imtiaz Iman bin Asrul …a new journey has just begun for our little Imtiaz….

39 week

Another antenatal check up….i weighed 59kg and the baby was 3kg…I’m awaiting spontaneous labour but if that is not going to happen, I’m going to be induced on 6th march 2009 at 39 + 3 days….

38 week

I’m having intensive course this week….still no sign and symptoms of labour yet….i bought few good books to read during my hospital stay and confinement later; Cecilia Ahern’s….i finished reading 3 books within 3-4 days….i had to buy more books to occupy my time later (AHA!)…

33-37 weeks

I’m currently in charge of general medical ward….meaning that I have to do ward rounds in the morning… only Allah knows how painful was my back and legs when I was doing rounds and how frequent I had to go t the toilet to pee!!!! I was hoping that I would deliver earlier than my first child (39 weeks +), at least around 36 weeks onwards as I cannot tolerate the tiredness anymore….


My baby at 35 weeks was 2.4kg and I weighed 58.3kg….not much increment from the last visit even though I think I had very good meals in every meals!!! i repeated my BSP again at 36 weeks and it was normal…all readings were below 6mmol/l….i wasn’t controlling my diet that tight….i still went for teh ais or milo ais for lunch….i even had carbonated drinks once a while….chocolates, fruit juice, rice and everything under the sun!!!

I stopped going out during the weekend, only when necessary….i was too lazy and tired….i also cannot tolerate the heat at home, so we installed an aircond in our bedroom….as for the mum’s and baby’s preparation, I guess everything is ready…I also had packed the bags that need to be brought to the hospital later….

Another antenatal check up at 37 weeks, I weighed 58.8kg and the baby was already 3kg…the head is already in the pelvic though not yet engaged….my amniotic fluid index (AFI ) was 16.4….everything seemed good….still no sign and symptoms of labour yet…

29-32 weeks

These were the weeks that were full of surprises (?) and tiredness…. First of all, I had to do the modified glucose tolerance test (MGTT) to see whether I have gestational diabetes (GDM) or not… not everybody who is pregnant need to do the test, I had to do this because my mother was recently diagnosed to have diabetes, so I’m at risk as well…. I need to be fasted the night before and took the fasting blood sugar the next morning….then I had to drink 75g of the sucrose mixed with 250ml of water which tasted damn sweet…. I can hardly brush my teeth after that, fearing that I would vomit after that, then I have to repeat the test all over again…2 hours after that I have to take another blood sample which was the 2 hours post prandial (2HPP)….and the result…? 4.5 mmol/L for the fasting sugar and 8.7 mmol/L for the 2HPP!!!! And that confirmed I have impaired glucose tolerance test which means I need to do the blood sugar profile (BSP) which involves 4 times blood taking in a day (yuckkksss!) and that will determine if I have a full blown GDM or not! I can’t believe it that I’m diabetic!!!! I am still in a denial state and didn’t bother to control my diet…still craving for good chocolates and teh ais or milo ais for lunch!!!!

At that time I was currently doing medical rotation, and I had to do oncalls as the requirement for the postings…luckily I was given 4 oncalls from 29-32 weeks and no more oncalls beyond 32 weeks till my delivery….the oncalls I had were unpredictable…my first one was quite a bad one…I wasn’t able to sleep at all from 9-7.30 the next morning, I was in the emergency room attending cases….at one point at around 4 am, I had a nervous breakdown and I cried in the toilet….i was so tired and had a bad backache and frequent Braxton hicks contraction….the next morning, I simply cannot get up and had to take a day off to recover from the stress and fatigue the night before….. I had almost the similar oncall during the 4th one…arghhhh!!! Luckily my 2nd and 3rd oncalls were quite alright…at least I managed to get some sleep to rest and to stretch my back….

I did my BSP and it was almost normal except my pre bed which was 6.3….my weight at 31 week was 57.3 and the baby weighed 1.5kg…. I had to repeat my BSP at 36 week…in the mean time I had to control my diet just to make sure my sugar won’t fluctuate and imposed the risk to my baby….