The day we become Papi and Mami - part 2

That night, we didn't sleep a wink. Mami was having her contraction every now and then. But she said it is still ok, still bearable. Earlier when the midwife checked Mami, she told her that Mami was about 4cm dilated. They were quite surprised because it was not painful for Mami. We chatted till morning.

Around 6am, the nurses contacted Mami's uncle, the obstetrician. We call him UncleBotak. Mami was told to cleanup, shower and 'pangsai' and all. She was still able to walk around. Still can tahan, she said. Then around 7am, UncleBotak came. Mami was brought to the same room again, which I later found out to be the labor room. UncleBotak examined her and said everything is fine. According to him, she should be ready by 10am. He gave something to help the cervix to dilate, some sort of gel, i think. Then he left, leaving us with the midwives.

The contraction became more and more frequent and stronger. Mami began to feel painful. All this while I was holding her hand, asking her to concentrate and breath. Every once in a while the midwife will examine her and check the baby's heartbeat. When the contraction became stronger, the midwife asked Mami to push. This is the most painful moment. Mami was sweating and panting, I was getting nervous. Pushing and more pushing, but the baby didn't want to come out. Mami was getting tired, I was getting more nervous. All this while, the midwives (there were 3-4 of them, coming and going) were chit-chatting, macam kat pasar! (Malay - like in a wet market!). Even, a nurse came in and check things out and said "eh, eh..sudah nampak rambut! push lagi, push." (Malay - I can see the hair! Push some more.). It was yiyi's hair.

Then around 10am, still the baby was still having difficulty to come out, the midwife decided to get the doctor. UncleBotak came and straight away, everyone got down to business. The midwives were preparing all the equipment, bandages, etc, UncleBotak was getting into his apron (??) and wearing his gloves and his 'Phua Chu Kang' boots. At that moment, he looked more like a butcher!

They removed the lower half of the bed that Mami's was sleeping on, lifted her legs, and tied her legs on some sort of metal pole on each side of the bed. OMG! At that moment, I felt I was in a torture chamber. Since Mami was having difficulty with pushing, UncleBotak was going to give her some help. Forcep delivery.



I don't know how he did it but he got the forcep into Mami, and managed to clasp the baby's head with it. And he pulled! Asking Mami to give one strong push, he then pulled the baby out. It was amazing!

The time: 10:15am. What happen after that was a series of events happening at the same time very fast. The midwife got the baby and brought her to a corner to clean her up. They were sucking out some liquid from her throat to clear her airway, and she cried. Then they wrap her up with a clean towel. At the same time, UncleBotak was busy cleaning up Mami, still asking her to push out some discharge. Then he started to stitch her wound. The midwife brought the baby to us, and told us that we got a baby girl. For the first time, we looked at her, yiyi. Her eyes was wide, looking at the world around her for the first time. She looked puzzled, her legs were kicking slightly, and she has got a lot of hair. Mami said "She look like you lar, Papi". I just smiled.

And that was the day we become Papi and Mami.