Birth of Ashley 4

Ashley's first birthday is coming up this Sunday, I'd better finish her birth story! :-)

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Once I decided to go for C-section, the nurse started preparing me and AJ for the operation room. I signed whole bunch of paperwork, and AJ was putted on the blue medical suit. I was pretty calm at this moment, the nurse said to me, "You handle it much better than a lot of people." Well, what else could I do? I remember telling AJ to make sure to bring the camera and the camcorder, and told him to follow the baby if they took him/her outside of operation room.

They packed all our belongings underneath the patient's bed and pushed me to the operating room, and here I was in the operation room about to be cut open! They told AJ to wait outside until they settled everything, I don't remember when he was allowed to come in. I was transferred to another bed. They asked me to stretch both of my arms out and tied my arms down on the bench to prevent me from moving. I felt like a pig getting ready to be butchered. The anesthesiologist started to give me local anesthesia while the nurse started to sanitize me.

Soon after, the anesthesiologist told me that he was going to poke me and asked me to let him know if I could feel anything. He started from the leg, to the hip, to the tummy, to the mid body, to the chest, to the shoulder, and finally it was around my neck that I started to feel a little bit. I remembered from the birth class that for local anesthesia, you were supposed not to feel anything from chest down, but I could not feel anything from the neck, and I thought to myself that maybe it was too much anesthesia?

For some reason, the nerves kicked in and my whole body started to shake uncontrollably, I screamed, "I'm shaking!!" the nurse and the doctor tried to calm me down by saying that it was due to the anesthesia and the hormone from the labor and it was normal. Soon the attending physician, pediatrician, pediatrician's nurse, my doctor's assistants all came in, there were probably about 9 doctors/nurses in the room. The surgery was about to start.

Then I heard the attending physician asked AJ, "when the baby is about to come out, do you want me to let you know, so that you can stand up and take some pictures?" AJ replied right away, "No, thanks, I'll stay on this side." We had this discussion before and he didn't want to see any bloody scenes, he's a south side kind of guy. "Oh ok, then pass me the camera and I'll take some photos for you!" The attending physician offered. He did indeed take some priceless photos.

Next I heard my doctor said to me, "We're going to make an incision and you might feel some tingling." Well, I could not feel anything at all. My body was shaking harder and harder, I screamed, "I'm shaking very badly!" Someone then told me to focus on something else, but really how could I? The shaking continued and then slowly I felt I couldn't breathe, so I screamed again, "I can't breathe!" The attending physical then told me that they were monitoring the oxygen intake and everything looked fine. But I still felt that I was having hard time breathing. I bet it was probably the overdosed of anesthesia that numbed my lungs. I truly believed it was due to that, I later vomited all the food my mom made me eat while in the operation room. Now I know why they tell you not to eat anything before the labor!

Then I started to feel sleeping and started to falling asleep. But wait! I remembered from the birth class that local anesthesia during the C-section was not supposed to put you to sleep and you were supposed to stay awake when the baby is born. I bet it was the overdosed of anesthesia that's making me sleepy! I wanted to stay awake for the birth of baby, so I screamed one more time, "I'm falling asleep! I'm falling asleep!!"

The attending physician wanted to keep me await for the magic moment, so he started to ask me a bunch of questions so that I could stay awake. "Where are you from?" "Are any of your family here?" "How did you stay in shape while you are pregnant? ..... I struggled fighting the sleeping bugs and tried to answer those questions. I had to thank him for trying so hard to keep me awake though!

"Ok, we're going to press on your tummy to get the baby out. You might feel some pressure on your tummy." My doctor said to me again. Well, I could hardly feel anything. Several seconds later, I heard some crying! And the doctor said, "Dad, you wanna tell mom what you have?" We didn't find out the gender of the baby while I was pregnant, I wanted a surprise. "It's a girl!" It was a surprise indeed. Either way would be a pleasant surprise.

While they cleaned up the baby, my doctor said, "Oh, look that's why the baby wasn't handling the labor! Her umbilical cord was tied in a knot!! And it wrapped around her neck twice!" Geez, this could have turned very bad, baby with umbilical cord tied in a knot can not be born virginally. She must been doing a lot of gymnastic inside my tummy! Had I known about this, I couldn't come back home the very first time I came to the hospital; I couldn't go to the airport! Instead, I could have stayed in the hospital the first time we came. Luckily, everything turned out OK! It was definitely a right choice to do C-section

A few minutes later, after they cleaned and weighed the baby, AJ brought the baby to me. It was the most magical moment of my life, everything else just seemed to disappear, all the pain and tiredness just went away and the time just seemed to be frozen, I would never ever forget this moment.

Here she is, the baby I had waited for 10 months; the baby that I felt in love the very first time I saw her heart beat on the ultrasound; the baby that has been kicking around for months inside of my tummy! At the very first second we saw each other, she locked her eyes with mine, she knew who her mother is! She was still crying loudly, yes, she got very healthy lungs! I started mumbling, "Hi peanut! It's ok, it's ok, everything is ok, mommy is here...." Her eyes never moved away from me. She is such a very beautiful healthy baby! Baby wrinkle? Not this baby! Her skin is as smooth as silk. Pale purple looking baby? Not this baby! She's so pink and glowing! She's the most perfect gorgeous angelic baby!

I kept on staring the baby, and then I turned my head and said to AJ, "Oh, she got your skin!" To my surprise, I saw some watery eyes on AJ. Really, this is a guy who hardly shows any of his emotions at all, a big 6 foot 2 inch guy. This must really mean something to him. I would never forget this. It's imprinted in my memory!

So, here we were, a week earlier than her due date, after more than 24 hours of labor and a very eventful day, and some scares here and there, we welcomed our beautiful and healthy baby, Ashley. She was born at 6:35 PM, August 30th, 2008, measured 19.5 inch and weighed 7lb 3oz.

Welcome to the wonderful world, Ashley!