My New Daughter!

Here's the big announcement!

We have a new daughter, R! All of us are very happy, the hubby, the new kuya, and of course, the mommy. She arrived the day before my birthday, a squalling, female look alike of her kuya, but with more hair :D. She weighed in at 6 pounds and 13 ounces, more than a pound lighter than her brother when HE was born.

I got admitted the day before my scheduled CS, had the non-stress test. Initially, I wanted to go home to check on my little boy, but it turned out that going out-on-pass is more trouble than it's worth.

Since I was scheduled at 9am the next day, I started on NPO (nothing by mouth) starting midnight. I took a bath at 5am and waited for the nursing aide to shave me. I was wheeled into the labor room (even if I was not in labor) and waited for my doctors (the OB, anesthesiologist and the pedia). They brought me to the operating room, where I was put on spinal anesthesia. I was adamant that I wanted to be awake throughout the entire procedure. I do not want to be knocked out the whole time that my baby was coming out. I wanted to witness her coming out! Especially since they didn't allow my husband to be present with me (hospital policies!).

My daughter came out at exactly 10:03 am, with a large wail and APGARs of 9 and 9. She had a full head of hair, unlike her kuya. Otherwise, they both looked similar when fresh out of the oven :P. My pedia and I wanted the breast crawl, but since space was limited (the drape was up to the top of my breasts and the operating table was narrow), we settled for latching on at the recovery room.

My daughter was then brought out to be shown to her daddy and lola, then brought into the nursery to be cleaned thoroughly. They brought her to me for latching when I was at the recovery room.

As for me, I actually shed tears (of joy) when looking at my daughter. I feel so blessed. :)

It was not easy, what with the pain after the operation, but it was definitely all worth it!

-o-o-o-o-o-

R's birth is pretty straightforward. It was a repeat elective Cesarean section. I was able to choose my daughter's date of birth, so my mom and I chose a date and time that's considered auspicious (in the Chinese calendar). Well, we chose a date within the date range set by my OB, and we thought that, hey, there's nothing to lose if we choose a good date, right? Now it would have been different had it been a normal delivery, or even an emergency Cesarean! I would have just let my daughter choose the date and time when she wants to be born!

The advantage of having a scheduled Cesarean is that you can pretty much schedule everything -- when you go on leave, when you get admitted, when you get operated on, the type of anesthesia (either spinal or epidural) and even when you can go home. Everything's planned and deliberate.

Why did we have a scheduled Cesarean? I already had a previous (emergency) Cesarean with my firstborn (due to early rupture of membranes and failed induction of labor). My OB's also thought that my birth canal was too narrow, hence my babies never engaged and never descended, and I never dilated past 1 cm. So, CS seemed like a better option. Another 2 things we considered: my age (I'm 39, hence I was classified somewhat as high risk since I'm quite an old mama) and the fact that I had an H. mole prior to this pregnancy. So since, we've decided on Cesarean, there was really no point in getting me to labor. Hence, a scheduled CS.

Pictures to follow. Sorry haven't uploaded them yet....