It all started with a bowl of spicy Baby A’s copycat Tortilla soup…
There is an old wives’ tale that spicy food induces labor. Well, in this case it proved to be true. Your Daddy and Mommy had indulged in some spicy tortilla soup for dinner on the evening of September 17th. After dinner and a few of their favorite TV shows, it was bedtime. Your Daddy easily fell asleep at 11:30pm, but Mommy couldn’t fall asleep, and kept feeling a trickle leaking out. She went to the restroom and saw blood. She remained super calm, because being a first time mom, obviously there was plenty of time. So, she let your father sleep and went downstairs to google early labor signs to ensure she wasn’t imagining that she was in the ‘early’ labor stages. She texted your Nai Nai, because she knew Nai Nai would be up, as it was 5:00pm in Singapore. Nai Nai reminded her to practice breathing, stay calm, and maybe take a shower. Mommy stayed downstairs, bounced on the yoga ball and continued to distract herself. She started to feel some contractions but they were so mild and almost unnoticeable. Mommy decided she should take a shower while she could, and try to relax. While in the shower, your Daddy woke up, very confused. Mommy told him she had started labor but that they had plenty of time. At this time it was about 2:30am. Mommy told Daddy what was going on with her water breaking, the blood, etc and he wanted to call the Midwife to confirm if they should go to the hospital. They called the Midwife line and got a hold of Molly. Honestly, she was not very helpful and kept yawning on the phone. They told her Mommy’s symptoms and Molly just kept saying it was up to us if they wanted to come in or stay at home. After they hung up, Mommy told your Daddy, they should go to the hospital. She wanted to be sent home rather than give birth in the bathroom at home. So, at about 3:15 or so, they headed to the hospital.
At this point contractions were really coming on strong. Mommy kept my eyes closed throughout the whole drive and just kept breathing. It was a dark and rainy drive, but your Daddy was cautious and calm (at least it appeared that way). He pulled into the drop off at the hospital and Mommy slowly got out of the car and walked inside while he parked. She was walking extremely slow and fighting through contractions. She nodded at the security guard and he smiled as she waddled to the elevators. She couldn’t keep walking so she took a break on the wall and breathed through another tough contraction. She waited for your Daddy and they took the elevator up together.
They checked themselves in at triage. Mommy changed into a gown and the nurse checked her cervix. The nurse said “I don’t feel a cervix”, to which Mommy replied, “what does that mean?”. And she and your dad said “that means you’re fully dilated and it’s time to push.” Typically, labor does not excel that quickly for a first time mom, but alas you were ready to come out!
They wheeled Mommy to the delivery room and Molly met them there, along with another nurse. Molly tried to coach Mommy on how to push, but was not very successful. Thank God, that at that moment, there was a shift change and our Midwife Christina stepped in, along with the most amazing nurse, Trisha. Christina was instrumental in getting you to come out. Mommy was pushing for 3 hours with no medication, however, Christina noticed that Mommy’s contractions were not strong enough; basically the uterus was not working as hard as Mommy was to push you out. Christina suggested Pitocin to increase the intensity. Mommy was so out of it that she barely understood what Christina was asking, but praise God your dad was there to ask the right questions and help Mommy to answer “Yes”. They offered Mommy an epidural many times but she was too out of it to even say “Yes” or “No”.
About 20 minutes after the Pitocin, contractions increased dramatically. Christian coached Mommy on breathing and when to push. It was around 8:30am when the Pitocin kicked in and Mommy pushed for another 45 minutes, getting more tired by the second. But Mommy looked at the clock at 9:15am, and told herself, “I am going to get my son out and I am going to meet him at 9:30am”. Sure enough, just when she thought she could push no more, completely giving up and crying uncontrollably, she heard “Ashlee! Open your eyes, grab your baby!”. And there you were, in her arms at exactly 9:28am. Praise the Lord, everything about you was healthy, Mommy was safe, and Daddy was there as our rock. On September 18th at 9:28am, 6 days before the due date, Caleb Jia (Lu) Kwong entered the world and they became a family; #ThreebecomeKwong.
