yesterday (Friday 20th April), i witnessed the most amazing thing that has ever happened in my life. i saw, with my own eyes, the birth of my baby girl.

her due date is actually on the coming Sunday 22nd April, but my wife had been feeling regular contraction pains the whole Thursday. it was still manageable as she still had the time to walk around and she made me bring her to a nearby mamak stall coz she felt like eating Thosai for supper. right after that, i brought her to the hospital to follow up on her contraction pains. luckily we brought our packed hospital bag with us, because after the checkup by the midwife, we were told that my wife had to be admitted to the ward immediately. my wife’s contractions continue to occur throughout the night.

on friday morning, the doctor came in and inspected my wife. right after that we were told that my wife’s gonna be induced and we’ll have the baby in the morning…

at this point, i was a nervous wreck inside. i had a small talk with a guy whose wife just delivered the day before. according to him, she was induced but after an hour with no results, she had to get a c-sec. we didn’t really want a c-sec for financial reasons. we were really hoping for a complications-free delivery… but who wouldn’t???

my wife got induced at around 9.30am. we stayed in the labor room as the wife got strapped to a machine that monitored her contractions and the fetal heartbeat. we enjoyed the sound of the heartbeat that blared through the machine and the graphs that were printed out. heheh not that enjoyable, but what else was there to do?

the nurse came a few times and upped the dosage of the labour-inducing medication. after about an hour and a half, my wife started getting intense contractions in higher frequency. soon, more nurses and came in and i knew that the labor stage has transcended to the next phase: delivery.

it began with the doctor manually breaking the amniotic sac. from what i’ve read, the liquid that gushes out should be clear and watery. instead, what i saw was lots of blood… luckily i’m not so squeamish around em. soon after that, the midwife began telling my wife how to push the baby out. it was heartbreaking to see my wife in such great pain, but at the same time i wanted to see the baby so badly.

when her head emerged, i felt happiness swelling up in my heart. when she finally popped out and placed in my wife’s arms, i almost cried. i finally saw the face of the little girl who had been squirming and kicking around inside my wife’s belly. the face of the baby whose faint outlines and innards we saw in numerous ultrasound scans. the owner of the rapidly beating heart that i listen to every day for the past few months. our daughter.

the pictures above were taken about half an hour after she was delivered. i was surprised that she was already opening her eyes and scanning around curiously. she was able to search for origins of sound and focus her sights on nearby objects. one thing that i find so adorable about her is her hair… lots of em! when she first got through the birth canal, she was very blue, but the pinkness came when she was bathed.

the three of us got out of the hospital at noon today. we’ve spent so much time preparing her nursery these past few months and it was so satisfying when the star of the nursery is finally here to complete the scene!

it’ll be a brand new lease of life for us all, and i hope that the me and the wife gets the hang of parenting real soon…