Love's Labours (Part 2)

For the first part of this chronicle, please click here

Sunday and Monday (February 3rd and 4th)...

..Went by without dramas. Like a good patient, I was on bed rest most of the time and the bloody discharges have ceased. I was feeling optimistic, as long as my baby wouldn't be born on Valentine's. Imagine sharing your birthday with someone as annoying as Kris Aquino-well that was mostly the father's sentiments. I just wanted to deliver safely as much as possible. Also I was glad that there was a big chance that my dad would get to see his 5th grandson before he leaves on the 16th.

So while on bed rest, we did what do best. And clean your dirty little minds. All we did was took photos of ourselves:

Tuesday, February 5th

Off we went to Dra's clinic for our check up. I was again up for the dreaded internal exam. Dra agreed that I was indeed a centimeter dilated but whatever that was thick in my cervix four days ago was now thin. I could pop my baby out anytime. She did a whole lot of calculating and informed me that February 12 was my safe mark. If I could just be on complete bed rest from then until the 12, then my baby would reach his semi-full term (37th week). But if not...then labor here I come. The doctor gave a whole lot of instructions on what should I do, which became useless because I pretty much forgot half of the things she said. She handed me a pre-admittance form and 4 small pills.

She instructed me to take the pills secretly should I go on labor. The fool that I am nodded and said yes, not realizing the real purpose and potency of those four small pills.

After the check up, mom and dad picked us up to have lunch at Tramway Garden Buffet and to meet up with Ate Let and Jason (my third brother's punk).

There was heavy traffic on the way to Tramway (which was just a block away from Delgado) which we attributed to the lunch time rush hour but when we got there, it turned out that that Union Bank in front of Tramway was robbed not more than 15 minutes before we got there.

Ergo, the large crowd and various news vans and camera man and heavily armed guards.

And the the robbers threw a grenade across the street to facilitate their escape...

...which happened to be right beside Tramway Garden.

But hungry stomach always prevails and I've already started whining about low blood sugar so off we went despite the drama right outside the glass doors. Note: I do get really cranky if I'm really hungry. Ask my husband.

Here's my third brother's Spongebob-loving, boisterous, and mischievous little punk.

We looove watermelons. =).

Dad meets his fourth grandson for the first time. And he'll be meeting the 5th a day after this.

After that sumptuous lunch, Dad had to do stuff at the POEA and we decided to tag along to do some last minute baby shopping at Robinson's Galleria while they were doing their thing at POEA.

This is where everything started unraveling. Remember that bit where my doctor said that I should be on bed rest? Well that's the one thing I didn't do since we were shopping. I didn't know that a couple of hours walking would trigger labor a few hours later.

When we got home, I didn't rest on the bed. I packed our hospital bad to prepare for the inevitable and slept at around 11 pm.

Wednesday, February 6th

At around 12 am, I got up and emptied my bladder. When I returned to bed, my uterus started to cramp...like dysmenorrhea TIMES TEN! I woke my husband to tell him about it, and he wanted to go to the hospital pronto. I tried to grin and bear it for awhile and told him that I would pop an Isoxilan and I should be fine. But when I shifted position, there was a sudden gush of fluid between my legs. I got up again thinking that I needed to pee again when I noticed that my panty liner was really soaked with water...and blood.

And my legs turned to jelly and ran back to my husband and told him that I had a suspicion that my water bag had broken. He got up and informed my fourth brother who was just about to go to sleep. And my brother woke my mother and informed her as well.

Since our bag was already packed, my husband just threw on some clothes and we got into the car and went to the hospital.

En route to the hospital, I started texting messages to friends to keep my mind off the cramping pains that I'm feeling. First time I've seen my mom got tensed up, by the way. Hubby and I tried to engaged in small talk, but I guess he was tense too. And my brother, who was driving, was also feeling a wee bit tensed. I guess I'm the only one not tensed but I'm also the only one in pain. Hehe.

Upon arriving at Delgado, I was immediately whisked off to the Delivery Room.

to be continued....