Defying Gravity

And so it is finished.

This second pregnancy of mine finally came to a resounding end last Thursday, September 14, 2006. After some serious "bedrest" and a weekend of malling, Cole Fortich Laparan was born at 38 weeks and 3 days.

September 13 started off fairly simply. It was Uncle Danny's birthday and so off I treaded to the Frisco home/office for the day. Brought Chloe along. Seemed like a typical office day. Checked and answered emails. Finished off Tita Beng's website. Printed gift tags for Christmas (yes, we were doing that this early). At around 5 pm, Tita Rochie called everyone into the house for birthday merienda. I know I ate alot of pansit and ice cream and was thinking of skipping dinnner.

Louie and I head home around 8ish or 9ish from the office. We get home, Louie heads to the gym, and I start wrapping Christmas gifts for the kids we know. We have a late dinner. Head up to our room at 11ish.

Not long after Chloe falls asleep, I start having contractions. It's no shocker really because I've been having contractions all week, but fairly irregular. Louie decides to start timing and recording the onset of the contractions. We both fall asleep waiting for contractions which were about 10-12 minutes apart already. Around 4 am, I wake up feeling much stronger contractions. To give you an idea of what it feels like, its highly resembles stomach/abdominal cramps or the kind of stomach pain you get when you've eaten something really nasty. I wake up Louie, he times and records everything again, and after 4 or 5 of these strong contractions that are 10-12 minutes apart, we decide it's time to head to the hospital.

In between contractions, I managed to take a shower and get some last minute things together. Louie and I get to the car and remember that we didn't load up on gas the night before! Ack! So we stop by Shell to load P500 of gas (the contractions were getting pretty strong, I couldn't take waiting for the entire gas tank to be full).

On the way to St. Lukes Medical Center, I'm looking at the digital clock in the Crosswind. Contractions were roughly 3-5 minutes apart and painful as hell! It was unbelievable! Louie quickly dropped me off at the hospital entrance, I waited in a wheelchair for him to park, and off we headed to the Labor and Delivery area.

I'm checked into HRPU (High Risk Pregnancy Unit), not because I'm high risk or anything, but because I want Louie by my side. (Note, in the regular Labor Room of St. Lukes, no spouses are allowed inside -- they stay in the waiting area). Contractions are pretty strong at that point, and I'm crying and grabbing Louie. An internal exam shows I'm 6 cm dilated -- and I was really shocked because when we had Chloe, I was in the hospital at 2 cm. I can't believe I withstood all that pain without medication...

We're waiting for the anethesiologist and while waiting for her, I'm given demerol and what not to help calm me down. I remember so clearly feeling that demerol go in my shoulder and sort of shutting down my consciousness.

I'm apparently given an epidural before I'm shuttled off to the delivery room. Louie is all dressed up in scrubs. In delivery, I'm told to push and all that stuff and after a while, we encounter a problem. The baby's head isn't properly positioned and is pushing against the pelvic bone. Doc says, "We might have to do a caesarian." My eyes pop wide open. I'm thinking, no way. Then this large woman starts pushing on my stomach to help the baby come out. Now this was f*cking painful!

Minutes later (how many I have no idea), out comes Cole (and no, we didn't end up having a caesarian.) Louie is taking pictures all over the place (none of me will be posted here for my own sanity). Once he was cleaned up and all the photo ops exhausted, Cole was whisked off to the nursery.

I was in the recovery room almost the entire day because there was such a long line waiting for private rooms. I pitied Louie who had little sleep and no real place to hang out except for the fathers waiting area. My parents visited me and we all met in the hallway of the Labor Room. By 7pm, we finally got a newly renovated room and we both got a chance to settle down.

Mirzi visited and Louie and I recounted the day's events to her when a pipe burst in our bathroom. The entire room was flooded with water within minutes! Luckily, the room next door was vacant so we just transferred. I hate to think that we would have had to wait again for a room!

The next day, I was fortunate enough to be visited by my parents again, my cousin Reo and my Tita Flor, and good pals Allan and Marilyn. There was never a dull moment. By evening, Jacque (who was in town for the weekend from Singapore), Jon and his wife Sheila and Mirzi were all in the room hanging out with Louie and I! It was terrific. While they were there, Louie's parents and my sis-in-law Jojo stopped by. It was like a reunion and save for the fact that I was stuck to the bed, it was really fun.

Oh, I must retell my tale of the wheelchair trip. My parents brought me to the nursery and left me there. Louie was in the office. I decided that I would wheel myself back to my room from the nursery. It was actually quite challenging maneuvering a wheelchair. The real challenge was getting into the elevator! I made it back to the room, much to the shock of the attending aide in the area where my room was. "Mam, bakit hindi kayo nagpasundo?" Hee, hee. I just wanted to see how it would be like. Mirzi called me nuts.

I made visits to the Nursery to see Cole and fell in love. He was so adorable! (Then again, I'm biased!) And he has a full head of hair. I was in the Breastfeeding room ALOT -- not necessarily breastfeeding (ssshhhhh!), but just gazing at him. At the wonder of the past 9 months and how the next 9 months would be so different.

Saturday morning brought in another foreign visitor -- Rony from Hong Kong! He brought me flowers, which was really sweet. (I haven't gotten flowers in ages). Of course he was all, um, why are so fat? (Yes, tact IS one of his finer points...)

By Saturday lunch, doc allowed me to go home. I couldn't wait to bring home the little tyke.
We're officially a family of four. Count 'em. Louie, Angel, Chloe and Cole. And life couldn't be any sweeter.

Check out Cole's blog!