The day Hannah was born

Since I am now on paternity leave, I have the time to share our Hannah's pre-delivery experience with all of u. Also by posting it here, it will help me to remember vividly this special moment :-)

A few days before her delivery, I was assigned to attend Ipoh High Court on 26th May 2009 which was 12 days before her expected due date (7th June 2009). There was a thought in my mind(or rather my worry) that my wife might deliver on the day when I was supposed to go to Ipoh High Court. If that happens, there might be a chance that I would miss her arrival, something that I would not have traded for anything in the world.

So I kept praying that she would either come before or after 26th May 2009 and to make sure she heard my request, I personally talked to her while she was still in the womb (might be silly but that was all I could do :p). This was what I told her the night before: "Hannah, don't come tomorrow, ok? Daddy needs to attend Court at Ipoh tomorrow. You can come any day after that."

That night we went to bed early because I had to be up early to make the trip to Ipoh. Suddenly around 3.00 am, my wife woke me up and told me that her water bag had broken. I immediately woke up, grabbed our bag which had been packed and we headed for the hospital. At the back of my mind, I was wondering how to settle my Ipoh case later that day and I thought how ironic it was that the more you did not want something to happen, it would happen anyway. My wife jokingly said that she must have heard me wrongly and thought that I asked her to come on the 26th, instead of "not" come on the 26th. Haha.

Anyway, we arrived at the hospital around 3.30 am and went straight to the Emergency Room. My wife was admittted while I was asked to go to register for admission. By the time I finished all that, it was around 4.00 am and I went up to the Labour and Maternity Floor to see my wife. She was hooked up to the fetal monitor to monitor our baby's heart rate. At that time, she still had no pain from any contractions as yet. The midwife told us that she was already 4 cm dilated at that point which was very good progress.

Later, she was transferred to the Labour Room at about 4.30 am and that is when the contractions slowly started to increase. At about 5.30 to 6.00 am, she was already dilated 6 to 7 cm. This was when I realised that I was going to be a daddy very soon. At 7.00 am, a different midwife appeared because of the change of shift. She checked my wife and told us that she was already fully dilated 10 cm and could start to push when she felt like it. It was only myself and the midwife there as the doctor had not yet arrived, so I had to play my role as midwife No. 2. So I guess that all the baby shows we had watched on Channel 733 helped during that time to guide us in what to do, especially during the pushing.

She pushed for about one hour, which was normal, since the midwife said that this is her first baby. The doctor arrived just in time before 8.00 am to deliver our baby. When our little Hannah came out, I was very happy and relieved to see that both mummy and baby were safe and healthy. She came out crying at the top of her lungs which was a good sign of a healthy baby. I quickly counted to see that she had all 10 fingers and 10 toes. The moment she came out, she was put on her mummy's chest for the first cuddle and then taken to the side to be cleaned up. I managed to snap a few photos of her in her "birthday suit" which is only for our private viewing :) (I don't want her to scold me when she is older because I had shared her .... with everyone :p Hehe).

After that she was given to me to cuddle while the doctor attended to my wife. I immediately asked the nurse to snap a photo of me and my baby, which was the first father-daughter photo which I had been fervently waiting for.



Then she was given back to my wife and we took a few family photos together.



After such a long wait and all this time worrying, she has finally arrived safely. To me, the whole journey of my wife's pregnancy was like a roller coaster ride; full of joy, excitement and worry. Maybe it was just me who worried too much but I couldn't help it because I am a first time dad :) I have heard of the saying that having a baby is an "irrationally beautiful thing" because I voluntarily and unnecessarily put this worry upon myself, but when I hold her in my arms, she is the most beautiful thing to me (besides my wife :p). I am glad that everything turned out fine and we thank God for this little blessing and bundle of joy. There are still many things for us to learn as first time parents but we are more than prepared to begin our parenthood journey together.

Little Hannah, Daddy loves you!

P/s: Thanks to all our family and friends for your good wishes and support. We truly appreciate it. Thanks also to my "bestest" friend who helped me to settle my Ipoh High Court matter on that day.