Roxanne Mei Davidson
has arrived!
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
at 10:23pm
Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore
Weight: 7lb., 3oz (3.2 KG)
Height: 20 inches (51 cm)
To see photos of Roxanne, click here
For those of you who are really into this sort of thing, here's the play-by-play...
| Tuesday, 22 March | 6:30 am | Mark awakens late for school - forgot to set the alarm - heads straight for the shower. |
| 6:32 am | Rebecca gets out of bed to offer her help to get him out he door on time - as she stands up from bed, she feels her water break. She sends Mark to school anyway, thinking it will be hours before things get going. | |
| 7:00 am | Rebecca hurriedly submits homework for the next week for her online course. | |
| 10:00 am | No action in the labor department, so Rebecca calls Dr. Chua to ask what she should do - Dr. Chua asks her to come in. | |
| 11:00 am | Rebecca arrives at the Dr's office - spends 20 mins on the fetal monitor - baby is fine, uterus is doing nothing. Dr Chua does an exam and finds no dilation and no signs of amniotic fluid - turns out what she thought was her water breaking was just a leak which has repaired itself. Rebecca grudgingly makes an appointment to see Dr. Chua in one week's time. | |
| 12:00 noon | Rebecca is so frustrated and fed up that she figures McDonald's is the only way to ease her disappointment. Eats a fish burger meal, then a cheeseburger, then an ice cream cone - feels much better and returns home. | |
| 4:00 pm | Mark returns home from school and commiserates with a very disgruntled Rebecca. | |
| 6:00 pm | Rebecca & Mark eat dinner and then enjoy TV while trying to look on the bright side - baby is still well. Realize that Aries babies really do have minds of their own. Both have a wine spritzer to calm down and pacify themselves. | |
| 9:00 pm | Completely tired out and emotionally drained from the excitement of the day, Mark and Rebecca head to bed for some much needed rest. | |
| 11:22 pm | Rebecca awakens with "severe gas pains", visits the bathroom, curses McDonalds, returns to bed. | |
| 11:33 pm | Rebecca awakens and double curses horrible gas pains - pains subside, and she goes back to sleep. | |
| 11:42 pm | Rebecca awakens and thinks "Holy crap, these aren't gas pains!!!" Contractions continue about every 10 minutes. | |
| Wednesday, 23 March | 3:20 am | Mark rolls over and asks Rebecca if she's OK, Rebecca informs him that she's had contractions every ten minutes for the last four hours, but has slept in between them best she could. Mark gets up and starts getting organized for a long day. |
| 8:00 am | They go for a walk to the service station to help speed things along and to buy a newspaper which they know will become a commemorative of baby's birthday. | |
| 10:30 am | Rebecca is finding contractions extremely painful, and contractions have grown closer together, about five minutes apart. They decide it's time to head for Mt. Elizabeth Hospital. They gather their things, do a last minute check and head out the door. | |
| 11:30 am | They check in at the Delivery Suite, Rebecca gets suited up in a gown, and continues to deal with very painful contractions. | |
| 12:00 noon | Dr. Chua arrives and examines Rebecca. She is 3-4cm dilated, and Dr. Chua estimates another 6-8 hours of labor to get to the full 10 cm. Rebecca decides that she WILL opt for the epidural since she is already exhausted. Dr. Chua calls for the anesthetist and sends Mark off to get lunch while he has a chance (he heads to Thai Express and has Chicken Coconut soup and Spicy Green Curry) | |
| 12:30 pm | Dr. Winston arrives and administers the epidural, Rebecca begins to feel better straight away and even gets some much needed sleep. Contractions continue, and Dr. Chua says she'll return later in the evening. | |
| 6:00 pm | The nurse examines Rebecca and finds that she is dilated to 7-8cm. She says that Dr. Chua will return around 8pm to prepare for the delivery. | |
| 9:00 pm | Dr. Chua arrives and finds that Rebecca's water has not yet broken on its own although Rebecca is the full 10cm dilated. She proceeds to break the water and do an examination to see how baby is positioned. She finds that baby is in occipitoposterior position - which means that she will come out facing the ceiling instead of facing the floor. This means that baby needs more space than usual to be born, and Dr. Chua explains that she will most likely need to use vacuum extraction to deliver the baby. Dr. Chua orders oxytocin to intensify contractions and says she'll be back in one hour. | |
| 9:10 pm | The nurse starts readying the room for baby's arrival. We watch her set out the doctor's equipment and turn on the warming bed. She readies the weighing scale and it really hits home when we see her set out little clothes and some diapers! Our baby is coming! | |
| 10:00 pm | Dr. Chua arrives and asks if we're ready to meet our baby - We are! She sets up Rebecca's bed for pushing, and explains to Rebecca just what to do. With the next contraction, Rebecca begins pushing with all her might. It takes about four contractions with pushing and then Dr. Chua exclaims "Come, Mark! You can see her hair!" This serves as an incredible source of inspiration and motivation to Rebecca. | |
| 10:23 pm | Dr. Chua attaches the vacuum to the baby's head, and together, Dr. Chua and Rebecca force baby into the world. She is immediately placed on Rebecca's chest. Baby has passed meconium (had a bowel movement) in the uterus, and so suctioning is very important. Nurses suction baby's lungs and nose thoroughly. Mark cuts the cord, and comes to bond with Mother and Baby. | |
| 11:00 pm | According to our requests, the nurses and doctor leave us alone to experience our first moments as a family. We are so very fortunate to have such a loving support staff at Mount Elizabeth who left us until we called for them...baby was able to spend the first two hours of her life getting to know her new family, uninterrupted by anyone else. We call "Granny Davidson" and "Grammy & Papa Watters" to tell them the good news and announce that her name is Roxanne Mei. | |
| Thursday, 24 March | 12:15 am | We call for the nurses to do the newborn procedures. Roxanne gets her vitamin K injection, she is weighed and dressed, and her footprints are taken. The nurse gives us the paperwork to file for her birth certificate. (Rebecca wonders how she could possibly be concerned with paperwork at a moment like this!) |
| 1:30 am | The Davo
Family goes to their recovery suite. There is time for a bit more
bonding and some more photos. Daddy decides to go home for the
night so that he can get Roxanne's photos uploaded for Roxanne's family
back home. Roxy and Mommy settle in for a good night's sleep -
together at last.
|
