My Beautiful Prince - Jan. 3, 2011

I was at my parent's place, while I was going to school before I went to labor and my husband would visit here and there on the weekends; since we didn't live in the city to where my hospital was.

4:20am
I woke up early in the morning with cramps like a period and couldn't make myself go back to bed. My mom also woke up, but went back to bed with the kitchen light on. I turned to my husband and nudged him to wake up. "Babe, my stomach hurts and I can't fall asleep." Husband, "Did you want to go to the hospital?" "No, it doesn't hurt that much and I don't want to go in yet if it's a false labor." I sat up urging myself to stand and walk, but sat down with even more pain. My husband got up and went to use the bath. I got up again, walked into the living room and sat on the couch. After my husband came out, he sat beside holding me for comfort. My mom came out of her room and said in Hmong, " How come you guys aren't sleeping? Is there anything wrong?" "Mom, I have these pain crampings below my belly and I can't fall asleep." "Maybe you might go into labor, but if it doesn't hurt that much, then don't go to the hospital just yet. Wait until it really hurts you, then you can go because you don't want to stay at the hospital until you have the baby." So I got up and tried to use the restroom to see if I can manage to urine. As I tried to squat, I did urine, but as I wiped blood appeared before me. I flushed everything away and asked my mom, "Mom, what if there is blood because when I urined I saw blood." "Then that means you might go into labor. Son-inlaw go get the car ready in case she's really in labor. Grab some towels just to make sure your water doesn't break, while on the way to the hospital. I tooked the towels that my mom gaved to me and hurried to the car. I layed the towels on the seat, got in and closed the door behind me. "Call the hospital and let them know that you're coming." I called and answered every question they asked.

We entered the parking lot and drove to the entrance where the security guard awaited for us to stop. My husband got out of the car and told him that I'm going into labor and that a nurse was waiting for me inside. The security guard went inside and came out with the nurse and a wheel chair to wheel me inside to where I was asked even more questions. In the room where a nurse was monitoring my heartbeat and my baby's, she asked me a whole bunch of questions. I could barely answer for her, but mumbles that ran out of my mouth slowly. As I looked at my husband in pain and tried my best to answer the nurse, the pain had gotten worse. She went out of the room to get my labor and delivery room ready. Before she left, she gaved me a gown to changed into. As I was changing into the gown, I said to my husband, "I never knew being pregnant and going into labor was this bad." And a tear drop rolled down onto my cheeks.

When I entered the room where I was to deliver my baby, nurses came in and out of my room trying to put needles in my arm. There was a nurse with me the whole time helping me whenever I needed the help. Once everything was on track, one of the nurses asked me if I needed to use the restroom or anything of my command. I answered with a no. She also told me that it was okay for me to try to walk out the pain. I couldn't bare the pain, so I tried to get up slowly and walk. The nurse that was there helped me get off the bed and helped me to the restroom to see if I needed to urnine. I tried, but there was nothing. A midwife , not my regular midwife who I see on my appointments, came into the restroom to where I was in and wanted to check my cervix. As I tried to get back on the bed, the nurse that is supposed to check my pulse added my information band on my wrist. After my midwife had checked my cervix, I was only 7cm. I was pretty supprised at how big I dialated. "We can wait awhile longer to see if you can dialate any bigger, so we can begin. If it seems that you cannot dialate any further, then we would have to hold off the delivery. I was nervous and wanted to make this go by fast. I looked at my husband to see what he was doing and all he was doing was looking at a magazine. When he noticed I was looking at him, he sat the magazine down and walked towards me. "What did they say about you?" "My midwife said I had dialated to only 7cm and we're going to wait and see if I can dialate any bigger."

Twenty minutes went by and my mom and my grandma, my mom's mom, came into the room. My mom said, "Did you have your baby, yet?" My husband answered, "No, not yet. Soua didn't dialate big enough, so they're going to wait and see if she can dialate bigger." Ten minutes later my mom and grandma left to make some boiled chicken for later when I'm done. After a while, my midwife came in and checked my dialation. "You have dialated to 8cm. Did you want to wait until you're 10 or did you want me to pop the sack and get over with the delivery?" Without any stalling I answered quickly, "Yes, I want you to pop my sack, so I can get this over with." She went out of the room to tell the nurses that I'm going to get my sack popped and that they're going to do my delivery. The nurse that was always to my left stayed with me the whole time to check my pulse and my baby's. Once everything was in check, my midwife told me to relax and that I would feel a rush of water coming out. SPLASH! Then and there my water was popped and my midwife said, "Whenever you're ready and whenever your contractions appear, you can push." My contraction came and I pushed with a big inhale. I grabbed ahold of my husband's hand, while pushing. That didn't do me no good, so I asked for anything else to hold on to. My midwife said, "Now you have dialaed to 10cm and before you know it he's out, so keep pushing; you're doing great!" I started getting really hot and sweating and asked for a cold cloth over my head, but that didn't work for me.

With many helpful words, my adorable baby boy, Kayden Nhia Lor, came into the world at 7:27am within 3-5 pushes. My midwife quickly handed him to me with tears rolling down my cheeks. Every little heaviness left my shoulders and it just felt good to me. As I was holding him as he stopped crying, I could see him trying to open his eyes to look at the world around him. The nurse came and took him to get his weight, height and a bath. Once he was all cleaned up with a check up, he was handed back into my arms again. With more tears I handed him to my husband who was waiting really inpatient to hold him as well. He walked to sit on the rocking chair I could see he was having a connecting with him already. I couldn't believe that this was really happening to me so quickly and now I'm a mother.

I was then transferred to my room where I would stay for a day or more if I wanted to, but I only wanted to stay within the next day. My mom, dad and grandma came in with the boiled chicken. I didn't feel like eating, but my mom told me it's good for me because it will help heal me faster, so I gobbled down whatever I could. My dad was the first one to hold him with a big smile on his face. Then my mom was urging my dad to give him to her so she can hold him. After a while a nurse came in to give me a stomach massage to push out any blood that was left inside. It hurted, but when my mom did it, there were no pain at all.

An hour went by with papers to fill out and check ups to fallow through. Kayden was being such a good one through the day and night. He would only cry for his bottle, which is a good thing for at home. My husband  ordered his dinner that night, while reading every single paper that was in a folder for us to keep. My oldest sister, two cousins and my relative also came to visit me. My sister was such in a hurry to see him that without noticing, Kayden was already in her arms. They didn't stay for long and left with other things they had to take care of. My and dad came back that night with more boiled chicken and said, "When we leave tomorrow to go home, make sure to stop by and pick up the medicine to put in the chicken when it's being boiled.

The next day after clearing things up with the nurses and done filing papers, we got ready to leave the hospital and go home. My husband wanted to stay longer because he felt like a king when the waiter came in to take his order, since I couldn't eat anything, but boiled chicken. It was okay because boiled chicken helps heal a pregnant body after delivery.

Throughtout the nights and days when Kayden was home, he slept through them all; except when he needed a bottle to put him back to sleep.

Now since Kayden is 15 months, he's a little more onto eating meats more then rice, since rice is on our daily diet. He's such a brat at times and whines whenever he doesn't have/get things his way.