After much anticipation our
wee poppet arrived via emergency c-section at 11.09am on Monday 29 July
weighing 3.68kgs at RIPAS Hospital, Brunei Darussalam. Isla Rose Valois did her best to make her arrival memorable
for all involved and we are pretty sure it is the start of a life where she is
destined to be a drama queen. 
The doctor proceeded to break
my waters. Still at 5cm I knew that things would happen VERY quickly once my
waters went and wow did everything happen quickly. With the waters gone, baby
dropped down a little to create the pressure I had needed all along, within 5
minutes I was 8cm dilated. The room fills up with people at this point and
there is utter panic. Contractions are now 1 minute apart, no sooner has one
subsided and I am being slammed with another. Baby is not liking this at all,
her heartbeat is less than half of what it should be during each contraction
and it is getting lower as each contraction hits. Doctors are asking Jason if
they can put an electrode in the baby’s head to monitor her as the readings are
so concerning they think maybe the machine is faulty. Jason’s response is “I
don’t know, it’s my wife’s job to make decisions”, between slams of
contractions I manage to mutter “Just do it”. Baby is still quite far up in my
pelvis so placing the electrode isn’t an easy task. Once it is finally in the
readings are so bad the doctors think maybe the electrode is faulty and try a second
electrode. This second electrode confirms this baby is not in good shape. More panic,
more people seem to appear. The doctor is suspicious that the cord is wrapped
tightly around the baby’s neck.
I
am oblivious to most of what is going on, I remain in ‘the zone’, trying to
cope with the agony. Jason is whisked outside to sign forms, many of which are
in Malay. A nurse is putting a catheder in and another is putting a line in my
arm. The doctor is giving me an inhaler to slow the contractions to buy some
time. I am shuffled onto a gurney, the sides of the bed go up and we are off
out of the room, outside, along a corridor, up an evevator and into an
operating room. It is in the elevator that I am struck with the very familiar
feeling of having to push. There isn’t a more difficult urge to ignore. As I am
shuffled onto the operating table I tell the anethesiologist to knock me out as
I don’t think we have time for a spinal, she tells me my baby may come out flat
line if we do that, “okay, just hurry up with the spinal then”, my body
screaming at me to push. Thank Christ the spinal went in immediately and feeling, along with the urge to push, evaporated. No sooner had I lost feeling
did I feel the tugging and pushing, followed by a very forceful cry of my new
babe. Nobody said anything so I had to ask if it was the girl we were planning
for. The nurse bought Isla over to show me the girly bits but very quickly my pink
baby had turned purple. Without a word the nurse walked away with Isla. A
paediatrician knelt down next to the bed and told me they were taking Isla up
to SCBU for observation, as she was not breathing as they would like her to be.
Meanwhile, Jason is siting
out in the waiting room, beside himself with worry after the series of events.
He sees the doors open up from operating room to see a baby in a fully enclosed
tank being wheeled towards him. Because he was the only white guy there, the
paediatrician was able to figure out who dad was pretty easily. Jason followed
Isla up to SCBU while I was being stitched up. I was taken to the recovery room
and monitored for about 30 minutes. I asked a male nurse to go tell my husband
I was fine, he came back and asked me what he looked like, “ahhh, he’s white and
he has lots of tattoos” “there’s no white guy out there” was his reply. I
figured he would be with bubs. By the time I was ready to be moved back to the
ward Jas had returned to the waiting room and was anxiously waiting for me. He
updated me that Isla was fine and would be discharged from SCBU and back to me
soon. Four hours later, she arrived at my bedside in the ward. Good things take
time I suppose.
So what went wrong? Talking
with the Doctor afterwards, her suspicions were correct that Isla had the cord
wrapped around her neck, which was not only holding her up in my pelvis,
preventing her from dropping down to be born, but was also tightening with each
contraction as my body tried to push her down she was effectively being
strangled.
After our rocky start both
Isla and I are doing marvellously. My wound has healed surprisingly quickly and
I was up and about within 24hours of surgery and had pleased the doctors with
my progress so much that they let me return home after just 2 days (quite the
record here!). Isla is a very easy babe providing she has fulltime access to
the boob. She sleeps well at night, generally just waking at 1.30am and 4.30am for
a quick feed and is straight back to sleep. The boys are just smitten with
their baby sister, They need reminding to give her her space with their
constant kisses and affection getting a bit too much at times. Jas is also
chuffed with his baby girl and he is doing a great job of looking after all of
us. Of course I am wrapped with a baby girl, she is worth every ounce of drama.
I have 56 days for maternity
leave, already it has gone much too quickly for my liking. However there are
only around 8 more weeks of teaching until the end of the year once I do go
back to work. We return to New Zealand on the 1 December so you will all be
able to meet our adored princess.
