I was quite excited about December 2nd as The Girls and I were trying out Au Petit Salut for our last lunch together before Christmas and the holidays. The lunch was devine and we spent a lot of it discussing plans for Nina's babyshower, my "last lunch" before my due date and all the other lunches we have to do in the new year. Little did we know that this would essentially be my own "last lunch" before little Richie made his appearance!
After lunch I went to Vivo City to do some shopping - we needed a new vacuum cleaner and I really needed to get moving with my Christmas shopping. I got the vacuum cleaner and some lip gloss, Christmas shopping would have to wait!
Mike was working late as it was month end so I ordered in Pizza Hut, watched some Friends reruns and arranged to meet our potential doula the following week before getting an early night. Sleep had been getting more and more difficult by this stage but I managed to drift off fairly quickly for once and wasn't feeling too overheated either.
I woke up just after 11.30pm thinking I had wet the bed! I jumped up (still half asleep) and stood at the side of the bed, in shock I think, as the water just kept on coming - all over the bedroom floor - and I realised that I hadn't wet the bed but that this definitely shouldn't be happening at only 31 weeks pregnant. I wasn't sure whether Mike was home so the first thing I did was call out to see whether he was in the lounge.
The first thing Mike did was hide the evidence that he had just polished off the last of the Christmas M&Ms by hiding the bag under a sofa cushion.. and then he came to see what was the matter!
From then things happened really quickly. Mike called Dr Paul's after hours number and we were told to head straight to the labour ward at Thomson. Next phone call was for a taxi while I frantically tried to get dressed, wrap a towel round my waist, pack a bag for the hospital and try and find a baby name book just in case we needed to make a decision after all. Having called Dr Paul around 11.45pm, we were at Thomson and checking into the labour ward just after midnight. We hadn't even gotten round to doing the hospital tour at that point but we soon found our way to the right place .. lucky Thomson is a relatively small hospital!
I'd had visions of people laughing at me and telling me I'd merely wet my pants or something equally embarassing, but the nurses were all fantastic and took us very seriously. I suppose having your waters break at 31 weeks is serious, but it never felt panicked or scary. I was given a bed and hooked up to the monitors to check that Richie was doing OK, and he was. Not long after that I needed to go to the loo and was told, "you're not really supposed to but you can go this once." I was a bit confused until the nurse explained that from now on I wouldn't be allowed off the bed - it would be bed pans all the way for this Baby Mama. Ick.
At around 1am Dr Paul arrived, looking very different to his usual well-put-together self and obviously straight out of bed. The plan of attack was to give me (i.e. the baby) two steroid injections (12? or was it 24? hours apart) to help mature the baby's lungs just in case he was really serious about joining the outside world NOW. As well as that I was given oral ventolin to try and stop the contractions (!) that had started since I arrived in the hospital. If the contractions slowed right down within a few hours I would be admitted to the maternity ward for observation.
Thankfully the contractions lessened and at around 5am I was taken up to my room in the maternity ward. I ordered my breakfast for that morning (and agreed that Milo was Ok to drink .. they are obsessed with Milo at Thomson!) and tried to get some sleep. Mike had gone home to try sleep himself by that stage, having called our parents back home to let them know what was going on.
Dr Paul came to see me again first thing in the morning and that's when I realised that even if Richie wasn't going to make an early appearance, there would be no last dim sum lunches or high teas - I was going to be on indefinite bed rest. For now, in the hospital. I was willing the contractions to stay away, not wanting Richie to come early OR to be in hospital for the next 9 weeks. Thomson is lovely (like a hotel!), but at roughly $500 a night it was a pretty expensive hotel, even for Singapore!
I was finally discharged on Friday night with strict instructions to STAY IN BED and not be tempted to do things like housework (moi?! They didn't know me very well, did they?!) or cooking. Showers were OK but no baths or making myself cups of tea. The main reason I was allowed to come home was because Mike was able to work from home to be my nursemaid and chef - although I'm not sure they really believed me that my husband was going to take care of the cooking!
We spent Friday afternoon and the weekend (a long one, for Hari Raya Haji) working out how we were going to do this without both Mike and I going insane. I planned on reading lots of books, playing plenty of DS Lite and watching a few movies once Mike was finished work each day. The Girls and I planned a bedside picnic for the following week and Nina and Giles came to visit on Sunday for tennis and morning tea. Sanjay and Rupa also paid us a visit and dropped off their moses basket before they left for their Christmas holidays.
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