Estelle's Birth Story

I know everyone has been anticipating my arrival, and finally, after 12 hours of labour at Raffles Hospital, my brave mama has finally delivered me on 25th Jan 2006. That's my birthday.

My papa admitted my mama at 5am that morning. After confirming that mama was having contractions, and with advice from Dr Vincent Lee, my mama's gynae, mama's left hand was poked and she was put on a drip. The contractions became from bad to worse but brave mama endured the pain. The contractions also made me pretty stressed up and uncomfortable.

After 5 hours of sheer torture, and having tried even the laughing gas, my mama discussed with papa and finally they decided to take the epidural. Mama wanted to conserve the last bit of energy for the final push as she was really exhausted fighting the pain. Furthermore, she had cleared her bowels and not eaten a single crumb of bread. Poor mama was really hungry and she had very little energy left.

After taking epidural, mama became more relaxed and even napped for a while. The contractions didn't end there and I also kindda became groggy after a while.

Finally, the moment that we had been waiting had come. At 4pm, Dr Lee appeared and checked mama's cervix. Bad news. Mama had not dilated more than 3cm after the whole day! He told mama, "Desiree, I'm afraid you have to do a caeser." It dropped like a bomb and mama started to cry. Dr explained that my heartbeat went down a bit and so it didn't look good. Mama became even more scared and worried.

Papa assured Mama that everything's gonna be ok. Wih Papa's encouragement, Mama wiped her tears and decided to brave through it. Within a few minutes, Mama was wheeled out of the delivery suite, into the lift, out of the lift, and through doors and doors before she came to the OPERATING THEATRE.

The doctors did their stuff, and whoala! My cries pierced through the atmosphere. I was born!

I was carried to mama's face and I winked at her. Mama cried and cried and she kissed me on my right cheek. Feeling her warm lips on my face, I know I'll enjoy a lifetime of love from her and Papa.

My name is Soo Yin Xin Estelle. I will grow up and make my parents proud :)