A sequel

Three years after…

It was a very humid summer day. And I was very,very pregnant. An airconditioned room is hot for a pregnant lady so you can just imagine how I was at that time. It was april 13, 2005. I called Ate Baby, my cousin, and asked her to look after Nica because Myk and I are going to work that night.

Then at about 11 am, I take a leak. I went back at 11:10, again at 11:20…. and so on. I was scared,unsure of what’s going on. When these things happen who do you call? Of course, you call on to God, but whose phone number do you dial? "Nanay? How do you know that your water bag broke?" "I don't know, it never happened to me. I'm not a doctor" Great..

Myk insists that i call my doctor, but i say, no this is just normal. After a lot of insisting, Myk finally gets me to call the doctor, she asked me to drop by her clinic. So I go there… yada yada yada. "Go to the hosp, you need to have the baby after 12 hours, we don't want any infections. If you don't go into labor, we might do a C-section." That was my worse fear. Aside from the pain after birth, it's expensive! Really!

It was 2pm, still no labor, just very, very minor pains. Like nothing's going on,i thought it will be like the first. No sweat! But then the doctor came by again at 5pm, and said that the contractions need to be induced, if that doesn't help,we’re going for a C-section. Ok.

5:30, the drugs took effect. OOOOOOUUUUUCCCCHHHH!!! So intense that I wanted to get it out! Now! The nurses tried to calm me down. I just hold on to the bed railings and won't let go. 6pm, they said they are going to transfer me to delivery room. Finally! But I still can't let go of the bed railings. You know the pain that you want to cry, really, really want to cry but no tears come out, because of the pain? That's how it was.

And they won't believe me that the baby was coming out. Because, of course, they gave me the drug at 5, and they say normally it takes about 5 hours. Well, hey, come on! I think I feel the head! The nurses again tells me to stop pushing because I'll get tired too soon. I keep on telling them that the baby's coming out. They just won't believe me. 7pm I'm in the delivery room. My doctor only has one hand with surgical glove, the other hand is texting (the anaesthesiologist, i think). I still tell them the baby’s coming out. I think they got annoyed and they put me to sleep.

When I woke up, I still tried to push, oh… It's all over…

April 13,2005, at 7:23pm was James Malachi Cabanos Mendoza’s turn.