Running on adrenalin

Don't get me wrong, having Alex is a WONDERFUL thing... I just didn't expect it to be this draining - physically and emotionally. Oh well. I'll learn to cope somehow. There's probably a bajillion moms out there who feel the same way... To the moms, I feel your pain-- literally.

The worst and the best days of my life... so far...

July 9, 2007 qualifies as the worst day of my life... the pain.. the horror!!

It started out quite normally. Was up 'til 3:30 am, woke up at around 5 to get a glass of water when, weird feeling and all, my water bag broke. Woke up Mark with a "Mark, pupunta na tayong hospital." Said it with as much enthusiasm as "Mark, pakuha ng tubig."

When we got to the hospital, I was feeling fine.. got admitted to the labor room at around 5:30. The interns hooked me up to a big-ass doppler unit and proceeded to ask me, "Humihilab ba?" every five minutes. Wasn't feeling anything so the resident told me to sleep muna. Woke up at aroud 10 am.. nothing, no contractions... slept again...


11:15.. nothing..
11:45... la pa rin..
12:something... the resident doc started a saline drip.. wasn't aware that they were trying to induce labor already... the pain began...

The mild contractions were.. errr.. mild.. Felt slight tightening that radiates from the uterus to the spine... was thinking, "This is it? easy-peasy.." The gods decided to punish me for being impudent..

3:30 pm... the contractions got stronger and was coming almost every 7 minutes or so.. started doing my pseudo-breathing thing... kept forgetting to exhale through the nose... any minute now..

4:00 pm... contractions came every 5 minutes.. was alternately breathing and sobbing... the intern kept telling me to stop crying kasi magbabara yung ilong.. i wanted to slap her so bad...

4:30 pm.. One of the residents approached and asked me, "Kaya mo ba mag normal? mahina pa yan, matagal ka pa dito... 'Pag nakita ka ni doktora na ganyan CS ka na." WHAAAAT? MILD CONTRACTION my fat ass... And I looked around, all the other mommies were ONLY slightly grimacing from pain, mas advanced pa yung labor nung iba pero ako lang yung umiiyak.. Apparently ako lang ang ma-drama sa loob ng labor room..

5:25 pm... Relief.. they wheeled me in sa delivery room, was thinking, "FINALLY!"

PUNYETA, ang hirap pala mag "PUSH!!!" Movies and TV programs have a lot to explain.. ba't pag sa movie, konting push lang labas na yung baby?? 5:35.. push pa rin... all these people were milling around sa delivery room half-heartedly spouting, "Sige lang, kaya mo yan." "Galing mag push, konti na lang." "Nakikita ko na yung bangs, 'wag ka na umiyak, push lang." I wanted to scream, "Nakikita na pala yung bangs, hilahin mo na!" Was begging everyone to help me 'coz I was too tired to push (probably from 5 hours of crying and muscle-flexing to get through the labor pains).

5:45 pm... lost consciousness.. the pain was THAT BAD... woke up sa recovery room.. wasn't even able to get a glimpse of my baby... THE WORST DAY EVER... When they brought me to my room, Kitten told me that I looked shell-shocked.. Cried, cried, cried, and waited almost 24 hours before I got to see Alex.

July 10, 2007

6:00 pm... went to the Nursery to see Alex...

BEST DAY EVER! No explanations needed.

Where has common courtesy gone?

Sleeping is definitely one of the more important activities in my life. I need it more than I need food. Even my parents, who happen to be early risers AND are strict preachers of the-early-bird-gets-the-worm thing, leave me be when they see that I need to sleep in. Which is why I totally get pissed when my sleep gets interrupted. And this is exactly what happened this morning.

9:30 am... phone rings... I got up as quickly as I can thinking that it could be Mark calling to check if I'm okay. And by "as quickly as I can," I meant that I got there by the tenth ring (and this is already an amazing feat for me).

me: Hello! (happy "hello" reserved for Mark)

...nothing...

me: Hello, good morning. (If it had been Mark, he would have already spoken)

"call center person" sounding person: Hello, I'm looking for Domingo.

me: Sorry, miss. Wala pong Domingo dito. Baka po wrong number.

ccpsp: Ay, ganon?

... dial tone...

WHAAAAAAAT?!? I know this happens pretty often, wrong-number people suddenly putting down the phone without even apologizing, BUT it still got to me. It would have taken her 2 seconds to say a simple "Oh, sorry."

Showing good manners appears to have been lost in our current way of living. Little gestures like saying “thank you,” giving up seats for the elderly and/or pregnant women, letting people pass when they cross the street (so long as they are crossing on the ped xing lane and when the "little man" is green), these are things that I usually expect but seldom experience nowadays. Why is that?? It appears that common courtesy took a permanent vacation and forgot to send me a memo...