birth story

Dearest Christian,

You are soon turning one year old. And I can't tell you how immensely proud I am of you. Besides acheiving milestones and staying a healthy bundle, you are a constant reminder of how much love a person is capable of giving. And for that, I'm thankful for every single day you are introduced into my life.

I've not related to you how you came into the world. I'm not entirely sure if my memory is accurate. But it happened on a wednesday. we were at the doctor's. momma was strapped to this fetal heart monitor as well as a device that tracked contractions. your heartbeat was fast and furious, my contractions were non existent. the doc offered caesarean as a an option, saying that it'd be distress-free for a little baby like you. i wasn't sold. i thought about the story of a caterpillar metamorphosizing to be a butterfly and needed to break out of its cocoon as a final stage in strengthening its wings... for some reason, i remembered that the birth canal had the same function but then again, it could be purely urban legend, i had not googled it... but i did insist on epidural - yes, your momma is a big wimp when it comes to pain. nek nek was with us during this visit. we left the doc, assured that you wouldn't come into our lives until 2 weeks later. papa had to work and we decided to drop him off before heading to Orchard for lunch - nek nek and i. we were to meet up with your auntie serene later that afternoon.

lunch was a steamboat buffet at ladyhill hotel, it was a trip down nostalgia because i used to go there with nek nek when i was little. but that lunch wasn't quite what i remembered it to be.... it was quite a let-down. we then drove to centerpoint to meet up with auntie serene, who scoped out the sale items at mothercare and found the perfect changing pad that i'd been hunting for ages. that's one thing off my list, there's another thing i had to get: a sterilizer. to cut the story short, we shopped A LOT because, as you'll find out, your auntie serene is a SHOPPER. nek nek and i were dead tired but you should thank her hunting instincts because it was she who found a great deal on your sterilizer.

by the time we were ready to go home, it was around 6 pm and i had to go get papa from work. i dropped nek nek off at around 7.15pm and by the time i saw your papa, he wasn't a very cheerful camper. he was worried about me. we got home around 8-ish and i'd showered and not had any dinner. so i surfed a little and ate cereal and was getting ready for bed. and this i remember very clearly, papa and i were standing by the bedroom door chatting about something when you kicked so hard that i lost my balance. i sat down to rest as papa left to walk cinnamon. when i decided to pee for the last time before bedtime, that's when i realized that my water broke... i could hear the elevator bell rang as papa came back with the dog and i told myself to brush my teeth before telling papa what had happened. when i finally told him, he tried to look calm but i could tell his breathing had quickened. he told me to change and that we would go to the hospital. it was 10.15pm, i had showered and brushed my teeth, we reached the hospital at 10.30pm....