I love ralph and rachel: the stupidest day of my life

Just a day ago, I turned 30 years old. I was on leave to complete my assignment. My mil wanted me to go to her place in the evening so we can cut my birthday cake. I should had been happy about it yet I was a little annoyed instead... "what's with a birthday? what's there to celebrate?". Little would I know what's going to happen the following day will bring new meaning to my birthday.

I remember the day started with an sms from Jenny wishing me a happy day 1 of my 31st year, I still replied oh I didnt know yesterday was day 0, and I told her Rachel is being very active and stretching a lot. For the whole day of 5th Sept, I had brushed away the tightening feeling of the stomach and treated it as Rachel making stretches.

The tightening started early, were far apart (few hours), and short. I remember my colleague asked me if I was having cramps and I still confidently replied "no lah.. she's just stretching". I sent smss to ky, once in the morning at around 10.30am "I wonder what our little yang mehmehh is doing, stretching or trying to turn back up?" and again at 3.30pm "rachel is going into a stretching frenzy". In the late morning, I also called Kowa's clinic to tell them about an increase in mucus-like discharge and was advised to monitor (I didnt mention the stretching feeling) and to go to the clinic first thing in the morning if it turns colour. I knew and googled about discharge in late pregnancy before and knew it was normal.

Having had two days of leave, it was a very busy working day for me and I was working on a proposal for the whole day and was the last among the sales team to be ready to leave. It was a Wednesday and I was supposed to go for my lecture. I called mil and then KY to tell them that I would had to give the lecture a miss. Soon after, at about 6.30pm, feeling something amiss, I googled about contraction. I felt really really wrong and called KY that I would like to go to A&E.

On the way to Mount E, I timed the "stretching feeling". It had turned from few hours apart to 15minutes apart lasting about 15seconds each time. The drive felt especially long and I was saying silent prayers "please, the waterbag dont burst". Knowing that if that happens, it'll be too late to reverse the labour.

When I reached the A&E, I blurted "I'm 30 weeks pregnant and I'm having contractions. My Gynae is Dr Kowa". They wheeled me up to the labour ward. I asked the midwife to quickly give me the drip to stop the labour. She told me that they will have to put me on monitor for 15minutes so that they can report to the gynae, only then can the gynae advise on the dosage of the drip. Within this fateful 15minutes, I felt the prick of the waterbag, feeling extremelly upset, I let out a huge sigh.. "the waterbag burst..".

Dr Kowa came shortly after and contacted a pediatrician who specialises in small babies, Dr Low, to be at the labour ward immediately. Dr Kowa did an internal check "cannot, your baby is coming out, I need to remove the stitch", which he promptly did.

About 2 and a half hours later, Rachel was born, 2 months prematurely. Hearing her cry was both heart breaking and heart warming. Heart breaking because she would have to go through her first 2 months of her life in the NICU; heart warming because she was showing good signs of survival.

All because of her mother's stupidity, Rachel was born, 2 months prematurely. So many if onlys that I dont wish to type here.. So this is the answer to "what happened on that day?". A question posed by many well-meaning friends, a question I was reluctant to answer. It had happened and I would like to put this behind and focus on what's coming ahead.

Here's presenting my Remarkable Rachel