Saturday, February 18, 2012

Deprived of Sleep

I am very sleepy and constantly lack of sleep!
Why?
Because of my Baby Rae!
I had not slept well since week 37 of my pregnancy due to the backache, pressing tummy, anxiety of child birth.
After baby is born, I have yet to get a continuous sleep greater then 3 hours due to night feeds.
Yes, I had a confinement nanny to have me during the 1st month upon child birth, but as I only gave breast milk via latch on (with no bottle feeding), I gotta wake up to feed baby personally.
Her last feed for the night is 9pm, then next feed at 3am, 6am, 9am, followed by 2 hourly feed till 9pm at night and the same routine the next day!
When she sleeps, I can't sleep as I gotta express milk from my engorged breast.
Now when the confinement nanny is gone, I am caring for her alone, so I gotta be alert and keep a watchful eyes over her in fear of SIDS!

I am sleepy ...... When can I ve a good sleep?

No, don't get me wrong, I don't regret being a Mother as I know all these (baby, sleepless nights, flabby tummy, dark eye circles, puffy eyes, engorged breast, baby cries, no time for doing own leisure reading or other activities, always rushing to finish the meal quick to care for baby, frequent diaper changing, constant worry if baby drinks/ sleeps/ poos& pees enough etc) come in a package calls "Motherhood" but it also gives you a bonus packet known as "happiness with laughters"!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Happy V Day 2012!

I ve been busy caring and feeding Baby Rae and didn't realized it was Valentines Day yesterday until RY gave me a bouquet of roses and wish me Happy V Day!
I was surprised that he still gave me flowers.
I ve heard from friends that their husband stopped giving them flowers with the arrival of babies.
I'm not sure if he will persist but certainly hope that he does .......
Even though I am a mature adult and a mother, deep in my heart there is still the girlish part of me who wants to receive flowers from my man.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Breast Feeding

I have always wanted to do breast feeding to my babies as I am aware of the benefits of Mother's milk to her baby.
As much as I hope to breast feed, I understand that it may not necessary mean that I can produce any or sufficient milk to feed my hungry baby. Also not all baby can latch or suckle successfully.
During my pregnancy, I kept telling my baby "mummy loves you and will breast feed you to give you the best from me. Mummy will produce lots of milk for you so that you will not be hungry".
I guess this self conditioning could have helped in my breast milk productions.

In about week 36, my gynae taught me simple breast massage technique to induce milk production. I started to produce colostrum in the following week.
I think it was a blessing that Baby Rae was able to latch on to suckle well when she was newly born.
I can still remember vividly when the nurse bring Baby Rae to me for feeding, I merely held her to my breast and she opened her mouth wide to start to suckle.
It was a very thrilling moment to see a tiny baby feeding for food!
At that moment, I was the happiest and satisfying mum with my bundle of joy in my arm!
But being a new born, she tend to fall asleep easily as it required a lot of strength to suck
the colostrum/ milk out.
So I had to constantly wake her up by touching her cheek.
I was feeding her 4 hourly and the nurse would bring her to me as I chose exclusive breast feeding.

My milk supply kicks in on the 2nd day after child birth.
I started to have engorged breast on the 3rd night.
Fortunately the lactation consultant came to my rescue on the next day,Saturday morning, before I discharged in the afternoon.
She massaged my breast to relief the engorgement and also applied cold cabbage leaves on my breasts. She also advised me to latch baby on frequently and expressed the milk diligently using a breast pump.
When I came home, I did as instructed and in few days time, no more engorgement!

As at today, I am still breast feeding Baby Rae exclusively for 9 feeds per day and am glad that she is growing well!
I hope to be able to breast feed her for at least 6 months.
Wish me luck!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Pregnancy Journal 5 - Birth Story

Baby Rae EDD was 24 December 2011 and we were looking forward to a Christmas baby.
But her actual delivery date was 3 days earlier on 21 December 2011.

I was a happy mum to be during the pregnancy and my health condition was good.
Few days before the delivery date, I suddenly felt anxious and can't sleep at night.
I was wide awake in the middle of the night.
On Monday 19 December, it went to the gynae for a routine check and was surprised to see an exceptionally high blood pressure and doctor informed that my water level in the water bag is getting lower. She suggested that I admitted immediately for delivery.
I was shocked and speechless!
I told her I was not prepared since RY was at a meeting and not reachable.
She sent me to do HCG scanning to monitor heartbeat.
I was strapped up for 45 mins to do the scan and fortunately the result was good, so I was allowed home but gotta be admitted on 21 Dec morning for delivery.
She also told me to monitor baby's movement during the 2 days!

When I got home, I quickly did laundry, house cleaning, prepared baby cot mattresses, checked my hospital bag, admission documents etc.
I had the worst night that Monday night as I was worried about baby and imagined that there was no more movements.
It was an agony to go the another night and RY almost wanna admit me on Tuesday morning.
We received a surprised phone call from my gynae on Tuesday late afternoon.
She told me to get admitted on Tuesday night after 11.30pm so that the hospital can help me monitor the baby's movement and I will be induced on Wed morning.

That night, we had a quick dinner, then went to collect my breast pump which I ordered online.
I tried to calm myself down by watch TV before we left for TMC.

We reached TMC at about 11.40pm.
I went to the delivery suite while RY did the admission registration.
I was given laxative inserts to clear my bowel and was given medication to induce labour at about 2am.
I started feeling the contraction pain 3 hours later, then at 6am I washed up and had my
shower.
The contractions got more intense and the gynae came to check on me at 7am and told me that I ve not dilated and will wait for another hour to monitor if I can go ahead with the natural delivery.
An hour later, when she came, she checked and informed that she would do an emergency c-sec in an hour's time since I was not even a cm dilated.
She told me to choose between GA and epidural.
As I was in anxiety, we decided on GA.

Then the nurses prepared me for the operation.
I was pushed to the operating theatre at about 10am.

When I opened my eyes, I was in the hospital ward and it was 11.30am.
I saw RY and the first question I asked him was " is the baby ok? Is she pretty and normal?"
RY told me that all was well and assured me of a beautiful baby.

The gynae came to my room to check on me and asked if I wanted to breast feed baby. I told her yes and she arranged for the lactation consultant to advice me on the breast feeding techniques.
I get to see baby at about 12.30pm and did my first breast feeding despite the painful wounds.
I only managed to give her very little colostrum as my milk supply had not kicked in yet.
Holding my baby in my arm was wonderful, it was like a dream finally came true!
My Motherhood journey starts instantly!
The lactation consultant helped us take picture of our newborn in my arms, I shall always remember that moment ......

CNY 2012 - Year of the Water Dragon!

Happy CNY!

This CNY is different from prior year as we ve Baby Rae!

As usual, we went back to Ipoh for the CNY celebration.
RY and myself had been contemplating whether we should bring a month old baby on a road trip back to Ipoh since it was a long 6 hours drive.

Initially we had decided not to go back to Ipoh fearing that baby would to too young and fragile to travel, but after checking around with friends, we were told it was safe to travel as many fellow Malaysians had done it before!
But we still can't decide on the exact date to travel as we would like to celebrate Baby Rae's full month before we leave SG.

We had intended to have her full month party on 21 Jan Saturday and to travel on 22 Jan Sunday.
After much discussion with RY, we changed the full month celebration to Thursday 19 Jan and to
depart SG on 20 Jan.

Traveling with a baby is no joke as it entailed lots of preparation work, especially mine is a fully breast feb one!

On 19 Jan, after the full month party, we rushed to pack luggage and clean the house.
I quickly pumped 2 bottles of 120ml volume of milk for the confinement lady (cl) to feed Baby Rae for the night and the mid night feeds so that I can concentrate in preparing the luggage for the trip.

We woke up at 3am to feed baby Rae and left the house at 4am.
We were glad that the custom in both SG and MY were cleared, 2 toilet stops were made and we managed to arrive Ipoh at 10.30am.
We dropped CL at her Ipoh address before we reached PIL's place.

The moment we arrived, we quickly bathed Baby Rae and then I breast fed her before putting her to bed.
PIl was looking forward to our return, they prepared a baby cot in our room and another one in the living hall.
We also set up the baby monitor so that while she is sleeping upstairs, we are able to monitor her cries remotely in a floor below!
FIL cooked confinement dishes for my lunch.

With PIL's help, RY and myself managed to do some shopping in Ipoh. They helped to look after Baby Rae so that we can shop in peace.
We took opportunity to stock up cheap diapers, tissues, baby wipes, baby wash etc.

As Baby Rae's full month was too close to CNY, we were not able to hold any celebration party in Ipoh, instead we visited the relatives to introduce the new family member to them.
Being the first grand child of PIL, Baby Rae received generous gifts from many people.
The money gifts would be placed in her bank account.

We stayed in Ipoh for a week and left on Thursday!
Last time, when it was just RY and me, we would leave after a 3 to 4 days stay, but with a baby, we need the additional days to get ready for a long driving journey.
On Thursday morning, we set off at 7.30am and arrived SG at about 2pm.

This CNY was really fun with Baby Rae!
I look forward to the next CNY!

Pregnancy Journal - 4

Gynae Searching

In total, I had seen 4 gynaes, 1 in KL and Ipoh respective and 2 in SG.

The gynae in KL was recommended by RY's friend and the one in Ipoh was recommended by MIL's friend.
The KL gynae was very assuring, he knew about my 3 previous miscarriages history and kept assuring me that this pregnancy would be a smooth and successful one.
I was with him till my 22 weeks detailed scan to ensure the baby is normal and viable before I return to SG.

Initially we had wanted to deliver our baby in KL but due to accommodation constrain during the confinement, we changed to Ipoh.
The gynae in Ipoh was very caring, despite the detailed scan done in KL, she did another round of detailed scanning to check on the organ development and took picture of baby Rae to show us how beautiful she was. It was a relief to know at the early stage that there is no cleft lips.

During my stay in Ipoh, I was having a second thought of delivering Baby Rae in Ipoh. I had wanted a natural delivery so was uncertain about the actual delivery date. I fear that RY may not make it in time in Ipoh to accompany me through out the delivery.
So we decided that we should have our baby in SG.

While in Ipoh, I researched on the various hospital and decided on Thomason Medical Centre to deliver my baby but haven't confirm the gynae. I also enrolled us to the Antenatal Class conducted by TMC commencing in September 2011.

So in mid August, I returned to SG and went to Bintan with RY.
We had shortlisted 2 gynae in SG, the first was Dr AW, we chose him because his clinic is pretty near to our house, but we were not comfortable with him since his consultation was really fast, we had no chance to ask much question.

The second one was Dr WK Tan of TMC.
She is very motherly and patient with our question.
During the first consultation, we immediately decided on her as our gynae to deliver Baby Rae and signed on to her package.
She is a very experienced doctor! Each visit was very assuring!