Feeding baby

I still can't grasp her feeding habits. Sometimes she falls asleep after feeding on one side and stays asleep for hours. Sometimes she's still crying for more milk after feeding on both sides, and I have to try to breastfeed her again or warm up some of the expressed milk for her. I wonder if it's her feeding pattern that's unpredictable, or my milk supply. Sigh.

On a brighter note, went for my post-natal gynae appointment today and doc says my episiotomy wound is healing beautifully. Hubby, baby and I also took photos with Dr Tham and his sweet and trusty assistant, nurse Nina. We're planning to print the photos for them, and my next appointment is 3 months later.

Here's 4 pics of my lovely precious who's always so full of expressions, especially after the satisfaction from my breasts. She has quite an obsessed mummy who can't stop snapping her photos! :P

Hubby love

Besides working the entire Monday, hubby has been busy with both work and baby or me for the rest of this week.

On Tuesday, hubby came to my folks' place to fetch us for baby's PD appointment, then there was the lab test in the polyclinic, then baby's admission into TMC, before sending me back to my folks' place.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was a visit to TMC to see my little precious. The original plan was for my mum and I to take a cab and meet his mum at TMC to visit baby together. But he popped by my folks' place unexpectedly to fetch us, and subsequently sent us home.

Today baby's discharged from TMC, and once again I told him I'll go fetch baby by cab as I know he's been busy with work and his part time studies and the ordeal is burning him out. But once again he appeared unexpectedly to fetch me, picked baby up from TMC, footed the bill, and sent us back before rushing for his own lunch and then back to work.

Tomorrow is my post-natal gynae appointment and once again hubby will be taking time off and bringing me to TMC. I came home today and cried thinking about how tiring it is for him. Really heartpain for him to be rushing to and fro despite his hectic work plus part-time degree schedule.

I really appreciate having him to be always there for me and my little precious one. So much so much love for both of them - my family, my love~

Pumping frenzy

I just achieved 105ml! That's combined of both sides - 35ml from left and 70ml from right... Before this the max was 95ml although usually only around 70ml...

Wonder why the left side one always produce lesser. Yesterday when I asked Mdm Suria, she said 20% lesser is normal, but today it's 50% lesser! =\ Maybe ask her again later...

Anyway yesterday the nurse at TMC told me that my little precious can drink up to 95ml of milk per feed! Oh gosh, what a big eater she is!!

Visiting baby

Went to visit my little precious at TMC and brought my expressed milk over for her too... Been missing her like crazy!! It's just so good to have her in my arms... Although she was sleeping throughout as she was just fed. So I didn't manage to feed her myself.

Her PD called me this morning to inform me that her jaundice level has gone down well... And the nurse at TMC told me when she was admitted, the level was high at 22+ but today it's at 13+ after one day, so tomorrow it should be below 10 and she can be discharged. Yay, I can't wait to have her back with me tomorrow! :D

Taken today at TMC... My little darling in my arm~ such chubby cuteness!!

Back in TMC

I did say I will miss the service here, but I didn't expect to be back this soon. And for this reason. :(

Today we brought the little one for her first PD visit, then a blood test at the polyclinic, and the results reveal the bad news that my little precious need to be admitted immediately for "sunbathing". All thanks to the lack of sunlight since we were discharged. What happened to the scorching hot days in the past many weeks?!

Hubby was on leave in the morning for the PD visit and now had to take the rest of the day off. And I'm super engorged and painful now, with the last feed at 6+ in the morning and her one subsequent feed was the leftover formula mix from TMC. We've been waiting for admission at TMC since 12:05pm and we're still sitting here waiting... and I'm starving.

A pic to brighten up this particularly gloomy day... My darling baby fast asleep in my arm while waiting for the lab results in the polyclinic. She remained peacefully asleep despite the fuss we were making over her, and didn't even budge at all when pricked for the blood test.

Post-natal massage

Just had my first post-natal massage by Mdm Suria.. Shiok!

My breasts are now softer, not like two heavy rock melons anymore. The tightly knotted muscles are all loosen up and my ab - super flabby after giving birth - is now in a wrap. She's really friendly and nice and gives good advices too. I was surprised she's only 3 years my senior! Really thankful to my friend for introducing her, and also thankful that I'm doing confinement at my parents' place as she only provides her services in certain areas and this is one of them. =)

Another gloomy day

Sigh. Our PD told us to sun the little precious as she's having mild jaundice, but there hasn't been much sunlight at my parents' place these two days! She's getting yellow on the skin, in the eyes and her tongue too, and I'm getting worried.

Getting used to the "bigness" and now the engorgement isn't as bad. Probably what I felt earlier was just the "fourth day worst engorgement" and hope the engorged feeling won't come back. Now I feed on demand in the day and let her suckle, while pumping once in the day and once at night... Feeding her the expressed milk in the night as she suckles for very long. After bottle feeding she will go back to sleep and I can get more rest too.

Here's the little one with her priceless expressions after this morning's first feed~

Engorged

I love the blogger iPhone app... Haha... Now I'm typing this entry with one hand while baby is greedily suckling in my other arm.

To think this morning I was still worried about milk supply. Just now the engorgement was killing me! I had both sides pumped for 15 minutes at 9:45pm and then now baby is suckling after she woke up from her slumber crying for milk. Both sides are still plump and heavy with milk. I feel like a true blue mammal mum. Haha...

It's really not easy. To think I just pumped and I still feel engorged. And I thought I didn't need fenugreek but my gynae introduced it to us and hubby was very enthusiastic and bought it this morning. I'm having it and also having a good supply now. Bought the supplementary system as recommended yesterday when the milk supply was not in... Sigh, not cheap and never used... Waste money! :/

Read from Mrs Wong's breastfeeding guide that engorgement may be felt worst on the fourth day which is today. Hope it will not linger!!

Reality hits

This morning I woke up crying. I will be discharged later and I started to panic. What if baby still doesn't want to latch? What if there is no milk supply? What if I don't know how to take care of baby? What if I don't know anything and can't do anything? I feel very ill prepared and suddenly I realized I'll be on my own (with my mum of course but she claims she has forgotten everything and I'm kinda on my own) and I cried so bad as reality hit hard.

I really hope I can cope, I'm so afraid I can't. :(

My stay in TMC

A photo summary :P

I'll miss being served and well taken care of by the professionals in my premium suite.

The delivery

This morning at 7+ I started to feel this cramp... Like menstrual cramp... And was having urge to pee and poo. The cramp comes like every 10 to 15 minutes, and each time I rushed to the toilet to pee and poo.

Later on the cramp gets more and more painful and frequent, and I still run to the loo in pain each time. I alerted hubby who was sleeping, at slightly pass 8am and he quickly got ready while I continued to rush in and out of the loo. At 8:40am, I see a watery bloody mess on my panty liner, probably the show and a sign that the water bag has broken.

Coincidentally hubby saw doc yesterday and was given two-day MC, so he was at home and quickly rushed me down to TMC. I was going mad in pain on the way and the slow rush-hour traffic was really getting onto our nerves... and finally we arrived at TMC at 9 plus.

While hubby was doing the admission at the lobby, I requested for gas in the observation ward and was wriggling and struggling with the pain. The nurses asked if I really didn't want epidural but I was in too much pain to even bother answering them. I was quickly dilated from 2 cm upon arrival to 8 cm in around 30 minutes and was sent to the delivery ward. Hubby was anxious to find me gone from the observation ward when he returned from the lobby and was directed to the delivery ward. I too was anxious to be in the delivery ward alone without him and hoping he could be back in time to witness the birth of our baby.

Eventually the pushing came and I was just super tired from the pushing as I haven't had breakfast. Stubborn baby slipped back each time I stopped pushing, so after pushing for an hour, my gynae was called in to use vacuum on the baby. Had a jab for the episiotomy and after the encouragements from hubby, the midwives and the gynae, plus a few more pushes that expended all my energy, the baby was finally out.

The doc got hubby to cut the umbilical cord while I was totally shagged out. I was lying there motionless when the doc was stitching me up. He said I was fast for first timer and have very high tolerance for pain. I was just too exhausted to react...

Baby was delivered just before 12 noon, measuring 3.36 kg and 50 cm. And here she is, saying, "hello world!"

This entry was uploaded using blogger iphone app while in hospital bed and later edited to add in more details. All entries updated in TMC are posted via the iphone app.

Prenatal pics

Just 16 out of many of the pictures that I've taken over the past few months... from 20 weeks in the first pic to 38 weeks and 1 day (today) in the last pic.

August 2012

3 August 2012 The last post was on 14 July and I did exclaim "Time flies!" And now I must say, truly, how time flies! July was over in a flash and I haven't been updating. But that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything. In fact, I was so busy with celebrations and work and preparing baby stuff...

July was hubby's birthday celebration, my mother's birthday celebration, plus another close girlfriend cum colleague's birthday celebration... besides these celebrations, we have been dining out quite a bit with hubby's family. There's this new restaurant opened at Compass Point, called Canton Paradise, and my in-laws are absolutely crazy over it. I was actually there 6 times in 3 weeks! Twice with my close colleagues and 4 more times - once with hubby on his birthday and the rest all with my in-laws as well. One was their treat for hubby, one was hubby's treat, and another time a treat for BIL whose birthday is in early August.

Been working on my lesson packages and setting of standarized tests... now busy with my EOY papers, hopefully can set finish before I go on maternity leave! And two weeks ago, we went to Taka Baby Fair after my gynae appointment and spent almost a thousand there on baby items! Including a stroller, baby wipes, sterilizer, baby bathing gel, baby laundry detergent, breastpads etc... and for spending so much, we gotten a Fisher-Price freebie and free home delivery. Now that all the items have arrived, the house is really cluttered. I really cannot imagine, all the stuff for a tiny little baby is taking so much more space than I can imagine!! The list in the pic below is a bilingual checklist written by me for my in-laws to check the items when the delivery arrived ^^

I've even taken some self-shots of myself using the timer mode of my neglected Canon 600D while home alone after work one day... since not intending to spend money on studio pics... yet really wanted to take some photos to keep as momento, so think no more, I shall do it myself!! Sharing one here... how's this? =)

These two days I'm on MC. Been in a lot of pain. Today I updated in my Facebook: "I haven't eaten a thing because I haven't gotten out of bed because I just can't walk a few steps without bursting into tears from the excruciating pain... Pain pain please go away soon!!!"

And no, it's not contraction. It's just a nerve-wrecking backache from an old injury... Last time I fell down a flight of stairs (while preparing for my wedding photoshoot some 5 years ago) and landed awkwardly on my lower back now the old injury is back to haunt me.. Doc says the ligament from the lower spine to pelvic bone there loosen up to make the passageway for baby to exit... So probably loosen le more sensitive...  This lower back pain been with me on and off for the past week, but these two days it was so painful that my legs will buckle under the pain when I walk... Like hitting a raw nerve every time I shift my weight from left leg to right leg... Can hardly walk 3 steps to the washroom... and to think I always think I have high threshold of pain! Blood-letting, cupping and brazilian waxing are like nothing to me! Now I'm started to fear that when it's my time, the labour pain and this back pain will come together and test my tolerance. I seriously hope to go for natural without epidural... wish me all the best!

10 August 2012 Yesterday's National Day and today is a holiday! Unfortunately I have tonnes of graded assignments to be marked and exam papers to set... next week will be my last week in school before I go on maternity leave.

Since I have 6 secondary 2 classes and 4 secondary 3 classes, all physics (all lower sec, pure, combined express and combined normal acad), there's always tonnes of work to do. This week I collected graded assignments from my 6 sec 2 classes and one of the sec 3 classes... plus class test from my pure science class. All need to be marked over this weekend. Next wednesday is science common test. So I will received common test papers from all the 10 classes. Plus I'm also giving a short class test for my sec 2s (those poor things, but I am making use of the fact that they are already revising for common test so might as well right? same topic wor! =P)... so I will hv test scripts from 16 classes to be marked and marks keyed in by next Friday! OMG, faints~

Sadly, when I came to this site (previous URL at Multiply.com) to log in today, it says that it's stopping service soon. Time to migrate somewhere else... dunno where to go. I like Multiply because I can keep my entries to be contact-only. If I go back to blogger.com, then I'll have to add all my friends all over again, provided they are also interested to log in and read my entries. Ha... Okies, shall go back to work and then source for another suitable site soon. So long~

19 August 2012 Friday was officially my last working day before maternity leave starts. But alas, procrastination overtook me and now I'm still setting papers and marking away... hopefully can return everything by Wednesday, praying that baby won't pop until end of next week! planning to go back to school on coming Wednesday. Firstly, my table is in a horrible mess as I rushed to complete whatever little tasks I had on hand before I go and stacking piles of stuff on my table and having no time to clear them up. Secondly, it's the promotion ceremony for my Red Cross Youth cadets and they are really looking forward to having me go back for the ceremony and enjoy the party after the ceremony with them.

Alrighty, back to doing my work... urgh, I get distracted easily as everytime baby kicks I will stop to "play" with baby... pat pat and poke poke my bump and chatting away with her. Haha, crazy mama I am! Will be back to update on where I'll be continuing my 'motherhood blog'. So long~ (this is my last entry in Multiply.com)

20 August 2012 So, I'm continuing here. This is the first entry I typed in blogger.com, the earlier ones were all copied over from multiply.com which unfortunately will be closing down soon. I've been using blogger.com for a long time before using multiply.com and even while using multiply.com so everything's a breeze here.

I'm done with setting my papers! Like, YES! Finally~ Woohoo!! Up next, 5 more stacks of marking to go~ And a day to clear up my messy desk in the staffroom, and I'll be free from all work-related duty and finally focus on being a new mother! Will miss my nice nice colleagues though. I always feel fortunate to be blessed with really nice colleagues. =)

Guess what? When people ask me how excited I am, I really think everyone else is more excited than me! I don't feel that much excitement afterall, and I always reply, "I guess the excitement will kick in when I start feeling the contractions." Hahaha~ work seriously keeps my mind off the pregnancy excitement although baby's kickings manage to distract me most of the time and she sure kicks a lot!

Alrighty, it's late and it's time to rest. I'll be back. Yay!

21 August 2012 Rise and shine! This is the first entry typed in the Blogger iPhone app ^^ Today my maternity leave officially starts. But I'm still marking... >< nevermind, it's almost done, just 3 more classes to go!!

My bag and the cordlife stuff all packed and ready to go~

Having gynae appointment later at 11:30am ^^