BabyD update: The birth

Fuh..it's been 2 months since I last came here.. To be honest, I'm just too lazy to keep up with this blog, and there's too much stuff for me to do than sit down in front of the laptop to jot down anything.

BabyD is now 2 months plus and how time flies. It seems like a long time though because i've been home almost everyday taking care of him and Peanut. I guess i need to start from the very beginning..the day he was born.

As it's an elective c-sect, we've picked a date a while ago. We didn't go to any sifu to choose the dates though, rather we picked a date that was most convenient for us. Our Doc gave us a few dates to choose in my 38 weeks, so we picked a date that fell on a Saturday. Saturday is good, cos DH can be with me, and he didn't need to take any leave. And as he's given 3 days paternity leave, he could accompany us the following Mon-Wed.

The days leading up to the operation was very nerve wrecking for me. I was extremely nervous, worried, basically i had a lot of thoughts running through my mind. Things that can go wrong etc etc. You would think i'll be more seasoned and relaxed seeing that this is my second c-sect, but nah, it's the total opposite. I guess knowing what's going to happen at each stage culminating with the operation had me very nervous. I know the pain that i had to go through (multiple injections, drips), the embarrassment that I'm going to feel when the nurses give me the enema, the fear i will have when they wheeled me into the operation room. I also had fears that baby will not be okay (will he have jaundice, problems etc).. I'm a worrier, so yeah, i didn't have it easy the months leading up to it haha.

The night before the operation, I had a big dinner at Carl's Junior with DH. That was probably gonna be my last, fatty meal before confinement begins and dieting starts. I had eaten whatever i want during my pregnancy, not caring how i'm gonna lose weight after, because..obviously i never learn my lesson. Now two months post pregnancy, i'm now trying to lose weight again fml.

The morning of the operation, DH and me trooped to SDMC with all the essentials. We were finger-crossing that we'll be able to get a single room, but NO, according to the nurse, there were 11 patients ahead of us waiting for a single room. 11!!! Oh man...they put us in a double room while waiting for the operation and this was where it all began. One nurse came one after another; to sign forms, to give me the hospital outfit, to ask me which PD i prefer for our baby, to shave my *ahem* down there, to give me the enema wtf wtf and lastly the Anesthetist came as well to tell me the risks and for me to sign more forms. So many procedures! I don't remember going through that many procedures during my first c-sect, maybe because that time it was 2am in the morning..

When they wheeled me into the operating room, my heart was going beep bop beep bop loudly. Damn scared!! They wheeled me into open area to wait for my turn. There were a few other patients with all waiting for their operations. It was a common waiting area for operations, so there were patients with other ailments there as well, including a child who had appendicitis. So poor thing. All of us were lying on our respective beds that can be wheeled into individual operation theaters. It was here while i was waiting for my turn that I decided not to have a third kid ever. hahaha

I waited for about half hour before I was wheeled inside the theatre. I wanted to run away at this point but the baby gotta come out no matter what. i was asked to lean forward while sitting down, so they can administer the jabs on my spine. THey gave me 3 jabs all in all, and slowly i can feel the numbness going down my legs. Not long later my Dr came in his scrubs and he started...

I couldn't see a thing of course, as there was a huge cloth screen covering my tummy. The Dr was pretty vigorous during the operation, i can feel him struggling, and pulling baby out. I didn't know it was that tough to get a baby out of your tummy but apparently it's pretty tough, and he needed to use forceps! Whatever it is, it took a while, and i kept asking the Anesthetist who was with me the whole time whether the baby is out cos I can't wait to see him! Finally i could hear the baby cry, and i was pretty relieved. But actually, i only felt truly relieved when they brought BabyD to see me, and the nurse told me he's OK. he's Fine. Then only i breathed a sigh of relief. Phews!!

In the meantime, DH managed to get us a single room, which is really great because this means that he could spend the nights with us. BabyD was only wheeled back to us after a few hours so that they can monitor him. I started breastfeeding once they wheeled him in. A bit different this time round..I remember with Peanut i was really struggling with her latching on, but it was much easier with BabyD. The rest of the hospital stay was smooth and i checked out on Monday itself. I stayed for a total of 2 nights.

The pretty nurse getting BabyD ready so that we can leave the hospital

All bundled up like a worm

Ready to go! Sekian.

The hospital stay

For a c-section, we needed to stay in the hospital a couple days more as compared to normal birth. So i stayed in the hospital from the 9th till the 11th. The hospital stay was pretty smooth. A few hours after the operation, the nurses wheeled Peanut into my room. We opted for a single bedroom because husbands are allowed to stay overnite with their wives, and their babies has the option of rooming-in (to stay with the new mummies for almost the whole day). What I liked about SDMC (Sime Darby Medical Centre), was that they are really pro-breastfeeding. They will not feed the babies formula milk unless the mothers personally request the nursery nurses to do so.

But then oh, I had such a hard time breastfeeding. This is really not an easy task. For the whole three days I was there, each morning, the nurses will bring Peanut into my room, where they will ask me to breastfeed. On the first day, this lactation consultant came to see me, and basically taught me how to breastfeed properly. In theory, it sounds easy la. And I always thought it was such an easy task when I see mothers breastfeeding their kiddos in the shopping malls washrooms. But you really need to persevere and try not be frustrated. Everytime Peanut cries because she can't latch on properly or I don't hold her the right way, I will press the bell for a nursery nurse to come and help me. Thankfully, they are very quick in responding, if not i'll feel so lost wey. However, at nite, I told them to bring Peanut back to the nursery and asked them to feed her formula milk as a supplement because i really think she doesn't have enough milk from me and I'm worried she might get dehydrated and hungry.

As for hospital meals...well that's a whole different story. They will give me porridge with either chicken or fish everyday, which the confinement lady has told me earlier on that I can't have it (the porridge) because it'll give me "wind". So i ate food my MIL cooked for me. I also had apples and drank boiled water, and had chicken essence which I only found out later is a big no-no as well in my CL's big book of rule

Oh oh, and the doc also told me "you better shower and wash your hair before you check out okie?"

ANd i went like "er...my CL say cannot wor.."

He pula said.."Why cannot?? You give me one good reason why you cannot shower, and i give you a 100 reasons why you should. This is not China, where it might be freezing in winter, where people need to go chop wood to make fire to boil water for you to bathe. Aiya, all these pantangs, don't simply listen to all of them. Malaysia is so humid, you need to be clean for the baby."

Okay-la, we shut up after tat. Frankly, i agree with wot the doctor said, but you know...old people la..and their rules. Aiseh.

Oh...and thank you Pei Chyi, Mei Li, Josie, Peng Pheng and Christine for visiting me and for the gifts sniff sniff! I heart you all!

We received this as a souvenir from the hospital. Pretty neat stuff!

Her health record book. Haven't written down her name yet, cos..we haven't registered her, and we haven't thought of a chinese name yet..we have 14 days to do so (*guilty look*)

What?

Stop taking my pics!

Peanut's birth story

Well, it wasn't that dramatic for a start. On that day itself, ( I was in my 38th week) which was a Sunday, we had a pretty busy day. We spent most of our day packing our stuff from our apartment in PJ to BigBoss's family home as that's where I"ll be spending my confinement. We had everything settled by 10pm, and i was lying down comfortably in bed, watching my E channel, when I had to get up to get something. That's when i felt something trickling down. Now, my first thought when that happened was "is that pee??" I mean you never know right, pregnancy does weird things to your body, and incontinence might be one of them.

So I told BigBoss, who immediately jumped out of bed and shouted "hah??" and quickly put on his jeans. So to be doubly sure, i quickly went to the toilet, and took a quick pee, and the water continued flowing down. Frankly, i wasn't sure what it was. It's colorless, odorless and looks just like water. And i went back to the bedroom to sit down. BigBoss kept asking me whether i'm sure it's my water that broke. Like how would i know rite?? I've never been pregnant before, and it didn't seems like how it happened in the movies, where the water just gush down and splatter on the floor. Like someone pouring a glass of water on the floor hehe .Anyway i digress.

So I stood up again, and water just kept leaking, like a very bad leaky pipe. So I told BigBoss, "this is it man! You gotta get me to the hospital, like now!" So I quickly grabbed my emergency bag which thankfully i've packed already, put on a sanitary pad, threw in my phone charger, camera and video cam, a book, my purse and we zoomed out of the door and into the car. BigBoss's parents followed us as well, to provide moral support to BigBoss in case he faints halfway. You could hear a pin drop in the car. Everybody was so silent.

Anyway, we reached the hospital in record time. He dropped me at the emergency entrance, and screamed at the valet, "she's in labor!!! where can i park?" Actually he didn't scream la, i just made that up to sound more dramatic. And the valet did ask him to park at the entrance since i'm in labor hehe. Technically i'm in labor, but i wasn't in pain or anything like that. No contraction, no nothing. Nada. I tried my best to exit gracefully from the car, felt more water leaking down, and try to walk as fast as possible to the reception.

When i reached the reception, the bored looking nurse (it was 11:15pm by then), asked me "yes, can I help you?" So i said calmly, "my water just broke". She selamba only, led me to this room called Stage 1, Labor room. Actually i had this vision of a group of nurses rushing to me and bringing a wheelchair for me, but again, i'm not in the movies. She then asked me to change into their really tak glam hospital outfit in the bathroom, and while i was changing, the water just kept leaking and I leaked all the way back to my bed, leaving a watery trail. She then strapped this contraption thingy onto my belly, to monitor the baby's heartbeat and to time my contractions. She then put on some gloves and proceeded to throw my dignity out of the window. Yeap, she stuck her fingers inside and it was super painful lor!!!! Apparently she was checking to see how dilated I was. I wasn't. And the contraption they strapped on me earlier was indicating that i was having contractions but it was slowing down. By then i was leaking something pinkish. Blood. But still no pain. Oh did i mention she also gave me an enema?? Really fun times.

Anyway, my doc came in at 1:15am, told me that it might take around 24 hours for Peanut to come out. And there's a danger that she might be in distress because of the lack of fluids in the belly. I took the easy way out and opt for ceaseran. C-section has always been on my mind, especially when I remembered the traumatising episode that i had back in January which involves a small operation, the difficulty in sitting down and going to toilet after that and so on. Nope, I wouldn't want to go through that again.

I was wheeled into the operating theatre at around 2am. Thank God for the really nice, fun bunch of Operating team i had that night. The nurses were kind and gentle, and the anaesthologist who gave me the epidural was a funny dude. They were very reassuring which made the whole episode extremely comfortable. For my epidural, i had two injections into my backbone. That was scary. But it wasn't as bad as I expected. To cut the long story short, when they took Peanut out, I felt this huge pressure on my belly and that's when i heard her crying. Ah...music to my ears!! I was so relieved! They took a couple of minutes to clean Peanut up, and they showed her to me after that. I gave her a quick kiss before they whisk her off to BigBoss for his turn. I was kept near the operating theatre for another half hour for observation. They also put this fan to blow hot air into my blanket because one of the after effects of epidural is feelings of coldness, and nausea. By 3:40am, I was back in my room where I puked my dinner out, and went to sleep after.

My tag. Peanut and I had the same number for identification purposes.

The report generated from the contraption they strapped onto my belly.

A closer look. I have no idea how to read it either but the bottom graph was supposed to depict my contractions. I think.


And that's that everybody! :)

Hello world!!

Oh, hi there!!

Weight: 3.31 kg
Date of birth: 9 of March 2009
Time: 2.26am
Length: 48cm
Head Circumference: 35.5cm