Still waiting

Can't believe I'm saying this but yup we're still pregnant and waiting!

9 days past the EDD and the little one is still too comfy and snug in the mothership to come out and say hi. No show, no breaking of waters, just a whole lot of contractions from a very "irritated uterus" for the last few weeks. After all those warnings about a possible early delivery, we didn't think #2 would outlast #1 in the womb!

At our 41st week checkup, the scan showed her weighing more than 3.8 kg (that's more than 8 pounds!), such a far cry from the puny little thing the gynae said she was a few months back! I was even advised to eat more so she would put on weight as well. Guess who has the last laugh now?

Being bigger than expected has meant being more tired than usual, but thankfully there have been spurts of renewed energy (nesting instincts perhaps?) which I'm so grateful for after being sluggish for so long. I was able to have some lunch dates this week, and we even took the little guy out for a haircut and the usual grocery trip while lugging the 41-week belly around! Bet you wouldn't have guessed I was that pregnant if you'd passed me on the street :p

We have been very blessed with a kind pro-natural doctor who has been very supportive of our decision to not induce labour but to wait for the process to kick start naturally. Naturally he had to advise us of the possible scenarios that could arise from prolonged labour e.g. the placenta calcifies and becomes less efficient, the baby passes meconium inside the womb, the risk of c-section increases etc. Thankfully our health checks have been nothing short of normal and healthy so he is happy for one more week to pass before "he loses the courage to wait" (his exact words - I found that amusing!).

While being induced is a fairly common thing nowadays, we still believe God's plan is perfect and so we choose to trust God and wait for our Sarah Emma to arrive at His appointed timing. After all the drama while expecting Nathan (you can read it here), we should not be surprised that expecting Sarah would bring along its own set of stories and "challenges" (pun intended).

Among other things, by being late the little one has given us time to move into our new home while in my 39th week, settle all the remaining renovations in my 40th week so that there will be no more strange people going in and out and other dust/noise/disturbances when she finally arrives! :)

Thank you so much for your sweet emails and comments of encouragement, we have been so blessed to have many friends and family praying for us and being sensitive by NOT asking me everyday whether I have popped yet. That, my friends, is the number 1 bane of every pregnant woman who is this close to delivering but not quite there yet. Especially for a fairly overdue expectant mummy with an unbelievably itchy stretched belly and a very squashed tiny bladder.

Our dear baby girl,

The whole world is waiting for you to show your cute little face. Please come out soon and say hi ok?

♥ mama

Post Halloween rumble

Help! My belly's alive!

(Can't believe I'm still pregnant. Guess the bub is applying for permanent residency inside moi)

What the little guy has been up to

Little Nathan had his first major illness a couple of weeks back which was also the first time he was properly sick since he was born. What started out as a seemingly harmless little temperature from teething turned out to be something more sinister.

He became very listless, rejected his porridge at meal-times and even went off his milk. We took him to the doc's thinking it was something minor and was given some meds for his cough and runny nose. But a few days later he still hadn't gotten better so we had to go back to the doc's again. At this point the poor little guy had lost his voice and had such an awfully runny and blocked nose that he could not sleep lying down at all and whimpered constantly through the nights. It was heartbreaking.

This time he was diagnosed with a lung infection and was so choked with phlegm he had to be put on the nebuliser every 4 hours for 4 days. Those were difficult times as any parent who has had to nebulise their child (for the 1st time at least) can identify with.

A week later (and after much struggles and tears!), he was soooo much better I didn't mind that he passed his bug to me!

After he recovered, he became his cheerful self again and even speeded up on his baby steps "training" as if to make up for lost time.

You learn that the smile on your child's face cannot be taken for granted.
And that a cute toothy grin is priceless!

A happy baby = a happy mummy :)

thankful for the bub noise and all,

Breastfeeding Woes

Suffering from the post-cold side effect of blocked milk ducts, apparently the bub did not like the taste of "sick" milk and that was why he nursed so erratically! Really praying all that warm compresses and hardcore massaging will do the trick and avoid a case of full blown mastitis. The last time it hit me (in the 1st week after birth), I was so sick with a high fever I was so groggy and had to stay in bed for days! Not something I fancy experiencing again :(

So yes please pardon the delay in shipping of packages while I go beg the bub again to nurse and hopefully clear the blockages. Thank you for your patience and understanding!!

poor painful mammaries,

I need more sleep!

Remember how I previously blogged about the little man sleeping through the night? That is sadly now a thing of the past! We'd finally gotten him to start napping during the day - one short nap and one longer nap in the afternoon for 2-3 hrs - and considering he never used to nap more than half an hour at a time, this was like a miracle! But strangely the better he napped in the day, the worst he slept at night!

For nearly a week now Nate's been waking every 3 hours in the night, turning mummy here into a walking zombie. We reckon he's probabably going through a growth spurt as well and so wanting to wake up to nurse. But surely a 4.5 month old baby doesn't need to feed every 3 hours in the night?!! It doesn't help that he's awake and wanting to play at 4am when both our brains are barely functioning.

Last night we tried to "dream feed" - waking him to nurse - just before we went to bed but that only gave us an extra hour of rest - he woke up 4 hrs later instead of his usual 3 hrs! Poor daddy who has been quite ill has been made even more exhausted by our little guy! While I'm, well, as alert and energetic as any sleep-deprived mum can be.

Now if he wasn't so darn cute, I would struggle a whole lot more!

(I'm biased, I know. But the mummy is allowed to be right?)

xoxo

Birthing Nathan

Just before I was due to deliver, I was very interested to read or hear other mummies' stories about how they had their babies. I guess it was because I wasn't sure what the signs of labour would be and just wanted to "check out the market" so to speak! Anyway I thought it would be nice to pen my own birth story so I never forget the funky details and also in case any mummy-to-be out there likes checking out birth stories like I did! :p

Most of my friends birthed at 38 weeks so there I was, bags packed, all psyched and ready to pop anytime after 37 weeks. I didn't go out much but just stayed home. You know, just to be safe. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck in peak hour traffic on PIE with contractions!

The 38th week came and went. So did the 39th. Finally I decided I had enough about idling at home and went out shopping or meeting friends for most of the week that I was due. But still no baby! Shop assistants and strangers would look at me puzzled, your tummy is so huge you look like you're about to pop anytime! Shouldn't you be resting at home?!!

Exactly one week after my EDD, I woke up in the morning at 7am to pee and discovered I had what people call "the show". For some reason, a thick liquid kept trickling down my leg so I had to use a pad but it never occurred to me that my water bag had burst as well! My gynae appointment was at 830am and when I mentioned the liquid to the kind lady at the counter, she immediately put me at the front of the queue so I could see the doc straight away. And just as the gynae examined me for signs of labour, a whole load of liquid just gushed out of me and wet the bed!

At this point, I still had no contractions but was 1.5 cm dilated. The gynae warned me that if contractions did not begin naturally by that afternoon, I had to check into the hospital to be induced.

But we were assured that Nathan would come at God's appointed time without needing to be induced. So we took out some dimsum for breakfast at home and soon after I felt the first contractions! For some reason the time 3pm kept coming to me and I didn't want to be presumptuous and assume it was God's voice so we continued to monitor the frequency and duration of my contractions. By the time 3pm came, the contractions were 1 min long and 5 min apart! Time to go to the hospital!

At this point in time, I was 4.5 cm dilated. You could really feel the waves of contractions! They were starting to get more intense and obviously uncomfortable, but still manageable. The contractions picked up as the time past and each time it peaked, I had to close my eyes and squeeze Matt's hand while praying the scriptures I had memorised in preparation for labour. It was all ok if not for the fact the nurses kept coming in to persuade me to have pain relief! I had already stated in my birth plan that:

1) I wanted a birth plan as natural as possible without medical intervention unless necessary.
2) I did not want a pethidine jab or epidural. If I really needed it, all I would use was gas.
3) No episiotomy unless required.

They would go, oh you are obviously in distress, it's better for you to have pain relief. I was so annoyed! It didn't help when they said matter-of-factly that "the pain gets worse after you're 8cm dilated". Gee thanks!

Perhaps what the nurses said affected me, cos it really seemed that the contractions became so much stronger when I was 8 cm dilated! It was about 7pm and I had been in the hospital for about 4 hours. I was so tempted to ask for an epidural at this point! (Thankfully I did not, cos I would have been greatly upset to learn that you could only have an epidural before you're 5 cm dilated!)

It was also at this point that Nathan's heartbeat was showing signs of distress so I had to be put on oxygen. By then I gave in and decided to use the gas but no one told me you had to inhale as the contractions began, and not at the peak! The nurse said that it would be another 2 hours before I was ready to push but we trusted God to make sure it wouldn't be that long!

Soon enough, just 40 min later I felt a sudden urge to do a major poo! So this is how bearing down feels like! I quickly told Matt to go get the nurse and he was like, are you sure? Are you sure? I felt like screaming, yes I'm sure! Now go!

The nurse came in not believing I could be ready but when she examined and found me to be 10cm dilated, she quickly shouted for someone to get the doc cos it was time for me to push!

Then came the arduous part of pushing. I'd always imagined it would be a short time of intense pushing and then whoosh! The baby would be out. But no! I ended up pushing up for more than and hour and a half, sipping milo in between contractions for energy. Each time the nurse said oh we can see the baby's head! And I would be like, yes this is it! But I could not sustain the push and his head would withdraw inside me. These were the most exhausting moments of my life!

Finally my gynae who had been most supportive of my birth plan said we could not wait any longer as Nathan's heartbeat continued to show signs of distress so I would need to have an assisted delivery by vaccum suction (which also meant having an episiotomy. sigh.). By this point, I was sapped of energy and really, I would have said yes to anything to have the baby delivered! A quiet prayer for extra strength, a final push and at long last we saw our baby boy!

Because I had only used the gas earlier, Nathan was a super alert baby whose eyes were opened straight away and he scored a 9 on the apgar scale! The nurses cleaned him up and gave him to me to nurse which he did so right away with gusto. While I was being stitched up, Matt had the audacity to ask me casually, "So, how many babies do we wanna have again?" The nerve!

Post-delivery I could not stand up straight for 3 days as I had over-exerted my lungs while pushing. And my bottom was sore for the longest time!! It took the whole month of confinement for me to feel normal again. All these while having to grapple with sleep deprivation and adjusting to a young baby! Looking back now, I still get the shivers and wonder if I would be able to go through the whole process again.

But we know God has a special way of making mummies forget the pain when they see their babies! And then it's hello to baby #2, baby #3, etc.

Now is that cool or what? :)

After reading what I wrote, I realised I had made it scarier than it actually was! I hope I haven't scared people off having babies haha! Childbirth is really a very special experience that only we as women are blessed with. The men will never get it! The miracle of life within you, the joy of birthing your child... I thank God for my short, complication-free and definitely easy delivery (6 hours from the time I was admitted to when Nathan was born) and for the strength He gave me during the labour process. Everyone knows I'm a wuss when it comes to pain so it definitely was not my own strength that got me through it!

Having a birth plan also helped me to be sure of what I wanted and did not want during delivery - like not having epidural (i didn't want drugs which could affect the baby) - so you don't get pressured into making difficult decisions when you have to focus on your contractions! And it helps to have a supportive loving hubby inside the delivery suite with you! Matt was a darling, he braved the ahem, smells and sights, and prayed with me through the 6 hours till his mouth was all dry.

I think, with all honesty, that by God's grace, I could, and I would go through this all over again :)

xoxo

P.S. It took me half a day to just write this one post in between changing nappies, nursing and getting a baby to sleep!! I feel so productive.

Sleep Deprivation and Vomit Boy

After 2 months of wonderful sleeping through the night, the young chap suddenly began waking up again several times! 2am, 4am, 6am.... he would not go down without a fight and a good ole holler. It would take a full hour each time before he would fall back to sleep.

It was insane!

I was so tired and cranky I'd be upset at the smallest thing, grumble at the hubby and wonder why we decided to have a baby at all! The poor hubby was a walking zombie at work and had to put up with a grouchy wife. Not a happy family.

Finally after some trial and error, we got the room temperature right and refined the bedtime routine of singing, bath, massage, prayer and nursing. He began to go back to sleeping 6 hours at night. We still haven't gotten him to go beyond 6 hours but each baby is different and he's just not quite able to soothe himself back to sleep yet we reckon! It was not perfect but it was good enough for us.

Then in the last few days, the little man became all cranky and fussy ALL day. He started drooling loads, chewing on anything and everything, coughing and gagging and wouldn't settle at all. We were like, isn't he a wee bit young to be teething at 3 months??!! But we couldn't figure out what else could be the case.

Bcos he was irritable and upset, he wanted to comfort nurse when he wasn't really hungry. Which meant throwing up 6 times within an hour and going through 3 sets of clothes. By the time he hurled up for the 4th time, I'd learnt to position his head so he wouldn't get puke on his clothes. Or me. He is now officially "Vomit Boy", after "Droolster" and "Poop-aholic" among many other nicknames.
But when you find yourself reaching your limit, you get goo goo eyes like this. And your heart melts.

So yes, motherhood requires lots of love, patience, grace and prayers. But you tell yourself: oh well, the difficult times won't last forever!

And then you go back to your little boy who now smells like sour milk. Yippee.

mommy talk

Oh my I can't believe the little man is nearly 3 months old! Time sure vanishes when you're a full time mommy to a wriggling tot! Most days I feel like tearing my hair out and swear he'll be my only child, other days his cheeky grin and cute chuckles make my heart melt and I forget all the hours of crying he's put me through on the bad days. I really truly deeply have newfound respect for stay home mommies cos this is the singular toughest thing I've had to take on so far and I'm still far from getting into the swing of things!

It was of cos wonderful to have grandparents around to share their experience and make you feel less of a loser, not to mention babysit sometimes so Matt and I can have the occasional evening off! Here we are at a family lunch with both sets of grandparents and two uncles who still haven't the guts to carry the little one! They think he looks too fragile!

the little man with one of his many dumbo softies hee

And to all the amazing mommies out there, happy mothers' day!
God bless you for the unceasing selfless love you show us all :)