tummy time

Eliza's day...

mummy's been trying to let me have some tummy time because the doc and ppl are saying that i'll feel more comfortable like that...

usually we'll have tummy time in the living room and everyone likes to watch me make all kinds of expressions

but so far i've not been wanting to keep my head sideways and so have been fidgeting to keep my head upright...like in push up position, just that i can't lift my head up a lot, though once i even turned over on my back..ahh...

oh this is my "bracket face" which has mummy and daddy rolling with laughter. geez...now they managed to catch it on camera..so paishe. i hope they throw away that embarrassing tzutzu


Itty Bitty Baby Girl
Itty Bitty Baby Girl
Daddy's pride mama's pearl
Tiny treasure so petite
But great is the joy that you bring
To your daddy and me
Our love for you
Will only grow stronger each day
For yes it's true
You've stolen our hearts away
And my little girl
You're just the right size today
To hold in my arms
To look in your eyes and say

this is one of the songs from the new cd which i was trying to learn the lyrics cos when i play the cd and try to sing to her i realize i dunno what's the words and can only hum the tune. and it's so awwwww.....that when i was excitedly reading out the lyrics to Ww i couldn't help but cry (not bawl but eyes filled with tears kind)

talk about crying it's really the hormones or just having a baby makes you more emotional or what. it's the occasional frustration and the i-so-love-her-so-so-so-much kinda of emotions that makes me cry. i don't think i have the baby blues that much cos i hav my mil to help and Ww's around tho he's still quite busy. (it's really super important to have ppl around to help, from cooking to occasionally taking care of baby, to washing up stuff etc).

it's peaceful for now (saturday night)....she has finally fallen asleep after her long wake time (3 hours again!)..which means she feeds early on and right before she goes to sleep in this 3 hours. despite the occasional frustrations, we look at her photos again and again, we pop over her baby cot and watch her again and again, and fall in love with her over and over again.

my mil says she's different from other babies, i really dunno cos it's the first time i have a baby or have taken care of a baby. Ww thinks she's different too...he says it's also coz she doesn't have jaundice (ok she has but it's so slight we didn't need to worry so much). and he was saying that she's supposed to have a higher chance of having jaundice (cos i'm Heb B carrier and her chances of getting it is higher..so when she was born she was given this hebB immunization which cost us $300+). Ww thinks it's that immunization that helped too...save on sending her back to the hospital for photo therapy. i think it's by God's grace that she's like who she is...sometimes quite entertaining too.

i wonder what will she be like when she grows up....

wasted milk

it's a nice saturday afternoon...Eliza kinda woke up for a lil milk-time (after guzzling lots of milk in the morning and refusing to sleep) and drank lesser than i thought she would drink. poured 100ml (thinking she'll need to drink so much again) and she ended up drinking 50ml instead. wasted the other 50ml :( and i can't leave the milk out for more than an hour once she has drunk it.

i'm still trying to figure out how much she really drinks. it's kinda different when you bottle-feed and breastfeed. in the latter, you don't know exactly how much she drinks (in milliliters) but when she's done and full, she is full. when i bottle feed her, sometimes she has enough, sometimes she wants more and i usually give 80-90ml. so i really dunno how much she needs. at times when she's had enough milk, she'll close her lips and refuse to let u stick the bottle teat in. (oh but that's so cute too...how she would refuse to open her mouth) gosh....sometimes it's frustrationg cos i'll give her the usual amount and in half hour or an hour after waketime she'd want more...and more. :S

so this is my daytime challenge, to keep her awake after milktime, and then to get her to nap after waketime. problem is that her waketime can be so long that she doesn't want to sleep till 3-4 hours later. and she'll be so tired she sleeps lots and lots after that...i just try to make sure she doesn't oversleep in the day and end up being wide awake at night.

it's all a learning process. and as parents we learn everyday how to guide her and at the same time trying to understand her. no child will be the same, there's no guidebook on knowing this lil gal, but discovering her is the fun of it all...watching her nuances, figuring out her style, her sleeping patterns, her sweet and funny expressions, praying everyday that God will use this life He has brought through us to glorify Him.

mummy can't stop taking photos

Eliza's day...
Mummy roused me to wake up to drink milk coz it's time but i'm so sleepy...so i just took some time to stretch while shutter-happy mummy takes my photo...which is my classic Saturday night fever pose.

i'm just waking up...giving my frowny face in the midst of my stretching. don't worry it's just a moment's expression..i'm just exercising my facial muscles and lucky mummy caught it in her camera. i'm a good girl..i didn't cry.

mummy, daddy, ah-ma & ah-gong love to see me laughing (tho i don't make the laughing sound)...and they get excited all the time!

mummy plays with me in the morning with this linglinglonglong toy my daddy's colleague gave me.

but i'm more interested in the bright lights at the window and the nice red white curtains...



My Thomson Medical Centre (TMC) experience:
ppl have been telling me why not choose KK hospital cos it'll be cheaper, they got better facilities etc etc. i say cos my gynae's clinic is at TMC, convenient lor. anyway i was telling Ww that it's my first time staying in a hospital. it wasn't so bad even though Ww couldn't stay over to pei me the 2 nights i was there. he would if we have chosen the single-bedder. but uh..save money lah..anyway it's only 2 nights. so we chose the 4-bedder, and requested for an upgrade to a 2-bedder. no roommate on the 1st night...so it felt like a single bedder. and when my cell came to visit the next day morning, they could freely make noise and move about. (Eliza was too sleepy to wake from her slumber while they were there).

food there was great...6 meals a day! hoho...bfast, morning tea (fish & papaya soup), lunch (chinese confinement food), afternoon tea (some cupcake & milo), dinner, supper. no such thing as bland hospital food. good & bu3 soups too.
the nurses were all very nice & helpful and there was even a class on how to bathe & change diaper for baby but i keep missing it cos day 1 i was confined to the bed, day 2 i was discharged le.

and then comes the bill!
after all the medisave deductions we paid about $1300+.
Baby's cost was ~ $1000 (but we paid abt $90 cos of medisave)
this includes: pediatrician fees, baby package (i tink it's the baby cot, diapers, etc) , medical supplies, hearing test, Heb B immunization..
Mummy's hospital bill was ~ $3000
this includes: hospital package ($1000), medicine, medical supplies, procedure, doctor's fees ($1800). oh and i discovered...that an epidural is also a $600 decision...$300 for the professional fees & $300 for the epidural pkg. gosh...
Thank God for medisave & the FBI (first born incentive) card...saves us loads!

waiting for Eliza to wake for her next feed...after dinner she happily played with ah-ma & daddy...drank her milk again, and we left her to quietly fall asleep to the lullaby songs.
Ww bought this new lullaby cd for Eliza to listen and me to sing to her. (we thought it's good for a change since we have been listening to the other lullaby cd almost EVERY night while Eliza was in my womb)

by 10pm she has guai guai slipped off to slumberland.

maybe i'll take a snooze first...

Sunny day

Today is one of the super sunny days out of the many past few days of rain. my mil was quite happy about it cos the clothes could sun well.

Last night wasn't too good and i was expecting it as Eliza was super sleepy the whole afternoon till late evening yesterday..so much so that we always have to wake her up every 3hrs+ for her milk. her sleepiness i guess was because she was up ALL morning after bath and i think that tired her out. as such she was quite awake in the wee hours in the morning. *shake head* so after her early morning feed (that's abt 2am) she was wide awake till 345am++. i was drifting in and out of lala-land cos i really can't sleep until she does. not that she's crying but she was making all kinds of sounds which sounds like she's talking to herself...and occasionally an i-want-attention cry that i have to attend to. daddy initially gave her the pacifier but i took it out...left her alone..then she started making noise...and i eventually gave her the pacifier and fell asleep. when i woke at 5am to check, her pacifier was out of her mouth and she was sound asleep..dunno when she slept tho. she woke again at 6am to drink milk and ta-da...another non-sleeping session...so i left her with the pacifier again and popped to sleep...by the time i woke up she was bathed and nice. i truely zonked out.

i wonder if it's the chicken essence with the liquor that i drank in the evening...got me kinda woozy and headachey..and thus so sleepy this morning. no more of those next time....it was only 1 tbsp of some XO or watever...and the recipe called for 3 tbsp! i'll surely be knocked out if that's the case.

16 more days to end of confinement...wonder if i can get out to attend weddings still...tho i would still want to go for Christmas service & bring Eliza along.

off to take my afternoon nap...

It's day 12!

Today's the day i WASH MY HAIR...buahaha....
Ww says it stinks...i say i can't smell it cos it's too short...and i tie it up all the time. so it was a good move to cut it the not-short-not-long hair even tho i had like bad hair days then when my hair refuses to behave & i'm too lazy to blow dry it.
but....i don't like the yao4 cai2 smell...:S
yeah...i'm kinda adhering to the confinement 'rules' so i haven't bathed either...kinda. bathe as in be soaked in shower and soap...BUTBUTBUT i do wipe down with warm water and a towel everyday. otherwise it's terrible!!

MIA for 12 days le...and so much has happened. life revolves so much around Eliza and the breaks i have are those when she falls asleep (like now).

i have so much i would love to write...but i don't know where to start. would have started blogging earlier but there were so much stuff to do...stuff to read, ppl visiting etc.

Anyway we've been reading up on this Babywise...it's like our parenting super essential guide.


which is like so important...to establish a routine yet PDF (parent-directed feeding) pattern..so that eventually but 8-12weeks baby can sleep throughout the night, is well rested and well fed.
so we've been following this guide and trying to guide Eliza into the 2 1/2hr - 3hr feeds. it's not easy sometimes because she can stay up awake for 2-3hrs, or wants to feed every hour. but she's almost on schedule nowadays, so i can predict when her next feed will be and plan things ahead of time.

by God's grace, from day 3 since she came home, she has been feeding and sleeping well through the night. day 1 & day 2 was tiring cos she'll be awake frm 3-5 or 6am not wanting to sleep, making a fuss when she's left alone and when she doesn't sleep i can't sleep either. ah-ha..so those were the days Ww woke up in the middle of the night cos she was crying loud enough to disturb him. but ever since day 3 he has been soundly sleeping all through the night! ok that's a good thing cos Eliza wakes to feed twice in the early mornings and quickly falls back to sleep. and amazingly i DO wake up when she starts making noise, not really loud cries but like a mini cry or two. i thought i would sleep like a log like i normally do. but i'm so sensitive to her squeaks or cries that i wake regardless.
it's great like that cos i would have a good sleep in-between her night feeds and wake up nicely fresh even though i average a 5-6hour sleep. (and occasionally an afternoon nap) so we pray hard she continues this and slowly by 2-3 months she's able to sleep through the night.

Times when she doesn't sleep:
Yeap..there are still times when she doesn't sleep...for at least 3-4hrs like this morning after her bath. which is still managable...cos we'll play with her, sing to her, talk to her. and i'll leave her on her cot to entertain herself...or hopefully fall asleep. sometimes she doesn't, so she'll fuss a bit and start rooting for milk...ok...so i feed her...if i don't want to feed her cos she just drank a lot a while ago...and it's just an itch to suckle..we'll resort to the pacifier.

she'll happily suck it anyway...sometimes so happily that we find this NUK pacifier's design gives her what we call her 'bracket face'. ie ( mouth )...which is why we went to find another brand of pacifier. but still using the NUK one now...tink her cheeks not that fat now..or she doesn't suck so hard so it's not so bad. heh...

We're trying to transit her into bottle feeding so that when i'm not around someone can feed her EBM (expressed breast milk) and especially when i go back to work. everyone has had a go at it, my mil, of cos Ww and my sil (sister-in-law).
the only problem with transiting her to bottle was that her suckle was so strong she drinks too fast from the bottle, causing her to 'merlion' her milk out cos she drank too much to fast. but she's smart and now she's getting the hang of it, stopping sometimes to take a breath like when she direct latch on (cos she needs to use more energy to suckle when direct latch). otherwise we'll remove the bottle so that she can take a breather.

the other challenge is to burp her...she hardly burps, and it's hard to get a burp out of her...and when we do, it's so satisfying...and..eh...she looks quite satisfied too.

this is daddy trying to burp her...and she'll be giving that half-asleep face or the 'this is so shuang' face and all kinds of expressions. :P


So bottle feeding allowed both of us to go for my gynae appointment on monday our own while Eliza sleeps soundly at home. Ww was still asking me if i want to go somewhere to walk around and reward myself a bit. heh...but i think i would be worrying more about Eliza...and feeling too unbathed (oops!) to enjoy a stroll at TM or something. after all i have nothing much to buy either. (also cos i'll send Ww to buy stuff when things run out...go buy diapers! go buy nappy! go check the vaccination at that clinic! go buy this..buy that...hehehe)
so the follow-up gynae appointment was to check and remove the stitches...eeep! ee...shudder at the thought of it...wasn't too fun feeling the stitch come out. also went to apply for the Baby Bonus...$3k woh(given out in 4 parts every 3 months)...we thought we'll invest this money for Eliza so kinda like save it up for her and let it grow. hopefully our expenses are manageable enough such that we won't have to touch this money.

A baby's grip is quite strong and cos Eliza's hands are always in her mittens i hardly get to photograph her fingers...which are quite like mine...lots of lines.

hi-5! she has mummy's characteristic palm, so liney...but she sure doesn't have a tiny pinky finger like me.

many things she does with her hands...like waving around...put it at her head...like when she was still in my womb..:P

raise her hands up high! to stretch..usually

i dunno what she's up to...she kinda likes this position..


this is part of her stretching routine..with a pouty face :P

more stretching.....! ooooooo!


ahh..my cute lil baby :)

The birth story of Eliza

Baby Eliza!

Yup Eliza has finally arrived! It's great seeing her, beyond words...i'm still adjusting to her feeding schedule, waking up many times at night to feed her and change diapers. anyway this was what happened on that fateful 30th nov...

850am - set off to Thomson Medical Centre to my gynae's clinic. appointment was at 9am but we wanted to miss the ERP (which we thot ends at 9am)...ok only to realize that ERP is until 930am.

920am - arrived at clinic. strapped on the CTG to check baby's heartbeat & contractions. prostaglandin (a tablet inserted to soften the cervix and for contractions to start). Nurse checked..and cervix only 0.5cm. Asked to go walk walk and come to clinic at 2pm

10am - Went to Orchard borders to walk walk. lower back was aching...

12pm - Went Mos burger to eat (yay!)

1245pm - Went to TCC to snack....i ate oreo cheesecake while Ww drank coffee (as usual)

130pm - went back to clinic...back really aching...feel a bit of contractions on and off but it's bearable.

230pm - checked baby's heartbeat and contractions again.

315pm - Gynae came in and checked cervix...3cm dilated. asked to go have tea,walk walk before going to the labour ward.

330pm - Hung around at Delifrance and drank hot chocolate until i can't take the ache anymore. (actually it's more of a lower back ache than the contractions that hurt at this time). could feel some contractions come and go.

445pm - Check-in into the labour ward, Ww went to do all the amin stuff while i got changed. Nurse inserted enema to clear all poo. had to wait 10mins but i think aft 5mins, i really cannot tahan anymore and rushed to toilet. feels so good after that.

515pm - moved to the labour room. Ww came back from all the admin stuff. talked a while, tried to watch some tv, watched the CTG scan and saw some contractions going up to 60+ but seems bearable.
this is the CTG...87 is the intensity of the contractions...99 being the highest

530pm - Gynae, Dr Tan, came and broke waterbag, chirpily saying that i'm managing quite well...4cm dilated already. Aft that Ww quickly goes to take his dinner. Contractions start to become more intense and i could feel like baby's head coming down at my pevis.

6pm - Nurse was asking if i wanted epidural and also if i was having the pushing feeing (imagine the wanting-to-go-pass-motion feeling..now u know why have to clear bowels first), I'm starting to feel but it was still bearable.

So the nurse checked and i was 5-6cm dialated already. if i want epidural i'll have to take it now otherwise it'll be too late to take it. and counting an average of 1cm dilation per hr, it would be possible that it'll take another 4 hrs to achieve 10cm dilation. uh-huh...i don't think i can take 4hrs more of more intense contractions..and it's starting to get bad :S so i decided to go for the epidural.

Very quickly the contractions were getting more intense, and the gas that supposedly relieves the pain doesn't help. The nurse said to keep breathing in the gas and out, and it was making me really groggy. It was just me and the contractions. i was wincing and curling up as the contractions came and went. (and squeezing Ww's arm really hard as the contractions peaked).

I had to wait for the anesthetist to come...possibly half an hour. gosh the waiting drove me nuts! and every time a contraction came i couldn't help but push even though i tried really hard to hold back.

the anesthetist finally came and everything happened like a whiz (cos i was still really groggy from the gas). The prick from the drip (because epidurals cause blood pressure to lower and the intravenous intervention of ephedrine compensates that) and the epidural was nothing compared to the contractions that i think i don't remember feeling it at all. Phew...i was super relived after that.

7pm - manage to be normal again. i see the CTG showing the contractions come and go..but i don't feel anything! yays! only thing was that i was shivering, one of the side effects of the epidural. we were told that the epidural will slow down labour and if i had chose not to take it, i could possibly speed up the labour time. not that i really will bother. as time passes i could feel a growing ache as the contractions intensify.

8pm - checked dilation again, seems to be ready to push soon. nurse calls Dr. Tan, tells us that he should come in 30mins. practiced pushing and Ww said he could a bit of the baby's head. the contractions continue to intensify but still can take it.

830pm - gynae not here yet :( contractions intensify, and i really feel like pushing and it's getting more and more painful. Ww remembers his colleague telling him the breathe in, blow out x3 to tide through the contractions and not push. (now then he remembers!!) trust me...even tho i think we learnt it at antenatal class, at that point of time you would not remember all these things in the midst of the pain & struggle.

840pm - i was watching the clock and praying hard my gyane will reach here sooooon..... requested to increase the epidural dosage...but i think they didn't, cos the pain was still there..argh.

845pm - nurses decide to guide me to start pushing first...and tada...finally my gynae comes. and all i remember was that i had to hold my breath and push really hard and long. by then, i didn't remember the pain...coz i think pushing is part and parcel of how contractions work. this is the hard work part, mustering all my energy and breath. and i could hear everyone encouraging me to keep it up etc etc.

i could kinda feel baby's head coming out. and according to Ww he saw my gynae stretching the cervix till he could see my pelvis bone (wah..i really can't imagine).

9.02pm - Baby Eliza takes her 1st breath of air and gives her first cry; and she was popped immediately onto my arms. Amazing! I was so relieved the labour was over and so elated to see her in person (after months of seeing photos of her in black & white thru the ultrasound scan). Dr.Tan gets phototaking Ww to cut the umbilical cord which Ww does with his shaking hands.

9.05 pm onwards - Ww follows the nurse as baby Eliza is cleaned up a bit, weighed and measured;

while i "deliver" the placenta, could feel Dr.Tan "pulling" out the placenta. doesn't feel much anyway. and because there was an episiotomy or tear so there was some stitching to be done.

Ww's back with baby Eliza all wrapped up and nice.

If you can see, baby Eliza's quite alert. (newborns are anyway) so she was looking around and having that curious look of her face...and her most expressive lips (which definately is like her daddy...Ww's parents say she's gonna be a talktative gal next time..we'll see we'll see).


10pm - In the ward, waiting for baby to be checked and bathed. Spent 45mins sending out sms-es telling ppl abt Eliza's arrival. by 11plus baby couldn't be brought to us yet because she was still too cold to be bathed. Ww & his parents went back first. by the time i saw my cute clean and bathed baby it was 110am. Oh but how sweet she is!

Next day, proud daddy carries Eliza.

and talks to her...

Long story...phews. and it has taken me 4 days to finish writing this.

God is merciful and amazing...because He has blessed us with Eliza, and the going through the whole labour made me be at awe at how He made our women bodies change and adapt to give birth to a baby. No evolution can think of that, not by chance, but by God's wisdom and His creativity.

More on life after giving birth....when i have time to slowly update....
Meanwhile...some photos of Eliza...
almost smiling...


on our way home from the hospital...sleeping so comfortably

at home...and that curious look

I'm so free now

Gosh i'm so free now i'm updating this blog so often. 2 more days to Eliza's arrival, though i'm trying to coax her into coming out tmr, so i don't have to go thru induction. Someone was asking me wat's induction. not that it's a bad thing but there's higher risks of c-section & fetal distress. then again, it is what a lot of ppl do too...and i've read & watched many birth stories that have no issues. anyway to induce labour is to use certain medications to help bring on contractions (ie prostaglandins to soften the cervix or Pitocin thru an IV to start labour). cos after 1 or 2 weeks past the due date the placenta may become less effective at delivering nutrients around 42 weeks and other complications.

so i've gotta monitor baby's movements closely, which worries me when she's not so active...and i'll try to feel for her heartbeat. thank God occasionally i feel her moving all around and especially at night when we're watching movies, she's will be like dancing inside! gosh she's getting so comfortable.

i'm not sure how relevant this is but i've asked my MIL & my mum how were their labour like. and it turns out that we're all post-term babies! tho my mum said i was late 3 weeks (i was asking her if she was really really sure or not...mayb she remembered wrongly). i wonder if this has any influence on our future babies being post-term.