How Emily arrived

THE birth story...finally, i sit down to write this. :P

When we changed our flight ticket departure date after knowing of Emily's EDD, I thought that 1.5mths from her EDD is enough for us to get ready. As the day draws closer, plus the fact that my gynae is going to be away from 28th Apr till 8th May...and my hoped date for Emily to arrive on 1st May was really quite slim, we opted to go for elective induction on the 26th Apr. Delivering anytime after 1st May would mean that my confinement period will stretch till when Ww is away and there is less time to apply for the visa which takes 4-6 weeks. We don't want any hiccups at that part. So....despite me feeling uncertain about having her to arrive early (but safely early cos she'll be considered full-term then), we went ahead on 26th Apr.

We were slightly more prepared that way, I could prepare Eliza and go through all the things that will happen in the days following the delivery, tell her what to expect etc. She'll definitely have to stay over at my mil's place which is quite new for her and without mummy & daddy so i was uncertain how she'll fare.

Anyway on 26th Apr, we had my gynae appointment at 2pm. I had to go eat Mos burger cos i was craving for the coffee milkshake. (I faintly remember that we ate Mos burger on the day before Eliza arrived). Dr Tan measured Emily from the ultrasound scan to be about 3kg and doing well. I was concerned that usually early induction or those that have no medical reasons ends up in c-sections and the risks. He did say that there are recent research proving otherwise, also because the babies, though full-term, are smaller and show less complications. Anyway we did go ahead with it (obviously!). That day was really quite a busy day! There were about 3-4 mums-to-be going to be induced. wow...maybe it was because my gynae was leaving the day after eh? We had to wait till about 4pm for the person before me to be done at the CTG. By then, after inserting the pill (Prostaglandin) and checking, i was already 2cm dilated. Like everyone says, that the 2nd time labour will be much faster, my gynae expected me to come back in around midnight or earlier. (after 11pm would be ideal so that the hospital charges us for the next day fees instead).

So we took a bus back to my mil's place for dinner. Eliza was to stay there for the night which at some point she found it quite fun. When we told her that Emily's going to come out soon, she laughed. yeap...laughed. I couldn't quite decipher whether she was happy that finally Emily is coming or that she can't make out what to expect, that's why she laughed. Anyway we went back home to pick up more things Eliza needs. I bathed and packed my bag. I wanted to eat curry puffs and we eventually took bus 518 and headed to Orchard for curry puff from Old Chang Kee. Oh...and to satisfy my other craving, i finally managed to drink my fav Mos coffee shake. Actually on the way there in the bus, i was feeling the contractions. They were bearable and probably about 10min apart. This time round i really felt the contractions. During my 1st delivery, I think i didn't really feel the contractions till my gynae broke the waterbag.

Anyway, we arrived at Orchard, found Old Chang Kees and I ate to my satisfaction. By the time we were at Mos burger drinking the coffee shake, I felt that the ache from the contractions and wanted to go off to TMC. I don't want to be stranded in Orchard with painful ones! At least we'll be at the hospital when it really hurts. By the time we arrived at TMC, it was only 9+pm. So we waited at the lobby....till hopefully 1030pm or later. By 1030pm i wanted to check in already...we waited at the admissions but the person in front of us took so long. Fortunately, a staff came by, asked a few questions and sent me to the delivery ward to get ready while Ww does the admissions.

At the delivery ward, I was sent to go change and strapped at the CTG to monitor baby's heartbeat and the contractions. The nurse came by and asked a lot of questions, which was asked again by another nurse. Meanwhile, for what seemed like a long time, I was just lying there and watching the CTG machine waiting for someone to come by and tell me what else to do. By the time the nurse sent me to clear my bowels, the contractions were stronger, so i had to do those breathing exercises to kind of take my mind off the pain and relief it.

By about 1215am, Dr Tan came by to check how i was. By then i was 4 cm dilated. He also broke the water bag to get the process going faster. He said that i was in active labour so should be ready about a few hours or less. Meanwhile, Ww was still doing the admissions (it took so long cos he was sent to the family room and no one called him for a long time). Ww finally came at 1230+am (i think), while we chatted, I had to stop talking and do the breathing exercises cos the contractions were really getting much more intense. It came to a point when i had to ask him to call the mid-wife and he still asked me for what matter. I think at that point the contractions were getting much more intense and I probably did feel a bit like pushing. So when the mid-wife came and did the VE, i was 6cm dilated and they finally did send me to the delivery ward. (the last time i remembered we were already at the delivery ward for quite a while).

Gosh...on the way there, even though it was short, the pain was getting worse. Somehow, i dunno why i didn't consider epidural then. Anyway, the mid-wife asked me if i wanted to use the laughing gas, and she said to keep breathing in and out...it's how it works. Basically, the gas makes you feel soooo drowsy that it takes your mind off the pain. Then again, it would say it makes one feel delirious, to the extent that i don't really know what is going on. Not that i bothered at that time...i just needed to tolerate the pain. And what seemed like moments and no pushing at all, baby Emily was out. Ww said she kinda slipped out (cos she's so small!) Later on Ww told me that the mid-wife had to hold baby's head till Dr.Tan came to receive the baby. Somehow i vaguely remembered someone say not to push yet or something...then again, i can't remember if i had pushed or not. See....delirious.

It was a great relief to hear Emily's cry and to be out of that delirious state and out of the pain. Interestingly, I didn't have the medications like the drip or any other medication like the last time round. No episiotomy either but there was a slight tear and so I still had 1 stitch. Thankfully, this time round the recovery is so much better and less painful. Except...I felt the stitching. *shivers* Probably not as bad as the labour pains, but a different pain. (I did wonder at some point if there will be any pain relief if i had to have an episiotomy, there is anyway which i later found out) After all i wasn't on any pain relief so generally i felt everything.

Stats:

Emily's weight - 2.755kg, measuring 49cm long and 33cm head circumference

compared to

Eliza's weight - 3.205kg, measuring 50cm long and 33cm head circumference

Thank God for Emily, for a smooth delivery and it IS possible to do without epidural.

Hi Emily!

It's so exciting to have Emily with us :) it's like we are re-living the time we had Eliza.

And Emily looks quite like Eliza, just a little rounder and as S noticed, thicker lips. She has slightly more hair than Eliza though looking at her now se does have a lot more hair...and all over her body too. It those soft fine hair that you can't really see unless you look closer. There's even hair on her ears.

Anyway I should find some time to post up labour story soon. Wrote one halfway but the draft got unsaved. Bleah~

Waiting and when?

Waiting time is here. 37th week is THE week to expect arrival of Emily. Just that we may...hmm..just coax her out earlier. Not the most at peace whether it is a good idea tho my gynae said that it is safe. For practical reasons like having to have enough time buffer to make our visas, finish off my confinement period and have baby first month celebrations before Ww leaves on 30th May. Plus having Eliza in school in the mornings during the first month also helps. The other is that my gynae is not around from 28th apr onwards till 7th may! Or shall we really just wait till at least somewhere on 2 may? Hmmm...

Pregnancy so far

I'm in my 35th week of my pregnancy and enjoying the bliss of resting and not doing much. The not doing much part is that i'm really thankful i don't have to go to work. The thought of travelling 1hr to work and 1hr back everyday gives me shudders, especially when at this stage, i have found exhaustion to set in. Yesterday, i was so tired all day i wanted to sleep my day away. I am thankful that Eliza took her afternoon nap as usual and that she has been happily herself. She generally played on her own and was quite busy pasting her new stickers, colouring on the papers and making 'presents' for me. :)

Coupled with my exhaustion is that I find myself falling sick. I probably caught Eliza's flu/cold/cough, whatever you call it. So i have quite a phelgmy cough which is worse in the morning.

It's also time to take down Emily's clothes to be washed and to do some sorting.

Plus i haven't quite figured where Emily will sleep in the 1.5-2mths we are here. There's no space to open up the playpen and quite likely, we'll use the bassinet carrier that my uncle passed to us.

When we're in Canberra, quite likely Eliza will have her own room and Emily will be rooming with us. I'm not sure if that poses any problems, especially since Eliza has been sleeping with us since young. We haven't been able to have another room for her even in our old place cos my SIL stayed in the room meant for Eliza..and now there's no space at my mum's place. At least she has been sleeping on her bed though..and not c0-sleeping with us. I could not stand her kungfu sleeping positions and insisted she stays her own bed/cot all night, except in the mornings when we snooze.

My thoughts are currently jumbled up for now...so i'm not thinking much, just doing the day to day stuff. There are reads on education that i would want to ponder upon but it seems like the impending delivery and baby care will occupy me for the next few months. Not to mention my worry on how i will handle it, and how we'll manage it...eventually on our own and how Eliza will take to her baby sister.

God help me through this all, just as many mums have braved it ahead.

Handling conflicts

I'm finding that as Eliza grows older, we are finding that we need to teach her how to handle other kids, especially those who are not the nicest to her. She isn't an aggressive girl at all, and at most she is very very possessive of her things or things she wants to play, so the issue of sharing a touchy one, else it is really up to her mood. And her best defense? CRY..cry very loud. Quite useful though.

School is one good platform. So other than she telling us about her crying in school of other what we parents see is normal issues, (like the first time she had her music lessons after school, she cried cos she thought she was going home after her formal school hours). She has told me she cried cos she pulled her hood from the jacket too low and got stuck, though her friend helped her out. (i wanted to laugh like mad..but couldn't in front of her). But there are times when her friend took her colour pencil/paper/toy etc...and then pinched her face...or recently when her friend took her star sticker (because she told her friend "i got star sticker, you don't have"...great..).

Generally these are small issues, part and parcel of growing up.

But on sunday, when we went to airport for dinner with her cousins, they were playing and running around at the viewing gallery, when a little girl about Eliza's age, i think, came and somehow either wanted to play with them or what...she kinda clasped her hands on Eliza's face and slapped her. It wasn't hard, i guess cos there was no red marks on Eliza's face but it was shocking to her for sure. Her cousin, Alger was there and he was trying to shield her but he couldn't seem to and the girl still got Eliza. We saw that whole incident unfold before our eyes, but we were too far (you know how huge viewing malls are), and we were stunned because it happened out of the blue. It's not like you can see a fight brewing because someone wanted something.

My SIL probably knew cos this girl did something similar to Xuanxuan earlier, and got told off by my SIL. Ww demanded that the girl (and her sister) bring us to their parents but the they seemed dumbfounded, and that little girl was covering her ears with her slightly older sister (or twin sister) trying to protect her. We probed on until Ww asked an old man (which probably looked related to them) whether he knows them, and then that old man admitted that they are his grandchildren, and that they are very naughty. Great...he is there seeing all that happen and still pretended he doesn't know them?? Anyway we told him what happened, and asked that he do something about it, and we walked away. The girl did get reprimanded cos we heard her crying as we walked away. I guess that made Eliza feel better that some justice was made?

Eliza still talked about it that night and made a joke that the girl hit her and she is spoilt...pretending to fall over. Haha...at least she got over it.

On hindsight, when Ww & I talked about the incident that night, he felt he should have gotten the girl to apologize and also that it could have been a teaching point for Eliza on forgiveness. But as first time parents, having this happen to us for the first time, we were just too blur to know what to do at that point of time.

Loving Eliza

I do updates and little stories of Eliza to Ww everyday when we msg on whatsapp or talk on the phone. And Ww misses her terribly...aww poor daddy.

I believe every toddler is a charm to their parents and as much as some parents talk about how naughty and mischievous their toddlers can be, we all know it's developmental and temperament. Ww and I know Eliza better than the back of our hands, we know generally what to expect of her when she wants something, what she likes and dislikes etc even though some things change. Once Ww commented that isn't it freaky that our parents knows us so well too?

Having stopped work already and taking care of Eliza quite full time now, without Ww for this 5 weeks is really great to some point. I mean i have time for myself when she goes to school in the morning, I have time to be with her for the rest of the day. A lot of bonding time which i miss out when I have been working. We talk a lot too and I love listening to her 'stories' and comments and phrases and things that she say, even though i would say i don't understand it 20% of the time.

There are battles, needless to say.
Morning 'battles' to get her to go toilet, brush teeth and change into her school uniform on a school day. This i have learnt to get her to wake up early enough and to talk to her about it the night before so she has a good idea abt what we are doing the next morning. So I frequently do these reminders to cue her in on what we are doing or where we are going ahead of time, to have her 有心里准备 or to excite her about what's coming up.
The other battle is to get her to eat her proper meals. It is not all that bad as i may describe it to be. I believe there are worse cases and Eliza in actual fact does eat quite well...as long as i don't force her to eat stuff she doesn't eat like eggs, fish, spicy food, certain vegs. I tell her that if she doesn't at least her her main meal there's no snacks or 'eat something' food later. I really don't want her to be chanting for snacks cos she hasn't had her proper lunch/dinner. So really, there are days that we leave her to enjoy her rice/noodles only meal. And when i do prepare a meal, i ensure that there's one food item she likes in the menu. Or i "hide" the food like eggs in the fried rice. Still, she loves her fruits and cereal which i'm glad about..and her gummy indulgence is limited to one each time she requests it.

The other battle is the 'upset' battle. When she wants yet don't want. We have gotten over some minor ones like how she loves to open her bottle cap and if i am too fast and open it for her, she's super upset about it and it can't be undone. Nowadays she can allow me to redo some things so that she can do it. Doesn't have to be first. Though, today because she has taken so long to come for her bath, even after several reminders, i told her i will bathe first (normally i'll bathe her and then bathe after that). She was probably too engrossed with her colouring even though she said yes. Just as i was finishing up, she came into the bathroom, upset that i have bathed. And then she didn't want to budge to bathe nor let me out of the bathroom. Obviously, a 'battle' ensued because i wasn't gonna wait in the bathroom forever nor let her off without bathing. So even though she eventually relented, she somehow cried through her bath...with all the requests to have tissue (not the hanky i use to bathe her) to wipe her tears, requests not to use soap, requests not to wash hair, requests to drink water (?!?!)... oh well that's my lil girl. She also wanted a hug after drying up which comforted her a bit. I was quite frustrated so I had quite a stern look on my face which didn't help comfort her generally. Eventually when we got to the room to calm down and hug, she sobbingly said sorry that she made me so angry. Awwiee..my heart melted to hear her say that, to which i kissed her and told her that it's ok and that i love her. (on hindsight i should have said that her apologies are accepted...ah finally found the word)

My lil affectionate girl. :)
She did it again last night, she somehow woke up in the middle of the night to give me a goodnight hug and goodnight kiss. Sweet. :) She did it before. That night I came home late and somewhere in the middle of the night, groggily in my sleep, she woke me up and asked to hug me and kiss me...soooo super sweet.
In the first week that Ww left to Canberra to start his school, she wasn't too expressive about missing him. and would retort that she doesn't miss him, mainly because she doesn't see him. This week she has been expressing that she's missing daddy and would comment that she wants to talk to him. At one point, she got a little upset during bedtime cos she wanted daddy and when i told her she can still see his photos, she said that's not the 'real' live daddy. Talking to him on the phone helps. Plus she'll always include him in her prayers: "pray for daddy not sick in australia" at least for the past 3 days already!

Sweetie pie :)
On my actual birthday date, i bought a small...yes really tiny cake to celebrate with her which she was super happy about. She loves celebrating birthdays, as most kids do. That morning when i told her about what we were gonna do after school, she told me she will make a present for me, "do you want 'xx (sorry i can't remember what tt animal was)' or ladybird?'. wwweeee i wanna hug her so tight!


It's not hard to love her at all, really. And i really thank God for an angel like her. It has been a joy to parent her and to watch her grow. I thank God for this season before her little sister arrives, to get to know her better and to spend time with her. I love our bedtime talking sessions with her when we reflect about the day and she tells me her stories (for now it's always the 'short short man' story). I love to hear her chirpy voice and her bright smile when she wakes up in the morning to tell me the sun is up, or that she wants milk, or that she's gonna come up to my bed and has left me enough space for me, or just a good morning.

last last weekend

It was a busy weekend. Last last weekend.

After that busy morning at the playground and library, we went to Esplanade with my inlaws and their parents or so Eliza's tai-po. To catch a glimpse of the water show at MBS.

This lil excited girl.


We were quite early and the concerts that were usually indoors and at the outdoor amphitheater has yet to start. She was quite eager to listen to the concerts as it has been quite a while since we have been to one. Really gotta go botanic gardens again for another outdoor concert soon. Anyway the indoor mini-concert was a little too loud and she was quite put off by it so we went out to check out the one outdoors. Alas, it was too alternative...those tunes were just too odd and scary for her appreciation. She refused to go any nearer to the music and we had to make a detour to get to my in-laws who were further down. Some ice-cream did help. And we did sit down at a place far enough from the disturbing music but when she heard me talking about it to my in-laws again, she insisted on getting further away from it as we could still hear it. Gee.
By then the water and light show has started and we did manage to walk to the furthest end where the floating stage is to watch. Thank goodness the music from the water and light show, although quite far away, was soothing and enjoyable for her. It was a song from a "What a wonderful world" that she's familiar with.
So i guess we know what kind of music Eliza likes now.




Sunday was to celebrate Eliza's cousin Augustine's birthday. We literally gorged ourselves silly on ice-cream at Swensons. There was the earthquake, a complimentary firehouse, hotplate banana custard ice-cream, and an ice-cream cake. It's insane. It believe they were all on sugar high after that. Eliza ate half of the sugar figurine from the cake. ewww...

They had a great time though...eating and running like mad at the airport.


Cute Xuanxuan watching her brothers eat fries which she's not allowed too. :)