3 weeks + and counting

Hello :) My favorite expression..

3 weeks old and counting down to 1 month! 

These few weeks have been very challenging and rewarding weeks. Learning to take care of baby, understanding her needs while having no previous experience can be both fun and scary.

Thank God for my mummy who was here with me for the first 3 weeks of confinement. She took good care of me while I kind of neglected myself and focused on milk production :( Grandpa and Ah Yi Adelene also came to stay for awhile. Of course baby Shanna was the center of attention :) Now grandma just went back and Por Por is here to stay for another 3 weeks.

Grandma and Shanna

The most challenging part of these few weeks for me, and still is, is breastfeeding. Dealing with engorgement, milk supply issues, expressing/pumping milk issues and ensuring baby has enough really takes a lot of determination and strength. Lack of sleep is nothing compared to the mental/emotional toll of breastfeeding in my case. I am still working out on issues in this area and hopefully will be able to continue on. So far baby Shanna is 100% on b-milk :) Confinement may be more smooth sailing if baby is formula fed, but I am still trying my best to give baby b-milk.

Baby Shanna is learning fast, she cries when she wants to wee wee, and when she wants to pass gas, and when she is hungry of course. She cannot wait when it comes to eating, cries out her lungs. Such a loud voice for a small baby. When she eats, she makes very loud sounds sucking, gulping and swallowing. She also likes to sleep with her mouth open. She can also rotate her sleeping position by 90deg (vertical to horizontal) while sleeping on certain mattress... so I think she's a lot like Daddy :D She was 3.4kg last Monday and growing well :)

Wait till I can talk... :)

~Audrey

Not many updates these few days...

These few days were another round of getting-used-to-shanna's-schedule time, thus no much time to do the blogging... further more me was sick for 2 days from last sunday to monday :(

But thank God that my virus didnt fly to baby Shanna.

Both Audrey n I were taking photos of Shanna here n there and will put it up to the blog once we compile it :) we are trying to get her smiley face instead of the frowning face ^_^

:)

tim

Another series of my photos...

Daddy taken some of my photos these few days while i was awake :P

i'm hungry... searching for mummy 

 I'm trying to smile... :P

:)

BB Shanna

Want to see my cute face? -- Shanna

right now my schedule is more or less the same everyday... i''m out of mummy's tummy for 2 weeks now and there are alot of things that i have to learn each day.

I particularly love to look at daddy's toy for me -- a red bear bear. This bear bear has music coming out from it and i love to look at it when i'm awake. :)

Then sometime, daddy will carry me on one arm and play something sounds like piano and doze me off to dreamland... then sometime grandma and mummy will hum for me to zzz also...

here are some of my cute face taken by daddy these few days :D

:D

Shanna LYY

SleeeeeeeePy .....

My mummy n daddy sometime very bad.... disturbing me while I'm having my beauty zzz... these are some of the photos they have taken while i'm trying to wake up...

 y mummy wants to wake me up??

zzzz....

Cute face !
blur blur....

 nice position to zzz... 

more coming.. .:D

:)

tim

Review of experience at Adventist Hospital

OK, I wanted to share my personal experience and opinion of delivering at Adventist Hospital for the benefit of those who are 'surveying' :)

Overall, it was a very positive experience.

1. Dr Low CS is very patient, gentle and NICE.

2. I experienced 5 midwives during labor and all of them are very professional and experienced. There was one slightly cho lor. They were very encouraging and literally cheered me on to the finish line ie. during the final stage of labor-pushing.

3. Baby was placed on my belly immediately by doctor after she was delivered... I got to see her right out from the womb. She was then wrapped up, placed under the lights, mucus cleaned and then given to me to hold and nurse in the labor room while doctor was working on my stiches. There's nothing like seeing baby looking at me and getting to nurse her immediately.

4. All the nurses during the post-partum stay were very friendly and helpful. Maybe due to lack of patients... they all knew me by name.

5. A little about the lactation consultant service I recieved from this 'baby-friendly' hospital - in one word: very satisfactory :) Pai Lin is the name. I went to see her for advice after discharged on the 6th day. She was very helpful and friendly, I spent 3 hours with her while she showed me how to express and also gave many advice. She also took effort to return my call on her personal cell phone after office hours. Few days later, she was still SMS me to find out how I was.

6. Just a note on the food they serve - it is not traditional confinement food. I was given oranges and bananas... not to mention lots of vegetables as the menu is purely vegetarian.

Total bill was RM2.6k+ versus the package rate of RM2288. Additional charges were for labor augmentation, additional fetal/contraction monitoring, 3 dosages of antibiotics for GroupB strep, and also the pharmacy medicines.

Verdict - recommended :D

~Audrey

Baby Shanna's Day 12 update

Today is Day 12th of Baby Shanna's life in the big world outside the womb. She is adjusting very well and spending most of her time sleeping, eating and creating 'output' :)

Thank God that her weight has increased up to 3kg 2 days ago after the initial 'drastic' decrease of 15% by day 4. We were very worried about her not getting enough initially as milk came in late.

Baby Shanna now likes to suck her mittens. She can also turn her head from side to side on her own since week 1. She has a very distinct cry for attention before turning on full blast :) Her cord came out on day 9.

Last night she was especially good, waking up only once at 4.40am after her last feed at 12.45am. So today I can finally have some time/energy to get online :)




Picture of Shanna listening contently as Daddy is playing the piano

Shanna's beauty zzz photos... :)

daddy snapped some cute little photos when she was zzz nicely in the hall and room... here are some of it... :D

tried to upload her video clip but fail... :(

:)

tim

Shanna 1, Daddy nill

:(
I just can't get it right to make her zzz after diaper change and feeding...
i guess still a long way for me to get the skill right... :D

:)
tim

Our LiTtle AnGeL

Yesterday she slept thru the morning to the evening... we were surprised and abit worry coz for the past few days she was like very active on and off :(
Even during the night feeding time, she was quite blur and both of us have to constantly wake her up to feed (might be wrong to someone) as she didnt eat for a very long hour and that got us worry.

then when night falls, she's like night owl, woke up in the middle of the night and we thought that we can just leave her as she's looking for companionship, but the more she cry, we started to worry about her throat... so i woke up and cuddle her abit n straight she's able to zzz back... that was the first time she slept in my arms... :D

then in the morning, she's the ealiest to wake up and the rest of us have to wake up together with her... :P
lifestyle is changing right now and everything is evolving around our little angel... :o

:)
tim

Our Little Angel

Mummy and princess Shanna




Going back home... :D

:)
tim

Shanna 1 Parents 0

Yesterday night was the first night Shanna spend her night in Pearl Garden. This little princess of ours had a though time sleeping ESPECIALLY at night. At 2am she was still wide awake and hungry, keep looking for mummy...
So both of us took turn to look after her, one of the thing that i did was holding down her hands from moving violently, which scared her eventually. So right after i hold down her hands, she's able to sleep like a cute little princess without waking up in the middle of the night anymore... but the daddy was half asleep (or half awake) until around 4am then pass her hands to mummy to continue to hold down her hand so that she wont be scared by her own movement.
My sister asked why we didnt wrap her around with napkin, well... been there and done that... she's a strong little princess especially her left hand... few time i was having some problem trying to hold her hands down also

well.... pray that she's able to zzz well tonight... if not she'll be 2-0 by tomorrow morning...

she's going back for followup check tomorrow in Adventist. :D

we'll be keeping the score card so that we can compare to other parents... or can use it to prepare the parent-want-to-be... :D just like what Wong's family told us last time... :D

:)
tim

Seq of Evemts

Actually we still dont have the time to write out the sequence of events during Shanna's birthday. Here are some of the important event that can help the readers to grasp what had happened on the 5th Mar 09. :)

We went to bed on Wednesday around 12 am (or should it be Thursday early morning) after an evening spent in Sunshine market to get some of the items such as junk food, ice cream, toilet slippers ..etc (cant really remember what we got that day). Surprisingly, we didnt ask Shanna (still in the womb then) whether she's coming out the next morning, which we normally do since week 36, just for fun :P

Then after an hour and a half of sleep, both of us were awake as i went to the toilet and Audrey was feeling too hot and cant sleep well. The moment when i turn on the air cond, she informed me that the water bag had burst. I was stil lblur blur then, didnt get the meaning. By the time my brain started working, she already rushing to the toilet and I was running thru the list of stuff that i suppose to be bringing for this event in my mind. So she went to take a bath and i was running in and out getting the bags, camera, extra towel, plastic bag, sweater ...etc.

We left our house at 0150 and drove straight to Adventist hospital. During the journey, we prayed for smooth traffic, without jam and we'll arrive hospital safely. I didnt speed, just for information. :P We were only stop twice by the traffic light, one is at the end of greenlane, turning to air itam's road and the second one at lumba kuda traffic light. We arrived at hospital at 0220 and went straight to the emergency entrance. I notice that we were not the only one blur at that hour as one of the nurse was confused with the date when she was talking to us. :P

Then Audrey was ushered to the labour ward and I went to the admission counter to pay $$$ :P After all the paper work, i went straight to the labour ward but was asked to wait at the waiting room esp for father. After an hour or so, I was allowed to go to visit Audrey at the waiting room and it was 0330. She was lying on the bed and went thru the first check by the mid-wife. I was surprise to know that hospital is using Agilent's equipment to monitor the contraption and the heart beat of the baby. :D
Then both of us went to rest (like we can at that time) i went back to the father's waiting room and try to catch any zzz that i can and audrey was doing the same. I tried to sleep but surprisingly the sofa was just too uncomfortable... or me just tension... :D

At 0745 after all the washing up, i went to visit audrey again in her waiting room and she start to have contraction but not a very frequent one. Then she was given breakfast and our Doctor came to check on her. By 0900, she was ushered to the labour room and the pain had started increasingly. By 1000, she was given the drip to hasten the contraction as the contraction was not frequenct enough to deliever the baby. By then, the cervix was dilated around 3~4cm.

By 1100, she was given a jab to ease her pain so that she can conserve some energy during the final push. She was give n laughing gas also (tough she was not laughing.. .:P) So on and off she was half awake and everytime there's a contraction pain, she'll inhale in the gas. This went on until around 1430.

By then, the nurse checked her cervix again and decided that it's big enough to deliever the baby. The gas was taken away from her so that she's able to push the baby out without passing out :P
So the nurse given her a time limit (one hour) to do the pushing and if it's longer then that, they'll be using the vacuum or instruments to help the baby out. So the pushing started at 1440. Audrey was pushing as hard as she can during that hour and after a few round, baby Shanna finally out at 1534 weighing at 2.91kg at 51cm length. 2 nurses was there with the doctor acting as the cheer leader to encourage Audrey to push as hard as she can. :)

THank God for answering our prayer:
1. Clear sign of the time of the labour -- bursting of the water bag
2. Clear traffic -- middle of the night still got quite abit of cars in greenlane
3. Safe delivery of the baby
4. Not as painful as what Audrey anticipated
5. Not using epidural during the delivery
6. baby is healthy
7. Didnt faint -- as Audrey scare of taking jab
8. No Joundice -- the level was 121 point

Praise God for answering our prayer and thank you all that prayed for us during the labour period. :)

:)
tim, audrey and Shanna

Baby Shanna's First day's photos

i didnt take too many photos... probably was too excited until forgot to take it...
anyway, here are the 2 photos taken yesterday :)

I cried when I hear her crying

thank God for a safe delivery. I'll try to type short here coz I'm using iPhone to compose this, I'll do the long version later.
so in short we had a 14 hours of labour time n a safe delivery at 1534 on 5-Mar-09. I'll take some photos of Shanna n post it here. Patient ya...

Baby actually look alot like mummy, the eyes n nose especially n also the face, rounded. But her ears n lips like daddy ;p so it's somehow equal distribution of genes hehe... ;p

Oklah hag to catch some naps Liao 36 hours didnt rest.

oh ya, I cried when I hear bb crying behind me, it's really God's miracle

:)
tim n audrey n Shanna

Thank you...

So blessed by many friends, family and strangers during my pregnancy, some instances:

1) Family and friends who have shown their concern for our well being by keeping in touch and remembering us in prayer

2) Many gifts and re-usable items for baby - she's a blessed little girl even before she is born :) Tim and I are blessed too with the $ savings hehe...

3) The tau kei so at lao sher who always instructs her cook to prepare my order first... says baby needs to eat first...

4) The uncle at the fish noodle stall who refused to cook my order of octopus in my noodles (said it was not good for me)

5) The cafeteria fruit stall uncle who did not allow me to buy/eat his watermelon (some pantang)... showed concern over making money

6) The people at Walls free ice cream promo who allowed me to 'cut queue' :P

7) Colleagues at office who insist on helping to dispose my food tray (pai seh)

8) Hubby and friends who take special pains to drive slower/more carefully when I am in the car (at least in this case I feel that I'm contributing to a safer environment :P)

9) The restaurant/food stall people who give me extra large servings when they see my belly

Just want to say a big thank you to all of you who have made things much better, nicer and more confortable for me & baby :)

~ Audrey