Full Moon : 21 Jul 2007

Clockwise from bottom-left : Shean Wenn adorned in her full moon gifts of gold chains; Hubs & friends pealing the Full Moon red eggs; FIL & SIL Alicia; Full Moon red egg.

We celebrated Shean Wenn's full moon with a yum-cha (dim sum) lunch at a local restaurant on Saturday. Lunch was at 1pm and we managed to get Shean Wenn bathed and prepped up by 12.30 despite her fierce protest. (We had to wake her up from her morning beauty slumber after her 9am feed) She was very well behaved the whole time in the restaurant, choosing to sleep amongst the festivity (people chatting loudly and having a few "che ches" admiring her). She only woke up for her mid-day feed, but quietly drinking and being burped by her grandma! I wish she is like this everyday! :)

After our dim sum (or yum-cha to Australians), we distributed the red-eggs to our guests - the red eggs are a symbol of longevity.

After that, we went back and just in time as well- it started to rain after we arrived home. Phew! (And what a wet summer this has been)

Dreaming

Wonder what is Shean Wenn dreaming about?
Today after feeding and burping Shean Wenn, she fell asleep in my arms. I put her down next to me on the bed and fell asleep next to her.

In the short time we were sleeping, I dreamt : I dreamt I was in Egypt visiting the pyramids and sphinx. I don't know what triggered it (the dream).. But I always had a fascination for Egypt and Egyptology since I was 16. I would pore over books and materials on Egypt, the Sphinx and anything related to Egypt. That was 13 years ago, eh?

I was so fascinated by Egypt that I even wanted to study archaelogy - an ambition that my mother was not very supportive of: "You wanna dig ground for a living?" Was what she thought an archaelogist does.

That was my dream.

Pondering....

Baby Shean Wenn seems to be creasing her browse in deep thoughts here :

Hmmmmmm... what should I do later? Sleep, drink more milk, entertain these adults (that's hard work, yo!)... or poo? Tough life as a baby!

Later, she seems to choose to CRY first, before falling asleep - being cradled and swung comfortably to sleep by grandma/mom/dad, usually!

On another unrelated note : My mom's on FACEBOOK! How unusual is that? She is really embracing the IT wave - especially if Facebook will invade other territories soon enough.

Piggu..

Women's fitted Piggu shirt in grey
I want me a piggu shirt (in pink).

Piggu's a (fluff)friend that I created on my Facebook (and named it Wenni-pig, after... the little mungbean, of course). There are a variety of the cutest, fluffiest (fluff)friends that are avaiable to adopt (in Facebook)... I kinda like the frog (called Froggu), the monkey (Munkii), the penguin (Pengi) and even the flying giraffe ((Flying) Giraffee)!! I picked Piggu because Shean Wenn's born in the year of the pig.

Wenni-Pig is cute, no?

Someone get it for me? **Big charming smile**

It's official!

On 2 July, we went to register the birth (and name) of baby Wong.

She is now Wong Shean Wenn (pronounced as "SHIEN WEN") - 王善雯

善 (Shan4) meaning kind and virtuous.
雯 (Wen2) meaning colourful clouds.

We decided not to give her any "English name".

She's 2 weeks old!

Baby Wong is now 2 weeks old today.

She is getting used to being bathed now, instead of screaming her lungs out everytime we try to bathe her before.

She has a habit of frowning..
(Credits to "Two Peas" and Rhonna Farrer for www.twopeasinabucket.com)

Another 2 weeks more and she'll be celebrating her "Full Moon" (1 month old). The family (Grandma & Grandpa, aunty Alicia and both of us) will have a small lunch at a restaurant. Aunty Alicia has agreed to take some nice photos - hopefully some will turn out nice so that i can make it into a photocard to be sent out to family and close friends :)

Post Natal : Day 12

Lilies from Sis-In-Law Alicia
Who would have imagined the stress of post natal (ie with a screaming baby who needs your constant attention) can help me lose almost all my pregnancy weight? I gained about 10kgs during pregnancy and lost about 9kgs in less than 2 weeks. I guess the other 1kg is some water retention and my still-flabby tummy (looks like I'm 2 mths preggy).

And to be fair, I wasn't all stressed out, having help from my MIL who does most of the stuff around the house : including cooking, doing the laundry, burping baby, cradling her during the wee hours of the morning, bottle-feeding her, the list is endless. And yet, I am still somewhat dazed over this new role as a "Mother". It is indeed an upgrade and a title not easy to carry.

After 12 days with a new baby, life has been bittersweet : it is inevitable that I feel the "baby blues" but sometimes I feel utter joy just gazing at her. I guess it's a phase most people go through, especially new mothers. I'm sure this too will pass. I just can't wait till Baby turns 1 month.

This Mon will be day 15 and that's the day I'm gonna wash my hair. Alas! I am doing the confinement thingy .. just because I believe in it (but I practice in moderation). My MIL has been cooking me a variety of yummy confinement food - pork leg in vinegar, chicken cooked in Stone's ginger wine, ginger fried rice, etc. (Which reminds me, I need to ask her for some of the recipes!)

12 days with baby:
She now sleeps slightly longer(spoke too soon) wakes up every hour or 2, although it still depends on her mood and of course, her tummy.

She has a cheeky habit of peeing AFTER we have cleaned her and just before changing a new nappy. So sometimes the unfortunate victims will be either me or her grandma. Her grandma got pee-d on twice while bathing her, that cheeky girl!

She also has a tendency of screaming her lungs out everytime we try to change her nappy. And mind you, those are not crocodile tears, those are actual tears. It's puzzling why she does that. Maybe it's cold. So, the trick now is we let her latch onto a dummy (that's a pacifier) while chnaging her to help soothe her. It helps! Of course we only give her the dummy during nappy-changing time and not for normal use. I have this thing against giving a baby the pacifier - perhaps from my parent's practice of not using it on us (My dad thinks it gives us colic/wind); Or perhaps I just tend not to like the idea of having a "comfort" object for my child. Yes, it's true, comfort should really come from within (I remember reading this from Karen Cheng's blog too).

She can now trace objects with her eyes, although not everytime. During "playtime", sometimes we will put a finger infront of her and wave it from left to right, or right to left and see if her eyes will follow it. If it catches her attention, she will look at the finger. Once when hubs was talking to her and he walked to the other sid eof the room, her head and eyes followed him. We were pretty impressed!

She also likes to lift her head - a sign tht she is practicing her neck muscles. :) Sometimes, this can get tiresome for me as she tends to wiggle her body when I try to burp her after a feed. Grandma suggested to put her lay on her stomach one day and see if she lifts her head. Well, she did try but she lifted her legs and butt most of the time.. and ended up crying after a few attempts.

She snores - like me and her dad! Well, can't blame her, it's all in the genes, no?

Baby Wong as "The Scream"

Photo taken when she is 1 week old - 1 Jul
Grandma thinks this picture of Baby Wong looks like she's being vain. But mommy thinks she looks alot like the painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, originally entitled "Der Schrei der Natur" (The Scream of Nature).
Picture taken off Wikipedia
Indeed, she is a natural born screamer! (She's a newborn baby, afterall)

My 27 hours of labour

Every mother goes through labour and some (those lucky ones!) have it easy while some not-so-easy. Of course, every birth/labour experience is unique. This is mine. The condensed version is summarised at the end of the entry (for those who has no patience nor interest to read the gory details of the "Full Version").

23 June
"The Show" and followed by contractions
I woke up at 2.30am with a "show" (sign of start of labour). This was quickly followed by what seems to me at that time, tummy cramp similar to period cramps. I soon found out this was what they call "CONTRACTIONS". I continued to sleep. The contractions were coming every 10-12mins.

At 3.30am, I still were having this constant contractions - I used my mobile phone to time them. They are coming at every 10mins. Then, at about 4am, it was coming every 6-8mins. I decided to call the labour ward to ask for instructions. The lady at the end of the phone told me to call again when the contractions become more frequent, ie "Every 3-4mins".

By now, I have woken up my MIL to inform her. We continued waiting. I paced up & down a few times due to the pain! Tried sleeping. Also went in for a shower and washed my hair (because I'm gonna be observing "confinement"). MIL made breakfast (yummy porridge) and we were eating it around 7-8am. Still waiting.

At about 9.30am, my contractions were coming every 3-5mins. At 10am, I called up labour ward again. The lady told me I could come in soon. We packed up and went off.

Labour Ward
Arrived at the hospital at around 11am with little traffic as it was a Saturday. They prepped me up in labour ward - the midwife checked my dilatation - I was only 2cm dilated. They let me wait there and hooked me up on the fetal heart-beat monitoring system and also a contraction monitoring system. Hubs and I waited in the labour room while my MIL waited with all our bags in the waiting room. By noon, they decided I was NOT "in active labour" stage yet and they planned to move me to the ante-natal ward.

Ante-Natal Ward
At around 1pm, I was transferred to the ante-natal ward. My contractions, by now, were coming infrequently - sometimes every 3-5mins, at times, every 10-12mins. My MIL & hubs waited with me in the ante-natal ward. It was utterly boring lying on bed and bearing with the pain of the contractions. I was advised to walk around to help contractions get stronger and more frequent. By 2pm, I told hubs & MIL to go get lunch for themselves. They came back after awhile with McD lunch for me! They left to go home at 3.30pm.

Back to LABOUR WARD
I told them to get some rest and come bk by dinner time. Just before dinner, I told the midwife that my contractions are getting more painful and frequent - at every 4mins. She checked and found that I was now 3-4cm dilated. By now, I have been in labour for 16hours! MIL & hubs returned to the hospital by dinnertime bringing me MIL's home-cooked "Hokkien Fried Noodles". I happily ate dinner while in the labour room after they hooked me up on the machines again.

ENTONOX
My midwife taught me how to use gas (Entonox) to relief pain. "Breathe in deeply and then out every time when you can feel the contraction. Repeat this throughout one contraction" she says. I did that and this method helped for awhile, but I also felt light-headed and "high" while on it. I told her I wanted something stronger - petadine! She chided me (which annoyed me) saying "You are not doing the breathing right, I noticed you gave up the gas after a few breaths. YOU ARE supposed to breathe in and out until the pain goes away". I told her I feel high after a few breaths and wouldn't be able to concentrate.. she was adament I don't get my Pethidine yet.

24 June
Artificial breaking of water
From 7pm till 2am the next day (24 June), I was on Entonox and by 2.30am, I was in labour for 24 hours. All this while while I was in labour ward, there would be at least a midwife to monitor both me & my baby's situation. She would record down all the readings churned out by the machine and monitor my heart rate and BP. Since my water bag has not yet broken and I was in prolong labour, the midwife did the breakig of water bag around now (I can't remember the timeline as I was too high in pain and entonox). She used a hook to do this and I remember it was quite uncomfortable and painful and I just kept inhaling Entonox to get some relief!

Pethidine
After this is done, (again, I don't remember when) but it should be at around this time that I request for Pethidine. The midiwfe checked my dilatation and I was still only 4cm dilated eventhough I was in labour for more than 20 hours.. she decided that she would give me my Pethidine (this was not the same midwife as before). At around the same time, there was a group of doctors on duty who came to check on my situation : They introduced themselves and noted all of the midwife's observations and records.

AUGMENTATION of labour and Epidural
Since I was in labour for so long, the midife deemed it vital that my labour to be augmented. Augmentation is crucial to help the placenta get stronger and more frequent contractions to "expel" the baby later on and will be done if a woman is in labour for too long. The contractions come & go and was getting more intense. I told her I need something stronger - Epidural. She then summoned the Anasthetician on-duty to do this. The Dr came in and explained the pros & cons of epidural before administering a dosage through my back. It kicked in after 20mins. By now, my contractions were getting more frequent (about every 4-5mins) and stronger.

Right about 4.30-5am, I noticed that my right leg was in excruciating pain (Isn't epidural supposed to be HELPING MY PAIN, not adding extra pain?). I told the midwife and the anaesthetician was again assigned to me and he asked me some questions to determine my pain. He then adjusted the catheter placed at the epidural space and administer another dosage. After 20mins, I noticed that the pain on my right leg has gone. And it really helped with my contraction pain as well. By 6am, the midwife thought it was time to push as my contractions were already 3 times every 10mins and I was 10cm dilated. I remember her teaching me how to push but due to the long labour, tiredness, painkillers, I could not push as much as she would have liked. AT some point, she had to summon in the doctors as she noticed there was a drop in the baby's heart rate.

THE BIRTH
Dr Wong came in while I was in semi-high and he assisted in the delivery using suction cup (a ventuose delivery). Dr Wong encouraged me to push while he attaches the suction cup onto baby's head. After 50mins, Baby Wong was born. Hubs was there to cut the umbilical cord. :)
They placed baby on me for awhile before cleaning, weighing and observing her.
Hubs and MIL told me it was raining when she was delivered. :)

Post-delivery drama
Due to the assisted delivery, I also had an episiotomy. The Dr had to do a suture on me. While he was suturing me, I noticed that I was extremely weak and suspect that I had low blood pressure (yes, I was still alert to know this). I spoke in soft breath to the midwife/Dr that "I think I hv low blood pressure now, help me". And then, i added " I also think I might hv low blood sugar". Someone took my BP and true enough, my BP dropped to 60/20. The Dr quickly stopped suturing and instead tried to get my BP up again. They also administered saline solution for me. By now, I was also shivering and felt cold. I kept telling them "I feel cold, pls cover me." and "My back is in pain, pls help me". I was complaining in between consciousness and i noticed a flurry of activities as midwives, doctors, anaesthetics go about tending over me.

Sometime around now, the midwife came in to inform the Dr that she noticed that my placenta (after it was taken out) was bleeding internally. Apparently, I lost alot of blood (caused by long labour and prolong contractions). Dr Wong informed me (in my semi-conscious state) that I needed to do a blood transfusion. I told him "NO blood transfusion". He said I needed to. I told him to summon my hushand into the room. Dr Wong then informed him of my situation and hubs agreed to the blood transfusion. I intercepted and said I do not want to have blood transfusion. But it was necessary. In the end, I agreed after asking him "Were the blood screened?". "Yes, of course".

Recovery in Labour Ward and a male midwife?
Olu, the midwife finshed her shift and I was passed to Felipe (pronounced as "Philippa", he's spanish) the attending midwife (who is a male!). Anyway, at around 8 or 9am, they transferred me from Labour Room 2 to Labour Room 7 where it was more spacious and have more monitors to monitor me closely. In total, they took about 2 hours to stabilise my BP and brought me back from pale to ok. By 10am, I was stable enough for hubs to call in MIL to see both me & baby. Felipe was in the room all the while to monitor and record my situation. He is seriously an excellent midwife!

While hubs and MIL cooed over baby Wong, I was just glad to have survived all that. It is an experience I will never forget. I even have bruises to show for it!
Bruises from drips/blood transfusion/drugs administration on my arms

IN A NUTSHELL
26+ hours of labour,
Entonox, Pethidine and Epidural,
Ventuose delivery,
Loss of blood causing low BP
In the end : Baby Wong = PRICELESS.


Now, our lives has taken a new chapter. Sleep deprivation, diaper change, 2hourly feeds, screaming baby. They say it's all worth it! (Ask me again in 3 months)