First week with ZK :)

Ok, time for details!

Day -1, Wednesday, 11 Jul 2012

So last Wednesday, after my update, we went down to Sushi Tei for a last dinner with only each other.

Then it was off to the hospital in the rain!

We went to the hospital a little late but admission was easy since I wasn't in pain! After paying the deposit, a porter came to bring us to ward 515 which was a two-bedder cos they didn't have a single ward that night. My first time staying in a hospital since I was born!

A nurse came in just as we were settling down and asked me to change into a blue hospital robe. Then she strapped me to a machine to track baby's heartbeat and my contractions, and did a questionnaire - I remember that the most important question to me was whether I wanted total breastfeeding. Yes!

Then she checked my cervix - still 2 cm - before inserting a tablet to soften the cervix. She said that if I had dilated to 3-4 cm, she wouldn't insert the tablet. She said that the actual induction would take place the next day at 6 am. The nurse would wake me at 5 am for some light food before moving me to the labour ward.

That was 9.20 pm. When she came back a short while later for my blood pressure, I was feeling backache not unlike my period pains.

And so Sito went home since he couldn't stay in a two-bedder - and finished FF XIII-2! - thinking that he would have to take a cab very early the next morning...

Well, things didn't go that way.. I started experiencing more backache. A nurse came in to check on me an hour later and told me that was normal. Then she told me that she thought I had a high pain threshold. I didn't understand that until later in the labour ward when I saw the scale for contractions *.*

So anyway, she said my contractions weren't regular and took me off the machine. Then I was chatting on the phone with CW and SSY who gave birth just a few days before when the backache got more intense and every time I had a contraction, I felt like peeing!

After a trip to the toilet, I thought the contractions were never-ending so I began to time my contractions. They were about two minutes apart lasting a minute each and after one that lasted some three minutes, I called for the nurse. My body was quite sensitive to the tablet!

The sequence of what happened next was quite blurry but I called Sito to ask him to standby and again to get to the hospital cos I'm going to the labour ward! The nurse gave me an enema and Sito arrived and I was wheeled to the labour ward.

Day 1, Thursday, 12 Jul 2012

When the nurse asked if I wanted an epidural, I just said yes and signed the paper immediately! So much for thinking about going through labour without epidural *.* Actually, the contractions didn't hurt, just uncomfy. But the backache hurt like hell!

While waiting for the doc - it was just past midnight - Sito rubbed my back for me. So painful! When Dr Tay got there around 1 am, I was arranged in a curled-up pose on my left. I managed to keep very still and very quickly, the epidural was in and relief was almost instant!

Next was the drip. Doc was very funny.

Doc: I can see that you don't work out much!
mf: Oh yes, none at all!

And so I still have this horrid bruise where the needle went in the first time on my forearm. Then they realised we were collecting cord blood and so they repeated the process on my hand! Then just as we thought all was set, the doc noticed a bump at the end of the tube. I didn't understand what transpired between the nurse and the doc, but the nurse was pretty black-faced and Sito told me later that the doc wasn't pleased with her. Anyway, the final hole was on the back of my wrist. For that, somehow the nurse was gripping my arm so tightly that I got a bruise from that too *.*



Doc then talked to us about epidural, how it should be safe and not cause backache etc. It was around 2 am when we were finally settled. Sito slept on the nice sofa while I tried to sleep. I might have slept a bit here and there but I remember looking at my blood pressure when the machine checked every 30 min..

Some time in the middle of the night, an alarm went off and a nurse came in to add epidural. Before that, I actually started to feel my feet!

Finally, it was day! A nurse came in and drained my urine. Thanks to the epidural, I didn't feel a thing when the catheter went in. I had so much pee hoho! Then she checked that I was 3 cm dilated and gave me the oxytocin at 7 am.

At 8 am, I felt something trickling out of me. I told the nurse and she changed the pad underneath me - I saw blood! Pretty thankful it was birth related and not pee *.* She also checked that I was 6 cm dilated.

Can't remember if she upped the epidural when she induced me but by then, I couldn't move my left leg. So she and Sito turned me to my right to balance out the epidural. Btw, one leg was shaking a lot while the epidural was in - a side effect of the drug..

Shortly after, about 9 am, Dr Chan arrived. He checked and yeah, I was fully dilated! Two nurses then prepared me to push.

"Like passing motion!"

They turned down the epidural to level three or something like that so that I could feel something. By 9.30 am, I started pushing with each contraction. At first, I had no idea what I was doing, whether I was doing it right. But after a few contractions, I managed to get it right.

Sito was helping to lift my head so I could bear down. While the nurses were busy preparing other stuff, he checked the machine and alerted me to push whenever it registered contraction levels of 30-40. By then, I could also feel the contractions coming but they weren't painful. He told me the level went beyond 100 whenever the nurse said my pushing was good.

He also went around to the other side. Yup... Cos the nurse said, oh, can see the hair! And so we had a few unsightly pictures of me *.* But I was so motivated to see baby hair! And even more so when I could feel his hair myself!

Just after 10 am, they decided that baby was far down enough and called for Dr Chan. From there, I wasn't supposed to push. But by then, I could feel baby all the way down there! Had to tell myself to resist pushing..

So they set up the stirrups while waiting for the doc. And soon, the doc came, got changed and we got started!

I could feel baby's head more and more. I saw the doc with scissors but I ignored that as I knew I wouldn't feel the cut. Then, there was a gush of slippery stuff from me and I saw baby slide into his arms!



The next thing I knew, I had baby on my belly! All 3.275kg of him! It was pretty amazing to have this little human, just inside of me a moment ago, now on me :) My first impression was that he seemed grey, but that was probably cos of the grey cloth on me :p The nurses suctioned him quickly and he started wailing!

Sito cut his umbilical cord before he was taken to the table next to me. He said it felt like half-filled sausage, raw *.* Baby came back shortly for skin-to-skin contact. He kind of crawled to my right breast and tried to suckle!

Our first family portrait :)



We took quite a bit of photos before baby was taken away, including one of me looking at the placenta... Like something from the butcher *.* We thanked the doc and the two nurses, both of them named Teresa - the older Teresa was 76 years old!!

A nurse took out the epidural and um, "swaddled" me. I fell asleep. When I woke, a nurse took off the drip and drained my urine - that was painful without epidural!! I was given a sponge bath before being rolled to ward 515 at 12.35 pm. Mum brought soup and lunch was served. I was so hungry!!



The paediatrician came in at 1.30 pm to tell us that baby was healthy :) Baby was later wheeled in to be with us. I got Sito to carry baby and he did a Lion King pose :p Yes, our future king :)



Ok, that wasn't the Lion King pose - still trying to take a good one! - but that was the first time Sito carried baby :)

Anyway, we were all so tired that all three of us dozed off I the middle of the afternoon! Baby was sleeping most of the time anyway.. So cute right? :)



After several enquiries, they finally moved us to a single room. It was actually a two-bedder next door 517 but with just us. So instead of a sofa bed, Sito got to sleep in a proper bed, albeit a hospital bed!

The family came by followed by J and J. Then, all was quiet. Baby was taken back to the nursery and we went to bed.

As we wanted total breastfeeding, a nurse brought baby in twice in the night for feeding. It was tough! We only managed to latch on for a short while...

Day 2, Friday

Dr Yip came in very early about 7-ish the next morning to report on baby. Then Dr Chan came in at 8.30 am to check on me, making sure my womb was contracting well.

And then, I had my first shower! What bliss :)

Sito had mee goreng for breakfast!! I had simple oatmeal..



Hup and CW dropped by on Friday so we chatted for a while before we had to go for the parent craft class at 1.30 pm. Learnt how to bathe baby and more on breastfeeding.

I tried feeding baby throughout the day with the help of a lactation consultant. Tried leaning on the bed, sitting on the chair, propping myself up with pillows, lying on my side - with varying results. I didn't know if I had enough milk :( One thing for sure though was that, like many other parts of me, my nipples were never going to look the same again hoho! He finally managed to latch on for a good 20 min! But after the good feed in the evening, I had bad cramps and backache again. Took some painkillers to settle that.

Sito went out to get names for baby after the parent craft class. Sito liked the word 震 - cos it was raining when we got to the hospital :) I liked the word 铠 - cos of the sound! We thought we would go check against some websites when home before fixing the name.

Another cute shot of our sleepy-kun :)



Oh, baby had really smelly farts :p

Day 3, Saturday

The nurse we were looking for last night came in this morning - she must have heard we were looking for her as she had earlier told us that she would teach us how to breastfeed lying down. And she did that well! Sito also learnt to help me :) The result was a good 20-min feed. We even saw milk coming out when she squeezed me, yeah!

After that, I decided I needed a shampoo. I could have gone for the full works but I thought I'd try my no-rinse shampoo. Mistake - it felt unclean :( I've been shampooing with my usual since then.

All too soon, we were getting ready to go home. Going to be just the two of us with baby!!

Poor baby wasn't too glam though - the clothes we brought to the hospital were too big!! :( And we lost a bootie on the way to the lift *.*



Settling the bill took some time. The limo service provided by the hospital was useful but their car seat was stuck! In the end, I hugged baby all the way home, terrified of jerks along the way!

Mum came down with an umbrella to shelter us as it was drizzling.. Yup, I think we selected his name nicely :) But before we fixed it, I MUST EAT!

My first tingkat lunch :) Pretty oily *.*



And in the evening, Mum cooked a lot of food! I had to save some for supper.



We went online to read more about our choice of name for baby. The "score" was good. So it was set - our baby was thus named 震铠 :)

Day 4, Sunday

Mum came over to give baby a shower. He was crying and squirming all the way! Thankfully it got better with each bath, although he still doesn't like cleaning very much... What a 小臭臭! :p



Update 21 Sep 2012 - just uploaded this video :)



My boobs became swollen overnight, giving me more hope about breastfeeding. But it still hurt badly.

Day 5, Monday

Babies are quite clean. So I only intended to bathe baby every other day. But I figured that we wouldn't have time to do that on Tuesday so we gave him another bath today. Couldn't have done it without Sito's help!

Then Sito went to ICA to register his birth. ZK has his first official document - his birth cert! :)

I pumped out some milk to see how much I had. So little!! And it's still yellowish colostrum.



Baby was still sleeping most of the time :) And what a poser he is! :)



My fave boys :)



That afternoon, I started on my jamu massage. It was quite shiok, especially on my swollen feet. The binding was tight but auntie said it wasn't tight at all. Um, ok.. Auntie heard that ZK hadn't pooped since Saturday morning so she took a look at him too. He rubbed a warm towel on his belly. He didn't struggle :) But he continued to cry that night, sighs..

Day 6, Tuesday

We went to the paediatrician in the morning. The first challenge was the car seat. The seat belt was kind of short! We improvised a little and managed to hold it somewhat steady.. Sito managed to secure it tightly after we got home.



ZK measured 3.13 kg at the clinic - a little heavier! :) We asked Dr Yip about ZK's (lack of) poop, his gas, his usually-closed right eye, his preference to turn to the right when he sleeps etc. We were given RidWind to help with the gas. The rest, well, we shall see.

ZK cried all the way home! Poor baby!

Back home, we took a little sunbath at the window for his jaundice. Cool hur? :p



End this day with a cute picture of him being burped :)



Day 7, Wednesday

This day, we learnt the perils of changing a boy's diapers :p

In the morning, I just put his bum down on a clean diaper when he started peeing! And the diaper got wet at the edge and outside. Oh well, let's get another one...

In the afternoon, he repeated his stunt! But this time, he aimed pretty nicely into the fresh diaper. Ah well, just wrap him up :p

At night, he had an even better aim - he aimed at the wall! We had a good laugh! At least the diaper remained clean!

But our first week kind of ended in tears. That night, he was fussing a lot from his gas problem. I think we were up for 3-4 hours trying to comfort him with belly oil, RidWind drops and nursing. It was so sad to see him so uncomfortable. I cried with him :(

Thankfully, he pooped by the next evening! A lot! Really 不鸣则已，一鸣惊人 :p It was all black though when it should be yellow. But he didn't poop for days so... We were so relieved that we took a picture of his poop!

Ok, more on ZK in another post..