Birth Story

Ok folks, had some time this morning so here’s Baby Yee Sinn’s post dated birth story.

I had contraction on 26th Jan 08 early morning but I wasn’t sure if that was IT. Hubby and I caught some sleep before we decided to head for the hospital since the pain (was still very bearable) became rhythmic.

We did the usual admission procedures at the hospital before being brought to the labour ward. We soon settled down and I was hooked onto the fetal movement monitor. Hubby was feeling bored so he took out his packet of chips and munched on them as he explored the clinical room, checking out the phua chu kang boots, aprons, masks etc that the doctor will be wearing. The room felt a little cold so hubby asked the nurse for a blanket – For himself as he settled down on the “Daddy’s couch” next to me. *grin* We managed to get some sleep in between before….. Dr C came and burst my water bag around 7am. It was then when I finally knew what PAIN really was.

I didn’t wait long to ask for the epidure as I was already 5-6 cm dilated. The nurses also pumped in Oxytocin near noon time to speed up the contraction. By late 1pm, the contractions came fast and furious and I was ready to push. Yes, just like the big bad wolf in the story of the 3 little pigs, I huffed and I puffed and I pushed my guts out.

“Daddy come and see the head!” Dr C told hubby. It wasn’t long that I ran out of energy that Dr C asked if I need her assistance to vacuum baby Yee Sinn out. I immediately agreed and within 5 mins more of pushing, popped came a new member of our family.

Here are some pictures to share with all of you.

Baby Yee Sinn warmed and nicely swaddled up.















She's 3.33kg. No need for sliming packages for now.












Mummy and baby are doing just fine.

Motherhood

I've finally entered the motherhood club on 26th Jan 2008. For my friends and relatives, thousand of apologies for not posting up anything about my labour earlier. I had a normal birth with epidural and the help of a vacuum pump. Baby, mother and hubby are still trying to cope with the changes at home. Until now, life at home has been crazy!! I'm actually living my life out of night shifts (yes, baby sleeps in the day and is owl- eyed at night!).

I won't be posting a long note today cos I've still got to sort out tons of stuffs back home. Still trying to get baby on the right routine else life will be miserable for both hubby and I. Will try to log into the internet something later this week hopefully.

Meanwhile, here are some baby's trivial to keep you folks occupied for now:

Name: Lee Yee Sinn (Li Yixin)

Meaning of name: Blissful mind

Weight at birth: 3.33kg

Date of birth: 26th Jan 2008 (Year of a Pig)

Yee Sinn's first day at the hospital

Yee Sinn at home looking good and contented after a feed

Yee Sinn's curious look of her new environment

Timeliness

YAY! Baby will be arriving tomorrow!! We went down to Dr C’s clinic this afternoon and to our surprise, my cervix is already 3cm dilated. How timely baby’s arrival is cos her EDD was initially on 26th Jan 2008. Maybe credit should be given to Dr C’s accurate calculation instead. *Grin*

Hubby is getting very excited about it… fiddling with the digital camera, making sure that there will be sufficient battery power to last through labour. As for me, here I am doing some last min checking of emails, packing of my hospital bag (kind of like going on a 3 days 2 nigh vacation), and stuffing myself silly with food.

We will be reporting at the hospital at 7.30am tomorrow. Dr C mentioned that if there’s no contractions or waterbag bursting by then, she’ll have to artificially burst the bag to get the labour going.

Let’s hope that we’ll have a smooth and short labour, and most important of all, a healthy baby!

Wish me luck!

Golden Years

Yesterday morning during our department meeting, our boss told us officially that she’ll be retiring in the middle of Feb. I could sense her retirement coming but I did not expect it to be this soon. It must be a bitter sweet decision on her part - she was unwilling to leave behind all her colleagues who became her good friends over the years. On the other hand, she must be relief that she will be leaving all the office politics, the rat race and all that nonsense, in search for a better quality of life. She has a house, yet she has not lived in it to make it a home. She has a garden but she has not noticed what was grown. She has a family, yet they aged so suddenly. She so very much wanted to have time to enjoy her fruit of labour and to smell the flowers in her golden years.

Yes, she was a good boss, one of the best I have worked with so far. We can’t have everything we want all the time. There must be some sacrifices – To me, family must be a priority (yes, looking forward to motherhood) before career. We must remember to smell the roses and not live in regret in pursue of a career. After all, the reason we work so hard is for our family.

Enjoy your retirement Boss!

Down but not Out!

Been out of action for quite a while because I have fallen sick. *Sigh*. Was wondering how come I was so unlucky to be down with flu when I am now so near delivery. Went to the GP on Monday afternoon and was given 2 days of medical leave. I didn’t feel any better yesterday so I went down again and was given another 2 days. I really hope I’ll recover in time before Baby arrives.

Apparently, one of my colleagues (lets call this person V-> V for virus) was down with a bad bout of flu. Despite seeing a doctor and given a few days of medical leave, V insisted on coming to work. What happened next was one by one, all of us were down with the similar virus. There were at least 7 of us affected and yet, V was so unapologetic about the deed. Many of us wondered why V still insisted on coming to work and complaining about how uncomfortable the virus was making her blah blah blah…. Perhaps V had an important mission to save the world!! Well, the least V could have done was to wear a face mask. Talk about being socially responsible. *Sigh*

It's very tempting to take another day of rest tomorrow but I've got tons of work to be done. I've got to continue archiving my emails, get the key fixed and the dial-in function on my laptop looked into. On the bright side, Hubby and I have an appointment with Dr C tomorrow. Can't wait to listen to Baby's heartbeat and see her in action through the ultrasound scans. YAY!

Engaged

Baby is finally engaged! That means Baby will be arriving anytime soon.... now I'm starting to be a little anxious. Dr C told us all is well and we should be ready for Baby's arrival anytime from today onwards. She's in a healthy weight range, approximately 3.1kg from the scan she did this afternoon. However, as the weight is only an estimate, Dr C predicts Baby will be around 2.9kg to 3kg the most. She mentioned that 2.9kg is a good size for natural birth.

There are quite a few outstanding items at work to be done:

1. Compile a list of to-do stuffs that my colleagues would have to do on my behalf.
(Thank goodness I have more or less taught her most of the technical issues)

2. Archive my mail box - sure don't wanna it to be blown up while I'm away for 3 months.

3. Set my out of office mail on standby

4. Clear workstation and keep all valuables such as my phone chargers etc


As for outstanding stuffs back home, I've got to:

1. Mop Baby's room

2. Set up the playpen in case the bed doesn't arrive on time

3. Remind my folks to get the confinment food/ herbs ready.

4. Remember to BREATHE and RELAX while anticipating Baby's arrival.

5. Enjoy my on coming adventure. Lots of cheers to motherhood!

Taxi Hikes

The recent taxi hike sure has an impact on my daily expenditure. Nowadays, my average cab fare to and from work cost approximately $15, instead of $12. Yes, I do feel the pinch but I do not have much of a choice. I have been trying to avoid crowded places, especially the morning and evening peak hours in the MRT trains, after being infected by flu bugs countless of time. (You get all sorts of disgusting people coughing, sniffing and sometime drooling during the early train rides)

Most, almost all I would dare say, of the cab drivers that have ferried me sweared that their income has fallen drastically – this despite recent news articles that reported “more than 85% of cab drivers are now earning more due to the fare hike” and the lack of passengers was a normal “knee jerk” reaction that will cease after Chinese New Year. This made me wonder how true the reports were… either the newspapers’ survey methodology was wrong or the cab drivers ( and the taxi company) were lying. 85%.. hmmm… could it be possible that they only “interviewed” 10 taxi drivers and out of which 8 said they earned more? Who were these 85%? Favourite drivers of the cab companies or personal friends of the reporter?

Not only the passengers, the cab drivers themselves are cursing and swearing about the disappearance of passengers. But hey, they were the ones who were complaining about the rise in cost of petrol etc in the first place!! So finally they got what they wished for – price hike! Most of the drivers I spoke to felt that a better way was for the taxi companies to reduce rental rather than pass the rising cost to the passenger, which I totally agreed. But than again, I don’t think these companies will be so stupid to jeopardize their own revenue by doing so.

The question now is will the taxi companies decrease the fare? Only time will tell…

Nesting Instinct

The pending motherhood sure stirred up the nesting instinct in me. After our visit to the doctor’s last Friday, I had the strong urge to clear clutter and create space. To free up space in baby’s nursery, we bought a new plastic Keter cabinet for the service balcony and filled it up with 2 boxes of toiletries that used to be parked at one corner of the room. I’ll be looking at trashing more stuff this week. We have done most of the washing of laundry - cloth nappies, mittens, booties, rompers, button shirts and towels. All these were nicely stacked up and placed in a small cabinet. Hopefully we’ll be able to create a safe, spacious and clean environment (free from dust) in time for baby’s arrival.

Speaking of baby’s arrival, Dr C has advised us to be on standby with our emergency bag. She warned us that baby could pop out anytime from this week onwards. We’ve got most things ready except my going home clothes and the digital camera. Think I’ll get down to packing these items by Tuesday. Wish me luck!

We ordered a small wooden trolley for the kitchen from Isetan the week before. It was delivered this morning. Hope hubby will be able to assemble it tonight so that we can tidy up the kitchen a bit.

"Lao Gong, Jia You!!"