Zander's arrIval

Well, I wanted to start of this post by stating that having a second child is no less easier. Granted, you do have more experience and hence you can probably have more accurate guesses on the needs of the baby and/or what's to come. But the sheer effort and energy required is just not any lesser. In fact i think its worse as you are also older!

Anyway, back to the post on Zander's arrival. Well, i guess he definitely has his own timing to follow. I was getting fairly impatient with being pregnant that i wanted to schedule for an induction on the same day he came out. With the plan to go to the hospital at 6am for an 8am induction, I thought I had it all down pat. In fact, it was quite a good feeling, to know that you are getting ready for delivery the next day. I took a long shower, spent quality time with Karine as her last night as a single child, and just enjoyed the final hours turning in early.

Alas, the best laid plans were not to be. At 4am-ish, stomach pains and bloody show signalled the impending labour pains. As the cramps intensified,rushed to the hospital as fast as our Fiat cold take us, with Karine safely at my mum's.

This time was different, as I had already requested for the anesthetist, he was there fairly quickly! The nurses were also moving fast, wheeling me to the delivery room as I was already 5cm dilated when they checked me upon arrival. Within 6 hrs since my cramps started, out popped Zander!

The worst, or best, thing was, he came out with the umbilical cord wound round his neck twice, and a knot further down the cord! Can you imagine the somersaults he must have been up to in the womb! I don't really want to speculate whether that's an indicator of his activity levels when he becomes bigger!

Another good thing doing this second time round, is that I'm not such a noon at the breastfeeding. It really is like cycling, but some refresher tips are always useful. The tips at babycentre.com is really useful, especially the one that comes with the visual diagram. Here's the link: http://www.babycenter.com.sg/baby/breastfeeding/visualguide/

Ok, that's all for now. Will post more pics later once I have them transferred to my iPad. Typing with the soft keyboard is not as bad as I would imagine. I'll blog about how Karine is coping so far and also my thoughts about doing this a second time round and the differences between boy baby and gal baby. Naptime!

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Laughing without a care

Here's one of those moments whereby Baby's laughter lift up everyone's spirits!

Working Mama

Have been working for the past 2 weeks already and boy, do I miss bb Karine at work! From being able to be with her at her every whim and cry to only be able to see her in the evening, it's a HUGE difference! It really makes me cherish the weekends more so that I can spend as much time as possible with her! Even changing her dirty nappies is a joy!

Expressing at work is also something that needed to be worked out logistically. I'm currently managing on a 5hrly interval but that can sometimes stretch to 6 hrs! I realised that I need an alarm reminder or something to get me off the desk otherwise I'll miss the time when I'm engrossed at the computer! But thankfully, my supply is ok so far and I get to take home 3-4bottles of milk for bb. And I'm also glad that I stocked up on the frozen BM, cos Mondays are when they'll be needed!

Another thing I'm glad about it being able to get photos free from HP's Snapfish service. Heh, so I bring the cute little pics of Karine to the office and think of her whenever I miss her. I've now replaced my mobile's wallpaper to her pic and now, I'm one of those mummies who proudly show off bb pics to just about anyone. Yikes!

One of my fav pic:


Today is also one of those days when I bathed bb. Usually a task undertaken by my mum, bathing Karine is not that tough after all. OK, she's bigger now and being used to the water and all makes the job much easier and pleasurable! She's turning into a regular water baby!

Brought Karine out to 2 places yesterday, Hubby's colleague's wedding and his friend's baby full month. I'm so glad that Karine was such a sweetie at those places. Even though it was kinda hot and noisy at the wedding, she sat in her pram prettily and quietly, and waited for mummy and daddy to finish lunch before complaining about the heat. Just in time to take our leave and reach home for her teabreak.

The next stop was near our house, and she took her nap on the sofa, amidst the milling guests and other curious toddlers and babies! I'm so proud of her, being able to sleep anywhere, regardless of noise! What a doll!

Talking about sleep, Karine has started sleeping through. In fact, this sweetie pie started sleeping through 1 night before mummy returned to work! I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping that this it! And her feed times have fallen quite neatly into the 6, 9 and 12pm cycle. She's pretty much into dreamland after her last feed at 9pm-ish and after changing her. I'm glad I bought the Baby Whisperer book and settled her into a routine from day 1, amidst scorn and sceptism from some older folks.

Oops, gotta change nappy now!

Karine welcomes 2008

I feel so excited to usher in 2008 with our new addition. Can't believe it. The same time last year, we were still happily idling in our own home watching the celebrations on TV and calling family members wishing them a Happy 2007. Fast forward to now and how do we celebrate the ushering of 2008? By being sound asleep, with our little one in the next room. Won't be going out for any celebrations anytime soon till she's much older of course!

It's nice to have a little bundle of joy around, babies aren't called little bundles of joy for nothing. Each time I see Karine and she gives me a big smile or gurgle, I feel so happy.

Life really changes and it's true what they say, you learn to appreciate your own parents more when you become one yourself. I can't imagine how my mum can go through labour pains 4 times without epidural! Goodness!

And it's true how having one makes me feel like having another one to keep each company. And I've kinda forgotten the pains. Well, sort of. Anyways, it's still too early to plan for that now, I'd like to enjoy Karine as much as possible first and wait till she gets a bit older to be able to help me with a mei mei. Yup, hope the 2nd one can be a gal too! hee...

I was just telling hubby that I miss Karine's newborn look. In fact, I can't seem to remember how she's like already! Of course looking at the pics help, but somehow, she still looks the same to me! Thank goodness for technology, we capture those moments and share them and review them so easily!

Then:




Now:


I've been with Karine for the past 2 months and 2 weeks 24x7, it'll be tough on me when I return to work! I'll definitely miss her! And I'm starting work in a week and a half's time. On one hand, it'll be kinda fun to be back on top of things. However, I'm just getting used to being at home and being with BB. I've already planned out my leave days so that I can wean off being with Karine 24x7. Luckily CNY hols would follow soon after I return to work!

2mths and it's Xmas time!

BB 2 months liao! so fast!! And 1 more mth and back to work, sianzzz. Have been trying to capture pics of bb close-up and catch her gummy grins, but somehow, the shutter seems to be capturing all motion blur and fuzziness! And most times, the pics turn out to be bad passport photo mugshots! How do the rest of the mummies manage to capture those grins perfectly?!





Nowadays, our attention has been pretty much focused on feeds. naps, diaper change, poo and pee. And watch out for that sneeze, or warm sticky poo will land on you!

I've also realised that Karine has established her own kind of routine, an hour after her feed, she'll need her nap or she'll be really cranky. I'm so thankful that I've started to be more diligent in recording her naptimes. Also, she usually takes 1-2 longish naps like 2hrs or so and abt 2-3 shorter naps, which can last anytime from 15-30 mins. I'm glad i started her on a routine and she's managed to lay down for her longer sleep at night after her last feed, which is usually at 9-ish. So far, waking up for one night feed.

Am reeaally looking forward to the day sleeping thru occurs! When when?!?! She did sleep through the nite before, and my body suffered for it.

I'll explain why.

People are right abt bbs being our gym. I've never did so many squats and lunges and walks with a 5kg weight so many times! now, it makes up like 80% of my day! Ok, I may exaggerate a bit, but it seems like 80% of the time. I sleep like 20% of the day . Anyway, back to why my body suffered. So since Karine slept through, i didn't wake up and move my body right, so by the time I woke up, 7 hrs+ have passed and body has "stiffened" liao. You know, like how you exercised a lot the day before and the next day your muscles ache like anything. So that was the way it was the whole of yesterday. Damn sng!!! But heng, my massage lady came yesterday, which i totally wasn't prepared for cos I didn't receive her confirmatio sms, which she said she sent, and the session was really solid. Damn painful but damn shiok! ok, i'm sick. Some of you already know that!

Ok, enough about aching bodies. Back to sleeping through. when when when! I thought it could be repeated last night, but Karine was just too sleepy to be woken up for her 9pm feed, that i let her sleep on. And I said hello to 2am feeding again. But my body didn't ache that much today, so I guess moving that butt out of bed and back again helped!

The other milestone that Karine reached was her 2mth vaccination jab. I've been stressing out over that and preparing myself for bouts of fever and fussing, but all that came to nought. She took the jab pretty well, thanks to Dr AAT's quick draw! Before Karine realised the jab, the needle was out and the plaster was on! She started to cry abit and it was time for the rotarix vaccine, which is taken orally. And she was comforted by that, happily sucking away!

When we returned home, i was monitoring her temp almost 2 hourly, which hb thought was kinda excessive. thankfully, her temp didn't peak more than 36.8 deg, and the thermometer still maintained a smiley face! all that worry for nothing! which is great!

After the jab, I felt more comfortable in bringing bb out to more crowded places. I've been quite hesitant about bringing her out before her jabs as it's the year-end festive period with loads of people and of course, year end bugs. so the sights Karine's been taking in were trips from home to Grandma's and trips to the PD and the greenery view from the windows! call me paranoid but I'd rather believe in prevention than cure for now!

Well, BB has since gone for dinners and lunches out with Grandfolks at Swenson's and Tung Lok. So far, she's been great to travel with. I'm so blessed! We also had a Christmas lunch at Perlyn's place. Roast lamb - yummy!


Snug and asleep in the trusty sling!


Darn camera, not very easy to capture leh! look here!

Cousin Emmanual paid us a visit too! And he's fascinated with Karine's mittens! So cute! Those mitts have since come off, need to give those little fingers some air-time! But they go back on at night, cos she wakes up with scratches on her face! There was even one time she scratched her own eyeball and I had to bear with looking at a little red tiny scratch on her eye white. It was probably more painful for me than her!







I'm so looking forward to shopping for a new wardrobe for work, doing my hair (yay, can colour liao after 9 mths!) and my much-missed facial!! Need to make appts for my pedi and hair spa too...which i miss so so much! Haven't gone for my facial after my 7th mth, too uncomfortable to lie down for long. And the sales are now on! yay!