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!

1st mth celebration

Finally, I am out of the confinement month. Not like I have been observing the don'ts strictly. Obviously, I washed my hair, and slept in aircon room, how else to survive the month otherwise! Also, haven't been able to drink those red dates tea etc, too heaty and gums felt it! But love to drink those yummy soups and the pork/chicken fried with ginger and rice wine!

BB 1st mth was done at our home, so bb went home for the first time! And thankfully, she slept throughout the whole party, waking up only for feeds. And nobody actually carried her except me, wahaha. So bb wasn't traumatised nor cranky and her feeding schedule still adhered to. BB also had lotsa gifts and ANG BAOs! hee hee, of course that goes into her trust fund lah.

Here are some pics

I'm as big as my pressie

After the 1st mth checkup, BB was given the ok for jaundice level. In fact, don't even need to get the blood test done, hooray! no pricking today!

Following the good news, there's some not so good news. PD said BB must do some neck exercises to correct her head tilt! must do them more diligently! Next PD visit would mean taking her vaccination jab, which she'll have to take almost mthly till she's at least 1 mth! yikes, but better to take now than suffer later.

Karine has been a good baby so far, thanks to us putting her on a routine since exiting the hospital! Thanks to the Baby Whisperer, we are able to decode her cries and body language easier too. And so far, she's been a sweet baby to care for to-date. She's been waking up usually once in the night for her night feeds. Looking forward to the time when she sleeps through!

Mummy and Daddy love you! Muacks!

Karine says: Hello world!

After 37 weeks, Karine's had enough of her crampy environment and decided to come out into the world with a loud wail. She's insistent enough to stage a "mobilisation" exercise for mummy and daddy at 36 weeks! But, that didn't come through even though I was dilated at 4cm and was admitted.

Anyways, at 37 wks, Karine made the decision for me to stop working in the office and start working in the home! After a sumptuous dinner on the 15th, Karine decided to give me a wake up call at 6am or so with cramps. And not before getting me every hour or so to pee! Left the house at around 6.45am after a trip to toilet resulted in some bloody stains. HB obviously quite kan cheong and bolted out of bed, quite unlike his usual self during work days. The ride to TMC was painfully long, although we got there in less than 30mins.

If i thought the pain experienced (or rather lack thereof at 4cm) the week before, this time round it was bloody painful x 3!! Especially after the waterbag was burst, i can't believe how ppl can do it without the epi! whatever breathing exercises and relaxation exercises I learnt during the antenatal classes just flew out the window with me gripping onto the bed rail and the gas mask like nobody's business. the wait for the anasthesia was excruciating, every min seemed like an hour and boy was I glad when he arrived. still, i had to wait some more for him to prep me for the jab...grrr...and then relief!!! could barely feel my legs and those quickly turned to lumps of flesh for me. My gynae said I would be fast, but really, how fast is fast!

I was finally wheeled into the delivery room around 10-ish and i guess i got dilated further when the nurse started telling me to push. The epi that gave me such great comfort has turned into somewhat of a hindrance, i had absolutely no idea when to push! And i know that by the time the contractions showed on that damn chart, it's already a delay. They turned down the epi drip but still, i can't feel the pain. Doc came in, started ordering me to push even harder and i guess there came a point when the birth needed to be assisted. so out came the forceps and out popped Karine! with a wail no less!

My first thought - goodness what a big baby!

My second thought - so much hair!

Those were quickly pushed out cos doc wasn't done with me yet! to spare the gory/bloody details, i requested for the epi to be up again cos whatever she was doing, it was getting to me!

Eventually, after being weighed etc, bb was in my arms, and off we were to our room.



Here are pictures of BB's arrival

We stayed in TMC for 5 days, mainly because i had a bad tear (she was big and came out as a stargazer) and needed more rest and Karine had jaundice. So we opted to stay with bb, cos even if we went home, there was nothing to do but wait, might as well wait with bb, at least i can bf her.

Meanwhile, pics with the excited family

Karine with mummy's Daddy and Mummy!


Karine with mummy's family


Karine with Daddy's mummy and bro's family


Karine with Daddy's mummy and daddy


Homecoming
It's nice to be back, and of course, home was my mum's place in woodlands, with all the gear all set up!



The first bb check-up revealed that her jaundice level was still high, so we had to rent the phototherapy light box and put Karine under for 3 days and for as long as possible. And because we had to feed her more formula milk than breast milk to increase her calorie intake, i had to pump my milk. However, didn't do that diligently and I figured that impacted the ss. But i think it's ok now. Subsequent checkups showed that her jaundice had stablised but still needed sunning, so bb is now kinda tan and not as fair-skinned as before. I hope that is just a temporary situation though!

In her light box, huddling into her little corner.

Hopefully she'll be better after 24hrs in the lightbox, can't bear her being pricked again to check her jaundice level!!!