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!!!