Birth of Baby Valentino and more ...

The birth story of Baby Valentino:

1. Woke up at 4:30am to get ready for admissions to the hospital

2. We reached the hospital at 5:25am and went to do the check in.

3. Completed the admissions process in about 20 minutes (gosh, so much documents to sign!)

4. Checked-in to my room - only to find out the admissions office gave us the wrong room (I suspected as much since there was no curtains in the room!)

5. They moved us to the correct room, which was just next to the nursery!

6. Rested for a while, then they came in to prepare me for the op. I spent quite a long time in the loo, think I was quite constipated!

7. Got wheeled to the OT - they parked my bed outside the OT and I fell asleep while waiting.

8. They finally came and wheeled me to the door of the OT, the obgyn and hubby was around to, so we were chit chatting a bit. Surprisingly, I'm not nervous! I supposed, having gone through it once, I more or less know what to expect, so I'm not too worried about what's going to happen in the OT.

9. Finally the anaesthetist arrived (he was late for #1 too!) and they wheeled me into the OT. The pain from the various needles and injections were bearable - since I wasn't nervous, so the anticipation of pain did not magnify the pain at all. At best, the pain was comparable to a big bad ant bite. I did squeeze the nurse arm for reassurance - yes I am a scardy cat at heart when it comes to pain :P

10. This time though, I was very wide awake for the op. I did ask for something to make me sleepy, but it didn't work even they gave me 2 to 3 doses! End up I was listening in to their private conversations (doc to nurse/ doc to doc) and I did chit chat with my hubby too (though I think he was pretty busy looking at the op). This time I did feel some pressure on my tummy area, but definitely no pulling, poking, digging or other sensations that would make me imagine what they were doing to me then. So it was pretty OK.

11. Baby Valentino has arrived with a loud wail! Took some pics and then baby was weighed in at 2.955kg. Hubby said he opened his eyes when he was being weighed.

12. I patiently waited for the obgyn to finish doing his stitching, then I remarked that some of his patients were joking he does embroidery at home to practise his stitching. One of the nurses remarked that some of the docs actually do cross-stitching and their handiworks are excellent!

13. Me bad, I shouldn't have asked for the sleepy medicine ... It made me quite woozy after the op, and with the room spinning when I opened my eyes (I can't even bear to watch TV), I ended up puking a bit ... but by the end of the 6th hour, I couldn't take it, since I was puking on an empty stomach (which to me makes it worse), I secretly took a cup of milo. Truthfully, it made me feel better since it warmed me up and my stomach is not running on empty tank. With the sleepy medicine, I was basically sleeping throughout the day, except to breastfeed and to drink some water. It was quite a good rest, and good excuse too - the nurses caught on to the milo drink and my hubby were "honest" enough to admit I had a few sips of milo. So basically they were kicking up a big fuss over it. Anyway, they didn't say much to me later, since I had stopped puking by then :P

14. Had my official milo drink for dinner - how pathetic ...

15. Had my first official meal in 24 hours - chicken porridge for breakfast!

16. Engorgement set in - PAIN PAIN PAIN *cry* They ran out of cabbage leaves too, so I had to call my mum's place for special delivery.

17. Baby Valentino has mild jaundice so he went for photo therapy - he didn't like it a bit!

18. I was OK-ed to go home and Baby Valentino was OK-ed to go home too, so we got discharged on Tuesday!

19. This mummy was panicky since Baby Valentino hasn't peed since he came back and he was hot! Realised that he may be "overheated" so we quickly wiped him down and changed him ... and then I breastfed him with my rock hard breasts (yes still engorged) but he finally peed. I was out of cabbage leaves so I grabbed all the ice packs (from Royce chocolates!) from the freezer and popped into my bra. 4 on each side ... the relief was indescribable.

20. The confinement nanny called - she's in Singapore even though she was due to arrive only the next morning. I begged her to come over then and there (at 10pm at night) as she was staying at her relative's place. I told her I cannot handle it and Baby Valentino was running a mild temperature. She was nice enough to oblige, and she arrived by 11pm. By then, I had just managed to finish feeding Baby Valentino, put Vanessa to bed, and grabbed a quick dinner. I cannot express my sense of relief ... and she was really very efficient ... she checked on Baby Valentino and arranged her stuff, so she can be ready when Baby Valentino wakes up late for night feeds. In fact, it was so warmed that night she OK-ed my request to on the aircon (I was worried that he may overheat again) and I guess the best surprise for me was that, she was not only pro breast feeding, she was also able to help baby latch on properly and to massage my rock hard breasts!

21. I'm still partially engorged, but it's much better now. After the 2 days of agony, at least most of the ducts have been cleared for the right side, and we are now working on the left side. It's still painful, but at least I see some progress. I was really ready to throw in the towel, because it was really unbearable this round ... hopefully, all the blocked ducts can be cleared by this week, so that my breasts won't be so engorged. I'm also waiting for my medela parts to arrive, so I can start pumping to relieve some of the pressure. I am using my Avent manual pump too, but after using the PISA once, I will want to use the electric dual pump only!

22. We still cannot decide on a name for Baby Valentino *argh*

To be updated ... How Vanessa is taking to her little brother...

Baby Valentino has arrived!

I'm too tired to post - check out the hubby's post & pic at: http://zitseng.com/archives/2133#more-2133

No, and we haven't quite decided what to name him yet. So yes, Valentino is still in the running.

Mummy's little helper

V is a very sweet girl, and she helps me out in little ways that make her so endearing ...

She will help to pull me up from a sitting position - every little bit helps at this stage! The other day, she helped to dress me, no kidding! She held out my undies like how I hold it out to her when I dress her - I can't help but laugh when she insist on holding on to my undies. She can massage a little, so she will just gently squish my shoulders in her little hands when I asked her to.

Recently, she's also talking a lot more and also learning how to SWEET TALK too. She has started telling us "Daddy come (when he picks her up at the CC), baby (referring to herself) happy". She'll do the same for me ... it helps because it makes the day so much sweeter, even if I had a tiring day.

I've started talking to her about the pending hospital stay and telling her she will have to stay with my sister. She listens and nods and repeats after me. So hopefully, she does understand what I  am telling her, and she won't be too upset when she has to stay with my sister while I'm staying in the hospital.

Quick Update:

on V #1

Her first chinese words - bu yao! haiz ... why why why!! her first word is no for english, mm aoil in cantonese and now bu yao in chinese ... faint ah!

She also surprised me today ... she went swimming with papa today and i went down to provide greet and meet service when they finish ... she told me "l* y* e*" i was like ... wah ... u can say ur name in chinese! i asked papa if he was the one who taught her, he said no ...

on V #2

He's sitting on some nerves that basically makes my legs go numb and crampy ... I'm also suffering from loose stools from the course of antibotics ... it's really not very comfy ... i think we have more or less decided on Valentino's name. I will just give my hubby 2 choices for the chinese and then let him make the final call for his english name.

OK got to go ... tummy's a rumbling again!

self praise is no praise!

Went to see Dr FY last week to check on Valentino's week 35 progress - he gained 1 kg over 3 weeks, so my durian diet did work. My guess is that he will be at the same weight as V when she was born, which I thought was a decent weight, so I'm not too worried, as long as he's active it's good.

When we were doing the ultrascan, Dr FY remarked that my previous C-section scar was very neat and well hidden. I retorted "Wah! Praising yourself???" He went "No lah, the real test is when you wear bikini and no one can see the scar" I replied "Yes lah, your skills very good, everyone praising your stitches very nice and neat, the nicest they have seen. Besides now wear bikini, my tummy so big, also cannot see anything!" Dr FY ".... *haiz*"

Anyway, it's true, his skills at stitching is very good. If you recall that embarassing incident that I had to pay the GP $20 to verify that it was indeed my C-section scar, and no 2 flaps of skin glued together by the remnants of the bandage glue, that should indicate how good his stitching is :P

Lazy Saturday ...

We had an early start to this weekend ... had dinner early (before 7pm no less!) and we managed to make our way down to Takashimaya for some shopping. It was pretty jammed on the roads, and when we reach Taka, it was about 8pm, still plenty of time to shop since our "agenda" were pretty short.

1) i wanted to get durians! Yes, craving for it again, but the stock wasn't too good, so i just choose one of the cheaper options and make do with it. FYI, i get my durians from the Cold Storage at Taka, in case you are wondering. I am not about to wander to Geylang and get "chop carrot head" for nothing since I am not good at choosing durians.

2) our Panasonic TV finally died after 5 years of faithful service. Unfortunately, while it was still under warranty, the factory no longer produces the parts required for the repair and we were offered a small sum of compensation for us to get a new TV. So that's the hubby's job, so he went shopping at Best Denki. Oddly, while we were there, I liked this lower end (and supposedly not so good) Toshiba LCD TV compared to the Sharp one my hubby was looking at. I look left, look right, up and down, and still, I am not convinced the Sharp model is better (even if both were playing blu-ray HD stuff). Anyway, I'll let the hubby choose since technology stuff is supposed to be his forte. My girl did pick a TV when we asked her, but unless we are the sole winner of the TOTO top prize or the top prize in Big Sweep, there's no way we can afford it. That TV she picked cost over $100,000. Yes, it's one of those super duper huge screen TV (no idea of the measurements). Anyway, what we are willing to pay is only 1/100 of that price of that TV so i guess, so bad for her. Besides our place is too small to house it!

3) I did make my way to the Barbie fair at the B2 exhibition square - i was hoping to find some nice shoes for V again. I managed to get 3 really nice shoes, 1 sandal and 1 sport for V and 1 pair of sport one for my niece. All at $15 each and plus a 10% discount. It was a real steal! This time round though, I didn't pick anyway because the sizes were wrong and nothing caught my fancy. My guess is, we got all the nice ones already! There were other nice ones too, but I will need to pay an additional $4 for the box to house it, so for the cheapskate me - I'll pass. Basically those shoes in the bin are cheaper.

Came home and V was still active. She was quite funny. She had her dinner at 6:30pm and she had her milk (240ml / 8 oz) at 7:30pm. She was sitting next to me and she was pouting - i cannot describe her expression, but it was hilarious. She was basically trying to manja me, and she was pouting, sulking, and acting "I'm so poor thing". Anyway she nodded yes when I asked her if she wanted her milk, so that's the 1st bottle for the night. When we reached home after shopping, we gave her another bottle at 9:30pm. Yup, she cleaned it out all right. Sometimes I do wonder if her tummy is big enough to house all these food/ milk - but since she's not vomitting or complaining about indigestion or tummy pain, it should be ok. As long as everything is in moderation! Oh ya, she doesn't get snacks like biscuits or sweets when I'm at home (unless I'm really feeling generous) so I'm quite OK with her eating more during her meals/ milk intake.

When she finally was in lala land, it was bedtime for me (wanted to do some stuff but was too tired after 2 days of pain). Ended up I couldn't sleep because I couldn't sleep on either side - my hips were hurting too badly. I think eventually I fell asleep on my back :P I had been having difficulty in walking for the past 2 days as my tailbone hurts - basically i just limp at work. My legs are also feeling numb, so i gave a call to the obgyn office and they said that Valentino is resting against some of my nerves, hence the pain and numbness. This morning, I gently pat my tummy and told Valentino to shift a bit because I was in pain, and I think he cooperated! At least now I can walk without pain, although I still have slight numbness at the back of my thighs, but it was manageable.

We woke up early because V woke up early. We fed her morning milk feed (300ml if you are wondering) and then got the helper to shower her and give her breakfast. She even went for a morning walk with the dogs while we were trying to catch some early morning laze-in-bed sleep. I finally got up at 8am (1 hour extra from the usual weekday) and then nudge the hubby out of bed. I wanted to bring V out for breakfast since I won't really have the chance come Valentino. We ventured to HV, got her usual egg and kaya toast - while the hubby was having his haircut, we made a move to the shopping centre, which to my disappointment, the store selling children's clothes were closed. So we ended up at Cold Storage again, and this time, something else caught my fancy. They were shucking oysters for demo/ sale. The oysters look so fresh and plump, i was so taken by it, that i forked out $20 for a pack of 6, got them to shell it for me, and then we had it at home. My only regret was that I didn't start eating before my hubby, else I would had 4 and he 2, and not 3 each. The oysters were unbelievably good, probably the best I had in a long time. They were not too salty, the flesh was plump and juicy, and the taste of really fresh oysters. I should have tried the oyster when they offered and I'll had forked over $40 for 2 packs!!

Now it's barely past noon, and we are in bed again, both V and the hubby in lala land again ... afternoon will be "reserved" for house decorating again, since I need to rearrange some of the furniture in the house. So we shall see how much I can get done before I pop ... hopefully everything will be nice and tidy and neat and ready when Valentino arrives!