Baby had jaundice

I couldn't produce sufficient milk to let him sleep soundly and so, he couldn't stay still under the phototherapy machine. He needed about 3OZ every 2-3 hours and I was too tired to be able to produce sufficient milk. My effort on the first night at the hospital was wasted as doc said his jaundice reading shot up. I didn't sleep the whole night.

Nurse then adviced to put him at the hospital's nursery and asked me to go home. I could send my milk to them whenever I have, I could even go there and breast feed him directly if I want to. The moment I left him at the nursery, I cried while walking back to my room to collect my stuff. We checked out and went home with mom and confinement lady. Sometimes, they gave baby formula milk if I couldn't send my milk to them on time i.e. when I couldn't manage to produce milk.

After 3 days, baby was discharged. ZY at the same time had fever & flu, we put him in mom's room so to seperate him from ZY. The next day, ZY had conjuctivities. We then send the baby with confinement lady to sis in law's house and I cried again. They stayed there for a week plus until ZY recovered from conjunctivitis. I missed baby dearly.

Despite ZY still having flu, we took baby home and put him in mom's room. Daddy caught ZY's flu virus too. Confinement lady slept in mom's room while mom went to SY's place to sleep. Since daddy was sick, it was very difficult for me to get him to go out and buy things for me as I'm worried he'd be too tired. Later when ZY had fully recovered, mom shifted back and baby stayed downstairs with CL. I think it was somewhere 4th Aug, the 3rd week after baby was born.

From the first day, I woke up every 2-3 hours to express milk for the baby at the same time, supervised the CL and she was alright until the 4th week where she seemed to be rather tired and sleepy. She even fell asleep while feeding the baby. That was when I decided to take over the baby from her and took care of him myself at night. Initially, we wanted to extend her for one more month. But looking at her performance, we changed our mind.

Arrival of my 2nd child

The night when we got back from Sepang Gold Coast, I slipped in our master bedroom's toilet. Well, I didn't really fall on the floor, just slipped as the floor was wet. Luckily I manage to grip on the basin and the door knob. I wondered if I'd have leaks in the middle of the night..and so I did....

I can't remember what time it was in the middle of the night when I woke up to have a pee and felt wet after I put my undies back on. I changed and immediately I felt wet again. So then I changed again and I felt wet again. It was just a drop of water with diameter not more than 1 cm. That's when I suspected my water bag was probably leaking after the drastic slip in the toilet that evening.

Hence, the next morning, after settled some work in the office, I drove to the clinic with my hubby and doc confirmed that I was leaking and I should admit latest by 2:30pm for an emergency C-Section and I shouldn't eat anything. I sms-ed everybody and went for light lunch at Jaya Noodle House. I had a bowl of soup which I regretted later as it caused me to have ajinomoto attack. Ajinomoto attack = a sensation like a thousand needles poking my body all over. I thought "What I've done??!! I need to go for an operation later and I'm feeling so awful all over my body right now!!! Stupid me!!!". So then I tried to drink lots of water to flush the poison out from my system and it helped. I sweat abit and felt better. I hope I'll remember this if I decide to have another baby.

We reached hospital quite late. The nurse gave me something to clear my bowels which caused me to have stomach pain even on our way to have epidural jab. It's so embarrasing!! But I'd to go toilet no matter what. So, the nurse had to lead me to the staff's toilet twice and had to wait for me to finish my bussiness. Hahaha!!

When I delivered ZY last time, I wasn't afraid at all. But this round, I was terrified. I don't know why. Luckily everything went smoothly. The moment the doctor pulled him out, he cried so loud. I almost cried too when I heard his cry. This is another sweet & touching moment for me. The nurse put his face so near to mine and I could smell him. His nose was touching mine. He looked so cute!!  Doc said the baby's head is big and his weight is 3.275, very close to what we estimated. Later, I was given a hot blanket and I manage to sleep for awhile. Then I was pushed back to my room where hubby and sis were waiting for me.

At last, the baby is out. It was getting difficult to toss around at night when I wanted to sleep. I'm glad that he's out and I can lie on my back comfortably.

That night itself, everybody came to visit, even dad. He just had his nose surgery and he came all the way from Johore. I'm really very touched.

Holiday during 38th week of pregnancy

We've been contemplating to stay home or to join the company trip to Sepang Gold Coast. At last, we decided to go since the journey there is about 1 hour. Mom, sis in law, Adam and SY went with us. The water chalet is nice and comfy. We're staying in a 2 bedroom water chalet. However, the food was lousy. There were flies everywhere and I didn't eat much due to that. ZY had a great time with daddy, SYin & Mag at the pool while I stayed in the room to rest & took some pictures. We stayed only for a night. Mom was worried that I'd have an emergency labour while we're there. Luckily, all went well. We went home on Sunday morning.

Cramps during 3rd trimester

I was in my 36th week of pregnancy and experienced cramps few times a day which made me worry that I'd deliver anytime soon. Then I googled and saw an article about dehydration during pregnancy which would cause cramps.

I think I drank less water because I had a new water bottle which I didn't quite like and it's smaller than my previous water bottle. Hence, although I thought I drank alot but maybe it wasn't as much as before. So then I switched back to my "2 liter" water bottle and made sure I drink at least 2 liters of water a day. Since then, I had no more cramps. Writting this down will prevent me from having cramps again in my next pregnancy..if I decide to have another child. :S

Lost 0.4kg past 2 weeks

Although I've booked a cambodian maid since last Friday, I can't stop dwelling on the matter. I worry alot. I worry about having communication problem with her, I worry that she's stubborn, I worry that she has bad character, I worry that she dislike shower and doesn't know how to clean herself well, worst of all, I worry that mom will have a very difficult time with her. All these are driving me crazy. I'm trying to concentrate more on finding the solutions and stop worrying. She looked pleasant from the profile. Some said she looks like Yani. But she definitely looks younger than Yani.

I've lost 0.4kg for the past 2 weeks. Luckily, baby's growing. He's gained 0.4kg. Haha! He suppose to be growing 0.5kg every 2 weeks. I guess because I didn't gain weight this round.

Oh God, I hope this cambodian maid will be as good as Yani. I hope she'll be a fast learner and does her work well so that she can be a good helper to mom and won't give her too much headache & frustration.
I hope everything will go smoothly.

Solutions to our problems..

On Sunday, we went to Daveleen Confinement Center to check out their confinement packages. We can either stay in at their center or hire their confinement lady home for 28 days. We visited their center at SS4. It's a corner unit double story link house. The baby room is down stairs and there are 7 mothers staying there currently. They have another center at TTDI but it’s too far to travel there for hubby and ZY from Puchong if I really plan to stay in. So, at last, we decided to get their confinement lady to stay over at our place for 28 days instead.  Since it's quite a last minute decision to get a CL, the charges is higher i.e. RM3600. The herbs cost RM2000 including 2 post-natal massages.

We’ve also decided to send ZY and Mag to day care at their school starting from June or July until we get a new maid. So mom only needs to take care of my newborn once I resume to work in September. Good planning? Honestly, I’m just heart sick to send the children to day care, but I really don’t have any choice. A lot of people have been telling me that they’re old enough and they’ll be happy at day care with more friends to play with. I hope they’ll be happy. As for the CL, I hope I’ll get a very good one who is clean, can cook well and is good at handling baby.

Shattered hope? HOPE NOT!!

Just when I thought I've everything planned out for my 2 months confinement, I got a call from my maid who's having her holiday back home to say that she's diagnose with uterus cancer. My mind went blanked. This means she might not be coming back. I'm left with 8 weeks to deliver the baby. Seriously, I'm worried, no matter how much I tell myself that everything will be alright without her. I really got to write down what are the things that I'd need and needed to do before and after the baby arrives. I regretted canceling my booking with my friend's confinement lady earlier and wasted RM300 for booking fee. I really didn't expect this would happen. I thought this round I'd be able to rest my backbones well. I hated running up and down the stairs when I had ZY last time. All the walking really hurt my back and my wound a lot and having a dreadful time bending over to change ZY's nappy every 1-2 hours when she pee or poop in the middle of the night. After her big & small business, I'd to breastfeed her for another 30 to 45 minutes; followed by pumping out the extra milk to increase my milk production. I think what I'll do is to put all the necessary equipment for washing the baby breast pump in my room so I wouldn't have to run downstairs for cleaning. At least, I'll just need to run downstairs to do laundry and eat my food. If I'm staying in a condo, I wouldn't be so worry because I wouldn't need to walk so far to the kitchen and to the laundry area. My worst fear is that my mom will be over exhausted. Mom will have to cook and bath the baby for me during the confinement period. Even if I get a confinement lady, what happens after 1 month or when I've to go to work after 2 months? Mom will have to handle the baby all by herself. I'll be at work. When I come home, I'll be busy breast-feeding the baby, cleaning my breast pump, doing laundry and giving attention to ZY. Then I might also have to wake up several times to nurse the baby at night. I told ZY just now that kakak (the maid) called up and said she's sick. Do you think she'll come back here? She said no. So I said then who's going to help mommy to take care of baby? She said “me”. My heart melted.