Me-Time

I love me-time my dear husband has sponsored me for this Perth trip back home to attend my sister’s graduation that fell on 15th February 2011. It was great.

We all took family photo with the graduate, wandered about and took more photos in the university yard, moved ourselves into the seating area of all invited family members and friends, enjoyed the 1.5 hours of graduation ceremony and feast our eyes with the fireworks that blew right in front and above our skies. It was all jolly and magnificent and i’m proud of my baby sister for finishing her nursing course that lasted 3.5 years! She’s just more than glad herself. We shared her joy, of course =)

It’s all family and me-time back in Perth alone this trip. I’m gonna spend my time wisely on important stuffs and people around me and in 8 days time, i’ll be heading home to my beloved little family in Kuching. Life is full of wonders. You just need to spend time to figure it out.

New year, new hope

I.need.to.slim.down.by.whatsoever.means.i.could.reach.

Sorry for myself that i have weight problem ever since i had given birth to my first girl. The weight doesn’t go down anything below 60kgs. The jelly belly is going to stay permanently with me for the rest of my life. I have this bitter-sweet relationship with my jelly belly so all the while, i’ve never taken it seriously to shed it away. I think i should, starting from Feb of 2011.

I’ll be having an almost two weeks of my own back in my hometown starting next monday so i guess it’s all good to do some dieting and slimming by finding time to exercise more frequently by joining Zumba dancing classes and jogging along riverside with my family members. Fingers crossed and I’ll persevere! Fighting!

Happy Chinese New Year 2011

I’m back. and for more.

I love you

To God, I love you.
To my parents, I love you.
To my siblings, I love you.
To my husband, I love you.
To my children, I love you.
To my parents in law, I love you.
To my siblings in law, I love you.
To my friends, I love you.
To myself, I love you.

Recap of an eventful week

27 May 2010 @ 9.34AM
The birth of my baby boy Ian Au Yi Hang (区奕航).

28 May 2010 @ noon
Being discharged from hospital together with Ian…home sweet home after a dreadful night in hospital.

29 May 2010 @ midnight & afternoon
Had fever up to 38+ degree Celcius twice due to breasts engorgement (no let down yet) and UTI. Didn’t take any medication as I was afraid it might go into breast milk but later advised by three different person (Dr Siew, Annie and a nurse relative) that panadol can be taken only when needed and it won’t affect the milk for the baby. If antibiotic is prescribed, it should be breast feeding safe.

31 May 2010 @ noon
Return to hospital for my checkup on wound and baby’s on jaundice. He was admitted right after blood test result was out. His jaundice level was relatively high at 16.1. It should not go beyond 14 and must stay below 12 to be ok to go home. I was admitted together with Ian because breast feeding was not yet established properly (no let down yet) and he rejects bottle teats.

1 June 2010 @ 9AM
Blood test was done at 6AM and Dr Siew called me up in the ward at 9AM telling me the jaundice level actually shoot up to 17!!! My heart sank! Called up husband and discussed what we should do and we decided I should go home to express milk for Ian while he needs to stay back in hospital to continue with the phototherapy treatment.

2 June 2010
Second blood test was taken and a nurse called me up breaking the good news to me Ian’s jaundice level has gone down to 12.3!!! THANK GOD!! I was in tears and woke husband up to break him the good news too! God is listening to our prayers. Dr Siew said Ian needs to be monitored for another day before he could be discharged and my duty is to express milk as much as possible and sent them to hospital twice the day.

3 June 2010 @ 5AM
Woke up at 5 to express milk and I haven’t get back to my sleep yet…I’m anxiously waiting for the phone call from the nurse….will keep you up to date!
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Recent update:
Ian’s jaundice level has dropped to 10.1!! Doctor said he can go home now *gleeeeee* thank God!

On the other hand, I need to remove my stitches today! A bit scary to think of it so just let it be la…I’ve already been through the most difficult phase so this is nothing if it really hurts a little (YES! It did sting when the string was being pulled out – OUCH!!!!).

Exactly one week has gone from the date of Cesarean, I’ve lost 7.5kgs! Another 5 kgs to go for me to reach my pre-pregnancy weight. Of course, the more I can get rid of the better (tee hee!)

On ANOTHER note, my confinement has been a chaos! Hahaha~ I’d been going in and out of the house endless of times wearing shorts & T-shirts, had 3 times bath including hair wash in the first week, washing endless of bottles and equipments for milk pump etc etc. Since the pediatrician strongly doesn’t encourage me to take wine and ginger when i’m breast feeding, i stopped. Basically, i’m just waiting to be “discharged” from the one-month confinement period.

Chloe at 18 months old

It has been 1 and half year since i gave birth to my girl, Chloe. And to that, she has never failed to amaze me over and over with her sharp observation and new trick performance every now and then. I realize she is a “problem-solver” as she loves to handle puzzles, figure out difficult (to her level) problem and look for the right solution (i.e. trying to figure out which is the right key in the bundle to open a door) and she’s very observant at what people are doing. She imitates right after you and that makes me really stress of being very careful what we do/say in front of her.

At home, she has her collection of toys and she has been “playing” with them since very young but those were all about biting and putting them into her mouth and creating mess for me to clean and tidy them up after she got tired of them. But recently (last night to be exact), she could recognize and identify ALL her shape sorters according to the shapes and colours without a miss!! I was in awe and i could feel my jaw dropped (literally) and my mind was completely blown away by her actions. She hugged the whole shape sorter’s “house” to me and requested me to open it for her. First I thought “Oh well, i’m going to have to tidy the mess up after you when you go to sleep later.” I opened it for her then i left her alone to play with it while i got the water boiled to make her milk before i tucked her into bed.

And yes, i came back to her jaw dropped! What was my baby doing?! Did my eyes play trick on me?! The amazement was simply too awesome to put into words. My nanny doesn’t teach her shape-sorting at her place so it’s like my past months’ effort to pitch her the idea how to sort the shapes accordingly all being worthwhile (over the night!). A gush of motherhood’s proud came rushing out and tears started to build up in my eyes. Overwhelmed and completely thrown over board! Suddenly i asked myself “Where has the baby who was gugu gaga-ing gone now?” She has grown older over the night. I shall miss the baby version of her and completely adore and appreciate every moment of her toddler version now on. I’m scared that i might miss out on her milestones development if i’m not paying attention to her for just one second.

Motherhood is a ride of roller coaster and i totally love it to bits!

I hope you enjoy the moment as much as i do ^_^

P/S:
1. On and off and depending on her mood, she can now say “How are you”, “I love you” and “I know..”. As for those “Hi”, “Bye-bye”, flying kiss, kiss daddy & mommy, keep calling “mami or mi” several times with her sweetest voice tone ever while staring straight into my eyes (these are old tricks that she uses to entertain us and to get away from her mischief!)

2. Somehow, i love her open & friendly attitude towards strangers and i keep saying she’s like an Australian! She waves or raised up her hand saying “Hi” to passerby and cars passing by. Sometimes, her friendliness really brings headache to the mom when she tries to make friends with other kids (whom the parents are not so open with the idea).

3. She’s very chatty! A chatterbox! But she still has a long way to go before one could really understand her ^_^

给 boy boy 的一封信

爸爸妈咪的第二个宝贝，

再倒数十天爸爸妈咪就要和你的见面了。初次见面请多多指教哦！嘻嘻！

Boy, 很对不起这36周里妈咪没时常和你多说话因为总是为着工作，姐姐还有爸爸而忙。但不要紧！当你来到世上了妈咪也就要为你而忙了。妈咪的时间就要被分配成四份。为爸爸，姐姐，你还有妈咪自己而忙。

好期待见到你的那一刻！你会比较像爸爸还是妈咪呢？无论怎样只要你健康健全平安的出世就好。。期待。。。。脐带。。。。

Contractions!

I’ve been having this regular contractions for the whole day today at an interval of 10 minutes apart and each contraction lasts for at least 30 seconds. The longest contraction I’ve timed lasted 50+ seconds!! I need to wait until the interval gets shorter to about 5 minutes apart between the contractions and increased intensity of the contractions. I can feel they’re coming really closer now.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an expert in this area since I had no experience of contractions with my previous pregnancy. I have no idea if these regular contractions are going to last for hours or weeks before the actually day knocks at the doorstep. All I can do now is to stay relax (with the jabbing pain from contractions and backache and pelvic pain, relax seems to be the last thing down the list), get as much rest as possible and wait for next definite symptom(s) – I.E. bloody show or water break before I can admit myself to hospital or else the nurses will just revert me back home.

I feel so physically exhausted and to that, I feel really bad for my girl and husband as I might be the most grumpy mom and wife they are facing at the moment and I don’t have much reserved stamina left for them by the end of the day. All I could think of is to get a bath, get on bed and sleep if I could.

At one moment..

I really felt like i was going to deliver my baby sitting on toilet bowl;
I really felt like i was going to black out from the jabbing pain in the rib cage thanks to my baby;
I really felt like i was going to knock myself against the wall so that i couldn’t feel the squirms, kicks and ticklish sensations and i could sleep for an hour or two at nights;
I just wish I would be out from this situation NOW!

Separating

I’ve started to train Chloe to sleep on big bed since about a month ago when she reached 18 months old. Things can go hellish or angelic some nights. It’s just really not stable I would say. Either me or hubby will take turn to sleep with her as its only a queen sized bed and the other one will sleep in another linked room, being ready for any out of hand situation (I.e. Unstoppable and uncontrollable sudden cryings at night).

On hellish nights, I just have to keep reminding myself that she is still only a baby and it’s very normal for her to have nightmares (or is it not) and waking up not knowing where she belongs. When she is out of control of herself and with my super pregnant belly getting in the way, I just have to leave her to my dear angelic husband to keep myself sane. She just needs him to cuddle and comfort her when she cries like crazy then she would stop(I.e. Like tonight). He has his ways of cooling her down.

Of course there are some nights when she is ‘good’ and I can comfort her with just some pats at her back and she would fall back to her sleep.

I’m really counting my blessings because i am so blessed with a good husband and a good father to the children. I’ve heard a lot of complaints from some friends of mine that their husbands are not helping much with kiddy chores (either they are not or they cannot because it still depends on who the child is more sticky to) and some of them are just being ignorant in the house. God is good to me!