It wasn't any easier going into the labour room for the third time :P There was no warning signs that I noticed, except I was having Braxton Hicks throughout the night. I dreamt of a little baby telling me he is arriving, and I keep telling the little baby (in my dream) it's not time yet, he is still not "fat" enough yet :) In fact my EDD from ultrasound scanner is 20 May 2014. We have not even finished preparing everything yet, and I haven't packed a single thing :P
But it looks like baby Orange has other ideas. Oh ya, the baby's nickname is Orange, given by the children, because they thought he looked like an orange on the ultrasound screen. They had watched him grow from smaller than little Blue Ippy to now.
In the morning, I even had 爸爸 buy Hello Kitty Circus for us. It's the 2nd week it's been released. Went to the bathroom after having McMuffin with Egg. Big surprise as I found that I'm showing! It's about 12 days before the EDD, and both older children had not been early. Since I have contractions too (which I thought was Braxton Hicks), and it's the day of my gynae appointment, we decided to go earlier to the hospital to get checked. Rushed to shower and pack my clothes. Hm, I didn't even pack my hospital stay clothes yet since there's supposed to be another 2 weeks.
At the doctor's clinic, nurse asked me to wait since I have an appointment. In fact, at this appointment I'm supposed to be checked for any dilation. Guess it was a stressful event to my subconscious mind? We waited and waited and the contractions start getting closer and closer apart. The doctor came and yet he was reviewing other patients. Until my contractions are getting about 5 minutes apart, beh tahan already and quickly informed the nurse. After she informed the doctor, they escort me directly to the labour room.
Let's not go into details of labour, I would like to forget about it even :P I hope not to impact my girl (or anyone else) about it either so no mentioning details ya.
In summary, baby Orange joined us in this world in the afternoon of 8 May 2014. He's smaller than the two older children, being at 2.785 kg at birth (or 6 lb 2 oz). Luckily he is considered as full term baby, being born at a little over 37 weeks (in the baby book it's written 37/52 + 1/7 -- whatever that means).
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| Baby Orange on "display" |
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| Another view - can see the nursery |
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Baby Orange's first photo from his baby book.
Someone who processed the photo didn't enlarge it properly, thus making his face seem very big :P |
As the hospital is going for certification of a baby-friendly hospital in the future, there are new practises that I had not experienced with the older two children. They put baby Orange to my breast right after they gave him a little clean-up. So he was encouraged to breastfeed right from the start. They no longer gave milk powder samples and we didn't have time to prepare so baby Orange is considered as being fully bf.
I had the painkiller jab so I was feeling really steamed and pening. Later I found it's called pethidine. Wow, I felt it didn't really help me during the contractions but the after effects are really bad. I was still dizzy, sleepy and practically don't really know what I'm talking about (kind of like being drunk) hours after delivery. I think baby Orange was affected too and he was super sleepy when I tried to bf him later. I was super tired and dizzy, both from the jab and getting high blood pressure, probably from the stress of labour. With both children I had high blood pressure after delivery too. The babies' nursery seems like miles away from my room, as we had to go there to bf our baby. First time I was sent there on wheelchair (hahahaha!) as I was dizzy and the stitches still hurt. After that, I practically hobbled there, one step at a time. As baby Orange is sleepy, he didn't cry for milk so I wasn't asked to go to the nursery often. I had to time myself for the 2-3 hourly feed and went there myself. So much for a baby-friendly hospital eh....
So I wasn't thinking much and just go along with bf fully, instead of giving baby Orange some milk powder to see him through before milk "came in". I didn't have the energy nor the time to pump, didn't bring the pump either, as baby Orange seems to want to bf all the time. Poor boy :P
The children and 爸爸 only get to see baby Orange through the "looking glass", they were so excited to see him :) Poor baby Orange had red and white spots on his face and body, and he had peeling skin on his hands and feet. He had lots of eye discharge too (me too heaty when carrying him?). As with the other two older children, I couldn't see his eyelashes yet.
On the second day in hospital I was feeling much better. Food was good as usual, I chose fish dishes. There was this delicious fish soup, fried fish, or steamed fish and veggies. Previously they provided fried eggs during my delivery of the two older children, but not this time. Perhaps there was complaints as Chinese do not want to eat eggs before 12 days in confinement. I ate everything up as my appetite came back after delivery. And of course mommy need to eat to produce milk. My room-mate didn't eat a dash of the food provided, she ate customized confinement food brought by her family while her family ate up the hospital food, so funny :P During her first day after delivery, the nurse brought baby to her for breastfeeding as she had caesarean. But she didn't know what to do, told the nurse she isn't ready, and provided milk powder for the baby instead. Glad to see her at the nursery later on my last day. I overheard her telling her female relative about how she doesn't know what to do and that she didn't go to the breastfeeding talk.
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| In the nursery on Day 2. |
As for me, I'm a frequent visitor to the nursery to bf baby Orange. Even though I don't know if he's getting enough but he was always sleepy. I think baby Orange is a little jaundiced by the end of the stay, but his paed didn't think it was serious so we were discharged on the third day. After discharge, baby Orange and I went to the confinement home we booked (that's another post).
I was given the memo on how to register for baby's birth cert. Seems like the process got more complicated as we need to provide not only the parents' IC and marriage cert, we also need to bring the baby book, baby's appointment card and immunization card, mother's appointment card during pregnancy and the usual letter of certified delivery given by hospital (all with original and photocopy). Gosh, and still there are non-citizens able to get our IC when the birth registration process is so complicated now. Baby Orange received a blue booked called "Rekod Kesihatan Bayi Dan Kanak-Kanak" issued by the Health Ministry.
