Coming home

Welcoming home Rafael, our newborn son! Finally, after spending a month at the NICU, going home felt like such a relief (which didn't really last, hahaha..). Born 7 weeks early, he ended up being my Christmas day & early birthday present altogether. Thank God he is such a tough cookie, and had minimal problems aside from sleep apnea that is common in premature babies.

Staying at the hospital for a month has its merits though; it taught me quite a few things, probably I could even qualify as a nurse should I want to pursue that career path ^_~ ... But first thing first, motherhood is indeed not quite what I expected. Have you heard of the book "What to expect when you are expecting"? Well, the book is a pregnancy bible, but there's nothing quite like the real thing; I think its justifiable to say that motherhood is 100x more overwhelming.. (Yes, I just dismissed fatherhood altogether, but at the moment, who cares? he he..)

After a while staying at the hospital, we were frantic when told about bub's discharge. How about the baby car seat? Have we cleaned the bedroom thoroughly enough? Have we got enough baby supplies? Well, truth be told, nothing could prepare us for the bub's arrival anyway, so there you go, we simply grin & bear it at the end.. 
 

The birth

I could say that these 8 months have been a long one, particularly nearing the countdown to the birth of my baby, scheduled on Feb 2.. But who knows when bub wants to come out, anyway? Nobody could predict it, and so it came as a HUGE surprise when my waters broke early at 3 AM, way before the scheduled date, and way before my own prediction of when it would be. 

Rafael was born via caesarean (unfortunately, he was breech, so no natural birth for me.. though I don't really know whether it was an unfortunate thing or was it actually a blessing? :) ) operation @ 10 AM on Boxing day. Yeah, out of all days, my baby was born on a public holiday, but it was better than having him on Christmas day, with nobody available to assist the procedure; then it would be horrible indeed.

Putting on the cap

It was such a nerve-racking moments when the doctor told me that today was the day, and within the next 10 minutes after some checks were done, I was wheeled out of the room into the theater room, ready to face the ordeal (so not!). The anesthetist expertly injected the epidural on my lower back, and I was positioned on the bed, feeling a sense of numbness taking over. The team was great, and they worked quickly to put an IV on my arm, and pulling a blue curtain to conceal the lower half of me. All I heard after that was cutting sounds *gasps*, but none of the pain. I barely even felt the beginning of a contraction. @_@ What sort of birth is this? It felt so surreal and... instant =D

45 minutes later, Rafael was handed to me by one of the doctors, all red and crying. Suddenly it all became very real, and I was still rather dumb-founded while patting and cooing to him. Yes, this was my birth story, like nothing I would expect out of a birth story. But the highlight of the day is, that my son was safely delivered, weighing a tiny 1.7kg and 43 cm in length, yet for a premmie, he was wailing loudly, even the pediatrician remarked that his lung is quite mature.

                                                      So.... Hello world!

milestone - the 8th month

Whee.. 8 months today! Despite the additional weight that makes me breathless at times, it's been quite a smooth sailing, and on the last check up a few days ago, my doctor even complimented me on the within-limit-weight-gain this time (supposed to be about a kilo at each monthly check up). Now he's 1.6kg or thereabouts and lying breech.. Last time he laid transverse/ completely horizontal in the womb, but now his head is poking my ribs (thankfully, only occasionally) and his legs kick low in the abdomen.

Currently I'm up to scratch with most of the baby's stuff, and even am preparing the hospital bag at this stage too.. Nappies are all washed and ready to go, baby clothing washed and folded, all that's left is to fix up the bed sheets a few days before the scheduled delivery, I guess..

About baby clothing, it's so darned tempting to buy a whole lot of cute onesies for summer, but considering baby's rapid growth rate, I really had to exercise self-control here ^_~
a few size 000's and a couple of 00's are apparently all he'd need to get through the initial few months... 

e-Bay's a good place to go, I've been re-acquainting myself with e-Bay since a couple of weeks ago, scouring the huge online market for interesting items. And that brought me to a question, "to sling or not to sling?" :) another classic argument about how you carry the bub.. Well, hopefully not like the picture below ~_~!!

from : http://www.eupeople.net/fun/cheap%20baby%20sling.jpg

They even strangle the ducky too, poor things! anyway, I have my eyes set on Baby Bjorn, it seems like a sensible choice and quite light & airy.. One word of caution, a mere look at their range or baby carriers will overwhelm your senses... again, just like the confusing nappy choices, there are literally a hundred or more different types of slings out there.. Sigh, I guess I have another homework to do now!! 

Cloth Vs Disposable Nappy - the battle

At almost 8 months pregnant now, and I'm currently onto .. Nappies! Apparently there has been much going on with nappies, the battle between the disposables and the cloth ones in particular. As I'm bracing myself to invest in stacks and stacks of nappies for my upcoming baby, I read and found so much conflicting arguments about them & got confused.

Cute, ain't it?

After a few nights of staggered reading online and from books, it became clearer, thankfully, enough for me to make decision to combine both options for this bub; using disposables for convenience, and cloth nappies (hopefully) most of the time. 

Mother Ease's one-size nappies

I found Mother Ease's website quite informative if you're interested to know more about cloth nappies. I guess many people still think that cloth nappies are highly inconvenient, but with all the options they have available now (and there are a few options on cloth nappies), seems like it has become quite a manageable option. 

Looks like I gotta start the nappy collection soon to familiarize myself; it's quite adorable the way they look with colours & printed covers; ^_^ it's part of the appeal, I must say..
Oh, and do check out UK's Nappy Lady's demos, they're very entertaining to say the least. I was browsing the demo videos for hours, finding little nuggets of useful info. I think this is a great prep for potential cloth nappy users! I'll update as soon as I get my first delivery of cloth nappies online! 

Baby Shopping - part I

Aching all over from four hours of walking & shopping & carrying baby products back and forth. As the end of the year draws near, I'm becoming more & more reluctant to go shopping because of the sea of people one tends to encounter at the malls. Garden city was no exception...

We stopped by at Miss Maud's at the mall, because I was getting a sudden craving for croissant (don't ask how much weight I've gained, I particularly want to avoid this topic!!!) with ham & cheese, but since they ran out of ham, I asked for turkey instead; hopefully a lighter choice of snack.. ^_~ On a more positive note, my care provider has gotten back to me recently with the good news that my glucose test was normal *reaching out for a piece of Ferrero rocher...* so I was rather happy about it! 

I've been purchasing the bulk of what's supposed to be the essential baby items; including a cot (finally), bottle sterilizer system, swaddle fabric, even down to little tidbits like cotton balls and nappies. I must say it's been quite a satisfying experience, getting all those items and arranging them in our baby nursery (which really IS our room, the baby's taking a big chunk of it now..) and it seems that our living quarter is already getting smaller once the bigger items are set up, especially the bathroom space, it's at a premium now!! :P

There's this feeding chair that I've been eyeing but so far I haven't found the right shade, it's Babyhood Diva Glider chair in beige, and I love the neutral shade so much I've been calling baby stores all over Perth to get that specific shade. So far, I have no luck, but hopefully one store will get back to me and tell me their good news tomorrow..?

It's so comfy to sit on..

An interesting point to note while I'm preparing the arrival of the bub, I was taking out the clothes' tags out of the baby's onesies, even the one with "Low fire danger" written on it, and made little tear at the neckline. Then, I mended them one by one, not with glue (eventhough I was sorely tempted), but with a needle & thread. For someone who has never really sewn anything in my life (save for a few buttons), I managed to get them mended without getting my hands bloodied from needle pricks, and that was tough, because my fingers felt stiff from those darned little stitches. x_x~ Perhaps I should really take up sewing classes.. hmmm...

Baby club

Have you ever heard of Coles Baby Club? yes, there's such thing. (I'm not sure about Woolworths though) Last week I was leisurely doing my grocery shopping and noticed the form at one of the registers. I took it home with me and read all about it. It's based in the Eastern states, but people in W.A. can also apply to be a member (via mail/ online) free of charge.

This entitles you to a monthly subscription to Coles' baby & toddler magazine (up til' the bub is 3 years old) sent to your chosen address, email subscriptions & offers from Coles. Just a few days ago I received my very first magazine! and it's jam-packed with useful articles to read, ideas on baby & toddler recipes, parents' stories, and a number of offers. 

I feel it's such a good idea for Coles to do this, it certainly helps relieve the anxiety of first-time (would-be) mums just like me, because it's simple & practical... I'm glad I signed up that day!!

If you're interested, you can check out this link and sign up online too!

Shop til' you drop?

With the end of the month fast approaching, I have to start thinking about the baby's nursery. Yes, indeed, the baby's due in the beginning of Feb, if not the end of January, and I haven't even started? I must be one of the most relaxed would-be-moms around here. 

Truthfully, I have been feeling rather homely these days, and shopping for baby stuff is rather an overwhelming experience! There are so many nice, cute things (not necessarily important things) out there that makes you want to buy 'em all! So, the trip to the shop just gets delayed and delayed some more until I noticed the date.. and that made me look for books & magazines on essential baby items. I found Cosmo pregnancy baby checklist a pretty useful read for a starter.

I feel that sometimes having a baby means you have to allocate a tremendous budget for him/her. (imagine, you need a new bed, new bathtub, changing table, new wardrobe, car seat, transportation (a.k.a stroller) and you may need to upgrade your car too, new set of clothes, nappies, sterilisation kit, and so on and so forth..) the list is seemingly endless. 

I guess it pays to be a little creative in accommodating this new person into the family, such as lobbying friends & family for their used baby goods *grins*, and checking out online shops. I found a great long list on the same magazine above, so I will start looking very soon!

milestone - the 7th month

Finally getting to the last trimester of pregnancy! It has been quite a journey up to 28 weeks now.. from the beginning when those achy, tiring feeling took place that made me suspect something was amiss to the very obvious fact that my tummy is ballooning quite vigorously. 

It's one of the reasons I turn to blogging, since I can do less and less chores without receiving disapproving frowns from my family. I was going to start earlier on to journal this experience, yet the pregnancy hormones turned against me and made me into such a lazy bum in the past couple of months.


As the months rolled by, I've collected enough baby scans now that when I looked at them, I see such a rapid pace of growth it amazes me to no end...

So I decided to compile and include them in with the scrapbook that I'm working on. I'd like to think of it as a flashback progress. ^_^ Can you see the picture clearly? the top left was my first scan at about 7 weeks, and the bottom left was one at 19 weeks.. big difference!!! 


Yeah, so about this scrapbook, before this, I've never made one, so I'm kinda dreading the end result. Hopefully it's not going to be that messed up...

getting there...

Glucose test today! thankfully it requires no fasting. (it's gonna give me a hard time otherwise, as I'm hungry every two hours recently...) I made my way to the Pathology center @ SJOG in the afternoon with a bag-full of books (I've been warned about the hour-long wait).

They gave me a soda drink 1 hour prior to taking my blood sample (*bleugh.. I haven't had soda for a loooong, loooong time now!!) and the rest of the waiting time was a blur, as the room has air-con and I had with me a copy of the Sandra Brown's novel... ^_~ 

Well, hopefully the test comes out okay, or I'll be {forced} to return to the same place for a second test that will take around 2 and a half hours.. I'd rather not! the worst case scenario is, I'd have to forgo all the nice, sugary, chocolate-y stuff til' the end of the term. I'd really, really rather not!!!!

The latest trend - pregnancy photography

Have you noticed that pregnancy photos are 'in' these days? the photographers are expanding their market rapidly and the photos sell like hot cakes, it's really interesting. 
I myself never thought about it until just recently when I came across a few (well, one was my husband's friend who just turned it into a side job..)  photographers whose portfolios are quite incredible. Perth professional photographers has displayed some great work on their site, but when it comes to pregnancy, baby & kids photos, I personally Fiona Rogerson's work the best. 

Check it out and see it for yourself. Perhaps if I have the time, I'd love to see her and get my pregnancy photos done too... definitely no nudes though, I'm really, really uncomfortable with the idea of dressing down to a slinky piece of fabric draped on my person and just that, and with a huge tummy to boot! ;P ... The (near) nude photos look great on her website though. 

milestone - the 5th month

And.. it's a BOY! my husband & I have been mulling over a list of names for our baby, even though we didn't know its gender yet. After a while, looking at baby names made me sick -_-.. We decided that if the baby was a girl, my husband will find a name for her, and vice versa if it were a boy. So now the responsibility falls flat on me....

Recently, (after abandoning the quest for baby names for a few months), I thought of a name 'Rafael', and it has a beautiful meaning : God has healed. I pondered upon that and the more I said the name out loud, the more I liked it.. So unless I find a better alternative, I'm gonna stick by it like a plague.

Empal Kisi

Trying out something new is great when you have nothing to do, and for me now, cooking is an outlet to vent off the frustration of not being able to do much. (I have to constantly remind myself that I'm pregnant, even with the already bulging belly!)

My mom and I, we make a nice team because we share many similarities; and cooking with her is always a great fun. Today we're making empal kisi, an Indonesian marinated beef and ca kangkung (stir fried kangkong) for dinner, and as we chatted away, the lovely fragrance of spiced beef permeated the kitchen. Dinner will be ready very soon!!

Empal Kisi - serves 4

Ingredients

6 pcs oyster blade beef, trimmed

1 tbsp ground corriander, fry in a shallow pan (without oil) for a minute, set aside

4 cm fresh/ frozen galangal, grated

1/2 tsp turmeric ground

1/2 tsp sugar

salt & white pepper to taste 

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 (bake, not fan forced)
2. Boil oyster blade pieces,
3. Add in coriander, turmeric, sugar, simmer until the meat becomes tender and the stock is 3/4 reduced. Season to taste with s&p. Reserve the left over stock.
4. Pound the meat with meat tenderizer until it is slightly torn & thin.
5. Oven bake for approx. 10 minutes. Slather the reserved stock on the meat as it cooks.
6. Change the oven setting, fan-grill the grated galangal til' crisp - approx 10 minutes. 
7. Toss the crisp galangal atop the meat and serve immediately.

milestone - the 4th month

I detect no particular cravings up to this point, and I sigh with relief as I recalled many, many horror stories I've heard from others about craving the weirdest things. I abhorred garlic for the longest time though initially. Its smell made me nauseated and thus Chinese food was out of the menu for a long time!!

Luckily my parents are here, and my mom has been such a lifesaver during those difficult days where I was hungry yet didn't have any idea what to eat. *gasp* I've never been a fussy eater before, and yet, I'd refuse food suggestions left & right it wasn't funny.. 

Morning sickness was almost non-existent, but late night sickness came to visit quite frequently, so I devised a plan to nibble on plain snacks and crackers. Lemon and ginger flavored biscuits too, helped me survive those nights in between the unavoidable toilet trips. First trimester, ah, what a joyful time!

Top 5 snacks for pregnancy

Forget crackers, they weren't as filling enough for my rumbling stomach, and I had to resort to (most of the time) a bowl of rice in the end anyway. Here's the list of my most loved snacks during pregnancy.

1. Peanut butter on bread.
2. A bowl of oatmeal porridge. (simply salted or with a piece of banana)
3. Pumpkin flavored Cup-a-soup.
4. Dairy Farmers' mango & passion fruit yoghurt
5. Mc Donalds Quarter Pounder ^^,

I know that Quarter pounder isn't supposed to be on the list, but I was quite fond of it during my pregnancy. (My excuse was that I'm having a boy, thus the extra testosterone made me crave it :P). Aside of those 5, I often have warm Milo with milk, banana and avocado too.

It's been a long, long week

So here's how the story goes.. After the last HK trip I feel exceedingly tired (I thought it was because of the sun and the long haul flights to and fro), but as I settled back home in Perth, I still feel tired, rather nauseated, and generally... so un-like me. It lasts for almost a week now, and I knew something was off, and although I'm not fond of doctor visits, I guess this time I have to make an allowance. 

Before I even make it to the doctor though, I decided to stop by the chemist to get a cold medicine, and, before I realized it, a pregnancy test. I mean, odd, but I acted on gut instinct. That morning the test came back with a single straight pink line. I felt a little relieved, at least I know my condition isn't due to pregnancy. So I make a booking with my GP for the next afternoon.

The day went by and at night time, I still didn't feel any better. Tossing and turning in my sleep is highly irregular for I'm a deep sleeper; so against all odds, by 5 am the next morning, I did another test. Waiting for a few minutes felt like an eternity, and when I came back to check on the test, still bleary-eyed, I blinked. I blinked again. I rubbed my eyes and picked up the piece of test strip. I saw two pink lines. Huh... What?

It took me awhile to return to the room, and digested the information. Is it possible for the test to be inaccurate? two tests and two different results..  So I decided to tell my other half, who became wide awake after hearing my news. Well, cutting the story short, the GP visit that afternoon confirmed it; I am around 6-7 weeks pregnant; and those hormones are responsible for my slight discomfort. And I'm on my way to becoming a new mom, in, err.. another 32 weeks.

I gotta say I have a mixed feeling. More of nervousness and uncertainty rather than excitement; I guess I didn't know what to expect, and as I'm writing this, I wonder if other women feel the same way too? or are they all happy & excited when they find out?
Well, I confirmed the news with A, and he was happy, though he was as nervous as myself initially. My mom in law was happy for sure, I saw her grinning from ear to ear, *LOL* this bub will be her first grand..son/daughter? and my parents were ecstatic. After all, they've been bugging us for the last couple of years (subtly, of course...heheheh) to start thinking of family planning. 

Yeah, all that makes me really tired.. sleepy, even.. Yay, maybe now I can sleep better!! welcome to mummy's tummy, bub!

Pregnant?