Dear Jellybean-January 2011

Dear Jellybean,

This is daddy and mummy, before you came along. We went on dates and did spontaneous things. 

Then you made mummy become a balloon before coming along and predominantly hiding your parents within four walls.

The End.

Just kidding!

Truth is, you've given daddy and mummy so much joy within one month- well, that and lots of diaper changes and colouring your parents clothes with yellow and white. Uh huh- poops, wees and milk vomits.

We've lurved every moment of seeing you grow from the tiny bundle into a slightly larger bundle. Within one month, you've learnt to smile and laugh at spontaneous things. You've also made a point to be carried throughout the day, though at night you've been sleeping in your bassinet. At one point, every second night you chose to keep your parents up with you, but then mummy discovered it might of been the coffee she drank- so we wont blame that on you. 

You've learnt to make funny sounds and coo back at us when we talk to you. You fall asleep while being bounced on a fitball and love hearing anyone sing songs to you. Mummy sings funny songs that she doesn't really know the lyrics to, but you find that entertaining anyway. You make daddy talk to you during night feeds as if you understand what he's saying. You make Gong Gong and Poh Poh carry you by making weird shrieks- and ofcourse they succumb to your funny whimpers.

Oh, you hate the pram! You've already made yourself noticeable when you loudly cried at the local shopping center and spur spontaneous strangers to make comments. And car seats? You only like them when the car moves. When the car stops during traffic lights, you make noises too.

You've got 1001 facial expressions. But your favourite one is where you perk your mouth as if you're whistling. That usually means you're wide awake and ready for play.

When dawn comes, you want to be placed on daddy and mummy's bed. Thats when you fall back to sleep again within the comfort of your parents. You also love being on daddy's chest. You find that relaxing though mummy freaks sometimes wondering if you can  breath.

But Jellybean, despite everything, we love you to bits. Grow up quick cos we wanna play with you.

xoxo.

Mummy & Daddy

Out Of Jail Celebratory Food

Last month felt like forever! Between broken sleep and chicken wine, it felt like Groundhog day. What I did enjoy was seeing Jellybean having growth spurts and discovering her new tricks of the day- she's definitely got a few more rolls down the leg than before!

Just a few days ago, we celebrated Jellybean's Full Moon. Full Moon celebrates baby's one month from their birth date, followed by some simple rituals before presenting friends and family with food. It's also my out of jail card as my confinement finally ends! Hurrah! We decided to give food parcels to close friends and have a celebratory meal with our family.

Our modernized Full Moon food parcel contained:

Red eggs, BBQ chicken and some cakes. Obviously we chose the easy way out! Frankly, I chose to spend my time washing my hair in the morning than to slave over making kuehs and cooking chicken.- And this is coming from someone who loves her time in the kitchen!

Sorry friends. Please understand. Confinement makes one wacky. Really.

Cakes were chosen instead of the traditional Ang Ku Kuehs.

My favourite of the three- Sponge Fruit cake.

Mango Mochi Cake- Glutinous skin with sponge cake insert.

Black Forrest.

Deepest thanks to all, for the lovely gifts and red packets! Jellybean is truly spoilt!

Longan & Red Dates

It's been a long Chinese tradition to do one month of confinement after giving birth. If you ask me, it's like one month of house detention with limited food. No fun.

I wouldn't say I have a strict confinement, but it's definitely restricting.

Confinement procedures [yes, I say it with much formality!] vary in different ethnic groups- different foods and doings. I'd say my mum more or less followed the Hakka tradition for my confinement. These include:

-Drinking red date and longan tea for the whole duration. No plain water. Amazingly the body does survive without one month of plain water though I don't know whether its good or bad.

For the past few weeks I've only drank boiled water submerged with dried longans and red dates.

-Eating foods with cooked chinese wine and ginger. Bleh. Imagine a repetitive menu for one month and everything loaded with ginger. This is suppose to repel wind and help sweat out excess waters.

-No showering. Well, technically I bathe with boiled herbal water. But I'm not allowed to touch un-boiled tap water. Let me tell you now- this is virtually impossible. From washing baby bottles to washing my hands before feeding- how can I not touch tap water?

-No hair washing. Urgh! Maybe this is one of the worst rules ever! It is believed that pores on the head 'open' after giving birth. So exposing these 'open pores' to water will induce headaches and other problems in the future. True or not, I'm not sure.

I know it sounds grose- but I've survived 3 weeks of yucky hair. I think it's becoming a helmet now- stuck on me. And if you need a insect repellant, do visit me! Hmm..or maybe I'm the one attracting the bugs!

-Eating heaty foods. Once again, to expel wind, help return the uterus to its pre-preggers state.

-Lie down when possible to refrain from straining the back. This one I do believe in. I've felt my own spine being more vulnerable after birth. Having said that, a newborn being breast-fed and needy doesn't allow much resting time.

One month of fun huh? I told H if he ever expected me to have another kid, lets skip this confinement ritual.

Labour-2

..[continued]...

5:00am- I wake up once again with back pain and sore pelvis. This time it's worse as other womanly body parts make it less tolerable.

Once again I take a looong shower- washing my hair umpteen times in preparation for confinement. But by the time I put on my clothes, I'm in sweats again. Pregnancy!

6:00am- H and I get breakfast at Mcdonalds drive through. I'm not advocating this for breakfast before labour, it is just convenient and on the way. For a sheer moment I contemplate having a Mcdonalds pig-out, not sure if it was the hormones thinking or me wondering if a hash brown and a Mcmuffin will take me throughout the day of labour. Then I remember it might not be a good sight if Jellybean came with other bodily excesses- you know what I mean. Stop. Just eat the hash brown.

As if I know the hospital back to front now, I once again go into Baby Hilton. The midwives in labour ward know me- we left our luggage there the night before. They tell me to go into my own ward as if it's my hotel room.

We meet Anastasya- my first midwife of the day. She's young, pretty and distinctly Russian. I half wished I didn't get such a pretty midwife to do such a gruelling chore. It just made me feel so much worse. Don't ask me why. She was super friendly though and trust me it makes a whole world of differnece when you're contracting!

7:30am- my obstetrician comes in and checks my cervix. Urgh. My waters break and I feel like I should be wrapped in nappies. I feel revolting. I somehow wished H didn't see this side of labour. Hospital gowns look awful, feel awful and expose your butts!

8:30am- I start feeling contractions. they feel like mild period pain. I start counting but the contractions are mild and far apart. I'm in good spirits now. I'm over the exposed butt part and H and I are holding normal conversations.

10:00am- The contractions get stronger and closer, but still irregular. I'm now bored. The tv is on. I'm reading magazines to waste time.

11:30am- My obstetrician comes back in to check on me. I have a magazine on one side, a iPad on the other and a drink by the bedside. He jokes I'm on a holiday and looks so relaxed.

12:00pm- My contractions spur me to breathe heavily. They're still quite far apart but oh they are getting painful. Anastashya offers me heat pads. They help. Mildly. But I do with it.

12:30pm- Going to the toilet bringing in machines, with a exposed butt and broken waters aint fun. My back is hurting so much! I opt to sit on a fitball. After a few contractions I can't stand it anymore and return to the bed. I'm taking deep breaths now and it darn hurts! I still resist. Trying to be a hero.

1:00pm-All is a blur now. Contractions are close. Darn painful. I breathe like no tomorrow. I'm start to cry from the pain. Great hero I am! The midwife offers me epidural and I jump to it. I murmur 'Pain relief!' to H. I can't take it anymore.

The anaesthetist comes in and starts telling me the risks of epidurals. I tell him to just do it! He makes a comment about my bag and between my contractions and weepy eyes I tell him after labour I need lots of handbags! He laughs and says atleast I can still joke. After what seemed like a eternity, he places a freezing cold wipe on my back before setting in the needle. Darn it hurts!

I drift in and out of sleep after the epidural kicks in, but realize it didn't fully work on me. I can still partially feel the pain. I start having to move around because Jellybean isn't happy when I lie in certain positions. My cervix gets checked every now and then.

5:00pm- after a few doses of epidurals I ask for another because the pain is killing me and I'm weeping like a kid once again. They tell me I should be checked again before they administer another dose. Great.  Cervical checks while contracting are soooo not fun! The head midwife checks and whispers to H 'Shes ready'.

Urgh. How much longer will this pain go on for? H continually reminds me our baby is coming and let's look forward to that.

Three midwives come. My obstetrician arrives. I'm told to push. After a few pushes my ob decides to have a break. The moment he walks out the midwife yells Jellybean is coming. Emergency bells ring and my ob is back. Despite my pain, I yell he should of gone on his break earlier so Jellybean can come earlier. He just laughs.

5:14pm- I push so hard and Jellybean finally arrives. A few seconds later her eyes open and I'm so amazed. She's lovely. I count all her fingers and toes and check if she's really a girl [you never know?!].

All other yucky things happen later but I'm just in awe of Jellybean. I no longer feel anything. I continually stare at her and know she's all worth it.

...And so the parenting part begins...

Labour -1

If you're not into knowing the details of labour- skip this post NOW! Jellybean is out this was the ordeal!

...(written on actual day)....

Due to some complications, I had expected a induced labour all along. It just depended on when. This was 'Induction Day 1'!

5:00am- I wake up. Pelvis hurting, back aching and desperately in need of the loo. H wearily wakes up, asks if I'm contracting. I reply no and he drifts back to sleep.

I get back from the loo and can't fall back to sleep. My whole body hurts and sleeping in any position doesn't help. I get fed up and decided to go online and distract myself.

7:30am- I have breakfast.

9:00am- H wakes and realises I've eaten breakfast. He cooks himself Maggi Mee [yes, this is important information I tell ya!] and we chat while he eats.

10:00am- I better finish Jellybean's playmat. It still needs sewing and hemming on the edges. But after a few minutes I just can't concentrate and was about to have a lie down when my mum comes and asks if I have any plans for the day.

I get dressed and we head to the markets and shopping center. I needed a walk. I'm getting agitated.

12:00pm- We get back home and I'm in sweats. Think pregnancy makes my body temperature go up by 10 degrees.

1:00pm- After lunch H and I decide to have a little 'naughty break'. This is meant to be a quick escape to eat whatever I want before confinement. We end up paying some bills before buying cakes, having coffee and buying some mags in preparation for hospital.

3:00pm- We get back home and I'm desperate for a scrub. Its hot. It's frustrating. I'm sweating like there's no tomorrow. I tell H to give me some time in the shower. I feel like having the scrub of my life with no interruptions and thats exactly what I do. I spend 30 minutes scrubbing, washing, scrubbing washing like there's no tomorrow. Cleaning every single inch of my body I can possibly reach.

4:15pm- We head to hospital. I'm super excited.

5:00pm- We check in and get interviewed by a super friendly midwife. We then get bored and H starts taking photos of everything! I mean everything! The loo. Our name tags. The monitors. 

...told you he took photos of the loo.

5:45pm- My obstetrician comes in and after doing a 'sweep' [those who've done it, yeah! u know what I'm talking about! Urgh!!] gives me the option of going home. He tells me I'm ready and doesn't need to be monitored through the night!

7:00pm- After doing more formalities signing in and out, we leave hospital and head home. Half wondering what happens if Jellybean comes at midnight. Half excited. Half nervous.

11:00pm- I try to head to bed but it's nerve-wrecking and I'm still in sore from the sweep. Gosh...what's life gonna be like with Jellybean? H snores besides me.

......

Jellybean

Hi Peeps! I've been lacking in the blogging world as Jellybean arrived nearly two weeks ago. She's kept us busy with midnight cries, constant nappy changes and ofcourse sleepless nights. But she's all worth it!

Oh! Her favourite past time at the moment is showering her daddy with pee while he's changing her diapers.

I'm lacking in the photos department so when I'm up for it I'll post some up. 'Till then, hope you had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!