Michelle is 3 months old!

Finally, the little terror is 3 months old yesterday! She celebrated it by.... going to the doctor! Not very fun.. she had to get another jab yesterday. Oh well, I guess she'll get a jab whenever she turns a month older until she's a year old.

Anyway, looking back at the past 3 months....

The first month after delivery was really hard for me. The hormones were driving me crazy as I sometimes just felt upset or angry at myself, other people, or just at the situation that I was in (a lot of pain, stressed out, no milk, etc). Even when other people tells me that things would get better, I didn't really believe them. But things really got better! :)

In the beginning, I really felt like going back to work and just leave the baby at home with my mother (since I sucked so much in mothering...) but now that my maternity leave is going to end in less than 1 month, I think I'm going to miss her a lot when I'm at work. But I'm also looking forward to working again, to use my brain again, and to have more adult interaction.

And mothering is really a learning process. I thought I would manage well since the beginning since I read soooo many books about pregnancy, birth, and childcare. I assumed that everything will go smoothly as planned. I went through pregnancy in a breeze. I think I had one of the easiest pregnancy compared to my friends. Birth definitely didn't go as planned because I ended up needing an emergency c-section because of fetal distress. For childcare, I never imagined that milk will never come, I didn't even research on which formula milk to give to my baby before my hospital stay! My husband had to go and try out all the formula milk before we decided on one. I guess my point is we have to be flexible, or we'll end up stressing ourselves. Having my mother around also helped a lot. Firstly, she took care of the baby more than me in the first few weeks. She also encouraged me to go out, that made me feel normal again. Even just a 5 minutes stroll outside the house made me feel really good, so imagine the effect of going shopping the whole day! :D

Baby progress...

1. She was born with quite strong neck, but now it's even stronger that she sometimes "jump" out of my lap.
2. She sleeps throughout the night (since birth.. lucky me!)
3. She can smile and "talk" now. At one point she even said "mama" and "mommy"! But I'm sure it's a coincident and she wasn't referring to me.
4. She has outgrown majority of her clothes! SHOPPING TIME!
5. She can now put her hands into her mouth successfully, instead of using them to poke her own eyes.
6. She can now throw her temper by screaming when she doesn't want to drink her milk or when she's carried in a position that she doesn't like... (poor me?)
7. She can turn from her back to her tummy now, but then she'll scream for help after a while because she can't turn back.

Uncle Victor in Training

His first attempt was unrecorded, the baby cried immediately after he carried her. This is his 2nd attempt, much better... =)

Visitors and other stuff

Recently we have a lot of visitors because there's a new baby at home. The other day, Eunice and Tong Fu came to visit us and today my ex-colleague, Joon and his wife, Chihiro, came to visit as well. My Bible study conductor and her friend came to visit today as well.

I like having people over at my house but recently I find it so hard to get ready before lunch time! Well, when I woke up, it's usually about 10 AM already and after doing a little bit of breakfast and lazing around, it's already lunch time! Before baby, even during pregnancy, I never expect life to be this busy. Time seems to fly really fast but I seem to accomplish nothing during that period of time. Sometimes I wonder whether life will ever be the same again.. Don't get me wrong, I love my new baby very much, but somehow I can't help feeling that I'm no longer me, but now I'm just someone's mother... feel a bit like identity crisis..

Anyway, today my mom dressed Michelle in the outfit that was sent by Siyong.. check her photo below. My hubby likes the 3/4 pants, he said it's very cute =)




After 2 weeks of post-natal depression, I finally find it easier to relax now. I guess it happened after I accept the fact that my milk supply will not be able to meet baby's demand (she's really a big eater!). Instead of keep on pushing myself, now I tell myself that it's ok to just do my best and not everyone is successful at breastfeeding. My husband said that if everyone is successful at breastfeeding, milk companies will not be as rich as they are now. And I'm also grateful that my gynae always give encouraging and no-nonsense advice. She actually told me to just be comfortable with whatever decision I made and not to listen to unsolicited advices from well-meaning people. I think I'm idolizing her a little bit too much, but I can't help to think that she's so cool.. ha ha..

Before that, I was feeling like why did I have baby in the first place when I'm such a crap mother... wasn't able to give birth naturally... wasn't able to provide milk... I should just stick to my normal job, at least I do reasonably well.. (I still check my office emails... can't help it... I miss my work...), but for now I take one day at a time and things can only get better from here =)

Sneeze baby sneeze!

After suntanning..

Hee hee...

It was after bath time and she was behaving ever so sweetly and then suddenly.....

I swear I didn't teach her this! :p

Michelle Kaylie Chien Yaxuan

Our baby girl, Michelle Kaylie Chien Yaxuan, is finally here.

She was delivered via emergency c-section after bullying mommy in labor for 12 hours. (actually mommy got a little *A LOT* help from the nice doctor who gave her epidural)

B-Day!

Finally, the day has arrived!

I'm going to be a mother tomorrow..... so weird... excited... scared... happy.. :)

Last Minute Shopping for Baby

I dunno what I was thinking yesterday but once the doctor said that most probably we have to induce labor next week, the first thing that came to my mind is we have to GO OUT first! And the doctor also said "Enjoy your last weekend" so I thought we should really maximize our last weekend since hubby and I were on leave also yesterday.

We went to Vivo City to catch a movie "Couples Retreat". I like the movie and it really helped me to relax a little bit yesterday, took my mind off the high blood pressure saga. My mom wasn't very happy when I ended our conversation with "Gotta go, going to catch a movie now." She was telling me to go home, hang my feet up, rest, and don't go anywhere.

What I didn't tell her is that we spent even longer time in Vivo City buying more stuff for the baby. I thought that it will help me get rid of my anxiety. The more things you prepare for the baby, the less things you should worry about.

We ended up spending $100+ on toys plus another $100+ on books! I was really really tired at the end and asked my hubby to send me home before dinner time. But we did get to enjoy nice lunch at Brokerweitz (or some German resto, can't remember the spelling) and also a nice dessert at Hagen Dasz. Well, they only said I should reduce salt intake, they never say I can't eat sugar.... so, it seems like the only things I can eat now are cakes and fruits....

I should probably go to rest now so that I have more energy to go for my pedicure on Sunday... that's the treat a pregnant woman can get because she can't really reach her toes :D

Fast Forward Baby Arrival

We had another check-up yesterday and my blood pressure has gone up really high. It was 136/89 or 139/89 (can't remember) - previously it was always at about 120/80 and when I started my pregnancy it was only 112/78 or some even lower number. My doctor now wants to monitor me even more closely as it carries a high risk and might cut off oxygen supply to the baby.

Next check-up is on Monday and if blood pressure go up again, might have to induce labor immediately... so scared... My mom already changed her ticket to come tomorrow and we've got everything ready already, but I'm so worried and I'm scared of death....

I guess I should rest and not think too much, in case it really make my blood pressure goes even higher.... sigh, it's like a vicious cycle!

Amazing Baby by Desmond Morris

I borrowed lots of baby and pregnancy related books from library yesterday, but I was so keen to read this one because it has soooooo many cute baby pictures inside!

This is the book's website: Amazing Baby

This book also tells about growth of the baby while inside the womb and for the first 2 years of baby's life. It tells about what baby knows and don't know at certain age, how they usually behave, and what the mother or caregiver should expect at certain stage.



One amazing thing that I learned from this book is about how a baby can naturally swim in warm water when they are less than 3 months old. They can automatically hold their breath and move their limbs to float inside the water. But I'm not going to try that on my own baby next time! :p

This is definitely a relaxing read for all mothers-to-be. The cute baby pictures make me feel so happy reading the books :D

Gift from Auntie Siyong

Today mommy received a gift for me from her good friend who is living in New Zealand. She said even though auntie Siyong lives far away, she remains close with us :)

The gift came in a box with a cute baby picture outside, but of course not as cute as me.. hehehe.. I learned to be extra-confident from my mom :D



And she packed all my new gifts nicely in this box, there's even a cute card for mommy. I can't tell you what is written in the card because I can't read yet, mommy helped me to type this. We have telepathy skill :D



And here are my new stuff... next time you'll see me strutting my stuff in this cool gears :)

---

Dear auntie Siyong,

Thank You, auntie Siyong! I ♥ the presents and can't wait to meet little baby boy or girl that is growing in your tummy too :)

Hugs with wet kisses,
baby Michelle :)

(since you're so curious what name mommy has given me... hee hee.. don't tell her I told you already!)

---

Project Pink Room

Our baby room is finally ready! Well, not ready to be sleep in but I think we are not going to do anything major to this room from now until the baby is going to use a child bed instead of a cot.

So before transformation, the room was basically a guest room which were used by our parents and relatives when they come and visit us. We decided to keep the queen size bed from now since the baby is sleeping with us in the master room.

It used to look like this.... boring huh.....


So we (actually my hubby) spent one night taping the walls, skirting, and door frames. And then he spent one whole day to paint 2 layers of nice pink paints on 2 sides of the walls :)


After 1 layer of pink paint...



I started to like this room more at this point... so pink.... :p

And then we decided that we should get more storage space to store the baby's stuff, so we bought IKEA Expedit bookcase 2x4 size. I like it because you can choose the type and colors of the drawers. But obviously, we are not very creative because we just use the same plastic ones in 2 different colors.



And add a little bit of stickers....



DONE!


Well, not really, if you notice on the picture above, there's an empty canvass on the bed head. I'm actually planning to paint the baby's name on a canvass as decoration for the room. Shall blog about it next time when I'm done with the painting :)

36 weeks and 6 days plus other random updates

We went for another check-up yesterday, and the doctor told us the the test result for Group B Strep bacteria came back negative, so it's really good! If we are tested positive, means I'll be given antibiotics via IV during delivery... euww... I planned to use epidural means there will be something attached to my back already. If I also have to get that IV, means there will be something attached to my arm! Then I think usually they will put the baby monitoring device around the mother's belly as well, means there will be something around my belly! Can you imagine all those things strapped into one person... I will look like some kind of experiment object!

Progress wise: Baby and mommy don't grow much this week, baby still weighs about 2.7kg and mommy weighs *secret* kgs. I was quite worried that she'll cross 3kg this time round! She's still as active as ever even though space are kinda limited now, so that's also a good sign. Overall, baby is very healthy :)

The scan picture from this week is not clear, so I can't be bothered to upload it here. When the doctor passed it to me, I couldn't figure out which part of the baby that is :p

The doctor said that half of her head is already descending towards the pelvic bone, so it could be about 1-2 weeks before she's born. She told me to prepare myself mentally as life with baby will never be the same again, as time will not be mine anymore. She suggested we go out and relax, catch a movie or something. She's so nice huh.. she cares about her patients, not just health wise but overall well-being... *so touched* and the nurse suggested we watch "Hua Mulan" :D

Anyway, we planned to go to Combi shop after doctor appointment. They are like the importer and distributor of Combi stuff in Singapore, and my friend said they have a lot of Combi stuff in that shop. If you are interested, this is the shop: Tai Sing Corp. It's actually near Malay Heritage center... here's the map on how to go there..

View Larger Map

Since we bought most of our baby stuff already, we only bought their Combi toys, which my hubby complained "too expensive!!" but the toys are so cute I even want them for myself!


Check out the toys here, but the website is in Japanese.

Next, my hubby said there's a shop that is selling designer baby furniture, called "The Shophouse" near Alexandra Road, so we went there to check it out, but they don't have any baby furnitures, except for a few sets of baby beddings that don't even come with bumpers! Duh... but if you are interested in normal furnitures, they have quite a good selection there. Here's how to go there...

View Larger Map

And then since we are at Alexandra, we decided to go to Ikea Alexandra(check out the contrast: from designer baby furniture to Ikea.. HAAHHA). They recently renovated that place and they have a lot of new showrooms, somehow with the same Ikea stuff, they can make the showrooms look so nice. We didn't buy much stuff from there, only 2 drawer inserts as they were out of stock when we last went to Ikea, and a new arrival item: baby changing station! :)

Here's my hubby assembling the changing station for our baby... :)


Final product....



Eventful Saturday....

Next is my friend's baby 1-month old celebration. This is actually her 2nd baby and her baby is also a girl. Her first one is a boy, sounds like she already has a complete family :)

I also got to meet my other friends there and we talked quite a bit and since there are 2 pregnant women there and 1 woman who recently gave birth, we talked a lot of pregnancy and childbirth stuff. Actually it's more like the preggies asking the experience one on tips and tricks on how to give birth. I think it's really overwhelming.. being given a task to bring life to another person... what if we can't do it!! But according to most women who gave birth before, it will all come naturally... maybe that's really a mystery of how God works and how He created us human.. :)

After the baby's 1-month old celebration, we are going to do what the doctor told us to do. Go and relax and watch a movie. Hubby suggested that we go to Great World City as it's less crowded there and would be easier to get a movie ticket from there, but apparently Hua Mulan wasn't playing in that cinema, so we watched The Informant instead. The movie was rather long-winded and boring, but I think the angmohs actually enjoy it, I guess people from different countries enjoy different kind of jokes.

We also shopped *yay!* a lot yesterday, bought lots of Bodyshop stuff and Aussino stuff. Well, the Aussino stuff are for the baby actually. They were having kids and bath fair and the baby bedding set was selling for only 35 bucks, consists of bumpers, fitted sheet sets, pillow case, and bolster case... so cheap!!

All in all, I think we have everything ready for baby's arrival. It's easier to prepare the physical stuff, rather than preparing mentally! At least we've got baby's cot ready....


Storage space for baby's clothes in our room (because I have too much clothes that I can't even wear now!)



So now the only thing left to do is enjoy life without baby and prepare mentally... how?

35 weeks and 6 days

We went for another check-up last Saturday (I know it's kinda late especially since the next check-up is coming in 2 days time!) and because of the previous day's scare, my doctor put me on CTG first to monitor the baby's movement and heart rate.

She was really perky on our way to the doctor but she became quiet when we reached the doctor's office. I think they call it "awake and sleep" cycle. So I had to be put on CTG for quite sometime because she was sleeping in the beginning.

Once the doctor is happy about the CTG result, we did GBS test. It's a routine but optional test done at the last trimester of pregnancy (week 35-37). It was supposed to be painless, but mine was painful I nearly cried!

Next is the fun part... ultrasound! We can see that she has grown so big, she's about 2.7 kg already and I was born lighter than that! I think I was born without hair as well, but my girl already has a lot of hair. This week's scan is showing only her hair. It's already 2.2 cm long, time to head to the barber huh... :)


The part on the right that looks like fur is actually her hair :p

My doctor predicted that she will be about 3.5 kg when she's born. And she advised me to use epidural since I'm so scared of the pain and she thinks it will make my hubby's life easier.. HA HA HA.. but I'm also scared of the epidural needle! If you want to know how epidural is administered, you can watch it in YouTube. Be warned that it's not for the faint hearted!

In the food department, she just got upgraded from honeydew to watermelon!



In the clothes department, baby has a few Google gears already..

The first one is from my teammates in the US office, they actually sent it by post! :)


Next is from Singapore office HR team.. sooo nice, it even comes with a hat, bib, and a burp cloth :)


The last one is courtesy of mommy when she went for biz trip a few months ago :)

Try this before you judge!

Recently I encountered a few inconsiderate people who gave such remarks like why am I walking so slow... or even when they don't say it, I know they are thinking about it! I'm not crazy, I'm just intuitive ok!

According to the pregnancy ticker, the baby size is about the size of a honeydew now. My baby is slightly on the larger side, so maybe about the size of a watermelon. Before you judge any other pregnant women who are waddling their way slowly, try this...

1. Get a big plastic bag, around the same size as supermarket plastic bag
2. Put a honeydew or watermelon in it
3. Put a little bit of water in it - about 1 to 1.5L
4. Tie the darn thing on your waist!
5. Try to walk fast with that thing hanging on your waist!

Now you know that it's not as easy at it looks.... I know some fat men claim that they know how we feel, but I assure you it's not the same! And your fats don't kick your bladder anyway!

Pregnancy Scare

Now I kinda get my baby's kicking schedule. She usually kicks during breakfast time and on the way to work, and then take a nap until just before lunch time, and start to be active again for a while, and then sleep for a few hours and start kicking at about 2 or 3 PM (real hard kicks) and sleep until going home time (about 5 PM) and continue to be more active at night until I go to bed.

But today she seems a bit off. She didn't kick at all during breakfast and on the way to work. I was a bit alarmed by that, but my hubby said to monitor it first for a few hours until lunch time. So I was closely taking fetal kick counts, but until about 2 PM there were only a few weak kicks, very different from her usual strong and active movements.

The whole baby got strangled by umbilical cord stories suddenly just crept into my brain and I was so scared and nervous, so I called my husband and tell him that we should go to the hospital and check the baby's heart beat. And I was sooooo pissed off because my husband said he could send me but only after 1.5 hours because he was at an outside workplace and he was the only one driving, so his colleague won't have a ride home. WTF?!?! Which one is more important??

So I decided to take cab and I just notified my teammate that I have to go to hospital there and then! And then I made a mad rush to the taxi stand. On the way to hospital, the baby didn't kick at all.. and I was soooo nervous... and crying.... and praying.... and texting my mom.... *imagine drama queen movie*

Once I reached the hospital and finally found the correct place to go, they just put me on the fetal monitoring machine. I feel so relieved when I heard the baby's heartbeat. They want me to be under observation for at least 1 hour so that they can monitor the awake and sleeping period of the baby. It was also great that coincidentally, my gynae was there as well because she was delivering another baby. But it was quite embarrassing when she asked me "Why did you cry?" duh...

All is well now.. but then I recalled yesterday she was kicking hard the whole day, and I got a bit tired of it, and I actually kinda "scold" her and tell her not to kick me already.... I didn't know that she was going to be so obedient... I really should be careful about what I say next time...

For now, I'm enjoying the kicks again... :)

Horrid pregnancy dream

Last night I had this super horrible dream.

In my dream, I was such a busy person at home (not sure busy with what), but I have my baby girl and a dog (dog now?!). It's baby's bath time, so I put my baby in the bath tub (we don't actually have a bath tub at home....), and then totally forgot about it until like 5-10 minutes later... HORROR!! And then I made a mad dash to the bathroom and found that.....

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My youngest sister (when did she come to SG??) was helping to bathe the baby.... PHEW.... I'm not sure why it's her instead of my other sister who actually lives in SG. Perhaps because my youngest sis always plays with little kiddos...

I was such a crap mother in my dream..... woke up with my t-shirt all soaking with sweat! :(

And in real life... I gained 3 kg this week! GOSH.....

34 weeks and 4 days as of yesterday

Yesterday we had another ultrasound check when baby was 34 weeks and 4 days old. It was just 2 weeks from previous check-up and overall I gained 1 kg! The doctor thought the baby would gain about 100-200 grams these 2 weeks and she said it's ok for me to gain 1 kg every 2 weeks now.

However, during the scan we found out that the baby actually grew faster than we expected, she actually gained about 400 grams! Am I carrying a fat baby girl? Hahaha.. seems like she inherited daddy's gene! :p



Don't ask me which part of the baby that is... I have no idea either... she's all folded and the photos are becoming more and more blur!

Progress update: Her head circumference is about 30cm and her feet is about 7cm long, weighing at about 2.1 kg now! When the doctor said 30 cm circumference, I actually imagined 30cm diameter and I was quite dazed how can that size head come out next time... and I didn't realize that what she meant is actually really circumference until I left the clinic! What a relief though...

Next check-up will be in 1.5 weeks... the frequency and interval is getting more and more often... this is really happening!!

PS: Hubby told me the picture is of the baby's feet, heel on the left and toes on the right.

Baby is now the size of a HONEYDEW!!

I just installed this new widget that shows the growth of the baby, well not exactly my baby but average of other babies same age as mine. And currently it says "Baby is the size of honeydew".....



Perhaps it wasn't really a good idea to install the widget??

Our little fashionista

Yesterday I washed all baby's newborn - 3 months old going out clothes already *kiasu mode on* and I was drying the clothes in the living room. Sounds strange? This is because in Singapore the houses are so small, people usually hang their clothes using pole outside of their house or inside the kitchen. My hubby was preparing dinner so I didn't want to dry the clothes in the kitchen - they will all smell like garlic or fish!

Anyway, when my husband saw the clothes...



The only comment he gave "OMG... so young already so much clothes! How am I going to live with 2 girls next time?" HUAHAHAHAHA... this is just the starting! :D