Welcome Liam James Chui

Liam James Chui arrived on the 21st June 2013 at 2229h.

He weighed 3035g and was 51cm long.

I was quite surprised by his arrival really..   I truly expected him to go past his due date, partly because his last estimated fetal weight at 38 weeks wasn't very high.

So I was determined to continue with life as normal at 39 weeks.

We had a potluck dinner organised for the evening with a few friends( neighbours  ) and we were having a steamboat dinner. I was supposed to prepare the chicken broth and buy some fresh produce for dinner.

I think contractions started on the night of 20th, because I had a restless night and hardly slept. I noticed irregular but starting-to-hurt type contractions... but in my mind I assumed they were just stronger Braxton Hicks because I just turned 39weeks.

By morning the pain was getting more obvious, but not so much that I couldn't function. So I went about my usual day, although I let the girls start their school holiday early because for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to take them to school.

At work the pain was still irregular but I was really cranky. Man... people that turn up to ask for medical leave! Here I am in occasional pain and STILL at work!!

It was a good thing that at the back of my mind I felt I really had to cancel the next day's appointments. So I did.

I called it quits at work around 5pm and went home to rest. I think close to 6pm the pains intensified and I knew there was no way these could just be BH contractions.

Chris got home early ( thank goodness ) so we waited a little while until the contractions were 5 minutes apart. By then we decided to head to KKH to get checked out. I was still contemplating whether or not to get an epidural.

At the labour ward it took forever to get registered and then I still had to be hooked up to monitors for over half an hour while they monitored the contractions. That was quite uncomfortable. I have to thank my good friend KSY whom I was messaging, regarding epidurals. She said "yes! "

Still it took a good hour before I finally got the epidural, and then it was pure bliss. By some stroke of fate, the anaesthetist who turned up happened to be the very same guy that gave me the spinal at Annika's emergency C section! Except he's now promoted to be consultant! I was just wondering how strange it was that the 2 anaesthetists would be named Shawn at both my births. This time the spinal-epidural worked beautifully and it took most of the pain away.

I was 4 cm dilated at admission, and after the epidural we were able to lie back, relax and watch Sherlock Holmes on TV. Dr John Tee arrived to see me just past 9pm and he was really surprised that I was already 9 cm dilated.

He left me and returned at 10 pm and told me the head was right there! It was incredible. I didn't even realize I'd been having regular and strong contractions. Thank goodness for the epidural. He hitched my legs up, told me to give strong and steady pushes, and in 3 pushes Liam was born.

I admit, I was a little disappointed that he was a pint sized 3 kg at birth, considering his 2 sisters were 3.2 and 3.5kg respectively. Still, the most important thing was that he was well and I had a successful VBAC!

Dr Tee didn't do an episotomy but I had a minor tear. He stitched me up quickly and did the blood taking for cord blood storage. The placenta weighed 660g.

KKH has this new skin-to skin contact thing, so I was left with naked Liam for over an hour. I think this birth experience was so much better than Madison's, I felt less rushed, more relaxed and they gave me more time after delivery to recover in the labour ward than before.

It's now 1 week since Liam was born, so today is technically his due date. He's got the same issues as his sisters, mostly jaundice requiring regular heel pricks and visits to KKH. He gave me a huge scare yesterday.. when he woke up at 5pm he felt really warm to me and I measured his temperature to be 37.8 C. I panicked big time thinking neonatal pyrexia. I kept taking his temperature throughout the evening and night and fortunately that settled.

It's such a relief to have delivered the baby. The last month of pregnancy was so uncomfortable, from the chronic distension of the abdomen, inability to eat proper meals, occasional reflux, and most annoying of all, this strange insomnia. I hardly slept the last month! When the baby popped out, it was IMMEDIATE relief. I could breathe again!

I'm really happy to meet this youngest member of the family, and for some strange reason, this kid I fell in love with immediately. I think its the confidence that comes with subsequent children... less apprehension and more knowing that 'this too, shall pass!'

Week 37

Last week was a good week in my books.

The kids were well. They went to school. They were happy.

As this is the school holiday season, there are holiday programmes aplenty. I happened to chance upon a 2 day workshop that claimed they could teach multiplication by drawing. I was intrigued. After consulting with my parents, I signed Madison up for the workshop. As my dad said.. if it's crap, just don't go for the 2nd day!

I was lucky too, to have a good friend that also signed her daughter up for the same workshop, so Madison had company.

Turned out they were right! The method is ingenious! Day one they did single digits, and by day 2 they did double digits. I don't think Madison is ready for double digits but she did get the concept for single digits! I was impressed.

We had a potluck planned for Friday night, and I planned on making lamb shanks. We met up with M Han for dinner Thursday night, and he helped me pick out my fabulous Le Crueset dutch oven. It was heavenly to use the heavy cast iron pot! I am sold on using these cookware. The shanks turned out perfectly after 4 hours in the oven. We were scraping the bottom of the pot by the end of dinner.

The weekend was nice and low key.. Saturday started off as usual, tennis for Madison at 8am, work for me. It was really nice that Chris had the weekend off so he spent the morning with the kids. When I was done with the clinic we took Madison out for lunch and decided to get her eyesight checked.

Turned out her sight was fine but mine was not so hot. The optometrist told me my corneas were apparently becoming hypoxic from prolonged use of contact lenses, and that I had to lay off them for the next 3 days. In addition I had to restrict the duration of use subsequently. This was profoundly annoying. I hate the poor vision that I get with glasses and the weight of the glasses on my face. But.. I asked for a professional opinion so I guess I'd better comply.

On Sunday Warni had her day off so it was just the 4 of us for most of the day. Again, it turned out surprisingly peaceful. Madison had her golf lesson in the morning and we took Annika to the range to hit some balls with her club. This time we borrowed a shorter golf club from the school and she loved it.. I was suckered into getting her a tailor made club. With a Hello Kitty grip and pink flowers on the graphite shaft!

When Madison was done with her lesson we drove over to Vivocity for lunch at Bakerzin. I had a good time actually! The kids were well behaved, ate their lunch and we were able to sit down and complete the meal peacefully.

In the evening Madison had her tennis class at the Swimming club so we were headed that direction again. Chris and I took Annika for a swim while we were waiting for Madison. Chris left our stuff on an empty chair while he went to change, and this plump lady approached me to say that she had 'reserved' the seat already. I didn't say a word, but looked around for another empty chair which I promptly fetched for her to sit on. I hope she felt embarrassed that she had to ask a pregnant woman to get her a seat! After which I left and went for my swim.

We had dinner at the club, then drove over to the hospital for Chris to see his patients. I took the kids to 7-eleven for ice-cream while waiting for him. Such simple pleasures but I gratefully appreciate them now... for now...