Baby Joash

Time somehow flies faster for this confinement and today is already Day 21 since the arrival of my little one on 22 March 2013. Things seems to be much more manageable this time round, and like many people tell me, i highly attribute it to the experience that we already have from the first one and this time round, we kind of know better what to expect in handling an infant. So, there is not that much things that I really get into frantic frenzy about. Baby cries already part and parcel of my life now and when he cries, i kind of already know what to look out for and what to check first in a step-by-step procedure to eliminate the various possibilities and getting to the root cause in the shortest possible time. :-)
Anyway, before I start to get busy again, I think its only fair for me to document down the labour process, so that years later, in case my memory fails, i can always pull this entry out and read about it again. =,=
This time round, I decided to stop work earlier as suggested by many of my colleagues and bosses overseas. My gynae also suggested that I do that, given that i have track record of earlier delivery for Justin, and during the 34th  week check up, she already could see that the baby has already engaged and in a kind of ready to see the world position. Got me scared and i  quickly continue and make sure that my handover will be more or less completed. Honestly, I don’t know what constitute a complete handover, given that tax and inventory are always full of ad-hoc matters and many new things are happening at work during this period of time. Even during  last week when i was doing my handover, new GST issues were still popping up. Anyway, I just did what i could and just pray that everything else will fall in place nicely, plus the fact that my finance director already forewarned me that in the next 4 months, she plans to deep dive into my functions and make lots of changes. So I think I will just let her do the necessary changes bah….. just pray that when I go back to work 4 months later, I be able to catch up on the changes bah. :-(
And so, i started my leave on Monday, 15 March, and I think I am really a workaholic. I could not stop checking my emails, though I tried not to reply any of the emails since my out of office message was already set up. And so, i waited and waited for the arrival of Baby Joash. He probably wanted to make sure that I have a good rest first before he arrives.. and so, I have a good 4 days of rest and relax at home, until the point where i find it a bit bored. . And then on Thursday evening, after dinner, I started to feel the tightness in my stomach.  As I never experienced contractions pain during the first labour, I am seriously not sure if this is just another false alarm of Braxton hicks or i was really experiencing labour contractions. Decided to wait and see.
The whole evening, the tightness came and go and i was closely monitoring the interval. Texted a good friend and she suggested that I get myself admitted to the hospital once the pain interval is about 20 mins. At 11pm, the pain kind of subsided and it only came back after every 30mins. In my heart, i somehow know that labour will be in the next 24 hours.. but i was not ready to get admitted so early to the the hospital this time round. Moreover, since next day was my routine checkup, i am hoping that still can wait till the next morning to see my gynae instead of having to call her to the hospital in the middle of the night.
Thankfully, the pain finally gone by 3am and Gerald and myself finally fell asleep. And so, the next morning, we went to the clinic and after informing the nurse of my condition last night, they also half suspected that I was showing signs of labour. After checking me, my gynae confirmed that I was already about 2-3cm dilated and immediately she gave the instructions for me to march over to the labour ward in the next building.
And that started my labour process…… without lunch!! After the epidural was being administered, i waited for another 5 hours and sadly, i was still only 5cm dilated!!!! Oh Gosh!!! In my heart, my heart sunk and I thought, can’t be got to wait till midnight bah!!! 
But out of a sudden, in the next 1 hour, i suddenly experience such strong labour contractions that even with the epidural, the labour pain was so great that I started to cry!! I told Gerald to tell the nurse to increase the dosage of epidual, because the pain was literally too unbearable!
After another hour, the nurse came and check me again and this tme, she confirmed that i was already close to 10cm dilated and they are now ready to deliver the baby……. very very excited … and by now, I did not feel my lower body at all, thanks to the effective epidural. :-) And in the next 20 mins or so, we were just waiting for my gynae to arrive and very efficiently, upon her arrival, she put on her gear and ask me to push… in a matter of less than 10 pushes, Joash was out to greet the world with his loud cry!!! At that moment, I was so moved that tears came to my eyes again.

And this is us, when we were rolled back to the normal ward.

A total of 8 hours 19 mins of labour, almost half the time taken the last round.

Welcome to this beautiful world, Baby Joash! :)

Art Jamming Session

Last Thursday, we had our post AQR celebration cum finance outing.

We decided to go visit this art jamming place, which have the rave of many on many people’s facebook recently @ Arteastiq

 

The place is quiet and cosy on a thursday afternoon and they also have a tea house for painters to rest and relax on a lazy afternoon..

This is the picture that I have chosen to draw for today and let’s see how it will turn out to be! It has been years since I have taken up a paint brush and it’s my first time doing a canvas painting!

Doing the preparation work…… 

Getting ready to put on the colors……

And after 3 hours, this is my my final art piece! :D

Actually did not manage to finish up the painting…. still got a lot of details not put in… If we wanted to go back and finish up the painting, we just need to pay $5/hr.. but too much of a hassle for me. To me, it is not too bad for a small personal achievement. :-)

The finance team! Girls’ power!

Some of my colleague’ art pieces!

Definitely a very therapeutic place and i will definitely come back here again. :-)

The big purchase for J2.

Decided that its time to stop procrastinating and start the preparations for the arrival of baby J2!
The thing about having the second child of the same gender, means we kind of save a fair bit, as many of the things that we bought for the first kid, can be reused. Toys,  playpen, accessories that are still in good conditions are generally reusable.
So we only have to crack our brains on a few things that needed to check and make sure that it is still in good condition.
The first thing is none other than the breast pump! I must say that I am one who is very supportive and pro breast feeding baby, not just because of the benefits but also of the convenience when we are out.
Remember 3 years ago, I had wanted so much to purchase the Freestyle model, but in the end, decided to settle for a lower end one, because I was not sure at all if I will persevere  and succeed. I think i have a small success then, because at least I manage to feed the baby wholly on breast milk for 6 months. So the Mini electric Plus did serve me well for that 6 months.
This time round, under the good influence of my good friend, who told me I should have a good investment, since this might be my last pregnancy, in case I do not go for #3. And even if go for #3, this is even better, because it will mean higher economies of scale! And so, I decided that I should heed the good advice and decided to place the order online for a US imported set, which gives me a $300 savings compared to the local retail promotion price!
And this is my first big purchase for Baby J2! Now, I tell myself I must be even more determined to feed J2 for 1 year at least!!! :P
In the next few weeks, apart from preparing all my handover work list, I must also prepare the rest of the stuff, just in case J2 decides to pop out earlier like the brother, who arrive at the end of week 36, which means 4 weeks away!!!!

30 weeks!

30 weeks! OMG!!
Need to seriously come up with a checklist or to dig up my old checklist on what to prepare for the small one.
People often say usually for the second one, the parents usually become less panicky and paranoid.Well, I must admit, this is quite true. So far, apart from taking out the old clothes for baby less than 6 months old, frankly, have not prepared much.
2 immediate things to get:
1. Second hand baby cot / bed
2. New breast pump, because the old one kind of die on me.
Better to start to prepare the things for the little one soon….. :p
Now that 30 weeks old, baby is getting more and more active and sensitive….. kicking and moving more… at times, i can feel the stomach so tensed up, to the extent that it gets a bit of pain. But at least, I thank God that i can feel all these lovely movements, which tells me that baby is growing well inside. <3

And I …… PASSED!

 

Praise the LORD!!! The moment I have been worrying for the last 2 months finally arrived this morning and I am so so thankful that       I PASSED!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God is GOOD! Otherwise i will need to spend another $1,200 to retake the module.

Good start to 2013 indeed! Believing that many more great things to come in the months ahead! * Grinz~

My first home cooked brunch

 

Running out of ideas what to cook for lunch on last Saturday and I ransacked my fridge and kitchen cabinet to see what do I have.

And i decided to cook an American Brunch!

 

And  I have a very happy audience! 

Half way through…

Time really flies and so fast, I already past the midway mark of the pregnancy. Somehow, this pregnancy feels much faster than the first one…. maybe because I am so busy at work every single day. So each day just passes by without me realising much.

In any case, I am still thankful to God for a relatively good pregnancy so far, minus away all the horrid morning sickness, which seems to be able hit me at any time of the day and worsen when I ate too greasy food. This baby has a way to remind me to eat healthy most of the time.

Ever since the 16 weeks, Dr Chin, my gynae, has been trying to scan for the gender of this small one. But the small one has been mysterious and always not allowing us to see the important part!!!Tried a few times and we never succeed.

And finally, 3 weeks ago when we went to do the 20th detailed scan, this little one finally decide to reveal the truth to us!! Check out the picture below for the answer! :)

Dr Chin says that he seems much more active and naughty than the brother.. hahaha… i won’t want to imagine that for now!!! But indeed, he kicks me more and move relatively more than Justin when Justin was inside me.

Being able to feel the baby’s movement inside is always one of the greatest moments of the pregnancy and I really can feel that this active is much more active than last round when Justin was inside.  Almost every day at the same timing, I can feel the small one wriggling inside and I always wonder what is he doing inside!!

23 weeks now and another 17 or less to go….. time to really plan out my leave cover plans at work, help at home during maternity and many many preparation that need to be done before the lil one arrives.

Too many things, too little time! OMG!