31 Mar 2009 - Our little prince has arrived!

0000 - Tracy had slight fever (probably due to her toothache) since afternoon. Dr Ang advised the nurse to inject antibiotic for Tracy to play safe. At the same time, the nurse did a check, 6cm dilated.

0030 - Tracy felt some cramps but not painful. The epidural was quite effective.

0100 - Because of the epidural, Tracy cannot control her urinal system. So the nurse came in to drain off the urine. The nurse did another check, 7cm dilated.

0120 - Tracy started to feel the side effect of epidural, shivering. It started from her leg and slowly creeped up to her upper body. However, her prayer seems to have overcome the shivers after sometimes.

0140 - Nurse called Dr Ang to come over as Tracy is almost fully dilated. The nurses tried to get Tracy to do some pushes so that baby head goes lower. As Tracy cannot feel the contraction pain this time round, she got to listen to the nurse's timing to push. Although I'm not the one giving birth, but when I see Tracy held her breath and push, somehow I will do the same. I think I may use more force than Tracy..... :P
0155 - Dr Ang arrived and started the delivey process. Tracy was told to start pushing again. After a few pushes, the baby head went down a little.
0205 - As Dr Ang felt that the baby may be quite big, he got ready the vacuum to assist in pulling out the baby.

0214 - With a final push from Tracy, our little prince was out to see the world. Dr Ang immediately put him (still a bit bloody) on Tracy for the first look.

0220 - I went ahead to cut the umbilical cord and the nurse started to wipe his body and drain off the water in his nose and mouth. At this time, Dr Ang was collecting the cord blood, removing the placenta and then proceed to stitch for Tracy.

0230 - The nurse then proceed to weigh my little prince and measure his length and head circumference. She also asked me to check if his 10 fingers, 10 toes, birthmark, ear and other part were all properly formed.

My little prince weighs 3.44kg, length 52cm and head circumference 34cm at birth. When we saw the weight, we told ourselves.....if we wait till full term to deliver him, his weight would be more than 4kg by then. In that case, it will definitely be a difficult delivery. Below is a picture of the heroine and heroes on the night.

As I was packing up our stuff and get ready to go to our ward (331), I accidentally knocked into a metal bar by the bed and almost hit my right eye. I can feel that the right side of my right eye got a bit of swelling. The nurse quickly got me some ice cubes wrapped in cloth and asked me to put on the swelling. Sigh.......I guess I'm too anxious at that time.

When we settled down in our ward, it was almost 4am. Finally it's time to rest.

As there was no single room available, we decided to go for the deluxe room (though a bit more expensive) so that I can stay in with Tracy. The deluxe room is like a hotel room with bed, couch, LCD TV, mini fridge, safe, writing table, attached bathroom etc etc. This is how it looks...

Looking out from the windows, we can actually see MacRitchie Reservoir.

We woke up at about 8am when our breakfast was served. Our little prince was then pushed into the room and he was cleaned up. He looks very much like Jerlene at that time.

In the evening, I had severe headache and took two tablets of paractemol. It just came suddenly and I was very worried because I cannot fall sick at this moment. In the coming two weeks, I still need to be a confinement hubby and daddy. If I fall sick, who's going to take care of mommy and baby, plus Jerlene? So I must embrace myself and fight against all sicknesses.......

Now back to Jerlene's update. She was not feeling too well today as she was still having fever and now diarrhea as well. I told my mom to bring her to Mt Alvernia and I'll bring her to see the PD. The PD suspected that she may got infected by a bacteria that are currently spreading around kids from 1-5 years old. However, he needs to do a mucus test to confirm that. According to him, 80% of his mucus test so far showed positive to that bacteria. If that is the case, Jerlene will need another type of antibiotics (Augmentin) to fight this bacteria. The test result will be out in 48 hours.

It's really heartpain to see Jerlene suffering and I cannot be with her for most of the time now. Before she went home with my mom, I brought her to take a peek at her little brother in the nursery. However, she did not have any mood and seems very tired. So I passed her reluctantly to my mom and bidded her goodbye. Jerlene, be strong.....daddy will be with you the next day when mommy has discharged, ok?

30 Mar 2009 - Stressful day

Jerlene was having slight fever this morning when we brought her to the childcare. We brought along her medicine and told the teacher to inform us if Jerlene's condition got worse. Both Tracy and me only worked in the morning because we had a gynae appointment in the afternoon.

While we were having lunch, the childcare teacher called me saying that Jerlene was having high fever. We immediately rushed down to pick her and bring her to the clinic. The doctor prescribed her with an antibiotic (claripen) and some flu and cough medicine. Jerlene looked very tired and "stone" at that time.

We then proceed to the gynae clinic which is nearby. The clinic was very crowded as usual. While waiting, Jerlene kept wanting me to carry her. Although my arm and elbow were hurting since few weeks back, I just had to endure. We waited about 40mins for our turn. As usual, our gynae did an ultra scan and the baby's weight was 3.3kg. He is considered quite big considering it is just coming to 37th week. This time round, he also did cervix check and found out that it was already 4-5cm dilated. When Tracy told him that the baby movement had reduced recently, he started to have some concern. So Tracy was put on CTG test. When the result came out not too satisfactory, he advised us to go home pack our bags and prepare to deliver the baby tonight. However, we were not mentally prepared (though our bags were already packed), so we asked whether can deliver the next morning. Somemore I still need to arrange for someone to take care of Jerlene, especially she was not feeling well at that time. He then asked Tracy to do another CTG test to see if the result is the same. Based on the result, he still hope that we can heed his advice.

When we reached home, we were very stress as we were still not sure whether to admit hospital tonight or next morning. While I was trying to get Jerlene drink some water, she suddenly threw out and cried. I quickly carried her to the bathroom and bathed her. After cleaning her up as well as the floor, Tracy got a shock look on her face and said she got bleeding from her cervix. I was shocked too and quite panic at that moment. Seeing the bleeding, I quickly called up the clinic but the gynae had left. The nurse advised me to admit Tracy to hospital immediately. I quickly called up my mom to arrange for her to take care of Jerlene. As we were about to leave home, Jerlene vomitted again. Really stressful......I quickly cleaned her up, changed clothes for her and mopped the floor. Jerlene was quite drowsy due to the flu medicine and very soon, she fell asleep while on the way to my parent's place. After settling her down, I quickly drove to Mt Alvernia hospital and admit Tracy to the delivery suite.

We reached the hospital at about 10pm. When we told the nurses that Tracy was already 5cm dilated, they immediately brought us to the delivery suite. Normally people should feel the pain when 5cm dilated but Tracy did not, just like the last time. Anyway, with the horrified experience of the labour pain when delivering Jerlene 2 years ago, Tracy decided to go for epidural this time round. This was the beginning of my little prince's birth story.....

2215 - Nurse gave Tracy enema to clear bowel while I go settle the hospital admission.
2245 - An experienced anesthetist (Dr SY Chan) came to administer the epidural injection. I was told to stay out from the delivery suite. While waiting outside, I was very worried because I know Tracy all along has the fear for injection. And we all know that epidural is to inject to the spine and must stay very still while the anesthetist is administering it. During her first pregnancy, Tracy did not opt for epidural is all because of this fear. Anyway, I cannot do much so all I can do is to pray for her outside. My heart hurts whenever I heard Tracy's moan. Though I cannot see what was happening, I can imagine the pain that she's suffering.
2300 - Our gynae (Dr Lawrence Ang) came and went in to the delivery suite while I continue to wait outside.
2315 - Dr Ang came out and told me that the epidural was done and I can go in. When I saw Tracy was perspiring, I can imagine what had happened earlier. She told me that Dr Ang had already burst the water bag, just like the last time.
2330 - Tracy started to feel numbness in both her legs.

(To be continued the next day.....)

29 Mar 2009 - Preparing for Little Prince's arrival

Today we tried to pack all our hospital bags and all those infant clothing. There are so many clothes to sort. They are mostly passed down from Jerlene, nephew and friend's babies. Quite a few set are in fact new. After we finished sorting the clothing, I started setting up the baby cot.

While doing that, Jerlene kept disturbing me. She is simply too curious and thought I'm setting it up for her. As such, after I've setup the cot, she insisted to be carried up into the cot. She told me she wanted to sleep in the cot.

Btw, she was slightly feverish and I'm a bit worried. Hopefully, she can get well soon.

28 Mar 2009 - What a mess

We were out for breakfast this morning and Jerlene was having her own snacks. Initially she was eating her biscuit normally but suddenly, she lifted the container and tried to eat the crumbs from it. When I scolded her she still can laugh. Below are how she looks after that......what a mess on her face.......

25 Mar 2009 - Still having cough and flu

Jerlene has been coughing and having running nose for the past few days. The medicine from GP does not seem to help much. At times, she will develop slight fever as well. It seems like there is a strain of flu virus going around as I've heard many kids are having flu recently. My nephew is one of them and his cough and flu has been there for weeks. Hope that Jerlene will get well soon.

22 Mar 2009 - Jerlene plays the Wii Fit

Before today, Jerlene has always wanted me to play Wii while she quietly watches beside me. This afternoon, while I was playing Wii Fit, she suddenly said "My turn!". I was surprised by the words. I immediately stepped out from the balancing board and let Jerlene play. She was very focused on the screen and tried to imitate those actions, especially Yoga moves. Quite funny....... Below is a short video of Jerlene playing Wii Fit.

21 Mar 2009 - Pretty smile

Just wanted to post Jerlene's pretty smile.......

19 Mar 2009 - Craving for crabs

Tracy suddenly told me that she craved for crabs. She wanted to eat some "great" crabs before she gives birth. So we decided to have our crab dinner at the famous Melben eating place at Ang Mo Kio tonight. When we reached there, we were shocked to see that there was a queue. Worse still, after we ordered our food in the queue, the waitress said the waiting time for the food is one hour! Since we were already here, just have to wait lor....... Fortunately, the creamy butter crab was fantastic and we both enjoyed very much.

By the time, I fetched Jerlene, it was already quite late. So on the way home, she felt asleep.

16 Mar 2009 - Singing in tune

Jerlene really sings a lot nowadays. Be it in the car, the lift, shopping mall, bedroom etc..... Although I still do not understand exactly the words that she's singing, I am very sure that it is either the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or "ABC song". Reason being she is able to sing in tune now. The teacher in childcare centre feedback to us that Jerlene loves singing, dancing and crafting. Maybe she is an "art" person, not so academic........ So perhaps I should groom her to be a superstar or idol? Hehe........just thinking......... :-P

14 Mar 2009 - Her new found friend

As I've mentioned in my yesterday's post, I've brought home a new friend for Jerlene, a Dora doll. It's almost the same height as Jerlene. They are now very good friend whom cannot be separated. Even going for breakfast she will want to bring her friend along. Now Jerlene has the responsibility of taking care of her new friend. She will now feed, play and pat Dora to sleep. It's really cute seeing them sitting together watching TV. And they do look alike too....... :-)

13 Mar 2009 - IT Show

Tracy and I went to the IT Show this afternoon. People who were there will find it hard to believe that there is currently an economic crisis going on. The place was packed with people, considering it's a Friday afternoon. Cannot imagine the crowd over the weekend.

Anyway, we did not buy anything from the IT Show. In fact, we saw a 22"LCD TV (Palladine) at $299 but decided to buy it from Carrefour, which probably will be at the same price. True enough, the offer is the same and I got a further 5% rebate with my POSB Everyday card. More importantly, there is no queue at the cashier. This TV is to replace the CRT, which consistently projecting an irritating high pitch sound, in our study room.

Since Jerlene is behaving so well recently, I decided to buy her a toy. Tracy saw from an advertisement that the Dora doll which Jerlene used to carry around in Toys-R-Us was selling at half price. So I decided to buy it for Jerlene.

When Jerlene saw it in the car on our way back home, she was so excited and kept hugging it. She talked non stop to her new "friend" through the whole journey. Glad that she likes it. :-)

11 Mar 2009 - Size does matter?!

Seeing Jerlene adapted so well in childcare, I have now one thing off my shoulder. Now my next worry will be the coming arrival of my little prince. Today we went for our gynae appointment. When the gynae checked on the baby, we were all shocked by his weight. The first scan showed that the baby is now about 3kg. Imagine Tracy is now only 34weeks and 3kg? The gynae also cannot believed it so he tried to measure again. However, the second scan seems to show the same result. Finally our gynae made a last try with more precision and result showed about 2.5kg, which is also considered quite heavy at this point. According to the net, baby at 34th week should weigh about 2.1-2.2kg.

The gynae said that to comfort ourselves, let's believe it's 2.5kg. However, there is really a chance that the baby could be 3kg now. Our next appointment will be 2 weeks later. So he said that if the next scan showed about 3.5kg, then confirm that this baby is really very big. And he may suggest Tracy to go for induction because at this rate, if wait till full term, the baby could be 4-5kg.

Actually for this pregnancy, Tracy did not eat as much as the previous one. In fact, her overall weight now is still lower than the last time. Some says probably it's because this is a boy. Anyway, we have to watch out on her diet from now on.....less carbo and sugar........

Below is an extract from babycenter:
"Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers — which will help regulate his body temperature once he's born — are filling his out, making his rounder. His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies."

9 Mar 2009 - No more worries!

After today, we have no more worries about putting Jerlene in childcare. She is now very well adapted in childcare. In fact, she seems to have made some friends there and is always quite eager to go to "school".

Btw, she has been eating a lot nowadays. I got the exact feedback from the school teachers as well as my parents. She especially loves bread and cakes. Really dunno why a plain white bread will satisfy her so much. Not sure whether I should stop giving her the multi vitamin syrup with lysine. She started eating non-stop ever since I introduce the syrup to her. Anyway, since her weight is still not growing very fast, I think I'll continue her with the syrup. It's just multi vitamin anyway. :-)

9 Mar 2009 - Two Two Three

Today, Jerlene kept saying Two Two Three Two Two Three while walking around the bed. We are puzzled how come she kept saying 2-2-3. After a while, she came around my back and started pushing me. Only at this point then we realized she was actually saying "Toot Toot Train!". She must have learnt that in childcare. :-)

8 Mar 2009 - Jurong Point

We went to Jurong Point this morning. It has been quite a while since I last went there. It has changed a lot and is much bigger now after the expansion. We had breakfast or rather brunch at a Chinese restaurant. We order tim sum and a bowl of porridge for Jerlene. She enjoyed it very much. Below is a video of Jerlene eating by herself.
After that, we went to McDonald for ice cream cone. Jerlene loves it and eats till her whole mouth were covered with vanilla. She simply cannot resist ice cream.
We spent about 2-3hrs in Jurong Point before leaving the place. On our way back, we decided to turn into the hay farm but the viewing barn was closed. As such, we went back home after that.

6 Mar 2009 - Well adapted in childcare

It's an achievement. Jerlene seems to be very well adapted to childcare for this entire week. I no longer had to worry that she will cry when I left her there. And also, I guessed she has learnt quite a lot in childcare. Her vocabulary has again increased and she started to sing a lot too.

Jerlene had a bit of running nose since few days back. The teacher noticed it too. I have given her some flu medicine since few nights back.

4 Mar 2009 - What caused the change?

Today was no different from yesterday. Jerlene went automatically to the teacher and waved goodbye to me. I really wonder what had caused such a change in Jerlene. Last week she was crying so much but this week, it was a total change. In fact, her actions now show that she loves going to school. I kept thinking what had happened over the past weekend but nothing in particular that could cause such a change in Jerlene. No matter how, it's a great relief for us.

3 Mar 2009 - What a surprise!

With yesterday's experience, Tracy had prepared another sweet just in case. When we reached, Jerlene did not show any sign of not wanting to go to school. So Tracy held on to the sweet while I carried Jerlene into the childcare. When the teacher came over, Jerlene automatically opened up her arm out to the teacher. This act is really to my surprise. And after the teacher carried her, she straightaway waved goodbye to me.

Again, I quickly left the childcare when she's ok. Was she really adapted to childcare already? We will see...............

2 Mar 2009 - A sweet does wonder!

After last week's terrible experience of putting Jerlene in childcare, we had mentally prepared ourselves for this coming week. When we were about to reach the childcare, we sensed that Jerlene started to show some emotional change. Tracy quickly took out a sweet and that worked. Jerlene was so excited and happy holding on the sweet.

I carried Jerlene into the childcare while she was chewing the sweet in her mouth. Somehow when the teacher carried her, she was ok. Better still, she even waved goodbye at us. We quickly left the childcare while her mood was still good.

In the evening, my mom said that Jerlene was fine throughout the day in childcare. Wow......a small sweet can really do such wonder!

1 Mar 2009 - Jerlene and friends

Jerlene loves to pretend play with her "friends" at home nowadays. Her friends include a teddy bear, Hello Kitty, Piglet, Pooh, Mickey etc....... Jerlene will prepare food for her friends, pat her friends to sleep, and help her friends to clean their "bottom". Whatever I do to her, she will imitate and do it to her friends. And she learns very fast. It's so cute, especially when she tries to pat her friends to sleep........

27 Feb 2009 - Jerlene became quite chatty

Although Jerlene does not like to go the childcare, after the past 1 week, I do see something changed in her. She seems to be quite chatty now. For example, when we brought her out to shopping mall, she started approaching other kids and tries to initiate a conversation. She will never do it in the past. In fact, when other kids approaching her previously, she will immediately shout for me.

Also, her vocabulary seems to have improved quite a bit. We are able to communicate better with her now. At least, we can understand her 70% of the time now. Having said all these, the word that she hated most now is "SCHOOL".

25 Feb 2009 - Observing Jerlene by the day

Although Jerlene was still crying this morning, we saw that the teacher at least will not leave Jerlene alone to cry. I really hope to see Jerlene and the teacher in charge will start to develop some bonding. If things still do not work out in the next few weeks, maybe I should seriously look out for another childcare centre.

Many experienced parents told me that this is just a stage that most children will have to go through. Some are easier but there are some that will take months to adapt to childcare environment. If Jerlene is only crying in the morning, I'm not so worried. However, if she started to have nightmare, or somehow change in her character or behaviour, then I will be very concern. As such, I will monitor and observe her very closely from now on.

24 Feb 2009 - Still crying when I said bye bye.....

As the title said, the separation anxiety is growing within Jerlene. In fact, in the morning, Jerlene refused to wake up. I believe she knows that we are going to bring her to childcare. So she pretended to be asleep. After coaxing her for a while, she then allowed me to change her diapers and clothes.

In the car, she remained very quiet initially but when we were about to reach, she started crying. The moment I carried her out of the car, she clung onto me so tightly and pretended to bury her head in my arms. Again, when I left, she was screaming to the top of her voice. Seeing Jerlene behaving like this every morning is really heartpain. I really hope that this phase will get over very soon.......

In the evening, we provided the feedback to the supervisor. Hopefully she can do something about it. We shall see whether things will get better from tomorrow onwards.

23 Feb 2009 - Not happy with the teacher's action

Jerlene wouldn't let me go this morning. When I wanted to leave, she started screaming and shouting. She clung onto me so tightly that no one can pull her away from me. I had no choice but to stay around longer. In the end, I had to get the teacher to carry her away while I left.

Because she was still crying when we left, we do not feel comfortable. So after breakfast, we decided to go back and take a peep. We felt even more uncomfortable after we saw what happened. We saw Jerlene sitting in one corner crying by herself. Worse still, we heard a teacher's voice from some other corner shouting:"Jerlene, you better stop!". Please.....how would a 2 year old kid listen to you simply by shouting. After that, we saw a teacher dragging her into the toilet.

We left after confirming that Jerlene had stopped crying. However, I'm really unhappy with how the teacher handles children. Will make an appointment with the supervisor and feedback to her.

22 Feb 2009 - No pool but got BATHTUB!

As we were just about to go down to the pool, it started pouring very heavily. We have both changed into our swimming attire, so instead of changing our plan, we changed the venue, which is to a much smaller pool, our bathtub! Though it's small, but it got lots of bubbles and Jerlene enjoyed very much. So much so that she refused to go out of the tub. I think we spent close to an hour in our bathtub. Wrinkles started forming on our fingers and I had to force Jerlene out of the tub. It was fun! :-)