One week

It's been a week since baby is born and gosh it's probably also one of the longest weeks in my life so far! I thought giving birth was the toughest bit and I could just 'chill' and relax and rest at confinement centre. How wrong was I!!!!

Don't get me wrong, the confinement centre is lovely and it deserves a post of its own. It's this whole breast feeding business that is hard, and I mean really really hard. First of all, when I checked out of hospital on Thursday, my nipples were bleeding and cracked. I tried to bear the pain at hospital as I hardly got any sleep the three nights I stayed. I was tired but not sleepy, all I wanted to do was to spend time looking at baby and I just couldn't get enough of her. When nurses at confinement centre saw my nipples, they said they were serious cracks and suggested I stop breast feeding baby for a few days till they are fully recovered. Instead, they hand squeeze my boobies and get milk in a bottle they then cup feed baby. At first, I was relieved to hear it as the pain of feeding baby was getting to me. Little did I know it was the beginning of a long journey. Milk hadn't fully came through on Thursday and so we had to savor every single drop of milk. Initially we could only squeeze out 30 ml from both boobies. And every time we had to rush the whole process as baby would be crying hungry. By Saturday morning, nurse managed 60 ml which was good news. This was carried out every three hours including the night.

It came from no where that I started to shiver uncontrollably on Saturday night and it turned out I had a temperature of 40.2 degrees. Nurses panicked and so I was rushed to A & E at 11pm. I had plugged milk ducts which would cause flu-like symptoms i.e. fever, achy muscles, headache and just feeling weak in general and I suffered all of the above. So the doctor prescribed some antibiotics and I have to take them for 7 days till the infection is gone.

Therefore there is a red patch on my left boobie and god it hurts so much just by touching it let alone squeezing it but massaging it is essential. Nurses here are wonderful, they massage my boobies every time they squeeze boobie milk and it's a hard job for them too as they really need to work at it to massage the hard lump. And what does it feel like? Imagine a serious bruise and someone tries to hit it with a hammer - continuously for at least 10 minutes! Yes, that's what it feels like!

Here are some photographs:

Baby and I

Like father, like daughter

freshly hand squeezed by Tao and man, was it hard work or was it hard work!!!! It took him 70 minutes to get to 60ml

and this is few days later!! Almost doubled the amount and need I say I was almost in tears!

So this is Week 1 and it seemed eternal. Though I enjoyed every moment with baby and still am fascinated by her every movement and expression! They are priceless!

New family addition

My loveli was born at 3.04pm Taiwan time on 21 November 2011.

Both mummy and baby are doing well and are heading to confinement centre tomorrow.

Show

Had my 'show' at 5.22am and am monitoring my contractions! It seems baby is ready even though I am not!!! lol

T has booked this morning's ticket back, I pray there won't be any delay and baby will wait for her daddy.

Wish me luck amigos!

Baby at 38 weeks

I had my weekly checkup today and I had to plead for a scan as Dr. Lo is well-known for his uber 'natural' approach. It turns out that baby now weighs around 3300g!!!!!! Yes the average weight is 2950g so baby is yet again at upper 75th percentile! Though the doctor has asked me to count fetal kicks as baby's blood flow is not as 100% strong as it should be hence fetal movements are vital. Okay, this is really worrying me.... even though baby is very very active but to be told to keep an eye on it is another matter. Therefore I now will count the kicks twice a day after my meal religiously!
The bright side is that I haven’t put on any more weight in the last two weeks. Phewww......

Other than that, not only the fatigue has started getting to me, I can really feel the weight of the bump and pressure on my pelvis.

So this is the latest update and me being Ms. Never-stop-worrying has another thing to worry about....

Weight Gain

I have put on a whopping 13 kgs so far and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bothered because I am bloody freaked out! I think most women have this paradox about weight especially I used to be one chubby bunny. Only until recently that I managed to maintain my weight at around the 50kgs mark.

Therefore I have tried to walk as much as I can even though I tend to get tired after 30 minutes of walking this week and also stitches so I am taking things a lot slower. I have a nap in the afternoon and also take tiny steps when I am out and about.


So this is what I look like at the moment....

Three more weeks to go!

Technically I am considered full-term so baby can come any time.

At 37 weeks, baby is the size of a watermelon that weighs roughly around 3 kgs!!!!! Hence my lower back has started to really suffer. Other than that, I start to get tired quite easily and stitches whenever I take a walk right after a meal. Otherwise I am feeling pretty peachy, well, most of the time anyway.

I found this yoga studio www.bodhiyoga.com.tw/eng/index.html which not only does prenatal yoga but also ashtanga yoga!!! I can't wait to try as I have had trials at other yoga studios and was not impressed with the way how the class was led. At Bodhi Yoga, teachers here talk about bandhas all the time as well as stressing the importance of pranayama so I think the ashtanga class would probably be my type of class!

So what have I been doing to fill the days? I tend to go to bed late and wake up late, according to London time as am still trying to cover some work. I then have my brunch, and yoga class in the afternoon. I try to walk there and walk back so I get enough-ish exercise! Or I would go for my prenatal massage once a week if I can be bothered! I have my early dinner when I am home as ever since I was told that I have put on too much weight, I have been more careful of what I eat. Though my pitfall is still fruits. I can't seem to resist eating fruit but then I have always been a huge fruit lover so cutting down on fruits isn't easy, thought at least I have started eating guava more which would have never occurred before.

I also need to get a grip to start packing my pack especially it's not long to go! I have done part of baby's laundry and have more to do.

So this is my latest update and will aim to blog more before D day!

Namaste.

Baby at 37 weeks

and this is nothing compared to her usual gymnastics session! One super active baby I have! :)