Posted on Jan 18, 2010 in
Monthly Summary (Nicole) Weight : 4.42kg (3.07 at birth)
Height : 52cm (48 at birth)
Nicole turned 1 month old (time flew) nearly 2 weeks ago…
Tecky and I had the same thought when we lay our eyes on her, that she is the exact replica of Rachel… Each day, she gets more and more like Rachel…
Though she’s small (size wise), her wailing can really be deafening, and makes us kan cheong despite having experience with Rachel 3+ years ago… She not only looks like her elder sister, but demands the same thing – to be carried (lulled) to sleep ALL the time, and need to be really deep in sleep before she can be put to lay on the bed, else she will cry again…
Feeding wise, she was given expressed breast milk for the day and formula milk for night, but since 4th week, is fully on formula milk, and is taking 3.5oz every 2 to 3 hours now…
Sleep wise, I doubt she has gotten her day vs night sorted out, but there are in a few rare occasions that she will sleep for 4-6 hours without feeding… Fingers crossed, I hope that she’ll sort out her night time soon, and will start to sleep through the night, so we can get our undisturbed sleep back! 
The one thing that see also sakit hati is her face and part of her scalps, full of rashes now… It’s red, rough and scaling at certain parts, like the cheek and the chin… Paed said that it’s caused by hormones and that this phase will pass… Hope to see smooth baby skin face soon…
On the day we did the fullmoon prayers – wearing the new suit MIL bought her, with necklace and anklet from grandparents, granduncle/grandaunts and her uncle and gf…
What she does a lot, pucker up and frown!
Full of rashes…
Posted on Dec 22, 2009 in
Blogging,
Labour My labour story for Rachel is HERE…
Rachel was born naturally, so I was hoping that it will be so the second time around too… However, there was no sign at all except for a mere 1.5cm dilation when Obgyn did the internal check during one of the checkups… Doc scheduled for me to be induced on Wednesday, 9th December 2009 (a day before EDD) at 7:30am…
We ‘checked in’ at 7:30am into SDMC, Subang Jaya (previously known as SJMC) and was given the LAST labour room available (busy busy day) which was Labour Room 9 (coincident yeah, all 9’s)… The midwife (Ervinna) cleared my bowel (at the time which I saw some red discharge) and got me ready… By 8:30am, Obgyn (Dr. Lee Say Fatt) came to check and confirmed that I was 3cm dilated, and broke the waterbag… Ervinna came back later at 9+am to put me on drips and collect my blood sample for StemLife (we signed up with the cord blood bank this time around)…
Tecky and I were sitting (and lying down for me) there awaiting anxiously for the slightest contraction to start… But even at 10+am, I was still comfortably watching TV, so Ervinna increased the dosage and by 11+am, I was starting to ACTUALLY feel the contraction pain… By 12pm, I was starting to feel like passing motion, but I manage to wait until 12:30++pm before informing the midwife, whom checked and said I was ONLY 4-5cm dilated! By 12:45pm, I couldn’t take it anymore and called for Ervinna to come check again, but was told that since another midwife just checked a while back, she’ll come back at 1pm to check on me…
Surprise surprise, that just a little while after Ervinna left the room, I was feeling the urge to push, and told Tecky to call in a midwife and make her check NO MATTER WHAT! Upon checking, she (I didn’t manage to get her name) called out for assistance, and I remember her shouting over to THREE (3) trainees standing there that “I don’t want any trainees. Get me staff nurse. GO OUT!” and “Get Dr. Lee. 8cm already”… Instantly after that, the urge to push was so intense, and I kept telling her that…
Upon another internal check, she shout over to Ervinna “Get Dr. Lee. FAST! Fully dilated! FAST!!”… TOTAL drama at that time, I have to admit, I don’t even know what Tecky was doing at the moment, except knowing that he was standing to the right of my bed…
I could still have a conversation with the midwife, telling her I really need to push but I takut ‘koyak’ lar, so faster get the episiotomy done… To which I was told that only Dr. Lee can do it… So I was asking WHERE is he, and of course, was informed that he’s on his way… I remember trying SO hard to hold in at least 3 contractions before Dr. Lee barge in with his green suite, hurried over and did the epi (I don’t remember him doing it)…
As soon as he was there, I remember asking (more like shouting at) him, “CAN I PUSH NOW?” only to be told CASUALLY “push lar, baby is already out!”… Tecky confirmed this saying that he already saw the baby’s head! So another push after that, Nicole Huan Ying En was born at 1.04pm, weighing 3.07kg and measuring 48cm!
First photo taken of Nicole, right before the midwife told Tecky that there’s no photos during procedures…
Testing her lungs?
Mother and daughter…
The whole thing went on SO fast that Dr. Lee only wore his boots AFTER Nicole was born, and was jokingly telling me that good thing I chose now, cuz 30 minutes later, he’ll be in the OT for a scheduled CSect… Then I heard the midwife asking Dr. Lee “Doctor, where were you? Did you run?”… Yet again, no one expected me to give birth so early!? hahaha…
Her 1st day, in SDMC…
Sleeping soundly on 2nd day…
Baby Nicole with her eyes open…
A photo of Rachel JieJie with Nicole…
p/s: I made a mental note, that contraction pain near labour feels more like intensive pressure low under, and is VERY different from actual pain from a cut or needle (and yes, I’m more afraid of pain from injections than labour pain, SERIOUSLY)…
p/p/s: I commonly heard that induced labour pain is more intense than natural labour pain, but well, I’d like to say and agree with my Obgyn that it is not more intense, but because the pain comes suddenly instead of gradually, you weren’t made aware of it… Given a choice in the future (if any), I would go for a short induced labour instead of a long wait for natural labour… Just my personal opinion… 
Posted on Dec 17, 2009 in
Blogging,
Pregnancy Before I go into the joy and happiness of the new bundle of joy, let me first publish and warn everyone of a confinement scam I just went through! :’(
Her name is Kei Jie/Kei Je, her phone number is 016-3088119!
I paid her a deposit of RM500 a few months back, and Tecky called her when we were in the hospital… She said she’ll call us back to let us know when and how she’ll come… But when ’she’ finally do, it was from who we thought was her son, asking how to get to SDMC, Subang Jaya (SJMC)… Because I haven’t seen her before, I greeted this lady with her name, and she answered, in disguise! (the more I think about how she answered me in disguise, the more pissed off I am)
During our journey home, I felt more and more uneasy, so upon reaching home, I asked for her full name and why was she called Kei Jie, only to be answered ‘the aunty never inform you?’… She wasn’t the person I hired, and I wasn’t even inform by any of them that she came in replacement… Furious, I tried calling Kei Jie but she wouldn’t pick up, and then she just turned her phone off…
Being put in that position, I had no choice but to accept the replacement and kept telling myself to keep an open mind and give her a chance… But to my horror, she is SO inexperienced that it scares me when she handles baby:
- she requested for me to hold on to baby’s feet when she wanted to change baby’s soiled diapers! Even my maid can do it without help, why can’t an experienced confinement lady do it?
- she charred my wok while trying to STEAM fish for me!!!!!!
- she carries baby instantly when baby start crying, so that baby won’t get sick?! Also claimed that because I let baby cry on, I have caused baby to have runny nose, and kept using adult cotton buds to clean baby’s nose!!!
- she snores on at night, when baby wakes up and cry for feeding…
- … and the list continues …
After 2 nights, I couldn’t take it anymore, and decided to send her off…
My mom made quite a bit of calls, and got a lady to come from Johor to help me for 2 weeks, and then arranged for the confinement lady that helped me during Rachel’s birth to come in after that… So I’ll be having THREE confinement ladies this month alone!
When we sent the rookie confinement lady off, we found out that she don’t actually know Kei Jie in person, they were linked up through introduction, for her to come in… So when we told her to get her payment from Kei Jie, she was asking me, how to get it if I can’t even contact Kei Jie… Which means, Kei Jie just earned RM500 for doing NOTHING and being irresponsible!
Lesson learned : NEVER believe a confinement lady that you haven’t seen before… As when I posted this on my facebook status, I was made to understand that MANY of my friends or friends of friends has gone through this before…
For now, I’m glad and very happy with the confinement lady from Johor… She’s really good, kept me company at all times, and took great care of little Nicole…
~comments~