If i have to summarise our experience from the past 2 weeks, it would be: Excited - Stressful - Scary - Super Duper Happy - Exhausted - Blissful
LoL~ if you follow the words above, it is kinda like a timeline from the moment we were at Mount Alvernia Hospital anticipating our baby's delivery, to the first few days at home fumbling with the milk bottles and how to bath her, and now, seeing her smiling as she sleeps, feeling the blissfulness of having such a healthy and happy baby =)
It all started on 11 Nov when wifey felt uncomfortable and we decided to visit the gynae to confirm whether or not these were the legit symptoms that meant our baby is ready to be delivered. True enough, the gynae told us that our baby is ready for delivery! We admitted to Mount Alvernia Hospital at around 12 midnight (Tip #1: save 1 day of hospitalisation fees) and waited anxiously for what is to come next, the arrival of our baby daughter =)
We immediately went to the labor ward, and wifey donned the hospital gown. For some reason, she was shivering very badly, i guess from the cold, panic and nervousness. The nurse checked in on her and she was 1cm dilated at that point in time. I immediately grabbed like 5 blankets and covered her with it, hopping that it would ease her shivers.
While she rested at the labor ward, i had to go downstairs to settle the administration matters. This kinda sucked, because there was only 2 staff at the counter and i had to wait about an hour before i could settle the administration. During this 1 hour.. time seemed to crawl ever so slowly and i kept thinking how was wifey... was she still shivering very badly? is she in very bad pain?
Finally i settled the admin stuff and it was around 1am+, wifey was feeling a little better now. She wasn't shivering that badly and gotten slightly more accustom to the temperature and ward conditions. at around 3.45am wifey started bleeding and she was in very very bad pain! The nurse checked on her and told us that she was about 3cm dilated. As the pain was really unbearable, we decided to go for the epidural. Can you imagine going through the pain for another... 8hours without epidural??!!?..
After the epidural, the pain subsided and wifey could catch some rest. I, however, couldn't really rest at all.. partly because the couch at the side wasn't that great and because i was worried that she may need my help.
At around 6am, we heard baby cries from the adjacent room. It was a very warmth feeling to know that a life has been brought to this world and while we can't wait for our turn, we were also worried when it comes to our turn. We couldn't go back to sleep and stayed awake until our Gynae arrived at around 8am. Not long later, the midwives and nurses all came to help and prep wifey for the push. The push wasn't easy at all, it lasted for 45mins and the doctor had to assist in the delivery by "vacuuming" the baby out. After one last push, the doctor managed to help us deliver the baby and she was the most adorable thing in the whole world to us.
We teared, we were overjoyed and we will never forget the moment we saw her in our arms. Words can not express how happy we felt, and i can not describe that kinda feeling here in words.. but it was such a magical moment for us when we cuddled Mikaela in our arms =)
*My youtube channel: click https://youtu.be/CkQUfZroEQM if the video doesn't work below
Thankfully both wifey and our little baby are fine and healthy!
Almost everyone who came to visit us told us that our baby looked exactly like me T_T~~~ (Don't think that is a good thing though ahhaha)
Luckily though, Mikaela's jaundice wasn't too high and the PD allowed her to go home with us on the third day^^ and that is also... when the "nightmare" started hahahahhaha
We were too idealistic and simple minded, thinking that all a baby really does is eat - sleep - eat - sleep ... but nnoooooooooooo... at first, my plan when she cries was NOT to immediately run and carry/cuddle her BUT... her cries were just too pitiful that i had no choice but to carry her...
Every time we fed her, she would have that squealing high pitched sound and look like she was choking/gasping for breath, wifey and i felt so lost because we don't know what when wrong and we were severely deprived of sleep!!! can you imagine resting 1hr between her feeding times? And when she looks distressed, uncomfortable or cries, you don't know what to do or what is she like that? omg.. it was really really scary for us.. We literally didn't have any help at all and we were left on our own..
We were total noobs and really didn't know how to handle a baby. We thought we knew, after "playing" with our friend's baby and watching a lot of videos from the hospital and YouTube.. but in a real life situation like this, we realised that we knew NUTS! and we were helpless!
This "nightmare" lasted for a week ... we gave in and finally decided to engage a Confinement Lady.
Luckily for us, we managed to engaged a Confinement Lady and after that, smiles can be seen on our faces once again! hahaha! Wifey and I had lots of sleep, and we could spend more time playing with Mikaela^^
Everyone is fresh and happy^^
But wifey and I also know that the Confinement Lady will not be with us forever, so we also took this time to learn from her as much as possible. Taking care of a baby is no easy feat, and it is also probably a never ending journey. But we will cherish this moment and enjoy how to properly carry her, bath her, feed her, change her clothes etc. etc. =)
A few tips for first time parents like us:
1. if your child has that high pitch squealing sound, it is most probably because her larynx isn't strong enough yet and hence it causes a squealing sound. It is quite normal and the baby will outgrow soon enough.
2. If your child has jaundice, take note that sunning them, washing them with chinese herbs such as 金银花，苦瓜干 will only aid in changing the "yellow" appearance of the baby and not exactly reduce the jaundice levels. in fact, it may not be healthy to sun the baby because the UV rays would harm the baby.. The best way is to feed the baby properly and ensure that she pees and poos normally. You would observe that her poo is yellowish in color, and that is because it contain bilirubin. By passing it out, it would greatly reduce the baby's jaundice levels. This is the best way to actually reduce the baby's jaundice level.
3. If your baby is always choking/gasping for breath during feeding, it is because they small little organs take time to digest the milk/food and sometimes the flow is just too fast for them to handle. Therefore you have to make sure that if you are bottle feeding, the teats are the slow flow ones that can better regulate the flow of the milk for the newborn to consume. Direct breast feeding doesn't seem to have this problem though. In addition, you can also communicate to your child and tell her to drink slowly while patting her lightly with a constant tempo. This helped Mikaela and i hope it helps you too! =)
Have fun with your baby and enjoy the process of growing up with them! Just remember that as long as the baby is able to feed and sleep normally, she is fine =)
Just sleeping with Mikaela today, seeing her smiling face, really made us feel very fortunate to have her as our baby.
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