Thursday, January 7
Our little Girl
Thursday, August 6
Bittersweet goodbye to our confinement nanny
Tuesday, July 7
Louise's Birth Story
Every night I went into bed hoping labour will happen like Colin's birth. Every morning I woke up without contractions. Haha. Let's just say, the wait... was indeed.. long, especially when I wasn't working. Is today the day? When will I go into labour? How will labour start? Why is my tummy so heavy? Are my feet getting more bloated? My questions were aplenty.
So here's what happened in the end.
Woke up feeling extremely tired, so tired I dozed off on the rocking chair. We were pretty convinced that Louise won't be making her appearance so soon so Daddy signed up for a weekend course. He was such a sweetie to keep asking me for my status.
1st Pregnant Women (PW) status check:
In fact the discharged started in the morning but I wanted to monitor before informing him.
2nd PW status check:
3rd PW status check from hubs came in..
I'm pretty much sure I was in early stage of labour. Just thinking when's the best time to head to hospital. Ideally in active labour but before the pain gets unbearable, and must be in time to take epidural.
Here's my consolidated list of contractions before I headed to hospital. It started off with low intensity pain level (1 green cube) for 30 seconds every 10 to 20 minutes. I kept quiet about my contractions until after dinner. I broke the news to hubs by telling him I had 4 contractions during dinner and nobody noticed. :D
Things sped up after dinner. I stood most of the time to aid Louise's descend. I kept drinking water and visiting the loo. The contractions were getting more painful (3 cubes) and frequent.. about 3-7 minutes apart. By then I had to stop whatever I was doing to ride through that minute.
At 10pm, I asked my mum if she could let Colin sleep that with them that night cause I had a feeling this could be it! Then told hubs to get some rest before we head to the hospital (no idea what time we would be leaving). Meanwhile I tried to rest too, tried. My mum sensed that something was amiss and popped by our room to check on me at midnight. She caught me looking at my phone (I was timing my contraction), I brushed her off saying I'm reading something and will sleep shortly. In reality, I was in too much pain to sleep.
| Contraction Tracking by Full Term App |
When the pain intensity hit 4 cubes at 1.32am, I decided it was time to head to the hospital. My very suspicious mum caught us leaving the house at 2am.
I was in Thomson Medical Centre's Labour Ward Room 5 by 2.25am. They got me to change into gown and did a vaginal examination (VE). "3cm, enfaced!". Proceed to inform our gynae, Dr. Paul Tseng, that I was in labour. I asked for epidural immediately. The anaesthetist, Dr. Phillip Tseng (gynae's brother), wasn't available and probably couldn't make it back in time for me so they recommended someone else. I was a little disappointed, but really, anything to ease the pain!
Life was back to comfort after the epidural took effect. VE was done at 7plus and I was 5cm dilated. While the nurse was poking around, my water bag burst and I heard the water gushing out! I let out a sigh of relief when she assured me that Louise's head was down.
At 9.45am, I was 8cm dilated. We were hoping for Louise to see the world before 11am so the nurse said it's possible, they'll do another VE at 10.15am to see how far along Louise was. The nurse told me to inform them when I felt the urge to poo which I didn't recall sensing it in my previous birth. It was too early to tell if it would be the same, so I waited..and waited, no urge to poo. When they came in to check on me again, I decided to inform the nurses that I've never felt it before. The nurses back then just asked me to push Colin out. Though surprised, they asked me to try pushing Louise out and she crowned! Everyone in the room was delighted. They proceeded to inform Dr. Paul to come down for delivery.
Time zoomed by after Dr Paul got into the labour ward. Put on his gown, gloves and the pushing started. Okay, deep breath in, push~ doing great! pushing very well. Rest. laughs at something the nurse said.. Another push! Wait wait, hold! Okay, push!! Push!! PUSH!! Out came our little girl.
"Wow! Big baby, maybe around 4.5kg", said Dr. Paul.
"4.535kg!", the nurse confirmed.
Welcome to our family, Louise Chang.
Wednesday, June 24
Our little girl
So I told Dr Paul our little girl's head is back up... and it was! Amazing how you managed to turn back up at 39 weeks almost immediately after he turned your head down. He said your had your reasons for turning back up.
He perform another ECV and instructed me to sleep on my right.
I asked whether it was an option to induce after doing an ECV.. Apparantly induction was a better option if my cervix was opened.. but.. sadly.. it was closed!
So we were thrown 3 options to consider.. Induction if your head is still down, vaginal breech or c-section breech.
See you in another 3 days Louise!
Monday, June 22
Overstayer
Where are you our little Louise? It's your estimated due date today.. mummy's tummy is soooooooooo stretched! Come out and say hi to us soon!
Thursday, June 11
Full Term with Little Louise
Everything was up 1 size for this pregnancy. More nausea and hunger episodes. My tummy showed earlier and was bigger overall. Weight wise.. heavier! Was almost 66kg with Colin @ week 40, but already at 69kg with this little girl @ week 38. This time I could feel myself bloating up more as well; rings, shoes and clothes were tighter. I even outgrew some of my maternity dresses. :S Medical bills also went up cause I opted for 1 bedder this time round (didn't have a very peaceful experience the last time in 2 bedder), and gynae delivery fees were raised too due to increase in dr's insurance or something.
Amidst all the money spent (and will be spending), I'm thankful for a supportive husband who does his best to be there for me every appointment. Don't know how challenging having 2 kids will be for us but we'll get by somehow by God's grace. One step at a time! :D
Friday, May 1
Louise 妹妹
Me: Colin, 妹妹's name is Louise.
Colin: Goopy!
Me: Louise...
Colin: Toby!
Lols. This boy is too cute.
Regarding Louise..
Went for gynae appointment on 29 Apr '15 and found out that I gained 3kg in a month! I ate as usual... and some chocolates.
Dr Paul did a scan and said bb Louise's estimated weight was almost 2.5kg, 1kg gain since last visit! She was in breech position and has long legs... chances of her hitting 4kg is high. Oh man.



