She's finally arrived!!

Dear all,

Claire has finally arrived.... And boy (or gal in this case) was it a long wait.

When we arrived at the hospital delivery suite in the morning, we were half expecting a rather slow induction process. But what unravelled was even beyond our scariest thoughts. The gynae checked Mummy, she found Mummy to be sufficiently dilated for the water bag to be burst. She then proceeded to burst the water bag, and this was very very painful according to Mummy. After the initial shock and pain from the bursting of the water bag, Mummy was adequately convinced to opt for the epidural. Then came the agonising wait....

As the IV drip was introducing a contraction-inducing drug into Mummy's bloodstream, and the epidural was relieving some of the initial pain and discomfort, both Mummy and Daddy waited patiently in the delivery suite for the labour process to commence. As you must have guessed, this process took longer than expected, 12 hrs in total! But it didn't end there. After a 12hr wait, with rapidly intensifying contractions towards the last 2 hrs, Mummy was still not dilated sufficiently for her to "push". The amniotic fluid had already started draining once the water bag had been burst, and baby's protective shield had been slowly thinning. She was also being exposed to the world outside. This meant that if we were to wait any longer, the risk of infection for baby and mummy would increase significantly. After deliberation with the gynae's advise, Mummy and Daddy decided to go for a caesarean.

Daddy was advised that the entire operation would take an hour or so, so he decided that the wait outside the OT would be too much to take after an entire day of waiting, and proceeded for some dinner. He was not even halfway through his dinner that the nurse called his mobile and told him Claire was here! He rushed to see Claire, and here's his first glimpse of her.

"Just out from the OT" Claire

She's sooo sweet. She wasn't crying, but was squinting her eyes to take a reciprocal inaugural view of the world outside. She seems like she's winking at us in this picture, adorable huh? That was Day 0.

Pensive Claire

This was her during Day 1. After a very satisfying feed by Mummy, she decided to ponder on a few things, namely what time her next feed is gonna be, when is this bespectacled guy gonna stop kissing me, and when will i get to play with all the toys that her relatives and Mummy's and Daddy's frens have given me? Here's a picture of Claire with Mummy and Daddy.

"Lead role" Claire with a tired-looking Mummy and Daddy

Well, Claire's stirring now, and i'll have to fulfill my fatherly role. So, pls stay tuned for more updates on Claire and her family. Here's a short video showing her homecoming after a nice long comfortable stay in the hospital from Monday till Sunday. This is also her first car ride.

Till then do take care and watch this space. We thank all the nice aunties and uncles, great aunties and uncles for their generosity and well wishes. And also both sets of grandma and grandpa for their care and concern, and unfaltering support during the last few days. We wouldn't have done it without you guys.

Luv
Claire, Mummy and Daddy

The wait is killing us....

It's commonly known that the actual delivery date ranges from 2 weeks before Expected Delivery Date (EDD) to 2 weeks after. So..... Mummy and Daddy have been on SB since last week. It's only with the patience and understanding of our colleagues and bosses, that we've been able to worry less about work and more about Claire's arrival.

During Mummy's last checkup, doc said that she was already 1cm dilated. When I heard the news, I almost freaked out. I was like, roaming around my room, trying to think of what preparations we had missed out on, trying to think about what I would do in the delivery suite (faint, collapse, yup...all the bad stuff), and most importantly, finally realising that the new addition to our family will at last be arriving. I'm gonna be a DAD, and mummy a MUM!! Even before Claire has been delivered, the thought of her coming into our lives is already life-changing.

Anyway, before you guys freak out as well, we found out that expectant mothers can be 1cm dilated for as long as 2-3 weeks, and from some frens that most firstborns need to be induced. Well, i hope that puts things into context.

There're other funny things in our lives that have been changing. Recently, while both Mummy and Daddy were sound asleep, i heard this voice in my head telling me to wake up and get some tissue, i literally leaped out of bed, strode to the tissue paper box, pucked one piece out, and then it dawned on me that it was actually a dream. At this juncture, i dropped the tissue, and went back to bed. But in the midst of this, Mummy woke up as well and was questioning me about what i was doing. It seems like i'm subconsciously physically and mentally preparing for Claire's arrival.

Another funny thing is this. Mummy and Daddy are used to sleeping late on weekends, we're talking about 11-12am here.....until recently. Now, at 8-9am, instead of being in "z"-land, we're bright awake. So, we've started having breakfast on weekends, going for mass early, and doing all the other things early birds get up to.

Last but not least, there's this strange churning in my stomach which tells me we're gonna see Claire very soon, and I really can't wait! Mummy can't wait as well! I hope it's gonna be this week, then we will get to hold, cuddle, kiss and take care of our own flesh and blood. Like i said, the wait is killing us....

To our frens, we'll promise to keep you guys informed.... Till then, here's to more restless nights, early mornings.....

Cheerios

K.L pics uploaded!

Forgot to add in our K.L photos taken in Aug when both mummies and daddies went for a short trip while mummies were more mobile.

At KLCC enjoying yummy Malay food

Twin Mummies at the Twin Towers

Daddy and Aya enjoying A&W waffles and root beer

Both naughty mummies sneaking in a cup of teh

Pics of us at recent weddings

Alvin's and Ayako's wedding at Four Seasons

Michelle's and Alec's wedding at Asians Civilisation's Musuem

4 more weeks ...

*BIG lump in throat*

4 more weeks to go...

Claire is growing in size as the days go by, and her sleeping patterns seem to have changed slightly. Mummy feels that she is more awake around 11pm nowadays, and then she tends to sleep peacefully through the night. This bodes well for our sleep cycle when Claire is born, fingers crossed, a night feed at 11pm or so, and thereafter maybe just a single feed in the middle of the night. Wishful thinking?

Mummy is also starting to lumber around these few weeks. The occasions of swollen ankles and back aches also seem to be on the rise. That means I have to put my traditional chinese massage skills to good use again, "pushing" the water away from her ankles, and rubbing those sore back muscles. I can't imagine carrying a 2-3kg weight in front of your body for 3-4 months, maybe i should carry some weights in front of my body to get a feel of what it's like. But i don't think i need to resort to that, sometimes the expression on Mummy's face tells me exactly how she feels, without her having to say anything.

We're having Claire's full growth scan next Monday, and that should give us a glimpse of how she's developing, and how she looks now. I'll post those pics up when we get them. The womb is surely becoming a bit too small for her now, occasionally, depending on her resting position, we can feel like her femur along the body. When you start depressing the bone gently, sometimes Claire reacts by prodding back, and sometimes she ignores by just shifting her position again. And, if you speak rather loudly close to her, she sometimes gives a irritable jerk, just to remind Mummy that she's resting. We're already starting to communicate!

So how are we gonna allocate the duties, i hear someone ask. Hmm... I'm definitely not getting breastfeeding duties. But, when Claire goes on the bottle, I would love to have some interaction time feeding her. That's when I can look into her eyes and communicate with her. I'm so looking forward to that. They say that breastfed babies tend to have less offensive excretions etc. If that's the case, maybe I can chip in for the nappy changing? (if you haven't guessed, mummy's not around at the moment)

Ok folks, have to run off soon. Will post more updates soon.
And in true "heroes" fashion, seeya soon Claire bear!!Cheerios.

Countdown - 8 more weeks to go

It's such an understatement to say that time passes you by so fast, especially when you're parents-to-be. Before we even knew it, excluding all the minor signs such as a rapidly expanding uterus (instead of stomach as we were reminded last week), there's only 8 more weeks to go.

Here's a pic of Claire at 32 weeks. Her head is slightly tilted to her left, and her nose bone and eye sockets are visible. I hear from Mummy that her position is also changing, from a horizontal lying position, to a more vertical position, readying herself for birth. Doc says all's well, Mummy and Claire are both doing fine, and Claire is now 1.9kg. Literature for expectant mummies suggest a major growth spurt in the last 2 months, so we'll be seeing Claire grow in size and weight for the coming few weeks.
Preparations, preparations, preparations. When will we ever consider ourselves ready to receive the baby? It's not as easy as packing for a trip (more on that later), or renovating a house. I guess we'll never know what we really need until Claire's born, but thanks to all the kind aunties and uncles (our frens and relatives), I am confident to say that we probably have 70-80% of required baby stuff covered. I think that's no mean feat in itself, but the credit probably has to go to Mummy for buying most of the clothes and other accessories. I'm just the "buy lo..." man, fully supportive.

Anyway, even as most people say expectant mothers shouldn't travel too far or move around too much, we made a trip (probably our last until Claire arrives) to KL together with Aunty S and Uncle R, with R being the driver throughout. It was really an enjoyable short holiday. Since both S and Mummy were expecting, we didn't do much walking, but rather watched a movie in KLCC, and savoured the various delicacies KL had to offer. My fav portion was drinks and chill-out at Starhill. The decor of the entire place was amazing. Themed restaurants in the entire basement despite being a bit on the expensive side, a jazz singer with fantastic vocals, good ambience on the whole.

I would've put pics up on the blog, but i can't seem to get the SD card to function properly. So, I'll put them up next time.

Till then, take care and cheerios...

New addition, New furniture, Same close family&frens

Hiya,

At a recent solemnisation which both Mummy and Daddy attended, we were interrogated on why our blog wasn't updated recently. Well, you know, we were busy with buying new furniture, getting ready for Claire's arrival dot dot dot. But, the truth probably is that we were too lazy to update it. Excuses excuses excuses, before I start procrastinating more, let me just get down to this update.

Claire's Stroller

Claire's Carseat

Like i mentioned in my previous post, we've been busy buying stuff for Claire. The range of things to buy is really so diverse, and after much head-scratching and some hair-pulling, we finally decided on these 2 items (in the exact colours shown above). Don't they look nice and comfy for Claire? That's 2 major items struck off the shopping list, and if you include all the nice baby clothes from all of Claire's nice aunties(oh boy, that sounds really bad), now all that we "just' have to get are the cot, beddings, diapers, diaper creams, bottle steriliser. Easy-peasy huh. I think more head-scratching and hair-pulling days are coming along....

We also bought a nice new bed and mattress from Mattress Atrium in Furniture Mall. We had our eye on the bed as it had a really classic look and had storage space beneath the mattress. So we walked around a bit more to consider further and to look at other designs. But when we returned to confirm our buy, the salesman (who has a very very glib tongue) managed to convince us that the water bed (which we were also looking at) would not be suitable for a post-delivery mother. He then attempted to package the bed and mattress together for a better price, under the guise that he was going to close the shipment container the next day, and didn't want to under-utilise the space in the container. He claimed the bed was from Australia, and the mattress from Switzerland. Shock shock shock. After some checks on the net, some other people claimed that the mattress brand was made in China, and just a re-packaging of some other mattresses. On hindsight, it does seem too good a deal when the price that he was giving us was almost 50% off the printed rate.

Anyway, that just goes to show how treacherous furniture shopping (and baby stuff shopping) can be. Every salesman has his own story and theory to tell. One says water beds provide the best support for pregnant women, another says water beds are totally unsuitable. And... all try to hard sell their wares! Sigh... I guess these people are also out to earn their living as well, so it's up to us, discerning and "once bitten, twice shy" consumers to spread the word around. I myself subscribe to the theory that if you like it, and it feels good, then go for it.

Now, after all that i've read on the net, I'm just trying to convince myself that the bed is nice and of good quality (which we witnessed ourselves in the stall), and that the mattress is comfortable for post-pregnancy mums and hardy (comfortable yes, hardiness unknown).

Ok, enough about Mummy's and Daddy's furniture-hunting exploits. Congrats to E and W on their solemnisation. It was a symbolic and yet simple manner of ending the bf-gf phase, and starting the husband-wife phase. We really enjoyed ourselves, but unfortunately had to leave early to attend another fren's farewell dinner. We really liked the Kashmir rugs, the vids on the tv, and the jacuzzi. More bbq's at your place then.... Ha!

And in 2 weeks time, R will be departing for his MBA in the states. Best wishes to him from all three of us!

This is a poignant moment, just when we're about to welcome our newest addition into our family, some of our closest frens are leaving for studies and/or work elsewhere. We'll continue to keep all updated on the happenings in our family, and also kay-poh on your friendster / blogs / facebook (which someone is trying to hardsell me) etc.... Do take very good care of yourselves, and comment on this blog so that we know we've not missed you out, or email either one of us. We really treasure the friendship and camaraderie, and look forward to keeping in touch, and many more fun days ahead.