Best Birthday Gift....

Today, i celebrated my 31st birthday and it is no longer just me and Mui. This birthday will be the most memorable as we celebrated it with Ray and the three of us as a family.

Because i am still in my confinement period, the celebration was done on a small scale. But of cos i am not complaining cos i held Ray in my arms and pa pa mui sung me the birthday song....


And when it came to cake cutting time, look at Ray and his cheeky expression.


And my birthday wish....is that Ray will grow up all healthy and strong.

Shower Me with L-O-V-E

Ray has been staying in the hospital for the past 2 weeks becos of his jaudince and everytime i go visit, it will be mainly to breastfeed him and to bond with him. The most i would do is to change his nappy but to bath him.....Oh no no no....i have to hand it to pa pa mui who have been through classes to know the hands on. Why am i clueless? Cos the trainer always stress that bath time should be left to the daddies partly to do bonding with the baby and as well as rest time for the mommies.

So here is the pic of pa pa mui having fun with Ray at their first bath time.


Pa pa mui sure is having fun....but Ray has this intense look on his face....Help Me.

And me....i towel the baby dry!!

Finally...

Yippee!! Ray has finally been given the green light to come home with us. As we brought him back into house, and lay him into his cot, he was still fast asleep thus we quickly seized the chance to settle his stuff into our room. The moment we were done, the two of us were hovering around his cot waiting for his wailing....his wailing is our command now.

It is weird, suddenly we have Ray back into our very own home and i would jump and run immediately to him the moment he made the slightest sound. Life is not the same anymore. I used to sleep like a log but now i literally JUMP at his every breath.....oh no, i am slave to my son now.

Breastfeeding has got more intense now, with feeding at ard every 3 hrs, no more sterilising of bottles and expressing bottles of milk, i am now able to feed direct and the feeling of being able to provide for Ray is really great. And pa pa mui has been the greatest help also, helping with the 2am nappy change.

We are losing sleep....but its manageable and we are definitely enjoying it.

Fountain of Pee

We have been reminded alot of times in our antenatal classes that boys will tend to "ambush" the parents when it comes to diaper changing time. How? By creating a "fountain". We had our first "fountain" today as we removed Ray's diaper and this huge stream of pee followed....human instinct caused me to shield by using my hand and the pee got all over Ray's body and his cot was all wet and he wasnt quite happy about it, of cos.

In fact, it really was a quite pool of pee was we have to push the cot back to the nursery to ask for a new cot as the old one was just too soaking wet.

Moral of the story....never change the new born baby after a feed as the bladder is still unable to control the urine thus whatever goes in will come out almost immediately.

ONE more!!

Managed to feed Ray twice today...tiring as i spent half a day in KK hospital. But then again its all worth while, seeing Ray looking at me as i feed him and him making all the expressions as i talked nonsense to him. Ray is seriously such a joker. Look at this pic, it was after his feeding and pay attention to the finger.

ONE more feed, mom!!

Latching Ray

Ray has been feeding well and we have also managed to have some quality mom-son bonding time as he drunk straight from my boobs. The nurses at KK have been most helpful as they always offered me help to latch Ray. But each time the nurse helped and its like my boobs not longer the function it used to be....it is now like a feeding channel for Ray. Boo boo....and the saddest part, i actually feel its ok when they pinched my boobs!! Arrgghhh!!

Ray has been really responsive these days. Every time before he feeds, his 2 eyes will open widely and stare at the person holding him, its like he is trying to make sense out of the person. And every time we talk to him, he will smiled, frowned, raised his brows etc.

It has been more than a week now and his jaundice level is still high.

Cheeky Fella

It has been a week since Phieng Phieng as appeared into our lifes. And today, it marks a special day as we went to get Phieng Phieng's new name register.

He will now be known as 梅 江 睿 （Mei Jiang Rui) or aka Ray. And look at this cheeky fella and his smile. Pa Pa mui said Ray suit him to a T as he has such sunshine feel to his smile. Oh....there we go, parents singing praises of their own son but you cannot blame us!! hahaha.....


Ray is still in hospital so we make a trip down to the hospital everyday to talk to him and to update him abt our lives and of cos each time i have this strong urge to bring him home.....he loves it when we talk silly to him, he will have alot of facial expressions and he never fails to crack me up.

Patience patience, just one more week....and we can have him home.

Feeling Strange

The other day when i woke up from my sleep, i was still feeling my tummy for Phieng Phieng's kick and it took me a while to realise that i have actually given birth and he is no longer in my womb. Feeling kinda of strange and lost at the same time cos he is not here with us as he is still nursing in the hospital.

His jaundice level has been going up and down but it has been maintained below 200 which is good cos he doesnt need go under the phototherapy then. Come on sonny!! u are a fighter, fight this battle for mummy!!

After becoming a mom myself, i realised the scarfices that all moms must have gone through. Yesterday, i was braving diarrhea and my severe gastric pain without medication as i knew that if i have to take any one of those, i might have to stop my breast milk supply to my sonny and no way i am going to do that. So i braved the pain and it has been days already and the gastric pain is still there but every single drop of milk that i have expressed out for him is all worthwhile.

Did i tell u the number of disrupted sleep? Every 3 hrs i would have to wake up and express the milk or else i will face engorgement and the feeling is not something that i would like to experience again.....never ever!! And each session, from sterilisation of the bottles to expressing will take me abt 40mins. Hey, i am not complaining cos everything i do, i do it for my sonny!!

And pa pa mui has also tried his best to take over the washing and sterilisating of bottles on every possible occasion....hmmm...if only he can produce milk as well.

10 More Days To Go...

10 more days of monitoring for Phieng Phieng and he will be in our arms again.

Today, we paid a visit again but with a lighter heart knowing that the day when the 3of us reunited is just 10 days away. Here is a pic of Phieng Phieng who is under the light... Somehow, Phieng Phieng looks different today. In fact, he looks different every time we see him. But of cos there is no denial that he is looking just like his dad.
Just hope that he will inherit my wicked sense of humour!!

Daily Trip

Even though we have just been discharged this afternoon, we went back to the hospital to have a peek at Phieng Phieng in the evening. He is looking better now, less yellowish and he is looking contended as he has just finished his feed. I have been diligently expressing my breastmilk, as nothing is going to stop me from providing the best for my son.

We talked to him, and gently stroked him, constantly reminding him that we are here for him.

How can i sleep tonight....

Where Is The Baby....

Day Four of our new lives....just when we thought that we can discharge and go home with Phieng Phieng, the doc told us that Phieng Phieng has jaundice and they will need to retain him to do the phototherapy for another 12 days. WHAT!!! 12 days without him, my tears just rolled.

No one to cuddle him and no one to sweet talk to him, how is Phieng Phieng going to pass his time? But of cos we know that retaining him in the hospital is the best option.

With a very heavy heart, we left the hospital with just the two of us.....

First Family Potrait

Suddenly, there are so many FIRST time in our lives. And now that we are a family, we definitely need a FIRST family portrait.


Phieng Phieng sleeps most of the time as new born tends to sleep away 2/3 of their day away. We are so attached to him now, cos we love having him around even though the 3 of us dont do much but staring at him is already enough to make my day, let alone when u get to hug and touch him.

Ohh....life is just not the same anymore.

First Poo

We have started Phieng Phieng on total breast milk as this is the only food that a baby will need for the next 6 months. Even though he has been feed at a constant intervals, but he has not poo. Everytime the nurses come in, they will remind us that Phieng Phieng has not make his first poo. Why the first poo is important within the first 24 hrs? It is becos the nurses need to make sure the digestive system of Phieng Phieng is doing fine. And finally at 1.25pm, we were relieved to see his first poo....well its not exactly poo, medical term is called meconium which consisted of digested muscus and amniotic fluid.


And just look at that smile on pa pa mui's face. Have you ever seen any one so happy with poo before?

First Diaper Change

Hmm....its weird, calling myself Ma Ma in front of Phieng Phieng, well I better get used to the title.

As i am still recovering from the delivery, pa pa mui proudly took up all the duties of taking care of Phieng Phieng. And that includes the FIRST nappy change for pa pa mui and Phieng Phieng. Here's a pic showing how pa pa mui is doing, i must say he did a good job. All those classes that we have attended was not in vain.

8th April 2008

8th of April marked a very important milestone in both our lives as we witnessed the birth of Phieng Phieng, right before our eyes. We couldn’t believe our eyes when the doctor shown Phieng Phieng to us, its just seem so unreal that the little fella that kicked and moved around IN my womb is now out.

Phieng Phieng weighs 3.0kg at birth, but we didn’t get to hold him as the midwife whisked him off to clean up and to do the APGAR test. Minutes later (which seems like HOURS), she came back with Phieng Phieng and I presented him with this FIRST kiss from his MOM (sorry pa pa mui). When I first look at him, I have ups and downs. It’s a feeling that no words can describe. Its really unreal...and suddenly i felt i had great responsiblity into raising this little fella.

When I returned to my ward, I immediately requested for Phieng Phieng as I wanted to start the bonding part ie breastfeeding ASAP. And the moment he was pushed into the room, I felt I am receiving the BEST present in my life, a present that both pa pa mui and I have carefully wrapped and protected for the past 9 months. And that was when pa pa mui looked me into the eyes and said "He looks just like me”.

JAWS

Now close your eyes....play the music of the movie JAWS in your head. And imagine the shark circling in your tummy. From left to right, and then it suddenly disappeared and then it reappear in the centre of ur tummy again and the action starts all over again.

Baby has a new nickname - Baby Shark. He has been having like this for days....according to the books, he is supposed to be moving less but seriously i doubt so. And the other night, he jabbed me so hard in my right rib that i screamed!!

Pa pa mui is enjoying every moment of this shark effect as this is the closest he can feel his baby right now. And a sweetest moment happened today when he kissed baby goodbye and asked for a kiss back, baby moved at the perfect timing and touched pa pa mui's lips. He was overwhelmed.....excited, maddening etc etc.

I think the last time when i agreed to marry him, he wasnt happy to this extend at all.