Miscellaneous Photos From Day One - Day Fourteen

These photos were taken while DY was in the hospital.

Photo of my doctor, Dr Wee and Staff Nurse Anna.

ZY is very good at carrying her little brother as she has practiced many times with her dolls!

This is the mothercraft room that I used everyday @3p.m. to latch on DY. (May I suggest they put more comfortable chairs here?) 

DY was "upgraded" to an A1 ward as a precautionary measure since he was exposed to the chicken pox via contact with ZY. The hospital was afraid that in case DY was really infected with chicken pox, the other babies in the nursery ward might get infected too.

DAY 14 - Finally going home today!!

ZY Has Chicken Pox!

Hiaz...ZY is infected with the chicken pox virus although she had her chicken pox vaccination two years ago. Luckily, it is relatively mild and she had no fever whatsoever. Other than the itchiness, she is still very active.

Since I also have not had chicken pox before and only had immunity through vaccination,  I have to be very careful so that I will not get infected by the virus. It's really a very trying time for me and ZY as I must refrain myself from hugging or kissing her and I'm sure ZY felt it too. I've no choice as DY does not have immunity against chicken pox and we are trying our best not to get him infected.

As ZY has been visiting DY at the hospital since Day One, DY may have been exposed to the virus. Hence, the hospital had segregated DY from the other babies and he is now bedded in a single A1 room with a nurse checking on him every 30 minutes.

Once DY is discharge from the hospital next week, we plan to bring him back to Sembawang and leave ZY in my parent's house under my mum's care. Hopefully, ZY will understand and not think that we are abandoning her... -_-

Sorry dear, mummy and daddy really have no other better options... at least you will be well taken care of by your grandparents and Jiu Jiu who loves and adore you very much... once you have recovered from chicken pox, mummy promises that I will hug and kiss you many many times!

G6PD Deficient

While waiting to be discharged on 3 March 2010, a pediatrician informed us that DY is suspected to be G6PD deficient. Hence, according to the hospital protocol, he cannot be discharged and has to be in the hospital for at least 7 days to monitor his jaundice level. G6PD deficient newborns are prone to high level of jaundice for the first 2 weeks of life and hence needs to be monitor closely.

It really came as a shock for us as I don't know anything about G6PD deficiency and we were really worried. We had no idea that either MW or me are carrier of this genetic disorder. Luckily, after talking to the nurses and doing some research on the internet, we found that this genetic disorder is relatively common among boys and with careful avoidance of certain Western and Chinese medicine, the child can live a normal and healthy life.

Anyway, since DY is not able to be discharge, I decided to stay on for another day so that I could breastfeed him for the precious colostrum. We also decided to stay at my parents' house for my confinement instead of going back to Sembawang so that we can visit DY everyday at the hospital. I went to the hospital everyday at 3p.m. to direct latch him so as to stimulate my milk production. On other times, I will express the milk and bring them to the hospital so that the nurses can cup feed him. Though it is very tiring, I'm glad that I'm able to see him everyday and cuddle him.

It really breaks my heart to be discharged from the hospital without DY with me. Everyone is happily packing their bags and leaving the hospital with their bundle of joy while I'm walking out with two empty hands... I felt so sad and seeing him in the baby cot at the nursery ward, I'm near breaking down. But I tell myself, DY is in good hands and its best for him to be in the hospital under the close monitoring of the professionals. MW who is holding on better than me, also try his best to console me and his support really helps. In fact, I'm glad that all my family members are all out to support us and it really means alot to us.

Bay Bay Has Arrived!

Bay Bay has finally arrived on 2 March 2010 as predicted by his sister ZY.

This is my birth story:

(1 March 2010)
10 p.m. - experienced frequent Braxton Hick Kicks with mild contraction in between.
(2 March 2010)
12 a.m. - Contraction increases to 10-mintutes interval.
1 a.m. - Contraction increases to 5-7 minutes interval.
2 a.m. - Decided to go to the hospital to monitor.
3 a.m. - Reached my parents' house (walking distance from KKH) and pat ZY back to sleep. Contraction reduces to 30-minutes interval but each contraction is more painful than the earlier ones. Decided to wait and monitor at home.
6 a.m. - Reached hospital as we wanted to monitor Bay Bay with CTG scan. Nurse-on-duty announced that my cervix was already 4-cm dilated!
8.30 a.m. - Dr Wee arrived and by then my cervix was 5-cm dilated. So I was immediately admitted to the delivery ward.
9 a.m. - Had my breakfast (Chicken Porridge) at the delivery room and waited for the anaesthetist to administer epidural.
10 a.m. - Anaesthetist arrived and reconfirmed with me if I really wanted an epidural as I seemed to be really coping well and don't look like I'm suffering in extreme pain. In fact, I'm really OK with the contraction at that moment but I'm afraid of the pain of breaking my waterbag so I decided to go ahead with the epidural.
10.20 a.m. - Dr. Wee arrived to break my waterbag which I'm happy to say was PAINLESS!! ^_^
10.30 a.m. - Put on Oxytocin drip to increase the contraction.
10.30 a.m. - 12.20 p.m. - Watch TV with MW.
12.20 p.m. - Staff Nurse Anna checked and announced that I'm 8-cm dilated!
12.45 p.m. - 10-cm dilated! Contraction was 2-minutes apart according to the CTG monitor.
ACTION TIME!!
1 p.m. - Practise pushing while waiting for Dr. Wee to come out of the operating theatre.
Bay Bay arrived after 3 pushes!

Bay Bay's statistics:
Birth Weight - 3000g
Height - 50cm
Official Name - Lim Din Yang (林鼎洋）

Just Born!!!

At 10 days old