Birth
Our 2nd daugther was born on 28th Dec evening.
I opted for elective induction and admitted in the morning to be induced. Dr inserted a pill into the cervix to start things off and later put me on drips. I only got a little contraction, I could still read, listen to music, talk to Daddy gaily.
When the drip dosage was increased to 100%, my cervix was barely 2 cm opened, even though the contraction pain started to become unberable. I wanted to go without pain relief for as long as I can but after 1 1/2hr, I started using the (
entonox) gas. Then the midwife suggested that I go with pain killer since I got very tense every time the contraction started which would affect the cervix dilation. After talking to Daddy, I opted for
Pethidine, just like I did with Zara's birth.
The minute Pethidine was injected, I started relaxing and the cervix started to dilate. We were disturbed by baby's heart beat though. Every time when a contraction started, her heart beat went down, after the contraction, the heart beat recovered. Dr was called and he told us that it may be due to 1) baby was compressed in the birth canal or 2) baby's umblical cord was around her neck. The latter could be life threatening. He told us we could either opt for emergency c-sect for safest bet, but looking from the way things are progressing, he told us to hang a little bit longer. We were worried, but trusted his judgement.
Soon after that, I could feel the urge to push (that's why I didn't want to go for
epidural since it will numb all such sensation). Midwife checked me and found that baby's head was already crowning. Every thing started to happen, within minutes, Dr was back in the labour room, gave me an episiotomy, and the delivery began. This round, no help needed, baby just got pushed out with one push.
The minute I heard her cry, all pain was forgotten, although I still felt a bit high and dizzy from Pethidine, the rush of joy was overwhelming.
The little girl was 2.91Kg (Zara was 3.39Kg), and her height was 51.5cm (Zara was 50.5cm).
The room we spent 12hrs in awaiting for the birth of our 2nd daugther
Baby
I worried too much. When I was pregnant, I was constantly worried that I will not love baby as much as I do with Zara. I just found new capicity to love her. How can you not love your own flesh and blood?
Baby is good, she's more patient than Zara and even when she's hungry, she'll cry a little and wait for me to feed her (Zara used to cry and turn black every time we were a bit too 'slow').
She sleeps a lot still, but when she's awake, she likes to look around, checking us out. She was admitted back to the hospital for jaundice for 2 nights and now she's back home coping well.
We still call her baby or mei-mei (Chinese : Small sister) since we haven't decided on the name yet. :(
Zara
Zara is doing very well as a jie-jie (Chinese: Big sister). We gave her a set of nice markers as a present from baby and also bought her a baloon when she came visiting, telling her she's now jie-jie to baby and mummy's assistant. She's very proud of her new titles.
The first few days, she cried when baby cried for milk. She didn't want the Confinement Lady (CL) to handle mei-mei when mei-mei cried but insisted that "Mummy, sayang (Malay : pat) mei-mei. Don't want aunty (CL) sayang." She constantly wants to hug and stroke her mei-mei but unfortunately, she contracted chicken pox (probably from visiting mei-mei in the peadiatric ward) after mei-mei was discharged and we told her not to be too close to mei-mei for the time being.
Confinement Lady
What's wrong with these people? They think so highly of themselves that they don't wash dishes, do house work or help out with the older kids even when they are just siting around doing nothing.
I'm barely able to stand her, and Daddy is very tempted to get rid of her. She's more like a cook instead of a CL. Since I'm 100% breastfeeding, and I like to be a bit hands on (like cleaning baby's poo or topping and tailing baby) she doesn't have much to do.
Baby sleeps with me in the night, and when I naps. I wake up to feed her while the CL sleeps away. She cooks for me 3 meals a day, washes baby's clothes, bathes baby and that's about all she does. She doesn't help with Zara at all, nor anything else in the house. She sleeps when I sleeps (and sometimes before), and when Zara watches her VCDs/DVDs, she watches with Zara(but not to care for Zara, even small little things like giving Zara snacks or taking a drink for Zara from the fridge, CL will shout for Tuyam to do it).
The only good thing that came out of this is she knows what I should and should not eat and make sure whatever I take help with milk production. With Zara (without a CL), my milk came on day 5. With baby, my milk came on day 4 and supply is pretty good.
Me
I'm doing fine but a bit tired. 2 kids vs 1 is very different.
When baby is feeding and Zara needs attention, I have to be tactful, or still give Zara the attention by talking to her or doing things with her with my free hand. I still try to spend as much time as I can with Zara so that she doesn't feel I'm neglecting her.
When baby is alert, I try to talk to her and carry her around to show her the house or look at new things.
I only get to rest when both of them are sleeping. Luckily, I can breastfeed while lying down, so in the night when baby wakes up for her feed, I just latch her on and continue to sleep while she feeds.
I'm not sure what is wrong with blogger but have been trying to post more photos but not able to after the hospital shot.. *sigh* May not be able to update or read blogs as frequently for now until things are more settled.
