Time has passed us by so quickly since the moment my water bag broke & we went into the hospital to deliver Renée on 27 September 2015, Sunday at 7:30am.
There has been so many new experiences & memories that have taken place and we wanted to remember as much of them as possible so we could share them with Renée when she grows up. So I have decided to blog about it and share snippets of each day here week by week. Kenneth had also blogged about his experience and you can read it here.
Day 3 - 29 Sep 2015, Tuesday
Today is our book out day, book out, book out!
Ken worked super hard (and all on his own) to pack everything as we await the discharge notice from our gynaecologist & baby's paedetrician. All I had to do was bathe, change up, eat my food, sit and relax, I've got a great husband!
As a standard procedure, all babies would have their blood taken on Day 3 to test for the bilirubin level to indicate if they have got jaundice. Baby Renée had her blood test taken and the results only came back around 11am and it wasn't good news for us. The nurse came in to tell us that Renée had higher levels of bilirubin detected in her blood so the paedetrician wants her to stay in the hospital for one more day for phototherapy treatment.
To be honest, I was really disappointed & sad as I didn't want Renée to be away from us for any moment at all, what more an entire day. I was also concerned because I would like to direct latch Renée during breastfeeding and if she were in the hospital for the treatment, they would be feeding her formula instead. We didn't want to take the chance that she would prefer formula milk instead of breastmilk so we decided that we would go back to the hospital during feeding time throughout the day and only give her formula between midnight and 6am.
This was the feed at 3pm.
Our lil angel sleeping soundly after her feed at 10pm.
Us saying goodbye & telling Renée we'd be back to see her first thing in the morning.
It was very draining & challenging that day and I was still so tired from the delivery, Kenneth was exhausted as well as he was with us the whole time too. In fact, he did everything and all I had to do was sit, relax & feed baby Renée. Kenneth is a great father & husband to us both!
We left Mt. Elizabeth Novena with our hearts behind with Renée and we're counting down the hours before we could pick her up the next day... 9 hours... 8... 7....
Mummy & daddy love you Renée (P.s Pardon my messy hair ;p)
Day 4 - 30 Sep 2015, Wednesday
5:45am Woke up to pump breast milk as this was the time Renée would start to latch on if she were with me. Whole body's in pain and I'm so tired but I made myself get up for our baby girl.
Used spectra to pump for the very first time. Did hand express last night & woke up with cramped hands so I decided to let the machine do the work. I didn't know how long I should pump on each side and how to figure out how much milk is "enough" so I don't under or over-stimulate. Really prefer latching Renée directly and am praying her blood test to check on jaundice levels would be good so she can come home and be by our side.
Pumped out 20ml, labeled & kept in fridge to bring down to the hospital in case Renée has to stay an additional day. Time to catch 1 hour of sleep and hopefully by then, the paedetrician would call with good news that Renée can come home!
9:00am Got the much anticipated call from the hospital telling us they have done another blood test & our paedetrician would call back in 1-2 hrs' time to inform us if Renée could go home today.
We kept praying and finally heard from Dr. Simon, telling us RENÉE CAN GO HOME!! We were so excited, got all that we needed and zoomed out of our house in 15 minutes. We couldn't wait another minute to see our precious!
2:21pm Renée: I'm going home! Gonna take my first vroom vroom now.
Daddy is a super dad. He carried everything while I just chill inside my carriage.
After feeding her at 12pm, we buckled her up into her maxi cosi & made our way home. She looked so comfy inside.
ZzzZzZzz...
We all look tired but happy to be going home together as a family now.
Day 5 - 1 Oct 2015, Thursday
6:30am Baby Renée seem to be enjoying her sleep a lot, she was not in a hurry to nurse even though it has been 4 hours since she finished her last feed. According to the lactation consultant, that's the longest she should go without feeding, so I woke her up and she was... Not happy to say the least.
After a feed with her falling asleep in the midst multiple times, she started wailing at the top of her lungs. Not able to figure out what she wants, I tried everything I could think of - baby talk, carried her in all sorts of positions, rocked, sang & talked to her, stood up to walk, all to no avail.
Suddenly, she just stopped crying, stared at me with a very intense gaze & kept very still.
Yup, this was THE LOOK before the bomb
Moments later, I felt an "earthquake" on the hand I had on her tiny butt & a very loud "prooooooot". Ahh! So she was trying to shit. Now I know what she wants when she behaves in this manner. This was repeated thrice throughout the day. My adorable little Renée :) #lessonoftheday
9:10am We wanted to introduce Slurpee & Renée to each other as they would be growing up together for many years to come. Our parents were all very hesitant and reluctant to let us do so but we felt that it was necessary to introduce them to each other from the very beginning so that Slurpee would not feel that Renée is an "alien" and have negative feelings toward her.
Slurpee 哥哥 looking adoringly at Renée 妹妹
As with meeting anyone new, Slurpee would be extremely excited & not too gentle but with Ken & I around, we taught him to approach Renée in her chair slowly, got him to sit down calmly before he was allowed to sniff her. It took some time but with repetition and patience, he sat down at the side and just looked while Renée continued sleeping soundly.
We can't wait for her to grow up and for both of them to become the best of friends!
5:10pm I had a very bad piles situation after the delivery and had problems sitting down. Jolie arrived with this very simple float pillow & it made my life so much better! So everywhere I went, this float & Renée went along with me.
So after an afternoon feed, I decided to take a photo of Renée and the float so I could tell her this story one day when she grew up. While wrapping her up in the swaddle, I attempted to be creative and thought I'd make the ends look like a mermaid tail for this shot. Well, the hubs didn't think much of my effort but it's fine, I'm sure our daughter would appreciate her mummy's effort to take some artistic shots & arrangement.
Welcome to the month of October (10th month!).
Day 6 - 2 October 2015, Friday
1:15am Renée finished her supper and we changed her into her comfy pajamas for the night and after she was all cleaned & dressed up, we let her lie on our bed to spend some time together. While lying there, she started dancing & moving her arms & feet all over, it was too adorable, I just had to snap lots of photos of her.
Renée with her night kungfu moves.
Good night my little one.
7:00am Just finished feeding, changing, spending quality awake time with Renée & she's asleep again now. All these took me almost 2hrs and I just kept thinking to myself how precious these moments are. Soon, she'd grow up and I wouldn't be able to hold her on my chest but as she lay in my arms, just listening to my heartbeat, i know she would always be held dearly in my heart.
Mummy won't let you go baby
Renée and I are starting to understand what each other wants & means with certain body language, words & cries (only for Renée!) and I wouldn't give this up for more rest or less trouble. Ken & I decided that we would be hands-on parents, we want to be involved in every step of bringing Renée up and not leave that responsibility to anyone else - not a confinement lady, our parents or a helper. She is our daughter and therefore our very own responsibility as parents to parent her.
When I'm feeding Renée, I have plenty of time to think and today I thought to myself, how thankful I am that I could be home taking care of Renée, having strong support from Kenneth & family support in cleaning our place, washing unending supply of baby clothes & my family for cooking my confinement food, helping to walk & bathe the dog.
We are so blessed & know that it is God we have to give thanks to! Time to go sleep and I'd probably have to be up again in 1 hr. Praying for strength!
9:30am Renée woke up for her feed again but this time, she was so restless & was fussing a lot. She kept crying 10mins into feeding & I didn't know what she wanted. While changing her to the other side to breastfeed, I found the reason for the crying (or rather, screaming) bout - she had pooped so much & the poop had leaked out of the diapers, spread all over her right leg, through her clothes and onto the cloth outside..
Poor Renée must have been so uncomfortable & it took me awhile to realise that. I felt so bad for not figuring it out earlier but I intend to learn everything quickly & hopefully not repeat the mistake.
On the job training is very intense & challenging but it's the only way since every child is different.
2:00pm Renée is 6 days old today & as she had higher level of jaundice in her blood test on day 3, the paedetrician suggested we visit him for a follow up check up today. So off we go, packing Renée into her comfy car seat & down to Mt Alvernia we drove to see Dr. Simon Ng.
Looking like she's feeling a little squashed but she was sleeping soundly throughout the ride
Renée grew a little since she left the hospital and was weighed at 2.34kg today, a 7% drop from her birth weight of 2.565kg.
We were a little concerned that dr. Simon might tell us her jaundice condition isn't getting better so she'd have to be hospitalized again. I had told Kenneth that if that was the case, maybe we could consider renting the phototherapy machine instead so baby didn't have to be away from us.
Thankfully, Dr. Simon said although she still looks a little yellowish, it is acceptable & told us all is good. Hurray! We were told to just monitor her jaundice to see that it doesn't get worse and to keep feeding her so that she would poop and pee enough each day. The next thing we hope to see soon is for Renée's poo to be yellowish, which is the most ideal according to the paediatrician.
Day 7 - 3 October 2015, Saturday
12:00pm My godma, Renée's god grandma, came to visit her for the very first time today! My godma was the first person to see me the moment I was born 29 years ago and she is like a second mother to me so I was very excited for her to see our daughter today.
Godgrandma Shirley loves you so much Renée
My godma has been helping me with my confinement together with my mother and I am so thankful to both of them for buying, preparing and cooking all the good and nutritious food that are meant to help me build up and strengthen my body after the delivery. As she has to work everyday, my mum and her would get up and go to the market every day at about 5-6am just to buy the fresh ingredients to cook yummy food for me.
Renée you must remember god grandma and grandma love you and mummy so much, they gave up their time and sleep just so both of us can be well taken care of in this very crucial 1st month after delivery.
4:30pm I was so tired after breastfeeding and my loving & awesome husband (and daddy to Renée) asked me to take a short nap while he burped and prepare Renée for her afternoon nap as well.
Daddy burping Renée & she looks so... comfortable.
Say what?!
I was knocked out before Renée had started to sleep, the next moment Kenneth was waking me up to feed her again. I really felt like a cow and told myself to enjoy it because she would grow up too quickly and not want to nurse with mummy anymore.
We rejoiced surviving and living with our newest member in the family this first week and look forward to what the next weeks would offer. We would try to continue to blog every week, so stay tuned! :)
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