A Close Shave...

Nowadays when i hold Adri in my arms, she's become very very dear, more than ever. I'm not sure if i can say that i was close to losing her.
Thank God for journey mercy.

Resolved during my confinement month that once that one month was over, I would bring Adri out alone. Couldn't bear the thought of being stuck at home for months and being totally reliant on Mart to bring us out. I guess i just didn't like the idea of being that restricted.

Thursday.
Wanted to start by exploring somewhere near and wanted to bring Adri out to Compasspoint but ended up exploring a little further and arranged to meet Bestie at Expo for the Metro Sale, juz to check if there were grabs for baby stuff.

The extremely excited mummy got baby ready, packed her stuff and headed off to meet Auntie Daphne. That was Mummy's first at driving baby to somewhere beyond Sengkang.
I wasn't nervous about leaving baby at the infant seat on the rear of the car cos prior trips with Daddy had affirmed that Adri loved car rides! Even those bumpy ones across humps! =D
So off i went, took great care to drive slowly; was on the 3rd and 2nd lane mostly. Ensured that temperature was right and turned on some music. Just when i thought that all was right, i heard a "ker-perb" sound when i steered left. Didn't suspect that anything was wrong but on further thought, it dawned upon me that i had nothing on the rear seat except for the infant seat. Took a glance and realised that the infant seat which was behind the driver seat had taken a 90-degree flip to the left! Adri was fastened, but lying on her right! Boy, i was shocked! how did that ever happen?! Infant seats aren't supposed to move/shift! =O
Was on the highway and couldn't stop. with one hand on the steering wheel and the other stretched towards the rear, i immediately flipped Adri back to the comfortable position!
Boy, heaved a sigh of relief but what came next nearly brought me to tears!

I guess the shock caused me to miss the exit. I ended up heading towards the U-turn near Terminal 2 (Changi Airport). If you were me, what speed would you be driving at then? Approached the U-turn with snail speed but alas, i heard the familar "kep-perb" again, only that it was much louder then. Needless to say, i tried to check on Adri via the rear view mirror but i couldn't see her! Assessed the traffic and decided to steal a glance. Lo and behold, this time round, the infant car seat had overturned!!! Adri was literally hanging upside down!
I can't describe how i felt but it was pure terror! My heart skipped a beat and it almost stopped! My one-month old baby was trapped in an overturned car seat! Baby didn't stir at all and i wondered if she had suffocated. Instinctively , i wanted to stop at the road shoulder to check on baby but couldn't because there wasn't one! There were only two double yellow lines on that road! I was so close to stopping along the double yellow lines but didn't cos i knew that that irrational act might have gotten us hit by the fast-coming cars and ended us in paradise. Tried to look for carparks or somewhere where i could just stop to rescue Adri.

NONE!

Just imagine how fast my heart was racing!

Thankfully, after minutes which seemed like eternity, i spotted the familar, giantic bus stop! Stopped the car, put to "P", forgot to pull handbrake and raced to Adri. When i turned her over, she was looking at me with her big bright eyes, not at all disturbed by the turns and uncomforable position.
Boy, you can't imagine how grateful i was to God for preserving Adri's life. Thankfully, she was fastened tight in her seat. I can't imagine what would have happened if her belts were loose...would she have suffocated? Or perhaps suffered some hard knocks on her soft skull and pass out?

Didn't have time to hug her. I had to move quickly cos i knew i was at a bus stop. Did a quick job at fastening her infant seat. Thankfully, hubby had demonstrated on how the seat was to be fastened. Wasn't sure but did the best i could.
Well, got honked but what could i do but apologise profusely to the bus drivers who probably just thought that i was some ignorant and inconsiderate driver?

Accordingly to Daphne, i was all pale when i eventually met her at Expo. I still quiver when i recall what had happened. When i told hubby, i was close to tears!

So, what went wrong?
The seat was fastened properly but hubby commented that the infant car seat was not secured enough; it was only held by one strap. Honestly, i still don't quite understand that but what we did was, we immediately went to get another that very night. And we tested and made sure the seat didn't shift an inch with every turn!

It was an experience that really sent chills down my spine but on a positive note, Adri is prob brave enough to accompany Mummy to those exciting rides at amusement parks! Mummy loves those but Daddy doesn't! =p
I'm really really proud of Adri. I dare not imagine how different things would have been should Adri had wailed aloud!

That aside, will i stop driving Adri around and go public?

Nope. I believe in overcoming my fears and taking practical steps to do that. Yep, i do not deny that my confidence has shaken a little but that experience has taught me to be extra cautious. =)

Adri's 1st month Celebration

Can't express how thankful i am to Auntie Sabie for being the photographer during Adri's 1st month celebration. If not for her, many precious moments would have been missed.

Boy, Hubby and I were that busy that we didn't have time to take pictures! And by the time we settled down for a family pic, we were "half dead".
okie, baby was the star of the night.
A picture speaks a thousand words. =)
Hee, am too tired to write... =p

Baby Swing! =D

Hubby and I were wondering what we could do in prep for 12 midnight and lo and behold, my cinderella woke up some 20 minutes before the clock struck 12 and started wailing! Oh my! Thankfully, we had managed to set up this wonderful gift that we received from our neighbour - an infant/baby swing! =D

Check out baby's expression. The pics have been arranged in the order at which they were taken. Apparently, baby seemed to be soothed by the back and forth motion of this auto swing! =D

Will this be THE solution to our sleepless nights or would it be sheer novelty that will eventually wear off? I certainly hope it won't be the latter.




Boy, i love fisherprice for coming out with products such as the baby cot carousel, rocker and swing! =D

Okie, buzzing off to attend to my cinderella! It's almost 12, going to get ready to nurse her! =)

Adrielle + X'mas Tree!

Did a rather quick job at setting up the xmas tree. We really wanted to immerse Adrielle in the spirit of Christmas and i simply couldn't wait to see her response to the dazzling lights!
Placed her in her rocker beside the x'mas tree and her whining stopped shortly! She was captivated by the glittery lights and before long, she felt asleep, even before i finished my little conversation with her! =D




Boy, I can't wait for confinement month to be over and to celebrate this year's Christmas with Baby Adrielle! =D
Am not allowed out and can't do any Christmas shopping yet but i will defintely bring Baby Adri out once i pass this weekend and do some sprint shopping for at least my beloved family! =D

Christmas is all abt the spirit of giving and i thank God for this awesome bundle gift of joy! =D

P.S. Notice that my posts are getting shorter? Baby's awake!

Adri's Treasure...

I think my baby has learnt that her vocals are an extremely effective "sword"; unsheathed, both Mummy and Daddy literally surrender.

For two consecutive nites, my angelic baby who sleeps real soundly and follows a 3-hour routine in the day turned really easily irritable in the night and that made both her exhilarated parents exhausted.

Having her in the day is really a bliss, she sleeps in heavenly peace and awakes only when it's time for her feed punctually! Even when she awakes before it's time for her milk milk, she lies contentedly in her cot/rocker and observes her surrounding quietly.
Of late however, nothing seemed to be able to comfort her in the nights. She had, for the past two nites (as well as on certain nights ), stayed awake from 12midnight to 6 in the morning! Literally awake! The exasperating part was, she cried non-stop! And each time she did that, Mummy's heart literally broke! It was sheer heartache to see her wincing in agony, her face turning red from wailing and hearing her sweet little voice turn coarse from all the bawling!

Nothing we did seemed to work. Here's what we've tried:
- cuddled and hugged her + patted her
- rocked her both by hand and with the baby rocker
- fed her milk and/or water
- used pacifier magic
- watched dazzling x'mas tree lights + listened to x'mas music
- put her in between us on the bed
- checked and changed her diapers
- applied soothing medicated oil on her little tummy ("Ru Yi" oil)
- Burped her
- Played lullabies
- switched on the air purifier to calm her down
- placed security pillow on her
- adjusted the room temperature
- swaddled and unswaddled her accordingly
- Talked to her (in various volumes and tones)

In all, we tried all means and ways but little Adri was simply inconsolable! Tricks that worked in the day all failed! And the funny part is, the moment the clock hit 6am, she dozed off! =O

Am trying to practise Parental Directed Feeding. Didn't have to deliberately enforce anything, Adri's routine fitted nicely. I pray that come 12th week (as indicated in the books), Adri would have been sleeping soundly through the night and Mummy and Daddy wouldn't have become "pandas".

Boy, she's only approaching 4 weeks, that many more weeks of sleepless nights to go! I certainly hope that all necessary adjustments would be expedited.
Now i understand why many mums with young kids don't have the energy and time to doll up.
I fully understand...*Yawn...*

Life is becoming more unpredictable;
Every day is a day of new learning.

P.S. Juz dawned upon me that 12am - 6am was the period where i rested when i was preggy!

Mummy's 1st attempt at bathing baby =D

My mum says that it's a race against time when you have a kid, everything has to be done in "double-quick time", esp when baby is asleep. Once baby awakes, everything has to be put on hold and it may be quite a while before you find time again.
Baby's supposed to awake at 2.30pm for her feed and hence i'm trying to do a quick upload.

These are pics of my first attempt at bathing Adri. Mum who was with me went home on Sat night and hence i had to bathe baby on Sun morning, when she juz merely a week old!
Other than Baby Adri, i had never held a babe that young, and needless to say, bathe them.
No hands-on practice sessions prior to that. All i had was observing how my mum bathed her twice!
After a struggle of some 10 minutes, done!
Plus point - baby didn't cry! =D



The experience was real scary, but fun!
And hee, that's the only once thus far.
Mums are great, they are always around to help
(hee, at least for this confinement month) =D

Special B'day!

Hee, nope, I'm not that obessed. I wasn't celebrating my baby's birthday. It was mine. =)
What i really enjoyed about this year's birthday was, I celebrated this year's birthday with my baby!

Honestly, i have been feeling really tired and trying to get adjusted to life and wasn't really keen in celebrating my birthday. Wasn't looking forward to anything but sweet friends and family made the day all special. =D

Other than the precious gift (referring to Baby Adrielle), frens sent me smses of well wishes, Bestie had a cake delivered to my place even thou she was away on a holiday, Hubby bought my favourite cake from Sweet Secrets and my sis-in-law got me a fruit cake! Never had 3 birthday cakes in a day! =D That really made my day cos i was feeling all tired and cooped up at home. Thank you all! =D

Was tired, but all drag vanished the moment i carried baby! =D

Grand Finale!

After our last visit to the gynae's, Mart and I decided to opt for induced labour.
Reason?
1) Baby's healthy + ready. So why not?
2) We were super duper excited to meet our little princess! =D
3) We'd rather be prepared than caught unaware. Imagine having the water bag burst while i'm shopping =p
4) Doc's scan showed baby to be approx 3.1kg as at 38 weeks. If i were to wait for 2 more weeks, baby could have been 3.5kg and labour might have been really tough cos baby's huge size. Well, Dr Chen did caution that a 10% allowance was to be made for every weight approximation via scan.

So ta-da! 23rd Nov 2007 was to be our baby's birthday!

This is me, all excited on the night of 22nd Nov, @ 2325h, getting all ready for "THE" trip to Mt Alvernia Hospital.
ok, why such an odd hour? I was supposed to admit myself by the time the clock strikes 12! =)



In retrospect, the excitement only started building up when i was getting changed. I was home the whole day but i did nothing excepting watching TV + eating throughout the day! The numerous channels on SCV simply got me hooked. I'm no TV addict but i actually subscribed to SCV in prep for the months that i would be home. =p
Honestly, I wasn't hyped up or feeling any butterflies in my stomach til 11pm! Was the SCV an effective distractor or did i just have my unique way of "compartmentalising" my emotions?
Don't know. =)

Once the quick admins was done, we were taken to the delivery suite and there we spent the night SHIVERING! We didn't expect the delivery ward to be THAT cold! It was simply freezing! We tried looking around for the air conditioner controller but alas, it was under a central control. We later learnt that the low temperature was necessary so as to ensure that the bacteria stay dormant.

I was lucky, i asked for an blanket but poor Mart didn't have his jacket with him and ended up donning an extra T-shirt and sneaking little hide-outs at the washroom and outside the ward throughout the night.

Did i manage to catch some sleep? Yup! Though the contractions came on and off throughout the night, they were still bearable. Don't ask me how i managed to remain calm. I just have this amazing ability of drifting into dreamland when i'm tired. Try asking me how many alarm clocks i need before i could actually pull myself out of bed on the mornings of each work day. It's highly embarrassing. =p Hee, I recall the astonished look my hairdresser had when he first learnt that i actually fell asleep amidst all the pulling and tugging during those rebonding sessions!

This is a pic taken the morning of 23rd Nov! My hubby is all excited! Me? I was already feeling the intense contractions but i guess i managed to force a smile?



And this, check out my expression. I wasn't doing any warm-ups! It was immense pain!
Did i take any epidural? Yes i did but because i asked for it late, at only 7am, somehow the anaesthesist was preoccupied with god knows wat and the administration was delayed for 1.5hrs! The anaesthesist who was supposed to come didn't and by the time another came, he said i was already highly distressed! By then, i think the contractions were taking place like once in 2 minutes or something. And hey, before the water bag broke, the pain was bearable. After the water bag broke, my word, i think the only place that i didn't feel at was my hair!

Don't ask me what i did to Mart. I am sure i scratched (i did remember to cut my nails) and pinched him. And fathers out there, don't cheat by wearing long sleeves, lest you wan your sleeves riped! =p



Okie, my learning point?
ASK FOR EPIDURAL EARLY!
And hey, i wasn't trying to be "garang", i even opted for epidural prior to admission!
However, I was advised by the nurse to ask for epidural when pain becomes unbearable and i didn't expect the administrating of that WONDER DRUG to take that long.

Sum it all, after some 5 hours, i heard the first wails of my princess.

My thoughts during labour? One word:

PUSH!!!

My thoughts after labour? Yet another one word:

WOW...

(thoughts of awe)

Is it worth it? Will i go thru it again?

DEFINITELY! =D