ABC....

My nephew, who is like 2 and a half years old goes to a hokkien babysitter everyday while my sis goes to work.

So the other day my mum was playing the alphabets with him.

Mum: A is for what...?
Nephew: Apple!!
Mum: B is for what....?
Nephew: Bey Chai!! (Buy vegetables in hokkien)

And that's why my sis is sending him to pre-school next week.

Vain

Tonight as we were signing up for a medical insurance & education plan for Peanut (yup we're kiasu liddat), the insurance lady asked me for my weight cos she needs to put it down on the insurance form (why have to put one ah?! i'm not the one who's insured also). I was quite mortified lor and had to pause quite a while and had to look at BigBoss for emotional support before i managed to squeak out "64kg". Dunno why but i felt quite embarassed and I dunno why i'm telling everyone now. Anyway, conclusion is i'm still fat lah . 10 more kgs to go! I'm still constantly hungry and it takes superhuman effort not to eat too much.

Anyway......

I was around 8 months preggers when i bought this!



Does it work? I don't know yet because I haven't worn it. I think I'll only wear it when Peanut is in her 4th week, just to ensure I'm completely healed on the inside, since this thingy looks pretty tight. Like cannot-breathe-type tight.

Anyway, since the ladyboy selling this was super persuasive, and it's only RM40, and it's ideal for me to wear after pregnancy to help me get back into shape and hopefully burn the fats around my waist,I decided to buy it. One can hope rite?


We'll see how it goes. She/he (the ladyboy) said i'm supposed to wear one size up than my normal size pre-preggers. I was M then, but I decided to buy XL because L looks super small lor!!!! And i doubt i can be an M anymore.

See how small it is! I put a paperbook novel on it for size comparison. Small hor.

Actually XL also looks super small and tight la but I was in self-denial mode at that time. I just hope i can get this thing pass my thighs.

The "look"

Nowadays BigBoss is very fond of giving me the "look".

The "shhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! " with the finger on the lip type.

Especially when I say "eh look! Peanut's legs so chubby de hor"
Or "wahh, Peanut can sleep really long lei"
Or "she can really drink her milk!!"

Basically, i cannot say nice things about Peanut in front of Peanut. Might as well stuff my mouth with a piece of cloth and put a masking tape over it la.

Yes, BigBoss is as pantang as Tilam.

Me the cheerleader

So Tilam has many weird advices for me.

Sometimes, Peanut makes weird expressions when she's sleeping. Ocassionally, she breaks into a smile. Or she'll cry for like 3 seconds and then silence. She does all these when she's sleeping. So i asked Tilam whether there's anything to be worried about.

She said all babies have a "baby guardian" by their sides. And these babies will play games with these "guardians". So if the babies win, they will smile. But if they lose, they'll cry. So when babies cry, us Mothers need to tell our babies to "fight for it!!". Dunno fight for wat also la.

So if you see me yelling "fight for it!!" to Peanut, I'm not crazy. I'm just being the supportive, cheerleading mum.

Day 14: Peanut

I try to take pics of Peanut with different expresssions to give this blog more variety. You won't see a photo of her and me in this blog though cos I look a mess. And i"m still fat.

Hello Helllo!!

Um, if you're wondering why she's dressed in blue, I'm not trying to turn her into a boy okie. She's wearing my nephew's hand-me-downs. I've got tons of it from my sis, so why waste it rite? hehe

Finally, a blur pic of her smiling!

Caught by surprise.

To make her look more girly, *ahem* I threw the pink blanket on her.

You see the pink mattress protector she's lying on? That thing is a life saviour. She poops so much in a go that sometimes some of it leaks out of her diaper. Thank God her poop doesn't smells like adult shit. It just smells, different. And it's yellow in color.

On another note, i'm really tired but I can't seems to fall asleep. I only fell asleep at 4am last nite. Do I have insomnia or what? And i'm not even taking care of Peanut at night. Yet.

My first "official-it's-not-a-secret" shower

As you all know, today is the "all important 12th day", and today I can eat actually eat pork vinegar and ginger chicken. Hallejujah!!!! Though what i really want is coke light and McDs, this will do for now la.

Oh and about the shower part, showering is a production in itself. In the morning, Tilam boiled and boiled lots of water which she poured into pails, which she then have to slowly bring up to the bathroom. Then one special pail needs to contain this special herbs thingy. All in all, i think i have around 6 pails of boiled water around for me to shower. No wonder nobody showered in the olden days time la. Have to chop wood, boil water, then carry to God knows where. If me also I won't want to shower last time, especially if I have to do all these myself.

Anyway, after shower, as per Tilam's instruction, i have to quickly blow dry my hair, and the air-cond in the room has to be off. And i have to down a half glass of DOM, and i need to sleep. Okay, i just downed the DOM, and i can feel my heart beating more furiously. This is what happened when you don't have any alcohol in your system for the past 9 months. You get tipsy wih DOM. And bloody hell, i'm sweating so much now!!

Confinement: The story so far

My confinement lady is from Johor. She speaks cantonese and mandarin and hokkien. I understand 50% of what she is saying. She refers herself as "Tilam" because she's pudgy and babies like to sleep on her. She reached BigBoss's family home on the day I was discharged from the hospital. (wah, like writing a primary one karangan liddat)

So far ah..she can be quite repetitive, but she's actually quite cool. I'm warming up to her slowly. She has plenty of taboos and pantangs, collected over the span of 23 years.

Below are some of Tilam's pantang larangs:

• Okay we have the usual classic, no showering or washing hair until the 12th day. Then after the 12th day, no showering and washing of hair until the end of the month.
  
• No wine in my food until the 12th day because i had a c-section.
  
• I am not allowed to drink boiled water until full moon because it'll make me puffy / swollen. So everyday i need to drink this weird concotion of red dates with kei chi drink. And i can drink hot milo.
  
• I can't eat anything cooked with salt until the 12th day
• I have no idea what's so special about the 12th day
• I have to sit down when I drink
  
• I cannot eat any fruits except for apples
  
• I cannot eat most vegies except for Kailan and broccoli, and yep you guess it, until the 12th day
• I cannot eat chicken until the 12th day because it's toxic. I have been eating fish and pork every single day *sniff*
  
• I cannot wear anything sleevless, must cover my arms if not the "wind" will go in.
  

As for Peanut, these are a few things she has taught me so far, Pei Chyi and Mei Li take note *ahem* :

• When babies have hiccups, you take a piece of tissue paper, cut it into postage stamp size, wet it with water and stick it onto the baby's forehead. Well, as weird as it might sound, we tried it and it works.
  
• You don't need to burp the baby if she's on breast milk. Only do it when she's on formula. I have no idea whether this is true or not la
  
• When you bring your baby out shopping etc, do not refer her by her name. Instead give her a nickname like Ah Girl, Baby or whatever names you can think of la. This is so that nothing will follow her home.
  
• When you're in the hospital and ready to be discharged, say "Peanut, it's time to go home" and when you reach home, say "Peanut, you're finally at home, welcome home" or something like that lah.
  
• Rub the two big toes on baby's feet constantly to get a smarter baby.
  
• To prevent jaundice, Tilam squeezed three pieces of grapes to extract the juice onto a soup spoon(must be 3 only okie), and fed it to Peanut. Oh, and the grapes have to be green. Drink only once a day.
  
• She bathed Peanut in guiness stout (mixed with tap water of cos) to prevent red spots.
  
• Babies can't wear anything yellow, so that she won't get jaundice. Even the towel that she use after she showered can't be yellow
  
• Um..wot else. To check your baby for jaundice, use your forefinger and press lightly on the baby's forhead, her chest and cheeks. Press maybe for 3 to 4 seconds. If the skin rises up quickly after that, and the color goes back to pinkish hue, then the baby's alright. But after you press and the skin does not rise up immediately, and there's a yellowish tint then you gotta see the doctor. Oh, and plus the eyes cannot be yellowish too. She told me the doctor taught her how to do this.
  

Absurd as some of the above might sound, I just take it with a pinch of salt. I followed all the rules except for the no showering part and the "no drinking of water". I cannot stand not showering lor, but what I did was to splash a bit of water on my body, soap myself, splash more water and quickly towel dry. It's quite a mission to do all these without letting Tilam finding out. And i cannot NOT drink any plain water, because I feel so dehydrated without it. But i have yet to wash my hair. I can do it tomorrow though (it's the 12th day, unless it rains. sigh). I followed this rule just because I do not want to risk getting headaches or migraines in future. Backaches I can deal with, head pain, not so.

Confinement for me has been pretty okay so far, because I get to spend all my time with Peanut without any interruptions and I get to lie down in bed the whole day. What's not to like ya?

So what do I do everyday ah?

Every morning i wake up at around 8:30am to 9am, but still so tired lor because I can't seems to fall asleep easily at night. I usually sleep at around 12am to 1am.

So...after i wake up, I will quickly wash up, have a quick breakfast before the CL brings Peanut into my room. Then at this stage, i'll breastfeed her and watch tv. The CL takes care of her during the night as she wants me to have a good rest. And i dun think I'll have the energy also.

Lunch will usually be at 1pm, which usually consists of brocolli or kai lan, and pork cooked with ginger. It's only Day 11, but I am already sien with the menu. But she promised me things will be different after Day 12. Hopefully lor! Cos i see my meals nowadays also no appetite. I have to ask BigBoss to sneak in a bottle of Pringles at night for me. Dunno can eat or not, but I eat also lah.

Anyway, after lunch, Peanut will again be in my room with me until around 7pm, which is dinner time. So the whole afternoon, I'll either look at Peanut, breastfeed, watch tv, read some mags, and generally just try to stay awake. I'm usually very sleepy at this point, and there are times when i do fall asleep, but I always wake up to see what Peanut is doing. I'm scared of crushing her while sleeping hehe Sometimes i wish i can bubble wrap her up because she's so fragile and I'm afraid I'll hurt her accidentally. And i have yet to master the art of carrying her in my arms without her bursting into tears.

Honestly, at this stage, I can't live without the CL! She takes care of Peanut really well and it's such a relief sometimes when Peanut cries and cries and I know CL is not far away to come and help me soothe her. Haihhh how ah? I'll be so lost when confinement is up!

What's in a chinese name

So me and BigBoss had a hard time choosing the right chinese name for Peanut. We're both chinese illiterate, and his parents don't know what to name the baby either so we did the next best thing. Look for a chinese sifu lor!! Since it's not often we have babies right, we might as well go all the way and seek consultation for this sort of thing.



Which brought us to Kok Chong Ming Fate Analysis. Got website also wey. This Kok Chong Ming was recommended to us by a family friend. Apparently you need to make an appointment because he's super busy. Luckily neither BigBoss or me need to go. We probably won't know what he's talking about either. His Parents went for us instead. But before the dad went, he took down my sis's, my mum's, BigBoss's mum's and sister's chinese characters (basically all the women's chinese characters in the family la) as he needed to show to this sifu in order for him to calculate.

They went yesterday and then came back with this:


The chinese characters are written in the box. Each chinese character has a number of strokes. You then totaled up the number of strokes which is 29 in this case. Under each number is the english version of pronunciation.

This one adds up to 35

You look up what the number means on this piece of paper and choose which ones you like most

This makes it so much easier for us. The sifu gave us 4 options altogether. So we're gonna get Peanut's great-grandfather to make the final decision for us. RM50 well spent!

Peanut: Day 9

*waves*

A mini biology lesson

My blood type is AB+.

BigBoss is O. Dunno negative or positive la.

So when the nursery nurse passed me Peanut's healthbook on the day we were discharged, in which her blood type is listed as B+, I was quite taken aback. Did they pass me the wrong baby!?? Isn't she supposed to have either the AB or O blood type?? I always thought offsprings are supposed to follow either the mum's or dad's blood type.

I questioned the nurse immediately, and she didn't make matters any better when she hold both my hands, and look me in the eyes and say, "babies don't necessarily follow the parents blood type". What kinda explanation is that?? But I didn't really pursue the matter as a) we were in a hurry to be discharged b) we don't think we got the wrong baby as she looks like BigBoss.

So I went home and did a bit of googling. Source: http://www.bloodbook.com/inherited.html or http://www.givelife2.org/aboutblood/bloodtypes.asp

I'm too lazy to explain, but basically, parents with AB and O blood type will only have an A or B child. I don't remember learning this in high school. Really feel like suaku man. BigBoss didn't know this either. Maybe we're the only ones who doesn't know this.

PARENTS' BLOOD TYPES	POSSIBLE CHILD	NOT POSSIBLE CHILD
A and A	A, O	B, AB
A and B	A, B, AB, O	no
A and AB	A, B, AB	O
A and O	A, O	B, AB
B and B	B, O	A, AB
B and AB	A, B, AB	O
B and O	B, O	A, AB
AB and AB	A, B, AB	O
AB and O	A, B	AB, O
O and O	O	A, B, AB

Me

OMG.

I'm seriously, seriously exhausted.

My hair's a mess, I have eyebags, and i'm tired most of the time.

I checked my weight this morning at the hospital during my post natal visit. I have lost an approximate weight of 8kg so far. 10 freaking more kgs to go *sobs* The doc also took out my stitches this morning. Wah, i was quite scared actually (if you know me, you will know by now i'm scared of most things), but luckily he distracted me with some questions about the baby and stuff which got me talking and and ta dahhhhhh...he suddenly waves the string in front of me. It was blue in color if you want to know. I was like "hey, that was good! You were distracting me, weren't you?"

"I told you it wouldn't hurt rite??" he said, quite smugly la. Yeah, it's true. I couldn't even feel a thing. It hurts more when he took out the plaster the other day when i was discharged.

Now that Peanut is out, i had a proper look at my body. A still potruding belly? Check. I still look as if i'm 2 months preggers. The linea nigra line? Yup, check. Still there. Belly button still protruding out? Nope, it has sunk back in, but it still looks ugly la. Discolored skin? Check. My belly skin is darker than the rest of my body. And i have something new. A 10cm scar below my bikini line, which can't be seen when you're wearing underwear.

Does my wound still hurt? Nope, but it's a bit sore at the upper part. It hurts the most on the first day, but by day 2, i was up and able to walk without any aid.

I seriously need to do something to my hair.

The hospital stay

For a c-section, we needed to stay in the hospital a couple days more as compared to normal birth. So i stayed in the hospital from the 9th till the 11th. The hospital stay was pretty smooth. A few hours after the operation, the nurses wheeled Peanut into my room. We opted for a single bedroom because husbands are allowed to stay overnite with their wives, and their babies has the option of rooming-in (to stay with the new mummies for almost the whole day). What I liked about SDMC (Sime Darby Medical Centre), was that they are really pro-breastfeeding. They will not feed the babies formula milk unless the mothers personally request the nursery nurses to do so.

But then oh, I had such a hard time breastfeeding. This is really not an easy task. For the whole three days I was there, each morning, the nurses will bring Peanut into my room, where they will ask me to breastfeed. On the first day, this lactation consultant came to see me, and basically taught me how to breastfeed properly. In theory, it sounds easy la. And I always thought it was such an easy task when I see mothers breastfeeding their kiddos in the shopping malls washrooms. But you really need to persevere and try not be frustrated. Everytime Peanut cries because she can't latch on properly or I don't hold her the right way, I will press the bell for a nursery nurse to come and help me. Thankfully, they are very quick in responding, if not i'll feel so lost wey. However, at nite, I told them to bring Peanut back to the nursery and asked them to feed her formula milk as a supplement because i really think she doesn't have enough milk from me and I'm worried she might get dehydrated and hungry.

As for hospital meals...well that's a whole different story. They will give me porridge with either chicken or fish everyday, which the confinement lady has told me earlier on that I can't have it (the porridge) because it'll give me "wind". So i ate food my MIL cooked for me. I also had apples and drank boiled water, and had chicken essence which I only found out later is a big no-no as well in my CL's big book of rule

Oh oh, and the doc also told me "you better shower and wash your hair before you check out okie?"

ANd i went like "er...my CL say cannot wor.."

He pula said.."Why cannot?? You give me one good reason why you cannot shower, and i give you a 100 reasons why you should. This is not China, where it might be freezing in winter, where people need to go chop wood to make fire to boil water for you to bathe. Aiya, all these pantangs, don't simply listen to all of them. Malaysia is so humid, you need to be clean for the baby."

Okay-la, we shut up after tat. Frankly, i agree with wot the doctor said, but you know...old people la..and their rules. Aiseh.

Oh...and thank you Pei Chyi, Mei Li, Josie, Peng Pheng and Christine for visiting me and for the gifts sniff sniff! I heart you all!

We received this as a souvenir from the hospital. Pretty neat stuff!

Her health record book. Haven't written down her name yet, cos..we haven't registered her, and we haven't thought of a chinese name yet..we have 14 days to do so (*guilty look*)

What?

Stop taking my pics!

Peanut's birth story

Well, it wasn't that dramatic for a start. On that day itself, ( I was in my 38th week) which was a Sunday, we had a pretty busy day. We spent most of our day packing our stuff from our apartment in PJ to BigBoss's family home as that's where I"ll be spending my confinement. We had everything settled by 10pm, and i was lying down comfortably in bed, watching my E channel, when I had to get up to get something. That's when i felt something trickling down. Now, my first thought when that happened was "is that pee??" I mean you never know right, pregnancy does weird things to your body, and incontinence might be one of them.

So I told BigBoss, who immediately jumped out of bed and shouted "hah??" and quickly put on his jeans. So to be doubly sure, i quickly went to the toilet, and took a quick pee, and the water continued flowing down. Frankly, i wasn't sure what it was. It's colorless, odorless and looks just like water. And i went back to the bedroom to sit down. BigBoss kept asking me whether i'm sure it's my water that broke. Like how would i know rite?? I've never been pregnant before, and it didn't seems like how it happened in the movies, where the water just gush down and splatter on the floor. Like someone pouring a glass of water on the floor hehe .Anyway i digress.

So I stood up again, and water just kept leaking, like a very bad leaky pipe. So I told BigBoss, "this is it man! You gotta get me to the hospital, like now!" So I quickly grabbed my emergency bag which thankfully i've packed already, put on a sanitary pad, threw in my phone charger, camera and video cam, a book, my purse and we zoomed out of the door and into the car. BigBoss's parents followed us as well, to provide moral support to BigBoss in case he faints halfway. You could hear a pin drop in the car. Everybody was so silent.

Anyway, we reached the hospital in record time. He dropped me at the emergency entrance, and screamed at the valet, "she's in labor!!! where can i park?" Actually he didn't scream la, i just made that up to sound more dramatic. And the valet did ask him to park at the entrance since i'm in labor hehe. Technically i'm in labor, but i wasn't in pain or anything like that. No contraction, no nothing. Nada. I tried my best to exit gracefully from the car, felt more water leaking down, and try to walk as fast as possible to the reception.

When i reached the reception, the bored looking nurse (it was 11:15pm by then), asked me "yes, can I help you?" So i said calmly, "my water just broke". She selamba only, led me to this room called Stage 1, Labor room. Actually i had this vision of a group of nurses rushing to me and bringing a wheelchair for me, but again, i'm not in the movies. She then asked me to change into their really tak glam hospital outfit in the bathroom, and while i was changing, the water just kept leaking and I leaked all the way back to my bed, leaving a watery trail. She then strapped this contraption thingy onto my belly, to monitor the baby's heartbeat and to time my contractions. She then put on some gloves and proceeded to throw my dignity out of the window. Yeap, she stuck her fingers inside and it was super painful lor!!!! Apparently she was checking to see how dilated I was. I wasn't. And the contraption they strapped on me earlier was indicating that i was having contractions but it was slowing down. By then i was leaking something pinkish. Blood. But still no pain. Oh did i mention she also gave me an enema?? Really fun times.

Anyway, my doc came in at 1:15am, told me that it might take around 24 hours for Peanut to come out. And there's a danger that she might be in distress because of the lack of fluids in the belly. I took the easy way out and opt for ceaseran. C-section has always been on my mind, especially when I remembered the traumatising episode that i had back in January which involves a small operation, the difficulty in sitting down and going to toilet after that and so on. Nope, I wouldn't want to go through that again.

I was wheeled into the operating theatre at around 2am. Thank God for the really nice, fun bunch of Operating team i had that night. The nurses were kind and gentle, and the anaesthologist who gave me the epidural was a funny dude. They were very reassuring which made the whole episode extremely comfortable. For my epidural, i had two injections into my backbone. That was scary. But it wasn't as bad as I expected. To cut the long story short, when they took Peanut out, I felt this huge pressure on my belly and that's when i heard her crying. Ah...music to my ears!! I was so relieved! They took a couple of minutes to clean Peanut up, and they showed her to me after that. I gave her a quick kiss before they whisk her off to BigBoss for his turn. I was kept near the operating theatre for another half hour for observation. They also put this fan to blow hot air into my blanket because one of the after effects of epidural is feelings of coldness, and nausea. By 3:40am, I was back in my room where I puked my dinner out, and went to sleep after.

My tag. Peanut and I had the same number for identification purposes.

The report generated from the contraption they strapped onto my belly.

A closer look. I have no idea how to read it either but the bottom graph was supposed to depict my contractions. I think.


And that's that everybody! :)

Hello world!!

Oh, hi there!!

Weight: 3.31 kg
Date of birth: 9 of March 2009
Time: 2.26am
Length: 48cm
Head Circumference: 35.5cm