Phoebe goes to school

We had Phoebe placed in infant care since this monday..half days at first and full day for thu and fri.. 

It's a 15min walk away from where we stay so we use the pram to push her back and forth.

I couldnt bear the thought of leaving my little gal.. but i have no choice..work starts next week.

So it will be back to the corporate world for me while juggling mummy duties.. thankfully for my mil who will pick up phoebe from sch and also cook dinner for the family. 

Hubby and I will definitely not make it back on time to pick the little gal

The little gal seems to be doing well there, babbling alot in her baby talk to the teachers. The place is spacious and the teachers seem to be handling her well and that put my mind at ease.

Felt guilty that i had to place phoebe in infant care at such tender age.. she's not even 4 mths but due to work we had no choice and my mum's too far to help babysit her.

Hope she adapts well and grow up healthy and cheerful

My Birthday 2013

Hubby and his family treated me to high tea at Shangri la last weekend.. first time there haha and phoebe's first time at high tea too :D
luckily she's quite well behaved that day :)

my family came on the actual day itself to wish me happy birthday.. so sweet and touched by them. They had to travel all the way here which took 1.5 hrs
the second sis even baked me cupcakes hahah
they stayed till evening before making their way back again.

Dinner was with the hubby at Crab in Da Bag! Its a seafood place but the concept's new here
Its seafood served with western style sauces and its eaten off the table~
We had 3 crabs and clams hahahah
They had 4-5 different types of sauces and we tried 3 of it.. really good! its different from the usual crab sauces served in restaurants.. and we gotten bored with the usual so this is something interesting for us

 flower crabs

 clams.. spicy! with chili padi!

 Sri lankan crab..corn soaked in the sauce.. finger licking good lol

My birthday in a snapshot, spent with family

AND Phoebe's 3 mths today
My little girl.. mummy loves you...

 my Birthday's on 31 oct which is halloween too lol

phoebe turned 3 mths on 1 nov :D

Tummy Time

Phoebe's control of her neck is improving.. she can hold her head up longer when she has her "tummy time"

Keep up it my little gal :)

My aunt gave me a inflatable pool, shall test out soon!

2+ mths progress

Phoebe loves... to talk :D and laughs alot

I think it might be due to me singing and talking to her all day lol
She loves it when ppl talk to her and she will babble in her baby talk
She will also throw tantrum when ppl ignore her hahah

The three of us spent most of last weekend at home watching movies and Phoebe was "demanding" attention while we watched the shows.. lol MIL went for a short trip so it was just me and hubby and the little talkative gal

Went to City Square Mall on Sat evening, it was so big and spacious and family friendly too.
There are various shops selling baby merchandise, will definitely go there again

It was stay home Sunday and we went supermarket with Phoebe to grab ingredients for steamboat dinner.

i just find her making this sound so adorable hahaha

Phoebe's first time in the mrt.. a week ago

Quite a challenge but we managed to do it with the pram to my parents' place

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary

07 Oct 2013 was our 1st wedding anniversary.

We celebrated earlier on 06 Oct which was a sunday. 

We asked MIL to look after Phoebe while we went out in the afternoon. Went to a cafe to sit down for coffee.. a luxury to just do nothing and laze with some lava cake and newspapers~

We then proceeded to Holland Village as we were not keen to go town area.. 

Strolled around before we had Korean bbq for dinner.

Simple celebration but its the company that matters. Its been some time since we had "alone" time as our lives are mostly revolving around Phoebe..especially mine as I'm the one taking care of her most of the time.

I never take much photos of the celebration hahha, most of the photos in my phone are of Phoebe's 

Those eyes

Phoebe is now 7 weeks old :)

A day in the life of a SAHM

I'm currently taking care of my little gal by myself.. its been tough but it taught me to be independent and also to train my multi-tasking skills.

Somehow i feel more tired taking care of my gal than when i was at work.. maybe my body's not tuned back to pre-pregnancy stamina yet...

my schedule goes somewhat like this

7am-9am: wakes Phoebe up for milk, burp and coaxing her to sleep
9am-11am: takes my breakfast, do laundry, pump milk
11am-1pm: wakes Phoebe for milk, burp and coaxing her to sleep
1pm-2pm: mops the place, makes my lunch, pump milk
2pm-3pm: wakes Phoebe up for bath, milk and some exercise
3pm-5pm:  packs the place, power nap, laundry again
5pm-7pm: wakes Phoebe up for milk and some exercise
7pm-9pm: Playtime, usually she's wide awake at this timing, dinner by MIL
9pm-11pm: change of clothes, cleanup, pump milk
11pm-12am: final feed, coax her to sleep

its like clockwork almost everyday
most activities are repetitive but time-consuming, like pumping milk which takes half hr or more and coaxing her to sleep can take half hr to more than an hr.. depending on her mood.

Phoebe is currently drinking every 3-4 hrs.. and she has been sleeping through the night after the 11pm night feed.

hopefully Phoebe grows up healthy and strong~ :)
breastfeeding is a tedious and sometimes discouraging process.. but i will hang in there!
staying at home and taking care of her by myself can sometimes be so lonely as everyone's out, either working or they have their own activities..but looking at her face with her animated expressions takes the loneliness away

Phoebe's First Month Celebration

We shifted back to my in law's place on sat and had the Full Month Celebration on Sun, 1st of September..
There were so much things to shift for our 1 mth stay that we had to use a lorry and a car.

Photos from the celebration, we were so busy that we did not take a proper family photo. Most photos were sent to us by friends.
And surprising, Phoebe slept throughout hahah even though it was so noisy and she was being passed around my various relatives.

Thanks to all who came again :)

and so i will be home looking after our little gal by myself.
I can do it!
So far, my activities all scheduled around her feeding and sleeping times
the moment she's asleep, i will rush to wash her stuff, clean the room etc
now my room smells of Phoebe and Phoebe smells of milk ><

KKH Class A1 Delivery suite

I'll do a little review for the Class A1 suite that I stayed in during my delivery.

It's big and spacious, bigger than some of the hotel room that i have seen, with a bed for me, 2 side tables, 1 cupboard and a sofa for the hubby or anyone who wants to sleep overnight. The attached toilet was spacious too with shower facilities and shower essentials.

It also came with extra bedsheet and blanket, some toiletries and essential stuff for the mother ( maternity pad and extra dressing gown etc). There's also pampers and wet wipes for Phoebe from the nursery. Phoebe was dressed in KKH's clothes and swaddle cloth. The only thing that she wore from home was the mittens. Another plus point, the view from my window was great! we could see the national day rehearsal fireworks.

There's also water dispenser (hot and cold) along the corridor and the nursery was on the same level as the wards. Mothers can request to room in with their babies, if tired, can request to send to nursery.

For us, we requested for Phoebe to room in with us. We only send back to nursery for supplementary feeding as my breastmilk wasnt established during the first few days. The nurses said it will usually take around 3 days before there's letdown of milk. We also had Phoebe with us through the night unless we were too tired. It really takes lots of determination to feed Phoebe in the night and she usually took around 30-45 min for latching (not including the supplementary feeding) and her feeding interval was around 2-3 hrs.

Service wise, there was a lady who came everyday to ask for my meal preference. For traditional mothers like me, there's confinement food on the menu.

The nurses were very knowledgeable and friendly and whenever they changed shift, they will go around to introduce to each of the wards. They also taught me how to latch Phoebe the proper way.

KKH had very good tagging system for identification. I had two tags on me, one is the normal plastic tag with name and IC, the other is a musical tag that will have music when Phoebe is near.

So me, Phoebe and the cot had the same synchronized music tag. When Phoebe was placed near me, there would be music, when Phoebe was placed back in the cot, there would also be music. This was like double assurance.

Medicine wise, for each round, the nurse ask for your name and IC, to prevent medication mix-up.

On the overall, for the comfort and privacy, the bill was worth it.

We had visitors everyday so it was a good choice to go for single bedded.

Cost wise, for my case as it was c sect, my bill came to 7+K, Phoebe's bill came to 1+K (mother and baby are billed separately)

Luckily, I could use around 3K of my medisave to offset.

PreNatal consultation wise, it cost around 100+ for each visit, excluding medicine as I was with The Private Suite.

And now I am in the final week of my confinement.. cant wait to wash my hair! I will definitely miss my family when I shift back to my in-laws place.

Over here, my parents dot on the little one, carrying her when I was busy with other chores. My two sisters will also play with her when they are back from work. My dad even comes home every afternoon during lunch to look at Phoebe.

Hopefully Phoebe will be less fussy when she's back to my in-laws place as I will be handling her myself most of the time.

But I believe, I will be more independent and able to care for her better as time goes by :)

Phoebe's updates over the weeks

1st week

2nd week

3rd week

Phoebe's weight been increasing steadily over the weeks. The Hubby brought her to the polyclinic 3 times over the weeks and doctor said we do not have to monitor her jaundice level anymore ~

Her feeding schedules have been quite regular, drinking at every 3-4 hrs even through the night. Started with 30 ml to 120 ml per feed now. Her baby acne's cleared quite abit too. I was reading up that is common for newborns to get acne/pimples and rashes.

Hubby had to work so most of the time, i'll be in charge of feeding duties. Luckily mum is around in the afternoon to take care of phoebe while i need to prepare her milk. 

And so my life now is revolving around feeding milk, pumping milk and burping milk hahahah

She will always make lots of expressions when she's drinking milk. Maybe i'll get my sister to film down on one of the days :D

Arrival of the little one

This is an overdue post as i'm currently doing confinement at my mum's place.. its been two weeks since the arrival of our little one and i hope to write this post while it's still fresh in my memory.

My delivery is a scheduled c-sect due to her positioning so we had her delivery scheduled on 1 Aug.

The hubby and I could not sleep much the day before and we woke up around 530am and prepared to go KKH around 615am..

We reached around 630am and lazed around till the Day Surgery centre open at 7am.

After registering, doing some miscellaneous checks and taking some medicine, i was finally shown to the OT around 8am. The hubby could not enter and witness her delivery as he was still coughing.

The OT was alot bigger than i had expected, with 3 nurses, my gynae and 2 anaesthetist.
I had 4 injections in total, 2 for the spinal epidural and 2 for the drip on my hand..

The spinal epidural was more bearable than i thought and the nurses proceeded to screen off the lower body with the OT gown..

Even though my lower body was fully numbed, i could still feel the pushing, pulling and thugging of my muscles. I tried distracting myself by looking at the monitors that i was hooked up on and after what seemed like ages. i heard cries... made me tear alittle.. the little one is out!
Cries are always a sign of life!

The nurses quickly whisked off the little one and i was then stitched up by my gynae.
The stitching took much longer than the delivery of the little one.

After the stitching, i was wheeled to the recovery room and i requested for the hubby to come over..
We finally had a proper look of the little one!

The nurse laid her on my chest and the little one was such a sturdy baby lol, managed to lift up her head and tried to crawl upwards. The hubby managed to take a photo of the little one who just managed to open her eyes and see us.

However the effects of the epidural suddenly kicked in and i shivered very badly. The recovery room nurses had to wrap me up in layers of blanket and even brought in a heater to warm me up.

Finally my shivering subsided and i was wheeled up to my suite while the little one was wheeled to the nursery for further checks.

And so, we have officially entered parenthood :)

I was warded for 4 days 3 nights in total. I was bedridden on the first day as the effects of the epidural took time to wear off. The wound was hurting me and i could only manage to sit up on the second day and finally walked on the third day.

Thankful for the visits from families and friends and also help from them in taking care of the little one..
We fumbled abit in handling her but we're sure it will get better with more practice.

Now i can handle her on my own at my mum's place, except the bathing as i cannot "touch water" during confinement.

And we have also chosen and registered her name after consulting the fortune teller and also our parents.

Welcome to the world :)

in the recovery room, her little eyes opening to greet us

proud grandma

and so she sleeps with her hands out, which my sisters say is very similar to my sleeping posture ><

38 weeks now

and our little gal is due this week!!exactly at 39 weeks and 1 day
 so exciting~ and nervous at the same time

prepared all that we could, but psychologically, still worried about how to take care of her when she is really born

alot of questions racing through my mind but the hubby is extremely calm, saying we will learn along the way or anything missing can top up at the last minute..
think i am getting too nervous over little things

shall post a pic of precious when she is out :)
she is still so active, kicking alot and also refusing to let me sleep  -_-
i will miss her in my tummy, rolling around, punching and whatnots hahah
and i have resorted to sleeping in sitting position as the tummy becomes too round to sleep on my side