Almost Diaper Free

For the past one week, I have been working with Sofia on taking naps in the afternoon without wearing diapers. We started off with going to the toilet before settling down for a nap and I give her reminders about not wearing any diapers, which means she has to hold if she needs to pee.

The first day went well, followed by accidents over the next two days. She woke up crying when the accidents happened, guess she just needed getting used to it. After that, we had one or two accidents and from then on, Sofia got the idea and we are now officiallyy diaper free for naps, hurray!!

The next big step will be working on being diaper free for night time as well. I am not ready to work on this yet ... maybe another few months? We shall see.

Complete Set of Teeth

Sofia's last two molars are on the way out.

Now she is ready to tackle ALL sorts of food ... satay, cuttlefish, etc., BRING THEM OVER!

When the sun comes out ...

One of the things that I dread at night is either Sofia having a bad dream and start talking out loud or she waking up in the middle of the night and not wanting to sleep again. Usually the later happens when she is on flu medication, not sure why but the medicine seems to put her in deep sleep for the few 5-6 hours then she will wake up.

Either way, once she is up, it is difficult to ask her not to talk or make noise. Then Jeremiah gets disturbed and gets awakened as well. This sort of situation makes me very irritable and I am like a half-asleep frowning clown juggling them in the middle of the night.

Recently, Sofia has started asking for milk in the middle of the night again. I gave in the night before just to shut her up and fortunately she went back to sleep after finishing her milk. She woke up AGAIN last night at 3 am ...

Sofia : Mummy, may I have some milk pls?
Me : ... wait a while ... (I was hoping she would fall back to sleep)

After 5 mins of thumb sucking ...

Sofia : Mummy, may I have some milk pls? (this time louder)

I was trying to wake my brain cells at this wee hour to find a good excuse, suddenly I blurted out,"Yes, but we must wait for the sun to come out first."

Sofia who was already on my bed, turned to look at the windows and stared hard. It worked?! I could not believe it.

After 10 seconds or so, I whispered to her again,"Yes, girl, we can only drink milk when the sun comes out, ok? Now go back to your bed and sleep." She obediently went down to her bed and fell back to sleep after sucking her thumb. Of course I was so happy to be able to kick this bad habit of hers and went back to to sleep.

I was later awakened at 7am by someone BOOMING at my ears ...

"MUMMY! MUMMY! SUN COME OUT ALREADY!! CAN DRINK MILK ALREADY!!!"

My Favourite Shopping Place

Ikea is now officially Sofia's favourite shopping mall. Why?

Simple, because they have a kid's size trolley and she ENJOYS pushing it, just like an adult.

Ssswwwwwwoooooshhhhhhh .... ssssswwwiiisssssshhhhhhhhh ...

Sometimes, she strays off the course, so I thought I would just give her some assistance using the handle on the top. Immediately I heard,"NO MUM! NNNOOOOooo!!!!!" and she will peel my hand off the handle and look at me, annoyed. Okay, help not needed.

For the rest of the evening, Sofia was happily pushing "her" shopping cart enjoying her shopping at Ikea.

It makes me wish that ALL shopping malls have such trolleys so that I can shop with peace.

Almost Ready

Our new place is ALMOST ready. We have contractors coming in everyday for different things - windows, glass, mirrors. Carpentry work has also started and we can finally see the house falling in place.

I spend most of my mornings on site to monitor work being done. It takes up lots of energy and patience to deal with these MEN. They only have one aim, that is, to come and get their job done, finished! They do not consider how their part should match with the rest of the items. For example, the grille guy actually came with grilles that block the window handle. How am I suppose to open the window then? Arrghhh ... So the grilles got to be sent back and redone. That is the sort of funny happenings in my life nowadays.

I try to avoid bringing Sofia on site cos she will start playing with the bits and pieces lying around. One of my eyes will be on her and the other on the ongoing work, soon, I am going to end up with crossed eyes. Today was an exception, we were there after school to tend to one guy who did not turn up in the morning.

I asked her to give me a "dirty" look since the place was so filthy and we end up with this photo.

My Big Boy

Jeremiah has been growing steadily since birth and the pd now classify him under the "big" catergory. That comment would make a typical mother HAPPY, somehow all mothers like their kids to be BIG and HEALTHY and CHUBBY. But I was worried too, is he a little TOO BIG? I nervously posted the question to the doc.

He assured me Jeremiah is not overweight for sure, since he is on TBM. It will not lead to obesity in adulthood. PHEW! The baby is now 8kg at 4.5 months (90th percentile).

Goat's Milk

I introduced a new drink to Sofia couple of days ago - goat's milk. I can pretty much accept goat's milk but it is strictly off Daddy's diet because of the "fragrance". When I went shopping for goat's milk from Cold Storage, I specially let Sofia tag along so that she can participate and perhaps accept the "new" milk without any fuss.

Why goat's milk instead of cow's milk? I had a brief chat with K last week and her son was also having very frequent cough with phlegm. It can get so bad that it causes him to throw up all his food. She tried to seek second opinion from TCM and the doc suggested switching to goat's milk, as the kid might have a mild allergy to cow's milk and that produces phlegm. After talking to her, I decided to give it a try too. I have long heard about goat's milk, it being closer to mother's milk, easier to digest and better absorption of nutrients by human. The only downside is it is much more expensive. For a 1.8kg tin of cow's milk, I can only buy a 900g tin of goat's milk!

I am not sure if this is the solution of Sofia's frequent coughing and cold but I plan to give it a try for a couple of months and see if it makes a difference to her health.

Follow Up

We visited the doctor this morning despite Sofia being back to her usual self. The doc suspect her stomach was weak due to the wheezing and suggested we leave it alone first. There was no diarrhoea so it was probably not stomach flu.

We went home with more ventolin syrup and a bouncing girl with two pcs of vitamin C from the doctor. Hope this wheezing chapter would end soon.

Getting Worse ...

We had a rough time last night, Sofia started to throw up all her dinner at 11pm and it continued all the way till 4am. By then, her stomach was really empty and she was so tired that she could not even be bothered when her stomach flipped. She was asking for milk and water but it all came out within half an hour after drinking. I was very worried and wondered if it was stomach flu? If it is, diarrhoea will probably follow soon.

Both of us finally manage to get some sleep after 4+am. Sofia woke up for some milk around 7+am and it did not come up this time round, phew! We continued to sleep till close to noon. It is so rare to see Sofia sleeping so long, she must have been so tired! I cooked and fed her some plain porridge for lunch and she slept again after that. It was close to dinner time by the time she woke up but she was looking much better, more energetic and lively. After dinner, we had some play, watched her favourite Barney and knocked out again at 9+pm.

Though she seems ok for now, the doctor's clinic will be the first place to go tomorrow moring.

Wheezing

Daddy was due to travel this morning and we were just discussing how should he head to the airport since Hari Raya starts tomorrow. Everyone is hurrying back to kampung and all the highways will be jammed real badly. In the end, we sent Daddy to KL Sentral station so that he can take the express train to KLIA. It worked, the road to KL Sentral was clear and smooth, the journey was a breeze!

On the way back, something in me nudged me to bring Sofia to the paediatrician. She has been coughing for the past one week, not the serious whooping cough but a couple of times during the day. It was a long weekend, no harm bringing her there for a check. The doc examined her and told me that she is "wheezing". I froze. The doc continued to explain to me wheezing is usually a sign of asthma, blah blah blah ... hopefully it will go away with some medication, otherwise we would have to discuss the options.

I knew asthma too well, my brother was asthmatic and it was chronic. Something that no parent would want their child to have. We left the clinic with a heavy heart and some strong medicine for Sofia. I hope the wheezing would go away real soon and not come back again.

My Grandpa

My in-laws are here for a 3-week stay and Sofia was ecstatic when she saw her grandpa. Simply because grandpa likes to carry her here and there! More importantly, grandpa gives in to ALL her demands. If she wants a cracker, she gets a cracker. If she wants some nuts, she will get her nuts. Of course that makes her over the moon but it drives me nuts.

I do not give in to all her request in general, only those which are deem appropriate at certain times. For example, if she wants her favourite cashew nut, I will tell her that she will only get the nuts after she finish her dinner. So there is a condition attached, but grandpa gives without any conditions and unlimited quantity. That is why Sofia loves to have him around.

I am like the baddie in the house, always putting a stop to Sofia's request. How will my behaviour be like when I become a grandma? Lots to think about ...

Home Alone Again!

My mum went back home this morning after helping me out for the past 2 months. It feels really different to have her around, at least I have someone to talk to since I am home most of the time.

Daddy and I can also sneak out for a 3-hr date while my mum looks after Sofia for us, and the wonderful thing is that Sofia behaves very well when I am away! Sometimes I wonder if my mum has a magic wand which she nevers shows it to me?

Well, hopefully she would be here again soon!

Fireflies @ Kuala Selangor

Tonite was one of those rare nights that we actually planned an activity for the family. Actually we do not really have a choice, we wanted to see the fireflies at Kuala Selangor and the only way to see them was to visit them at night.

It was raining in the afternoon and it cleared the skies of all the haze, dirt and whatever. By the time we reached Kuala Selangor, the clear night was a perfect setting for vieiwng the fireflies. It was more crowded than we imagined, there were a few loads of tourist before us and we noticed most of them had come from Japan! Only then I knew fireflies only exist in tropical countries.

Each of us had to wear a safety jacket before we got on the boat, Sofia looked so funny with the oversized jacket. Unfortunately we were too excited to go and forgot to take a photo of her. We were hoping that Sofia would be able to learn and understand more about fireflies from this trip but she was more excited about the boat ride on the river.

Finally it was out turn to set sail and the boat brought us out to the dark and quiet part of the river. There were indeed many fireflies and it was so lovely, like Christmas trees but with REAL lights. We asked Sofia to look at those blinking lights and told her those were fireflies but I think she could not quite understand. To her, lights are lights, how can they be a bug? Then she got bored and started fidgeting around the boat, we were supposed to be still and quiet. Ended up, we had to distract and keep her entertained as much as we could.

Though the boat ride was very short, approx 15 mins only, but it was a very refreshing experience. I have never taken a boat ride on a river at night before, it was so calm and still ... of course, the thousands of fireflies made the ride even more special. The numbers are starting to decline due to urbanization, glad to see them while I can. Hopefully they would still be around couple of years later, we would love to return with Sofia and Jeremiah for another romantic boat ride.

Pneumococcal Vaccine

We decided to give Jeremiah the pneumococcal vaccine though it is not compulsory in Malaysia. There are just one too many virus around now a days. He was pretty brave about it, just a little cry when the needle went into his chubby thighs and out again.

He is 3.5 months today and weighs 7.2kg.

Uncle Ronald McDonald

I must have been doing too many drive-throughs at McDonald's with Sofia. She has been pointing out McDonald's big "M" when we are on the road and asking me to buy FRIES! I do junk on McDonald's about once a week when I run out of idea what to eat for lunch. It is just so convenient to drive through and bring lunch home.

Daddy does not like the idea though and now I have introduced it to Sofia as well!! I do give her some fries but in really SMALL portion. I would break up one stick into many pieces and only give her a piece each time. Of course she loves it very much. Sometimes, like today, I bring her to McDonald's for breakfast and she enjoys the muffin too.

Personally I think it is definitely not healthy to eat this everyday but giving her an occasional treat surely brightens up her day.

Grandma & Grandson

My mum has been here since July to lend me a hand and she has since won Jeremiah's heart. She is so good with him that he can just sit there and respond to her with all the "Ooooohhss and ahhhhhs" when she teases him.

My mum is really good with kids, she can talk and sing to him for half an hour without running out of topic. Me? I will do that for 5 mins and my mind will start wondering elsewhere ... With all the good times they have together, Jeremiah gives my mum the widest smile when he sees her and chuckles the loudest when she sings.

As for me, Jeremiah kicks the hardest and opens his mouth the biggest when I carry him in the nursing position.

New Haircut

Yes, I trimmed and cut Sofia's hair myself ... she refused to go to the salon with me to get her hair cut so I DIYed. Actually I would have loved to keep her hair long so that I get to doll her up with ponytails and clips.

The problem was when it comes to washing her hair, she wants it done "salon" style. I would have to sit on a stool, let her lie across my lap, balance her and wash her hair on the left. This way, the water and shampoo would not get into her eyes and face. I am getting fed up of this cos she is way to heavy and long, it is causing my back to ache after bathing her everyday.

So the first step to showering her standing is to have short hair. It is much easier to wash away the shampoo with short hair and not to mention, it will also shorten her agony. I am going to shower her standing REAL soon ... hope she does not scream the house down.

Little Miss Yakult

Yakult is Sofia's favourite drink.

With the little bottle, I can get her to pose for photos in exchange.

Don't you think it is a good deal?

I certainly do!

So Many??

Sofia started asking questions using the phrase "Is this the ...." these few days, guess she must have learnt it from school.

An interested conversation we had yesterday:

Sofia : (Pointing to my tummy) Is this the ... meimei in Mummy's tummy?
Mummy : (Looks in horror) Are you SURE?? How many are there?
Sofia : One, two ... three, four .... five ... SIX!

Yes, this is also the way she counts now. But we are defintely NOT going to have another 6 babies!!

The Mighty General

Sometimes I feel like a mightly general when I go to bed at night. I sleep on a king-sized bed all alone with my left-hand man (Jeremiah) and right-hand woman (Sofia) on their own mattresses. Daddy sleeps in the room next door so that he gets his eight hours of undisrupted beauty sleep.

Unfortunately, instead of being protected and taken care of by my aides, I am watching over them. At times, I am so torn between them, especially when I am nursing the little boy and the young lady gets awakened by his cries and start chanting,"I don't want Didi ... I don't want Didi ... " ... I can only try my best to console and assure I am still with her and hopefully her sobbings do not escalate and disturb the rest of the family.

The night situation was pretty bad last week when Sofia was down with cough and cold, she could not sleep well with a blocked nose and kept waking up at night. It was a toll on me because Jeremiah was still waking up for feeding and my sleeping hours just got less and less. Fortunately, Jeremiah did not join the band wagon and was still growing very well.

My Sleeping Preferences

After 2.5 months of trial and error, we have more or less understand Jeremiah's prefered style of sleeping during different time of the day.

First, when he is sleepy, he would make it known by crying in short phases with his eyes closed. On good days, he may take a 2-hr nap or rarely, a 3-hr nap during mid-day.

During day time, he likes to sleep in the car seat, or

the day chair. In the afternoons, he may stay awake on bad days or take 15 mins - 30 mins naps now and then.

About 2 weeks ago, Jeremiah started knocking out at 9pm but these days, he chose to knock out at 8pm, which will give me enough time to put Sofia to bed.

This is how he sleeps at night, on the tummy. But he does not sleep through yet, he still goes on a 3-4hr feeding cycle at night. Hopefully this will improve as he grows older and we can do with just one or no night feeding at all.

5-in-1

Most parents are familiar with the terms "5-in-1" or "6-in1", it basically refers to the immunization jabs for babies when they turn 2-month old. I got a "5-in-1" today too! No, it is not a jab but a beautiful watch.

Daddy was invited to be join one of AMEX card some time in Nov last year and upon joining we would be entitled to a FREE beautiful Longines watch. The only condition was that we had to charge a certain amount to the card within the first six months. So we started trying to charge all our expenses to the card, it was not easy, we found out AMEX is not as widely accepted as VISA or Mastercard.

Last month, we checked our statement and after months of hard work, we were really entitled to the free gift!! Daddy went to collect the free gift and presented to me, said,"Mummy, this is a gift for you and it COVERS the following occasions/celebrations:

1. Last year's Christmas present
2. This year's Valentine's Day present
3. Gift for giving birth to Jeremiah
4. This year's birthday present
5. This year's Christmas present

Can you find a man more cheapo than my stingy old man??

My Fair Lady

This is one of the most beautiful dress Sofia has in her wardrobe. My sister bought it for her last Christmas and it was only recently Sofia grew into the lovely dress.

The fabric is nice to touch and the design and cutting is so classic, well, Sofia is supposed to be demure and ladylike when wearing this dress (I told her before putting it on) but you can never trust her promises at this age.

Fortunately Sofia was in a pretty good mood that day and did some fantastic poses:


The above pictures were taken by asking her to sing the mandarin song she learnt in school ...

Wo ai wo de Papa
Wo ai wo de Mama
Wo ai wo de Didi
Wo ai wo de Meimei
Wo ai wo de jia


Sofia was singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and acting like she was going to fall while swaying to the tune ...


Last but not least, trying to get the most ladylike pose from her ...

good ...

TATA!!!

Desperate Housewife

No, I am not a fan of this show, in fact, I have not even watch a single episode. But I find the name so close to my heart now. Yes, I am desperate, extremely DESPERATE ... for Jeremiah to get more sleep.

This baby of mine is a SUPER light sleeper, if I would ever so gently put a blanket over him after he fall into deep asleep, he would still stir. Furthermore he sleeps on his tummy so I am covering his back and he knows! I know putting him on the tummy increase the risk of SID but it was almost my last resort already. He has been sleeping on his back for about 6 weeks and none of his nap lasted more than 15mins continuously due to baby's moro reflex. And patting him does not make him go back to sleep, I need to carry him and rock, then he would fall sleep again. Sometimes rocking does not work so I have to walk round and round the house to lull him to sleep. If that does not work, I dance or waltz with him. This can take 15mins to half an hour and he would wake up barely 15mins after I put him on the bed. HELP!

This fella loves to drink milk. Most babies fall into a 3-hr feeding cycle by the second month. Jeremiah started off with 1.5-hr feeding cycle then 2-hr cycle when he turn 1 month old. No matter day or night, he was just as punctual. The first month was really tough, I barely slept, my mind did not work properly at all. My only reflex that worked was just putting the baby to my breast when he cry. And he loves to sleep and nurse at the same time, perhaps that is the time he catch up on his sleep. I could not nurse and sleep at the same time so many times I was dozing off while nursing. After nursing, burping and changing his diaper, Jeremiah would then be wide awake. Hey, I thought babies would sleep after being fed? Arrrghhhh ...

Swaddling ... I could not bare to swaddle him when we brought him back home. Sofia was being swaddled for one month and I think that helped her to sleep well. But my emotions got the better of me and I did not swaddle Jeremiah. BIG MISTAKE. When I tried to swaddle him at one month old, it was too late, he ended up being angry and even more awake at night. So I tried letting him sleep in all sorts of places, from the bed to the baby recliner to the car seat ... nothing works. When R visited me two weeks ago, she suggested sleeping on the tummy and showed me the way to do it. R even taught me how to burp him on the shoulder and put him on the tummy from there. The first night was bad cos he could not turn his head so I woke up every hour ... to turn his head ... feed ... turn his head ... feed ... turn his head ...feed. It was a LONG night. I persevered. By the fourth night, he could actually turn his head himself and slept two hours straight till the next feeding, phew!

Sleeping on the tummy does work for the night but somehow, he does not sleep much during the day, even on his tummy. I decided to try the hammock over the weekend, it is my LAST resort. It has been two days and he cries real badly when I put him inside, I do not know what else I can do ... can someone please tell me?

Nursing the Baby

I was nursing Jeremiah while surfing the web this afternoon and Sofia came into the room looking for me.

Me : Hi Sofia, woke up from your nap already?
Sofia : ...... Didi nursing mummy's milk..
Me : Yes, didi is hungry so he needs to drink milk.
Sofia lifted up her shirt and said,"Didi nurse fia's milk."
Me : HUH??

I was caught off guard by Sofia's offer but it was so sweet of her to offer to "feed" Jeremiah. It really warm my heart for the day.

Statistics

We brought the duo to the PD today for vaccination.

Sofia weighs 13.5kg now, at 29 months while Jeremiah weighs 4.4kg at 5 weeks old. One is still a breeze to carry while carrying the other is a back breaking task now.

End of Confinement

My confinement ends today, 2 days earlier because my mum needs to go back to give my dad a hand after his op tomorrow.

Well, one of my favourite confinement dish/soup is the red dates soup most mummies are familiar with. It is cooked with red dates and couple more herbs and it taste very sweet without sugar added. I believe it is packed with tons of vitamins and iron. Most importantly of all, it is filled with lots of love from my mum who dutifully prepares the soup every night.

My mum has been a great help eversince the little rascal arrived and gave us both many sleepless nights. There were nights where my mum changed the baby's soiled diaper without my knowledge! I guess I just knocked out completely.

I am really one of the lucky ones who has a great and capable mum to help out during such difficult times.

Mummy buys ...

Sofia seems to think her mum is capable of buying everything in this world, here are some examples:

Sofia : Mummy go supermarket buy juice for fia (Sofia).
Mummy : Ok, I will get some juice for you the next time we go to the supermarket.
Sofia : Mummy buy grape juice for fia.
Mummy : Sure, no problem.

**********************************************************

We were admiring the full moon from Sofia's bed one night.
Sofia : Mummy buy moon for fia.
Mummy : ...
Sofia : Mummy buy moon for fia!
Mummy : Erhm, ok, I will try but I do not think I can.

**********************************************************

Sofia has a Barney DVD where part of the program shows a girl riding on a pony. One fine day after watching the DVD,

Sofia : Mummy buy horse for fia, fia climb horse and sit.
Mummy : Sofia wants to ride on a horse too?
Sofia nods her head profusely.
Mummy : Sofia, Mummy has no place to keep the horse, next time when we visit the zoo, I will get you a horse ride, ok?
Sofia : Ok.

I think Sofia wants to ride a horse real badly. There have been occasions where Fefe is crouching on the floor and Sofia crossed her leg over Fefe's body, pulled her ears back and started bouncing on the poor cat like a horse. Of course you will then see a terrified cat scurrying around the house looking for a place to hide. It is very funny to watch them but I hope Sofia will quickly come to the idea of loving her pets in the correct manner soon.

The Pacifier Queen

Hi Everyone, I am the Pacifier Queen. Erhm ... actually this is my brother's pacifier, but since he does not like it, I am enjoying it on his behalf.

I can tell you, it tastes really NICE. I could not understand how come I prefer my thumb over the pacifier ... I should have chose the pacifier!

Give me 3 pacifiers anytime and I will enjoy them all!

This is the coolie pose ...

But I think I look best in this one - the girlie pose!

512

12 May 2009 is Jeremiah's birthday and it coincides with a disaster in Sichun last year where many children died when their schools collapsed during an earthquake. It was horrible and I could still remember watching news on 11 May night where the children's parents are still questioning the China government on this matter. I felt very emotional when watching the news, being a parent, I can imagine how angry the parents feel and the grief they bear to lose their children prematurely ... I sincerely hope time will heal their wounds and justice would be done some day.

Anyway, the EDD for Jeremiah is 22 May and I asked my mum to come over early May so that we can do some shopping for the herbs needed during confinement. My mum chose to come over on 12 May, thinking the little fella will not come so early. It was such a coincidence that this fella DID choose to arrive on 12 May as well! I could still remember calling my mum at 8am on 12 May to tell her that the baby is likely to arrive today and she was so surprised! Of course Daddy and her had to do last minute shopping for all the herbs and stuff but everything was manageable.

12 May would now be a special day for our family where an unexpected fella came to join our family.

Breakfast Party @ Summer Academy

Sofia's school organized a gathering for all the parents today. I was very excited when they informed us a week ago cos there will be a performance put up by the kiddos! I know my confinement is not over yet, officially not allowed to leave the house, but I am not going to miss Sofia's performance for anything!

So. I sent Sofia to school this morning with her grandparents to join the party. The moment I step into the school with her, she stuck to me like super glue. If I was just two feet away from her, she will start going "Mummy! Mummy!" then grab my legs like a koala. I thought things would get better after a while but she was still the same.

Needless to say, she did not want to join in the performance. Fortunately, her principal took a video of the kids during rehearsal and I enjoyed the video very much. I hope Sofia would not be so shy next round and I can watch her perform live for me!

Here is the video of her in her principal's blog:
http://yanesly.blogspot.com/2009/05/parents-day-at-summer-academy-damansara.html

Enjoy!

Jeremiah @ 2 weeks

Jeremiah is starting to put on weight and it starts to show first on the cheeks. He is exclusively being breastfed right now and we are stuck to each other day and night, just like best of friends.

My Birth Story

11 May

It was a regular Monday and Daddy went with me to the bi-weekly checkup at TMC. The sonographer did an ultrasound scan for me to check on the baby and everything was fine. But we did have some difficulty getting a proper look at his head, cos it was really "low". Dr Lie did an internal examination to check for dilation but there was none. But the check was really painful, cos he stretched my cervix during the examination. My gynea back in Kuching also used this trick to "induce" labour so I was very familiar with the pain. I really do not like it and it made me walk cross-legged after the checkup.

It was 11pm and Daddy and I were relaxing on the sofa, munching on some tidbits. Suddenly I felt a gush of discharge and it made me jumped. I thought my water bag had broke but it was not. I assumed it was nothing major so I went to bed as usual.

12 May

5am - I was awakened by a very strong urge to poo while sleeping. Did I eat something not right? I tried to ignore the urge but it came again and again. I woke up, grabbed a cup of warm water and rested on the sofa. Then the contractions started. I timed the contractions, they were 10 mins apart.

6am - I woke Daddy up and told him about the contractions. I decided to take a hot shower first and it felt good. Somehow hot shower really helped to ease the contractions.

730am - Daddy sent my in-laws to the wet market to top up the food supply at home.

830am - Daddy and I sent Sofia to school together with the hospital bag in the car. On the way, I called my gynae to inform him of the situation. He asked me to take my breakfast first and go to the delivery suite at TMC to monitor the situation, he will meet me there at 10am. We dropped Sofia off at school and went to Damasara Utama to have some noodles. By this time, my contractions were about 5-7 mins apart.

10am - I got myself checked in to the delivery suite, hooked up on the CTG machine to monitor my contractions and baby's heartbeat. The doc arrived soon after and check on my dilation, there was none. We guess it was a false alarm after all. However, as my contractions were pretty strong, the doc advised me to stay on so that the nurses can monitor the situation.

3pm - I tried to make myself comfortable on the sofa and keep myself entertained with the TV but I was getting very bored by then. I wanted to go home. One of the midwife came by and helped me time the contractions. It was irregular, some were 5 mins apart, some were 7 mins. But they were coming on really really strong.

6pm - I asked the midwife again if I could go home, she offered to check on my dilation, in case labour has indeed started. After checking, it was confirmed labour has started, I was 4 cm dilated! Then everyone sprang into action. My gynae instructed the midwife to break the water bag and I had to decide if I wanted epidural. I remembered the pains I had during labour the last time so the chicken in me opted for epidural. I called Daddy and told him labour has started, come to the hospital soon.

630pm - The anesthetist arrived and prepared epidural for me, shortly after, my water bag was broken. I wondered how long would it take for me to reach full dilation - 10pm? I was feeling hungry by then but no food was allowed already.

800pm - The midwife came to check my dilation again, I was 8cm dilated already! I was getting very nervous. She went to call the doc again while I called Daddy again to ask him to come quickly.

815pm - Daddy, my mum and my father-in-law arrived, phew! The delivery team went into full swing to prepare for the baby's arrival.

830pm - The doc arrived and I was fully dilated already! The team got ready and the rest was up to me now. I had to coordinate my pushing with the contraction and honestly, I do not know how to push! I tried to push with all my might but it was not done correctly and ended up with a big red face. The midwife, Shirley, was very encouraging and gave me very specific instructions on how to breath and push. It was also a correct decision to turn off the epidural but I could have done it earlier. After many unsuccessful pushes, I think I managed to catch the ball and with two proper pushes, Jeremiah was out!

There we have, a proud grandma and a delighted grandpa at 920pm!

Our New Bundle of Joy

Hi Everyone, pls meet our son, Jeremiah. He was borned on 12 May 09 at 9:20pm at Tropicana Medical Centre under the wonderful hands of Dr Aldrin Lie. It was a beautiful and smooth birth experience and the delivery team at TMC did a fantastic job!

Here are more pics of the little one.