Bitten by the bug...

The running one that is...:) Since 6 weeks post-partum, I've been running almost every day since. On the days I don't get to run, I try to swim or play tennis. On the days I don't do anything at all, I feel a little bit edgy! It's like I can't sit still, or I'm just looking at the clock, thinking if I can squeeze in a quickie... of course, I also foolishly (under peer pressure) paid to run a half marathon in august (8 weeks away!) So I really need to get up my mileage.

the good thing is... I'm 3kg away from pre-D! Woot! but still a long way to pre-baby no 1!! boo hoo...  BUT, I still struggle to fit into my pre-pregnancy pants. sigh... The bad thing... my knees are aching bad! It's probably still adjusting to my new weight, or possibly being destroyed under my body weight. While the pains have subsided (no more pain while running), I really walk around like I'm 20 years older. My legs take so long to recover, even with rest days(ie non impact exercise) in between. 

This post is just so long overdue. It's just so much easier to read other people's blogs, than to write on your own...

Oh well, perhaps I should just put up some pictures...

D - week 7

7 weeks old, and D already has had 1 road trip under his belt. Just across the border that is. Over the long May Day weekend, we took the opportunity to go on our first family trip for the year. With 1 recovering jie K in tow, we spent 2 nights at Sofitel Palm Resort. Not the most flash place to be at, but our first choice Pulai Springs was fully booked, as we really made the decision to go quite last minute. Nevertheless, we had a great family time just bonding. The girls were so thrilled just to be at a hotel, and on a holiday. Of course, as on most holidays, swimming, eating, shopping and watching movies on tv were the main items on our itinerary.

Well, in the last 7 weeks, D has proven that he is a really baby, drinking and sleeping like all babies should. He has started to be a little more awake these last weeks, but he's still a quiet guy, staring at the things going by, occasionally crying out for attention when he has been left alone for too long. We feel so blessed for such a good baby. He's really piled on the pounds... at 6+ weeks, he weighed about 4.8kg; the heaviest of the 3... but of course he is a boy. Only thing is that amidst the whole flu bug thingy going around the house, baby D also caught the bug, and has had a runny nose for over a week. Poor boy gets his nose blocked at night, that it wakes him up, and sometimes causes him to unlatch when he is breastfeeding, gasping for air. Praying that he'll be well soon.

Dylan day 3

Dylan week 5

week 7 

A new journey...

I've started on my journey to get back in shape. Pre- baby no 1 shape, that is. After 2 long weeks of recovering from the worst bout of flu ever, I finally managed to hit the gym, and the road, a swim and my static exercises daily since last monday! I can feel myself getting back into it, though my knees have been complaining from the extra weight it has to bear now. I've got 5 kg more to pre-D weight, but 14kg to pre-K1 weight!!! :( Need to keep up the daily thing, or I will start to slack and find excuses to wiggle myself out of the workout for the day.

My regular tennis sessions also need to be re-scheduled again. With my rackets that have been stored away in the store room for over a year, I think it's time to wipe off the dust. I suddenly miss playing tennis! Hopefully I'll experience that new passion for tennis again like I did when I left off 1 year ago...

Scrapblogging...

weee.... i've found something new to do, thanks to mama D! It's creating your own scrapblog! All done with no extra costs, exercising your creativity, at the same time getting tips and help when you run out of ideas! It's great! Only thing is I can't print it out yet... so I'm just going to post it here for the first time, till I figure out my blogger username(???) I can't seem to be able to share it straight onto my blog!

Here goes!

One month on....

Dylan is now 5 weeks old. On the 23rd of April, when he turned 1 month, the whole household was struck by a deadly flu virus which had first affected mei K the day before, then baby D, mummy, MIL, and the helper! It was the worse infection I've had in a long while, and was just flat on my back with a fever for the whole day! I even lost my voice completely. Poor baby D was gurgling, coughing... I felt so pained for such a young baby to be sick... so we tripped off to the PD. While he has grown a whole 4 cm in the last one month, he is now also 4.26kg. wow... think that's the biggest increase any of the kids have had in the first month. So he now looks like a solid fella.

Anyway while everyone is now recovering, jie K, who was recovering from her bout just a month before, has gotten worse, and is today recovering at home as she too woke up with a fever. sigh... 

Praying this will all end soon.

Last week, I had the biggest scare since becoming a mother. In the middle of the night, I heard D coughing, and he suddenly unleashed the loudest, most terrifying screech I've ever heard. I rushed to look at him, and found him struggling to breathe! I picked him up, and had to thump him on his back a few times before he was able to recover normal breathing. He was a little shaken, and it took a while for him to settle down... phew... What would I do if anything serious had happened to him? That night, I prayed for baby D, and for the girls... something that I have not been doing, and really taken for granted... This is probably a timely reminder that these children have been entrusted into my care, I really need the Lord's anointing to bring them up, His protection to keep them safe and healthy, and not to forget the power of prayer...

Adjustments...

2 nights home now... D's been pretty good. Though he seems rather drowsy, only waking for his feeds every 2-3 hours. The first night, he slept well through the day, and woke every hour at night... the 2nd night, he woke every 2 hours... today, we had some relatives visit, and he was up for 2 whole hours looking around quietly. After which, he promptly fell asleep for 3 hours, and hopefully will be good tonight. 

Thoughts of motherhood 3rd time round? Seems like it does get better and easier with experience. However, this also means you start to take things for granted, and think that you know how, but you've really forgotten how... like breastfeeding, which I did till mei K was 16 months, in June last year... I would have thought that it'd be easy, and I'd know how to handle it... however, I still came home with sore nipples, and still needed that nurses to help me latch him on. So i realised that maybe I'd been doing it wrongly all along??? is that possible? But my milk did come in on day 3... not so wrong after all, right?

The addition to the growing family

So, baby D has finally arrived! Thought I should post about my delivery experience since it's still fresh in my mind. So here's a blow by blow description...

We arrived at Mt Elizabeth Hospital on the 23rd of March at 5am or so... was brought to ward 4B, bed 36, where I was to stay for the next 4 days. The nurses came to do their routine thing at 6am, to prepare me for the elective lower section caesarian section, my third one. The nurse then said that someone from the operating theatre will get me at 7am for my operation scheduled at 730am. So we waited patiently in the room. This being my third one, I had mixed feelings. Firstly, I knew exactly what to expect from the surgery, and the recovery process of it all. However, having experienced the failed epidural the last time made me very nervous, as I wanted daddy K to be able to join me in the OT for our last planned baby. I also remembered how uncomfortable and painful injecting the epidural was, and was totally not looking forward to it. The staff from the OT finally came to get me at 720am... by the time we got down there, the place seemed to be in mayhem. I heard that we were late, there were 3 caesarians scheduled at the same time, and they thought that I had checked in late, as they were told that I was not ready yet... when in fact we were waiting up there for almost an hour!

Well, anyway, the anaesthetist (not the one I had the last time, like I thought) was very reassuring, and was so nice to assure me, and to calm my nerves. She found out about the failed epidural, and went a step extra to add an additional injection in to make sure that it worked this time... yes, which meant that I had 2 injections into the spine (ouch!), but eventually, I couldn't feel anything in my legs soon after. Soon after, I started to shiver (the side effects of the epidural), and daddy K came in to reassure me. However, although I couldn't feel pain/ sharp pricks, I could still feel a hand or some movements happening behind the screen that was put up in front of me. I suddenly had fears that I may still be able to feel the pain of the incision, and with the discomfort of the shivering, I suddenly regretted choosing to go through it under epidural... 

After about 5 mins, with the surgery going on, I calmed down. The fact that daddy K was there to soothe me really helped. Suddenly, the anaesthetist said that the baby was almost out, and that she was going to reach over me and push the baby out. After she did, i heard a very strong, high-pitched cry, and K was asked to stand and see the baby being taken out. As I was being sewn up and all, baby D was taken to the warmer, and was soon after put on my chest for a cuddle and some photos.

My first impression of baby D in the OT is that he is a squealer... and he proved that later on in the ward when he cried! Visitors who have heard him have likened his cry to that of a cat's cry!

The recovery from the OT to the ward was rather uneventful, and I was just eager to see my baby, and start nursing him. I was also eager to start eating again, as I was starving. However, the kind nurses were just so cautious, and insisted that I take drinks only first. Finally they were convinced that I was fine, and I had lunch at 2pm!

The next day, I was ready to get out of bed, and to walk around. The attachments were taken off me, and I felt ready to flee from the confines of the hospital bed. I managed to get out of bed and walk around without as much pain as I remembered from before. 

The next 3 days passed by rather uneventfully, not without the usual pains of breastfeeding. The 2 girls coming to visit in the evenings, not wanting to leave to go home, insisting that I went home with them, or that they sat on the bed with me etc... 

I'm just wary that their excitement to see baby D is short-lived, especially with mei K. We'll have to see how they take to the new addition to the household now that we are home, and when the 'vacation' comes to an end...