The start of motherhood

I have a lot of people around me asking how is it like to be a mum now? Or has your life changed ever since having a baby? So today I’m going to share the start of my motherhood with all of you.

Honestly, the joy of motherhood is just one thing that I cannot explain in mere words but it has to be personally experienced. From the day I had Isabelle, I have already been so attached and bonded to her and it is just amazing how it happened. I literally cannot see myself not being with her for a moment. Her little cries can be very cute sometimes and she is growing so quickly. We did our 2 weeks health check last week and the nurse said she has gained a phenomenal amount of weight! YAY to breastfeeding!

One thing I cannot deny is that motherhood simply means lacking quality sleep time. I will have to wake up every 2-3 hours to breastfeed her and I have to kiss goodbye to all my undisturbed sleeps. LOL Initially Sean and I were very hardworking and we would wake up together while he accompanied me when I fed Issy and he would change her nappy and put her back to sleep. After a couple of days we became a bit exhausted and decided that we needed to take turns to wake up which means I needed to express some milk for her. However it made my breast really engorged and I ended up waking up to express while Sean was feeding her. So it didn’t work too. Now that Sean is back to work, thankfully I’m already getting used to waking up every 2-3 hours. I became so sensitive to every sound she made though in the past I usually sleep like a pig. Hopefully I wouldn’t need any concealer to cover up my under eye circles. O_O

Super thankful to my awesome mommy who has never failed to provide me with sumptuous confinement meals everyday though at times I wish I could eat some junk food as I’m already missing eating junks!! Haha. My mom has been very lenient with me with my confinement and I’m allowed to sneak random food here and there. My meals consist of ginger, ginger and more ginger. Mom and Dad love Isabelle so much and made me feel that I want them to be here with us even more. It is really sad that they cannot be physically here to see her grow each day and it made me really sad too. Hence we would definitely make more trips back home for them to enjoy Isabelle and not miss out on her childhood moments.

Sadly last couple of days I had mastitis due to some milk blockages in my breast. At the early stages I always thought I did not have enough milk for baby Issy and that was why she had weight loss and hence I kept forcing myself to express more milk to stimulate the milk flow. I even asked Veryn to bake lactation cookies for me and with all that, I had over supplies of milk and my breast became really engorged every 2 hours. Now I’m suffering with swollen and painful boobs with flu like symptoms. Thank God it has started to reduce and I’m just feeding Issy more now to drain the breast.

Back to my little one, her routine is basically sleep, drink, wee, poo and little stay-up moments too . She has been such a beautiful baby and would only cry when she is tired, hungry, having dirty nappy, too hot or too cold. However we are learning her cues and we are getting there. As each day goes by, she grows as well and she has definitely grown so much. We are just wanting to enjoy and cherish every moment of hers.
Some photos to share:

Her favourite expression at the moment. How cute!

Doing burpies

I’m so proud to be little Issy’s mom! Though we are first time parents, there are so many things we need to learn and just try if it works for us. This journey might not be easy but we trust fully in God that our paths would be directed by God and we are going to be good and godly parents for Issy.

My delivery experience

ISABELLE SIM has arrived!! 

Sorry for the lack of updates as I have been really busy looking after our little Issy for the last 2 weeks. Sleepless nights has officially started for both papasim and I but we are just enjoying every moment of looking after her. Thank God for my parents who have come so far to help with my confinement and every now and then we managed to sneak in little naps while they look after Issy. I can’t believe that she is already 2 weeks old and gosh where did all the time go.

This post I’m just gonna share my birthing and delivery experience. On the 1st of May at 2am I could feel that my contractions were getting stronger. However I could still bear with the pain and did not alarm Sean or anyone as I do not want any false labour. At this stage I was already 5 days overdue. I tried to sleep through my contractions but was woken up every few minutes by the pain and I could literally feel it getting stronger each time.

At around 4am I had an urge to go to the toilet to poo. The pain was mainly at my lower abdominal and felt as though you are gonna poo. I sat on the toilet groaning in pain while trying to do my bowel motions to relieve that pain but unfortunately it didn’t work.

At 5am I was in the living room trying to pull myself together while still in pain but this time Sean realised and wanted me to go to the hospital immediately. At that time I refused and wanted to wait a bit longer however he rang up the hospital and they wanted me to go into the birthing suite right then.

We arrived at the hospital, I got hooked up to tocometer – a machine which just monitors the baby’s heartbeat as well as any contractions. At this point my contractions were very irregular. There were high and low ones and after a couple of hours I felt that the contractions was milder. I knew that baby was not going to be out as the pain was really bearable. The midwife did an internal examination on me to find out how much I have dilated till this point and I was only 1cm dilated. We were given the option to stay back in the hospital as the midwife felt that baby is gonna be out sooner or later or go home. I really wanted to go home as I do not like the feeling of staying in the hospital.

That afternoon we went home and I managed to catch up with some rest but was just broken sleep as I was still having the contractions. I could bear with the contractions till the whole night and still managed to cook some hot food for myself.

On the 2nd of May at approximately 1am, the contractions were getting stronger and closer together. I was groaning in pain and I knew that I have to go to the hospital soon. I woke Sean up and we did some final packing of my hospital bag and baby bag.

When I was admitted to the hospital they did the same thing by hooking me up with the tocometer. As I arrived the hospital I started to see ‘the show’ which is some sort of bleeding. At some stage they noticed that babysim was not moving a lot and they became a bit concern and decided to put me on drips to regulate water for her to move about. My OB mentioned to the midwife to break my water bag by 6am if it doesn’t happen naturally. It felt pretty uncomfortable and at that stage I was already 6cm dilated. Once the water bag was broken I could feel that the pain was getting more intense. Sean wanted me to have the gas but I refused all the time which I do not know why and finally I got the gas and air. I was just breathing through the contractions using gas & air which definitely helped to take the edge off!

By I do not know what time I was really really in pain. At this point I was in so much pain everytime a contraction would start.  It sucks because in between them everything is normal and you think “oh I’m fine now!” and then you feel it start again and you think “noooooo! not again!” I could totally feel what labour pain is all about.

I told the midwife that I could actually feel this huge urge to push like it was the most natural thing to do at that time. They did another internal examination and I was 10cm dilated!! YAY!! I can start pushing. The pushing was really tiring and sometimes I felt like I was pushing for centuries. I pushed for one and a half hours!! That was a long time and I got so SO SOOO tired and felt like I’m gonna just give up and asked for C-section. Her head was almost out but not quite and it came to a point that babysim’s heart rate shot up instantly and I started bleeding from somewhere. All of a sudden as I opened my eyes I could see so many people around me. Doctors, nurses and midwives were all around me and Sean was panicking also.  Right at that point the doctor needed to use the ventrose/vacuum as otherwise I most likely would have had to push for another 2 hours. I needed an episiotomy at this stage which was one thing I really wanted to avoid but apparently I needed one. Oh wells baby’s safety is most important at that time. I just did my final 3 pushes and babyish was out. She was immediately placed on my chest for as long as possible.

Isabelle Sim was born on the 2nd of May at 9.31am weighing 3kg with the height of 50cm. I could not believe I was actually cuddling our daughter. She was just perfect and cried of a little while when we were trying to just admire what a blessing God has given us. We started to get a bit emotional but I was totally relieved at that time. The pain was totally gone! How amazing can that be when my pain was escalated to the peak and the moment the baby was born, the pain just disappeared. I think the worst part of my whole labour & delivery was not so much the actual pushing but rather what happened after giving birth.  I had needed an episiotomy so my OB had to stitch me up. Even though I was still pretty numb down there it felt very uncomfortable and felt like it took forever.  All I wanted was for it to be over and to be alone with my baby & husband but unfortunately it took a while to be stitched up ;(  However the doctor and midwives were so respectful of this and we could tell they were trying to finish up as soon as possible.

I had more bleeding when I got off the bed and at that time I was already light headed and fainted. They needed to insert a catheter for urination Which means I was suffering both the pain from the stitches plus the catheter. Baby Issy had to be taken away from me for awhile. It wasn’t the best experience I would say for my labour as I get to experience a lot of pain and some complications. However after looking at baby Issy, the pain was not my focus anymore.

We were discharged after 2 days of staying in the hospital however after being back for a day, Issy had to be re-admitted to the hospital in special care due to Jaundice and weight loss Sean and I were given a room to stay unfortunately not with her. She had to go through phototherapy and I started to feel so emotional because I wanted to be with her so badly. I trusted the midwives so much and they did a fantastic job in looking after our little one. With that, every 3 hours I had to go and feed her and we can visit her anytime of the day too. Thank God all is well now.

A photo taken with Issy after nursing her.

I really want to thank God for His protection over baby and I throughout my pregnancy and even the delivery. Though there was some complications, God was still in control and everything went well after. We are truly blessed to have little Isabelle in our life. I’m just so in love with her already.

I also want to thank all the doctors, nurses and midwives in Angliss hospital. It’s crazy to think how you meet these people and develop what feels like such a strong relationship with them, go through a life-changing experience together and then never see them again.  It’s kind of sad actually! They have done such a fantastic job in providing quality care to baby Issy and even me. I felt so comfortable with them and believe me or not, I literally know all of the midwives after staying there for 4 full days.

Last but not least all glory to God!!

Sorry for this super long post but it was definitely a significant event for me and I would do it all over again but hopefully the next time with less pain

No signs of labour

Alright, I thought this post would be welcoming babysim into this world but it seems like she is still enjoying herself in the womb and not quite ready for her first cry. Mamasim’s just gonna be patient and wait for the right time for her to be out.

We initially thought it would be nice if babysim were to be born on Anzac day which is today so every birthday of hers would be a holiday with lots of anzac biscuit. LOL.

But God definitely has planned a specific birthday just for her and we have to wait and wait and wait.

As I’m anticipating for the day of babysim’s birth each day, I would turn to papasim and asked, ‘do you think I should just go for C-section?’ Or ‘What do you think about epidural? Doesn’t really harm baby does it?’ Or ‘Is there such thing as injecting local anaesthetic around the vaginal area only?’

Looks like I’m not so convinced by vaginal birth after all. No! NO!!! I have to be convinced. So up till today, right now, I would still go with doing everything natural first.

But still there is some elements of fear there. I’m always reminded that FAITH comes from God and FEAR is a choice. So I shall just go by faith like what my obstetrician always says.

Talking about him, I’m gonna have another visit tomorrow and he is so gonna do an examination on me to check how much I have dilated. Apparently it is gonna be a uncomfortable and he said he is gonna help to stimulate the birth. Let’s see if it would work.

Babysim, we are all waiting for you sweetie pie

Counting down 3 more days?

Just 3 more days really?? I’m seriously all ready and getting prepared for babysim to be out. We just can’t wait to see our bundle of joy and offer our very first cuddle and attachment. However this week has been going really slowly and it feels like it’s taking forever. Chris took a few pictures of my final baby bump on Sunday after church at the field. Look at the HUGE bump that I’m having.  It’s amazing how woman’s tummy can be stretched to that extend and honestly I looked like I swallowed a big watermelon as what I always say. LOL.

 

 

Noticed that my bump is slightly lower than before? I think it is dropping a little bit already which means babysim is coming out soon! YAY!

This is really hilarious.

On Sunday night while we were getting ready to sleep I felt some contractions that was slightly more intense compared to the previous times that I experienced. It actually felt like as though I have the worst period paid but it just came and gone in few seconds.

However at around 6.am monday morning the contractions seem to be even stronger and longer between short intervals as well. All I could do at that time was doing my breathing techniques.

Sean was convinced that we should be going to the hospital and he picked up his phone and called the maternity ward to speak to one of the midwife. She asked a few questions and wanted to speak to me. I was really calm and still able to talk even with the pain so I guess that pain was somehow bearable. She asked about how I was feeling and the intensity of my pain and I thought oh yeah may be babysim is coming out soon and we are heading to the hospital.

BUT it wasn’t what we thought. The midwife said, ‘ok, if you’re still in pain, try to take some panadol or panadeine once every four hours. Try to get enough rest, eat more and have plenty of fluids.’ I was stunted.

Like seriously? In my mind I was thinking my baby is ready to be out! But apparently not quite. The most frustrating part was the pain was gone totally in the morning! NO more contractions = Wait longer!! LOL.

Oh wells 3 more days till babysim’s due date but the likelihood of babies being born on their due date is like 5-8%.

I’m learning to be patient each and everyday and eventually God will bring this baby out in His perfect timing. Maybe my birthday?

39 weeks and no baby yet

Ok. To begin with babysim is not quite ready to be out yet. So we are still waiting patiently for God’s timing. I can totally relate to the popular saying of: ‘So near yet so far’. Well I’ll keep praying and anticipating for this day to arrive.

We went for our weekly obstetrician visit and we did our usual check ups for heartbeat, blood pressure, baby’s measurement and the positioning of the baby. So according to the doctor the baby’s head has been engaged and that explains clearly about the frequent bladder movement. Which is a good sign as baby is now getting ready – but the ‘getting ready’ part may take days or even a week or 2 to be completely ready so still have to wait. Lol.

From the previous post I was talking about having some menstral-like cramps and we thought that it was part of the contraction. So I happily told the doctor that I’m having contractions and while explaining I was in the biggest smile with all my teeth shown. The doctor just went: ‘ok, this is my first time seeing someone laughing and giggling during contractions. So I can assure you that you are not having any contractions yet or else you won’t be sitting here and talking to me.’ ROFL!!! I was like -_- Ok.. I sounded so dumb! LOL. Well what causes that menstral like cramp at the beginning stage is just that baby is simply moving a lot into her position so that is why.

Anyhow my next visit to the doctor would be the expected due date of babysim which is next friday. So let’s see if we can make it that far yet.

Besides all these updates I would like to share about what I had for my meals today. Ok.. a bit random.

Breakfast – seems a bit like a snack simply because I woke up with a bit of queasiness and did not want my usual cereal so I chose something dry. My pillow snack – I named that pillow snack cos it looks like a pillow to me LOL, some sunflower seeds and water.

Lunch – A slice of bread with cheese, mushroom and avocado and green tea. Basically is whatever left in the fridge as it’s Friday! I know I ‘m not supposed to have any caffeine but I’m being naughty by just having a cup of green tea. I went to google about green tea and apparently it has the lowest amount of caffeine compared to other teas. So pregnant can have just a cup a day but I’m just having for today.

Snacks – Golden kiwi and red plum with water. Trying to balance out the snacks I have for breakfast with some colours.

Dinner – My all time favourite pho! Finally a dish of hot and soupy pho with lots of chilli. SLURP!!

This sums up what I had throughout the day. Quite fun taking pictures and posting what I had today.

Can’t believe I will be seeing my parents in 2 weeks time for a month! Can’t wait!

God makes all things beautiful in His time

I forgot to mention that we actually got a house at Rowville just opposite Studpark shopping Centre. As I have said in my previous post that the past few months we have been scouting around for our very first home and we are truly thankful to God that He has given us the best house in the best location as well as the best size that anyone could ask for.

Through this process we have had a lot of mixed feelings about buying a house. We were hard working and inspected a lot of houses every weekend with my in laws as well. We did spot some really nice houses and thought well this is definitely the house we will get. So in our mind we were excited and offered our best price. The location was not that great but the condition of the house was good so we compromised with that keeping in mind that we would get it as we were thinking who would offer a price for such location. But for the 2 good times we did not get any of the houses we offered. Honestly we were disappointed as we thought it was the one.

The next few days we took it really slow just continue praying every night. So low and behold on a super random weekday, we went to inspect a house that was supposed to be going for a auction. Like seriously who would want to go for an auction as it involves a lot of emotions and competition so we thought we are just inspecting for fun since Sean was not working on that day. After seeing the house we were very pleased with everything- literally EVERYTHING about the house. Well for me would be the cubby house at the backyard for babysim and she would love it when she is old enough to play in.

We had a chat with the agent and he mentioned to us that if anyone offers the price that the owner is happy with, they would go ahead selling it without going through any auction. We told him our super maximum price and at the same time there was another man before us who offered the same price and was supposed to meet him at 7pm in the agent’s office. But somehow this agent seemed to be helping us a lot and asked us to be in his office by 630pm just before the other guy comes in. We did exactly what he said and deep in our hearts we were praying about this. He asked us to offer a thousand more since both parties offered the same price. We agreed to it and he immediately texted the guy and said ‘the house has been sold’ Our jaw just dropped! We got the house? Just like that?! It just happened so quickly and beautifully without having to go through so much hassle unlike the previous 2.

That night itself Sean and I could not sleep as we were so happy but at the same time we saw how God has been intervening in our situation. He shut the 2 doors previously and sent us to this house with the best agent who found favour in us. He would have simply helped the guy before us but he did not. Through this we learnt to be really patient and allowing God to just take control of this situation. Indeed God has made all things beautiful in His perfect timing. We do not need to worry about what is ahead of us but by trusting in His unfailing love. Hence all glory to God for His intervention and blessings. We will only be moving in after the 14th of June.

Ok. Some pictures of the house:

 

I will update more when we are moving in.

God’s timing is the best timing ♥

 

38th Weeks and still counting ♥

Look at that huge bump I have there! It literally looks as though I have swallowed a watermelon like seriously. LOL. I can feel that my belly is slightly lower than before now and I feel so so SO SOOO heavy now and sometimes balancing can be a problem to me. However I’m still very careful about my surroundings. Babysim is now considered full term as full term simply means from 38 weeks to 42 weeks. We’ll be expecting her anytime soon

Some recent changes at this stage:
- I have started feeling some period-like pain especially around my abdominal area. It is quite bearable and at times I do not even realise it until I stopped and not do anything. This started sometime late last week just before I hit 38 weeks. Apparently this is the early stage of labour or might be even what they called the braxton hicks contractions when the muscles of your uterus (womb) tightening. If you place your hands on your bare bump when this is happening, you can feel how hard your uterus becomes.

- Babysim has been moving a lot but maybe I should say kicking especially upwards where my ribs is. It can be really uncomfortable now and it feels as though she can’t wait to be out to see mummy and daddy. Her kick is getting more intense and frequent lately and I need to find the right position to ease off the discomfort. Though it is uncomfortable, I actually like every part of it as it is really a cute kick. Imagine something small and round like a bun is popping out from your tummy. It could be her fist or elbow or even bum. Lol.

- Uncontrolled bladder movement. This is weird but it is really what is happening to me now. If I ever forget or did not empty my bladder on time, the moment I sneeze, a gush of urine would just leak out without a chance to hold it. It is just a tiny bit so not that messy after all. I guess baby is pushing her head downwards and pressing on my bladder. Lesson learnt, I will just have to go to the toilet every now and then.

- Because of the weight that I carrying in front of me, I’m starting to get very frequent backaches and it is also affecting my posture now. I need massage all the time! Sometimes when there is no one around I got to just massage myself as the ache is just unbearable. Thank God for heat packs at this stage as it helps to soothe that soreness and relax my back muscle for a little while.

I’m recording all of this so that I know what I’m going through at every stage and if ever I want to look back at every symptom of my pregnancy, this would be a guide for me and hopefully for you readers as well. Every pregnancy is different from every woman and even every child that you’re carrying but knowing what we are going through in this part of the beautiful journey would help us along the way.

Alright, back to waiting for babysim to be out