It has been a really long while since I blogged. main reason being that I've given birth to my little boy on 19th Dec 2008. Yes, it was the day after I posted that I'd prefer Brands essence of chicken compared to New Moon.
It was such an episode and everything happened so quickly that I could hardly catch my breath. Here's a brief entry on the events that took place from then till now
18th Dec 2008
Routine gynae visit. Saw my gynae and he told me that my blood pressure has been rising every visit and protein levels in my urine was also rising. He diagnosed me with pre-eclampsia (layman-ly, pregnancy high blood pressure) and told me that I needed to be warded immediately for observation and if my blood pressure doesn't come down after a jab, my baby would have to be delivered by C-sect the next day.
So I was admitted immediately into the labour ward and my the service at Gleneagles that few days was terrible.
I was hooked up to a blood pressure machine to measure my blood pressure every half hour. I was also hooked up to a machine that records my baby's heart beat and my contractions. I guess the nurses got bored hooking me and unhooking me from the machines because I always had to go to the loo so eventually, I was hooked to neither machines. Bad bad. Before that, my gynae came to see me again and he said that I needed to be monitored every 15min. So this nurse made some adjustments to the BP machine and left. To my horror, the machine activated almost like every 15 seconds till my arm was numbed after a minute. My husband went to get the nurse and she still had the cheek to tell me that the machine is working fine until we made her stand there for a while and she saw for herself the machine going crazy. Sheesh!
And as some of you know, when you're admitted to hospital, nurses will ask you some questions and write them down in a log book. I was asked the same question 3 times by 3 different nurses who "wrote" down my answer in the same log book. Like right.. If you really wrote it down, why ask me so many times? Tsk tsk.
19th Dec 2008
Because it was a Thursday and I went to see my gynae from work, I didn't have the chance to shower the entire day. (Yucks, I know). The nurses told me I can shower at 6am, which I did. When I asked if there was any toiletries, she told me, "Yes, there is in the toilet". Guess what? There sure was soap. Hand soap. -.-"
Anyways, I took my shower and was then wheeled into the operating theatre at 8am. I guess everyone was busy in there. A nurse came to me to ask me to sign some documents. And one had the cheek to tell me to sign first and she'll fill in the procedure I'd be having later. Like WHAT?!?!?! Who in the right mind would do that? If I signed it, and she wrote something like hysterectomy, I'd be dead! Gosh! So I insisted that she write down the procedure first before I signed. I mean like the name of the procedure is not going to be a 1000-word essay right? So what so tough abt that?
That's not the end of mistakes that takes place in the waiting area of OTs. I heard this doctor/head nurse coming out, screaming, "Who is Shanti?. This patient in the OT has a drug allergy, how come you did not tag the patient?" WOH!!! Now that's a majorly serious mistake.
Thank God everything was in His hands and mother and baby were safe amid such incompetent staff at Gleneagles.
So today, Ethan was born
Isn't he cute?
Anyway, I was too tired to breastfeed that day because of the after-effects of GA. So the nurse rolled him away to be bottle fed first and I did express my desire to breastfeed my baby.
20th Dec 2008
No sign of baby for me to breastfeed. Hubby had to go to get the baby and to his horror, Ethan's feet were blue!! Because he's really cold. Ethan's grandparents came down with booties and mittens later on and when Hubby went back to the nursery, the nurse said, "Oh, I wanted to tell you earlier". No comment.
Apart from a few nurses that were good, the rest I think are probably used to rough handling, which caused me to be in pain some times. Gosh.
Lactation consultant was absolutely useless. I think I learnt more abt breastfeeding from books and the hospital's free TV channel than from her.
Though baby's cot had a tag saying "3-hourly feeding", we didn't get our baby every 3 hrs. We had to go and "collect" him. Didn't I say I wanted to breastfeed?
22nd Dec 2008
Ethan goes home.
Mummy checks out of hospital with a huge bill. Frankly speaking, I don't understand why GlenE is so expensive when their service is so rotten.
23rd Dec 2008 to 20th Jan 2009
First month with Ethan.
I think I nearly went crazy. Thank God Hubby took a month's leave to be my confinement nanny (actually, I wasn't really confined. I think most practices are myths. I showered and washed my hair anyways). We were so unprepared. So many things were not bought yet and I was suffering from a slight post-natal depression. Suddenly I can no longer get a full night's sleep because I was waking every 3 hrs to feed the baby. My, those days were crazy.
Ethan was very small which makes him a very sleepy baby so feeding him was very tedious. When we visited the pedi, he said that it's better for him not to feed directly from Mummy's breast because it's hard work to get milk. So I pumped and bottle fed. That worked well until we wanted to switch him back to latching directly. It was soooo difficult. He was so fussy. But eventually, he made the switch.
Then finally, he was one month old. We celebrated with family at the NSRCC function room, which Ethan slept through at. Haha.
20th Jan 2009 - 31st Mar 2009
Hubby went back to work and I'm on my own.
Life was busy busy busy. Taking care of baby, doing housework and necessary stuff like bathing and eating. Seldom went anywhere and stuck at home most times. Life was very routine.
Thank God, Ethan grew and grew. He has put on so much weight since birth.
1st Apr 2009
By 1st Apr, Ethan can already sleep through the night. Today is his first day at infant care. Because Mummy has to return to work on the 3rd.
2nd Apr 2009
Mummy and Daddy's day out. It was nice to be able to catch a movie again. And it had to be "Confessions of a Shopaholic". Very predictable plot.
3rd Apr 2009 - Present
Back to office, loaded with work.
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I totally enjoyed my maternity leave, though the first month was really tough and the remaining weeks were busy. It's so heartwarming to look after Ethan and watch him grow. I wish I can look after him full-time.
I think I've got a lot more to say abt what I've learnt during my maternity leave. But I think this post is long enough. I'll continue on in another post if I can find the time to do updates.
Now, I'm transitioning back to real life. with new, challenging but rewarding roles..
{ Wednesday, April 8 }