Sia Yun Xi Caitlin is born on 2 August 2013

1 Aug 2013 (Thursday)

Morning, sent Kieran to school, came home to pack things to get ready for baby Caitlin's arrival. Feeling a little breathless. Contractions with backache and feeling of something pushing downwards.

1+pm brought Kieran home from school, got into taxi and went to my parents' place.

2+pm Kieran slept, I went to Toa Payoh to meet my friend to pass her something for her daughters and she passed me a rubber diaper changing mat that she don't need. Went to Kiddy palace to shop around and bought cup for Kieran.

3+pm visited gynaecologist Dr Ho at Mount Alvernia. Did baby heartbeat test and discovered contractions 3 times in 20 min. Nurse asked if I felt any pain. I told her only occasional backaches when tummy tightened during contractions.

4+pm Dr Ho checked and said I'm 4cm dilated. Better to admit now. Couldn't believe it. That was so sudden! I didnt expect to be admitted immediately. Called hubby, who was very calm, made payment, and then went up to delivery ward. Hubby will go home to bring my hospital bag here.

Just waited and waited at the delivery ward. Not much pain, just tummy tightening only.

6pm nurse ordered dinner. Dr Ho came and told me he will not break my water bag today as delivey is very fast after water bag is bursted because this is second child birth. He will let nature take its course and if my water bag don't break my next morning, he will break it and deliver baby.

I was very nervous because hubby wasn't with me. I wanted him to be here when I am in pain, or when I need an epidural. Very scared of the pain when the catheter is inserted.

7+pm hubby finally arrived. He ate dinner that he da bao, watched tv and chatted with me.

9+pm felt more pain as contractions gets more intense. The backache is tormenting. I had to take a deep breathe and bear with the pain whenever the contractions peaked. Still very not frequent though. 5-8min one contraction. I felt breatheless and a little bit nausea and want to vomit. Kept complaining that the room is hot and asked to turn down temperature but huby asked nurse and they said its centralised control but they can give us a fan. I asked for epidural. Very nervous and scared until the aneathesist asked me is this my first baby. I told him no, and I had epidural for first one too. But how can I not be frightened? Each time I use epidural its still pain leh.

Later that day, not sure what time, nurse came to check and say its only 5cm opened. Nurse suggested I sleep and relax.

So hubby and I slept, and hubby complained of hunger but all shops downstairs are closed, no choice but to drink milo (free supply of milo and coffee and tea outside the ward). The milo tastes yummy, thick and delicious. I only get to drink 2 cups before epidural is inserted. I don't dare to drink much, except sips of plain water in case I vomit. But I'm the lucky ones who don't get side effects from epidural.

2 August 2013 (Friday)

Early morning, I start to feel pain in my left thigh and top portion of my uterus. I thought the epidural effect has worn off and that surprised me because I didn't feel any pain for first child birth, so I was wondering why I did for this one. The nurse said doctor ordered 8.5-15 dosage for me and I'm on the lower dose. She increased it to 10 for me and she said I can't be on higher dosage because I need to feel the urge to push. I was really frightened as this was different from my first time. I didn't get to feel the "pushing" because I was on full dosage, completely no pain, no feel, and baby was out using vacuum. And this time, I actually will be feeling myself pushing baby out!

Some time later, Dr Ho came in and broke my water bag. I couldn't feel the pain of course.

And then we waited a few hours. Hubby said the contractions were at higher frequency now, every 3 min once. I feel super painful at the top of the uterus and thigh when contractions peak and I'm actually perspiring a little now. The nurse checked and said I'm fully dilated. Of course I'm fully dilated! I don't need her to tell me because I can feel something coming out of my below!

They informed Dr Ho and they started to prepare for delivery. I was trembling all over. I don't know whether I should push or just stay like that. So the senior nurse came and put my legs up and said its very good, they can see baby's head and asked me to take a deep breathe and push. I can feel baby coming out more and more. I push only when they told me to. At a certain stage, they told me to stop and asked Dr Ho in. The nurses were very nice and calm, thank goodness, and hubby was beside me all the while. I told him not to look where baby's coming out. I'm afraid that he may faint. Haha.

Then Dr Ho came and asked me to push, and with a few pushes, we heard little Caitlin's loud cry! I felt her head coming out totally. Cry and cry. This little girl cried more than Kieran when he was born, and her cries are loud but gentle, like a little cat's cries. So cute!

Then came the placenta delivery and the stitches which all went well and smoothly.

The nurse told me my delivery is very successful and fast, if only all deliveries could go as fast and smooth as mine. LOL

While I was in the ward last night, I heard an emergency bell went off, some scurrying of feet, and then minutes later, a woman was screaming in pain at the ward next to mine. Super loud. I was so glad I am on epidural!

Then I rested awhile in the delivery ward while I watied for the nurse to arrange for a bed for me. Baby was brought in for breastfeeding after cleaning and injection. She suckle very very well on first try, and I had lots of milk ready for her, thanks to her older brother who was breastfeeding until few months ago.

Then the rest is rest and bear with the episiotomy pain and feeding baby at the maternity ward.

Good for hubby coz he got 2 additional days extended for his leaves since there's Hari Raya and National Day Public holiday on the following week, in addition to his 5 working days paternity leave.

Good for grandparents coz Caitlin was born on 农历六月二十六 instead of within 农历七月 which is the month of Ghost Festival in Lunar calendar.

One of nurses told me there are many Chinese mothers inducing these few days because they want to avoid having baby born during the Ghost Festival which many Chinese believes is bad luck. But I think it doesn't matter lah. I'm not superstitious.

Not so good for me coz I want National Day baby leh, but never mind, as long as my baby is healthy and happy, I'm happy.

Love my little Caitlin!

3 days later, she was discharged with no jaundice, feeding well, and looking great!

Caitlin at Mount Alvernia Hospital

 Caitlin's first day at home

 Kieran Gor Gor & Caitlin Mei Mei

Insomnia

Today is the last day of 36th week. Last 2 nights were horrible. On Monday 3am to 5am, I had Braxton hicks contraction that lasted 1min+ each and with varying intervals. The intervals could be from 3min to 11min apart. So I couldn't sleep the whole night. Woke up intermittently to drag myself to the bathroom too. What's worse, from Monday night to Tuesday morning, I had insomnia, partly caused by me sleeping too much on Monday due to the tiring contractions the night before, and partly due to baby kicking, poking and jabbing me strongly the whole night. I guess my sleeping position disturbed him a lot. When I thought of lying down, I had phobia, really. Lying down caused a lot of aches to my back and sides. Before my belly becomes this heavy and big, I am ok with just putting a pillow behind me or lying on my side hugging a bolster. But now, its really difficult. I did all these but the aches just stay there.

I'm going to do some pelvic exercise before I sleep tonight and I'm going to try putting something at the arch of my back to prevent my spine from being stressed too much by the weight. Grrr this aching and sleeplessness really made me wish baby can quickly come. I cannot tahan 1 month of horrendous aches and insomnia anymore!

One good news though is that my new flat at Punggol Spring is nearly completed for moving in. Renovation finally completed last week. Made the final payment. I love our neat kitchen, our cozy little corner at the full length windows which overlook the Water Way and the baby room which will be done up nicely soon before we move in with our darling baby. Just now we went IKEA to get some furniture. We were rudely shocked with the delivery policy of IKEA which was not mentioned when we checked the website or when we asked the customer service officer before making payment. We were given 3 days of delivery to choose from, and after which we must pay $5 per day of extension! What's worse is their delivery timings are only from 10am to 2pm, and they couldn't specify exactly a range of time that they usually deliver to Punggol area. I have to stay at home and wait from 10am to 2pm on a weekday?! That's ridiculous! Grrr... I'm thinking of writing a complain letter to IKEA. They should improve their inflexible delivery service. It doesn't come cheap too! $55 for delivery above $300 of purchases and 6% of item price for assembly. Seriously...

Time to go back to bed again. I hope my back won't suffer too much tonight.

Braxton Hicks Contraction

I had my first Braxton Hicks contraction pains at 6 months into my pregnancy.

According to my research, we are not supposed to experience pain when having this false "practise" labour contractions. Most mothers feel a tightening of the stomach muscle, much like cramp. But contrary to what is written online, some mothers, like me do feel pain when having this false contraction.

Braxton Hicks contractions are called "practise contractions" because the uterus is practising for the real labour. In the third trimester, this can be mistaken as real labour pains. There are guidelines to help us differentiate between real labour pains and Braxton Hicks contraction but unfortunately, kiasi first time mothers like me would most prob just rush to the hospital for whatever pain or indication of labour anytime near the EDD.

The first time I experienced it, I missed lunch as I fell asleep after ironing the clothes, and then I suddenly realised I felt cramps when I eat the first morsel of food about 5 hours apart from breakfast. I thought it was gastric pain but relieve came in a while and after that, I went furniture shopping with my parents. But soon, the pain came again and stronger this time as I walked a lot during the shopping. I was breathing hard and lying down on the back seat of my dad's car. It lasted for about 20min. He almost drove me to the hospital. The cramps decreased with rest.

I didn't realise that was Braxton Hicks until I had it the second time. Over this weekend, Friday and Saturday were hectic days for me. I went to submit forms at Town Council and walked long distances for public transport, went to meet friends, walked long distances too to meet them, met up with contractor regarding new flat renovation, etc etc... Then while in the MRT with hubby, the cramp came so strong and painful that I broke out in cold sweat and I grabbed his hands for comfort. I realised its almost the same kind of pain and this time, I didn't skip any meal. The pain eased after about 5 min. Thank goodness it disappeared by the time we alighted the MRT.

Research says that we can reduce the incidences of Braxton Hicks by avoiding dehydration, being too active, and keeping a full bladder. Taking warm bath, drinking warm drinks and changing positions can alleviate the contractions. I definitely won't want to feel the pain again soon. I'm taking all kinds of precautions. Mom told me she never had this until late in pregnancy when she's carrying my youngest sis. At that time, she rushed to the hospital because she thought she's about to go into labour.

I did a search online and realised that this pain I experienced was what I had been reading about but had no idea how it really feels like. False labour pain is already so strong, I'm sure the real one is 10 times worse... I'm definitely opting for epidural.