sleepy sleepy time...

as i lay in bed awake at this godforsaken hour, i am thankful at how lucky we are. ilaika actually sleeps thru the night pretty well, unlike those stories of babies crying thru the night. she feeds at 7pm, sleeps from 8pm til about midnight when she has a short feed and then sleeps again. she doesn't wake up until 6am. early bird, unlike her daddy.

the silly billy in me wakes up constantly to check on her, contemplating if i should wake her up and feed her. however, each time, her angelic sleeping face wins me over. who would have the heart to disturb her peaceful slumber…

baby blues...

and our little angel was born...

At 3am on Monday, less then 24 hours after my last blog, I found myself in the delivery suite of Pantai Medical Centre. Strapped to the bed, there was not much for us to do but wait and wait and wait. Come sunrise, I was still not feeling any pain from the supposed contractions I was having. The only pain I had was the discomfort and numbing of my bum!

At noon, Dr P had me on the drip for induction (the IV needle hurt like hell!) and at 3pm, I started feeling pain. Refusing an epidural (for fear of a large needle and immobility), I took a jab of penthidine, which had me snoring away to Zain’s hypnotherapy music for the next three hours. According to him, as the jab wore off, I woke up in pain every few minutes, only to doze off snoring in between contractions!

At 6pm, the actual delivery process began.

At 10.15pm, after loads of silent pushing, a failed vacuum attempt, a forceps procedure and many many stitches, Zaleia Ilaika was born. She weighed 3.09kg (6lbs 13oz) and was 48.3cm in length. Oddly enough, as they plonked her literally bloody body on my chest, all I could focus on was the large blob of mucus on her thigh! And then it hit me, this was our baby…the little angel we’d waited for. After that, everything was quite a blur. Baby started shrieking (yes, very healthy set of lungs!) as they took her to be cleaned up and I breathed in the gas to distract me from all the “other” activity going on down there. How ironic that I only needed a painkiller after the actual delivery!

At midnight, they wheeled me back to the suite. Shortly after, baby arrived, peacefully asleep. Only then, did both sets of anxious “toks” leave.

At 2am, it was finally just us. Daddy, Mummy and baby Ilaika. We had come a long way for this moment. And it was worth the while for finally, our little angel was born…

third trimester blues...are we there yet?

Come midnight tonight, my baby will be a full 39 weeks. Yes, I have not popped yet.

As the pregnancy ticker says above, “My mummy is bigger than a house…she’s threatening legal action if I don’t come out soon!” – my thoughts precisely! (Disclaimer: I DO NOT have hemorrhoids and the runs...ewww!)

The whole of this trimester has been a waiting game…a very nerve wrecking one indeed. At one point a month ago, I was so nervous about the labour and the baby that I said I’d be perfectly fine to keep her in my womb. Me and my big mouth. Now baby seems quite comfortable there and quite reluctant to leave the comfort of mummy dearest. Problem is, the more comfortable she gets, the more uncomfortable her mummy gets!

During the CNY hols, Zain and I went for coffee with a friend. As soon as he saw me, he laughed out loud and said, “God, you look like shit. I guess the pregnancy finally hit you after nine months!” He was right! I thought I’d escaped the horror stories, when suddenly, I developed eczema-like rashes on my tummy, lost my sense of smell cos my nose was perpetually blocked, couldn’t stop coughing at night, had aching nerves on the left cheek of my butt (!) and walked around like a zombie during the day cos of the lack of sleep. So yes, if you bump into me, don’t be surprised that I look like shit!

After the agonising wait of nine and a half months, at week 38, Dr P said we were on stand by, so we moved to Tok’s house in Kenny Hills (for my confinement period). We got everything ready and in place. A week came and went and I still had not popped.

Yet another visit to Dr P’s yesterday indicated that her head is even more fully and heavily engaged. Again, he said we are on stand by. However, if baby is still in her comfort zone next week, Dr P threatened to induce by the 14th! It was quite funny that as soon as he said that, the baby started squirming, as if she knew she was in trouble! Ha ha..

But for now, we’re back to the waiting game and everyday, we ask the baby – are we there yet?