inguinal hernia

being too kan cheong meant that my lil man was prone to being a lil under developed. when we took him for his 6 weeks check up with the paeds, we found out that he had a hernia in his groin area. he had inguinal hernia - you can read about it here. poor boy, one thing after another. 

with inguinal hernia, surgery had to be done and since my lil was still so young, it was best done asap. it was a common procedure. he was to be put to sleep, repaired and monitored for a few hours. the only thing I was worried about was that he needed to fast before the surgery. and I've come to know that babies and no food don't go very well.

he was to check into hospital at 7:15am for a 8:30am procedure. his last feed would need to end by 4:30am to ensure that all food is digested before his surgery. 4 hours without food, if I'm lucky it'll work if not he does get hungry after 3 hours; so I kinda force fed him at 4:00am to make sure he'll last and HE DID! well.. he had to make do with my pinky for a while.

it didn't take long, after an hour and a bit we were taken to him. still drowsy but definitely hungry. we stay at the hospital till they gave us the green light to go home. hope he'll be OK at home... keeping my fingers crossed.

special care

Omy lil man as previously mention was a lil too excited and decided to pop out 3 weeks early. in fact he was just a few days short of 37 weeks which meant he was premature and unfortunately still considered a preemie. now there is nothing wrong with being a preemie ... except that he had trouble keeping his glucose levels up and he wasn't latching onto my boobies properly to keep it stable. Plus he was considered big at 3.14kg being that young. The doc said that if he was full term I would be giving birth to an almost 4kg baby o_O he also suspected I was borderline GD (gestational diabetic) which made my lil man big.

now since his glucose wasn't stable, they had to take him to the special care unit where they would monitor him to keep them up. this meant he wouldn't be following me back to my room until he is stable. They told me to rest and when I felt ready to have a rinse and check into my room where I will be staying for the rest of week. I would of course get to visit as and whenever I liked.

in special care, to ensure his glucose stabilizes he needs to eat. since he couldn't latch or would too much strength sucking, he had to be tube fed. poor thing, everytime they tested his sugar levels, they had to prick his heel for blood. at least babies heal quickly, but he wasn't happy getting pricked for sure.

I on the other hand needed to get my breast milk flowing so I was learning how to express. so miserable the first few times, could barely fill a stringe. at first you could barely see anything at all.. and finally .. 0.1ml... 0.2ml... I was so proud when I upgraded from a stringe to a container! and it was tiring waking up every 2 hours in the middle of the night. I eventually got use to it now with a crying baby to wake me.

his glucose stabilized by day 3. he then had to learn to latch... well I had to learn to stuff my booby into his mouth at the right time. it was tough not knowing for such if I has it right. thank goodness for the midwives. although everyone had different style and advise, I eventually kinda got it. and practice makes perfect! if he didn't learn to drink on his own, I would have check out of hospital without him. he did but we did have to stay an extra day at the hospital. There were a pair of twins there that had to stay while their mother checked out and she was so upset. can't imagine how it feels. so glad he got to come home with me.

there was a silver lining of him being in special care. a routine was set that he ate every 3 hours. i had enough breast milk to feed him without the frustration of running out and I'm pretty sure a got more rest than other moms there as the midwives at special care would watch over him when I wasn't feeding. still I can't believe he was made inside me.... 

a new chapter

wow.. who would have thought after over a year of not blogging I'll need an outlet to pour out what's in my head and find a way to remember all the things I've been going through. we'll the biggest thing is... I'm a MOM!

my lil man arrived on Easter Sunday. Only 3 weeks earlier than expected o_O I wasn't even off work yet! I had a feeling that he'll be early but didn't think it would be that's early. And they say the first is usually late....

So how did it all happen? It started with sex! Hahahah sorry, sometimes I like to amuse myself >.< Anyways, me and the hubby had so many plans for the long weekend. We would chill, bought easy to make dinners and wanted to watch a movie with free tickets that are still sitting there now. We had a relaxing Good Friday, for some funny reason I decided to wash all the baby clothes and on Saturday, made plans to pick up some stuff at the baby shop and have lunch at a friend's place. As soon as I reached her place and stepped out of the car, I felt a great big leak. I thought I peed myself.... However it continued to leak. Thank goodness I was entering into the house of a now experienced mother of two. That was at 1:15pm.

I told her what it felt like and she confirmed that 'yup' waters broke. I did however still have time to have lunch, chat with them for a bit then made my way home where I called the hospital to find out what to do. I was told since contractions had not started to go home, shower, pack my bags and head to hospital. She even told me to take my time. 

At 4:00pm, we checked into the hospital. The midwife checked me, and so happen my doctor was in the hospital too, he pop by and said since technically I wasn't quite 37 weeks, my lil man was too early. So instead of inducing me, they would wait 36 hours. That's 3 days I'll be stuck in the hospital! 3 days! Oh well. So they poke a hole to put me on antibiotics so I don't risk getting an infection. Since I was still leaking, they had those liner pads placed the bed I had to lie on and I constantly had to change pads. Was a lil annoying but still I got comfortable, the hubby bought me snacks, magazines and I had my iPad to play with. Since he couldn't stay overnight, he left me to sleep at at 1am so he too could get some rest. 

And whadayaknow, just after the hubby left... at 2:00am I started getting some pains. It was like light cramps which I just shrugged off thinking maybe my tummy wasn't feeling so good. And I was really sleepy. The pains started getting more painful ... Seemed like it was happening every 5-10 minutes and half asleep I started googling what contractions were meant to be like an how to time it. Yes yes, I went for the antenatal classes, I'm suppose to know all these but when it happens you really don't know for sure. I even googled Braxton hicks of course not knowing this actually happens earlier in pregnancy. I couldn't figure out anything and was so dead tired by then I would fall asleep, wake up when it was painful, fall back asleep. This went on till 5:00am; till the midwife came in to administer another dose of antibiotic and I told her I thought I was having contractions. She was quite surprised that I didn't call her in earlier to tell her contractions had started! Then she asked if I wanted to be moved to the birthing suite -_- I hadn't realised that I had to make these decisions when I was in pain. Hahahaha I guess they think I know myself best. So yes, I said I should move to the birthing suite and informed the hubby to make his way over. Poor guy barely slept but he made it back to the hospital is 20 minutes.

It was soooo good to have him with me. The contractions are no joke. There's really no way to explain the pain. Since I didn't really get period cramps, I have no idea if it is anything close. People did say it's similar x 10 or 100 *grin* .... now the hubby too didn't really know how to time contractions but ah! that wasn't important. He kept reminding me to breathe, let me grip and squeeze him really tightly and tried to keep me as comfortable as possible. By 6 plus in the am, I had asked for something to help with the pain. First I tried the gas. Cheh! It gave you that nice floating feeling after you've hadn't a few good drinks; but it wasn't taking away the pain. In the end I asked for epidural . The lil man hadn't dropped at that stage and I had felt like pushing. 

The anaesthetist arrive close to 7:00am. While he was telling me what would happen risks and all I was barely listening with all the pain. I'm sure the hubby was paying attention. Now people always ask if the epidural needle was painful. Honestly, after going through contractions, the needle was nothing! And when the epidural took effect it felt sooooo good. I could still feel when I was contracting, just felt like a bit of pressure and it would go away. At this stage I was about 6-7cm dilated but since the baby hadn't dropped I still had a while to wait. It did feel odd though, I could sort of feel my legs and move them around just a lil but it did get uncomfortable coz being so still you would get pins and needles. Funnily more on one side than the other. Once the epidural kicked in I actually got to take a nap till about 10:00am. Even the hubby took a nap. I think which helped during pushing. I was well rested. 

The midwife came to check on me and said I was really to push. In fact had asked me to do a lil push and she could see the lil man's head! Here was something I didn't expect. My midwife asked if I wanted to watch my lil man come out o_O I told her noooo... It might traumatise me but she said that since I had epidural it would be a nice experience and I agreed to have a mirror placed in front of me. After that she contacted my doc to tell him I was ready. He came by 10:30am and that's when it all started. Unfortunately when I was pushing, my eyes were close and missed the show. Hahahaha so much for watching. At 10:41am, my lil man Dylan was born with a head full of hair.

It's quite unbelievable. It was my body that created this lil man and it's a new life. Hard to believe ... It's an amazing miracle.

away for 10 days

you never really realise what you missed until it’s not there. true that! i was just back in KL to be part of my close friend’s wedding. when i booked my flight two months ago, all i could think of was how i could utilize my leave to make it worth my flight ticket. i managed it so i’ll be back for 10 days. it had been over a year since i last flew to KL and was excited to be going back after soon long - all the good food, friends, family… and of course not having to work. what i didn’t realise was that after maybe five days, i was starting to really miss my hubby. yes, who would have thought in between all the eating and catching up with friends i’d miss the little things of telling him stories just as it happened, or getting that second opinion when i wanted to buy something. i would miss the random tight squeeze or snuggling really closely to him, even just sitting next to each in silence. it started to feel like half of me was missing and then truly see how we complete each other. how it is nicer to fall asleep next to your loved one, to have the time to just share our days together, to just know that you have someone who would love you unconditionally through your weirdness, problems and all. it's really good to be back by his side.

my productive weekend

i'm so proud of myself. i've had a productive weekend. got plenty of sleep and was energized to work on our garden *grin* maybe it's coz i felt i needed some physical activities since there hasn't been any badminton sessions lately. the weather forecast was in the 40s but thank goodness it wasn't or i wouldn't have left the house o_O

we started late saturday afternoon. there was plenty to do and decided to start with the front lawn. the plan was to clear up all the dark, dirty looking bark and even out the soil. Plant one more hedge to fill up the gaps then relay our new eucalyptus bark to brighten up the place. it was clearing the old bark that took up the most time. we filled 25 large garbage bags and this was only the right side of the lawn. since it was getting dark, we couldn't plant our geraniums so left one section to be done another day. three hours plus of digging up bark and soil, i was glad to be able to run the new fresh bark with my fingers to spread them around. i didn't even realise we were working in the garden for a good four hours by the time we were done.

at night while the hubby is busy gaming with the rest of the boys, i continue his lego city project by building the fire station. it's amazing how much detail goes into these buildings. there are hangers to hang helmets. cabinets for storage and there red door in the front of the building rolls up! with all the tiny little parts it only took me about maybe five hours plus to build? and that's only the first level.

when we woke up on sunday, it was gloomy and looked like it was going to rain. after running a few errands, we were contemplating whether to start gardening as it was meant to thunder storm in the evening. i really wanted to finish up that part of the garden since i won't be around to do it next weekend so we starting. the plan this time was to pull out the old 'lalang' looking plants, even out the soil and plant our lovely geraniums. not as easy as it sounded. those 'lalang' like plants had huge roots everywhere and trying to even out the soil with difficult. on top of that, it was starting to drizzle. we were pretty lucky, just as we were planting the last plant the giant raindrops started and we still had to pour the bark. the last fifteen minutes were done in the pouring rain and we finished just in time when we heard thunder and lightning. we were giggling by the end of it all coz we were soaked because we were so sure we would not be able to finish before the rain started and now we're so proud of our garden!

i also took down our christmas tree :( but thought it would be a good idea to get it kept before chinese new year hits >_< it looked like i had a fight with the tree with everything all over the place. the worse part about taking down the tree?? untangling the lights which i very cleverly chucked aside while i took them off. rookie mistake... hopefully i'll remember to tie them up when i take them down next time.

 and i finally finished the fire station.

a recap of my first week 2013

just a recap of my week because i clearly didn't manage a daily post. this year i didn't take any extra holidays for the festive season. there wasn't really a point since it would be quiet at work and i would get to clear up all i needed to do which included clearing my table. unfortunately the latter didn't happen o_O so my table is still a mess.

the inLaws are in town, all we've really been doing is eat and eat and eat. we've had our christmas turkey feast, bacon & eggs feast, our my favourite wagyu beef pho, lots and lots of char siu, siu yok, hainanese chicken rice, seafood.... and the list goes on. i don't even know whether to drool or just feel fat when i think of the amounts of food i've eaten.

since i've been pretty free-ish at work, i decided to learn mandarin (read & write) online on my own. no guarantees i'll keep it up but at least i'm trying right? at the moment, i can write super ugly 'nǐ, hǎo, zài and jiàn'. again no guarantees i'll actually remember how to write it after a while but maybe, just maybe i'll be able to read it.*fingers crossed*

we've started a new home project - landscaping. as per a previous post, we went plant shopping and came home with heaps. the weather has been too hot (30-40 degrees!!! %^&*%) to actually start much but we have planted a tree. we are changing over a whole bunch of stuff and adding brighter flowers into the garden. i can't wait till we see the finish product. oh and i have also told the hubby that i'm happy to help pretty-ing our garden but he it will be his job to maintain it *grin*

it's been a while is MiL got to celebrate her birthday with her kids so she was very happy to be able to do so this week. however, because we already pre-celebrated her birthday when we invited their friends over for another feast, we didn't actually get her another cake. actually, i think we forgot. opps. luckily enough while shopping, the hubby came across his favourite pandan cake and bought one so we added a candle on it for her. it's the thought that counts right?

i started playing an iphone game which i can't seem to put down called okey 101. i'm bad when i start a game, i pretty much play non-stop.

the perks of having a photographer friend that he was happy to take a handful of shots for us as a family. it was fun and as usual wished my face wasn't quite so round but with all that food i obviously didn't do anything about it. our first theme was to make it really bright and colourful and we all ended up with a ralph lauren polo tees. '_' it looked like we were doing an advertising for them. maybe we should propose to sell it too them...  tees for all ages! hehehehe anyways, we then did some dressed semi casually. Gizmo got a little feature too with me. can't wait to see the pictures but in the meantime, some selfies...  ^_^

then we sent the inLaws off to the airport and it was the end of a week. if the rest of the year is anything like this week has been, this year is not only going to be awesome but we're going to fly through it!

my little chicken dog

Gizmo has always been a bit of a chicken dog. he jumps at sudden noises, runs away from the vacumn cleaner, unusual looking items and i think is paranoid to stick his face into holes (chips packet, his snack container.. etc). we also just found out that he is afraid of the 'pop' from bubble wrap -_-. well it is the bigger ones which have a louder 'pop'. look where he went into hiding.

green thumb

i was never really one with a green thumb. my parents definitely were... i remember days when we would follow my parents to the nursery and they would come back with car load full. this included the back seat. so much that it looked like trees were growing in the car and sticking out the window. ahhhh sweet memories.

unlike me, the hubby likes gardening so today we headed out to check out plants. ever since we moved into a place with a backyard, he's been wanting to landscape. while looking through the plants, i found small bougainvilleas.. it was one of the first hard spelling plant i had learnt and also one of my mum's favourites.

we went taking a small piece of our hedge coz we wanted to grow more. not only did we NOT come back with it but we came home with pretty flowers to plant, heaps of soil and a brand new 'canggih' hose. i'll be working tomorrow so the hubby will start it off. now lets just hope that they don't die! *fingers crossed*

new year resolution?

i saw an idea on pinterest where you keep in a jar a written memory each day. thought it was pretty clever but instead of a jar why not put my blog space to good use. that's what it's meant to be for anyway. so this year, i will store a memory a day on my blog. that way i'll have a a good read at the end of the year. many of which i'm sure i would have forgotten.

today i saw my FiL and BiL take pictures and videos of the tv - the new years fireworks. it was pretty funny. we celebrated new years with a good feast of seafood aussie style (minus the bbq) >_< enjoyed champagne and poor G hides away every year when he hears fireworks. and the hubby and i took the our first shot together this year. happy new year!

pest

not too long ago, the hubby and i woke up in the middle of the night to a really loud scratching sound that seem to have come from above us. almost as soon as we heard it, it stopped. we waited and waited hoping to hear it again but nothing o_O we were paranoid that there were rats in the house, or maybe a possum stuck somewhere. there was pretty much nothing we could at this time of night so i went back to sleep while the poor paranoid hubby started surfing for pest control.

we didn't hear anything for a while until suddenly one night i woke up to what sounded like the same scratching sound and this is what i saw....

G was sleeping so close to the wall that when he stretches or runs in his dreams he scratches the wall -_- well at least there isn't any pest in the house.

the year 2012

almost a year since i was last here and a lot has happened since then. here's a recap to the year 2012 in random order.

i assisted in cooking my first turkey ever.. of course with chef father-in-law and i have to say it turned out mighty fine. defrosting that 5 kilo bird was painful. it took 24 hours to defrost, marinated overnight, about 2 hours prep and another 3 hours and 45 minutes to cook. but it was definitely worth it. the meat was juicy and tasty and of course we had heaps of food. it's may not be my first home cooked christmas but it's a first traditional one with turkey and all.

after much travelling back and fro home to kl, the hubby and i managed to end up in new york this year; all in 2 weeks planning and luckily enough flew out a couple of days just before hurricane sandy hit. as expected, loved the city and everything about it - the lights, the late nights, the atmosphere... everything. i manage to catch up with friends i haven't seen in a decade and now everytime i watch a movie shot in new york, i scream "new york!!". someone's gonna get sick of me eventually >_<

the beginning of the year was a bit of a whirlwind. started with ups and downs. some downs too private to share and some downs turning into ups. there was the difficulty in selling our apartment but yet we were able to buy the house we wanted and surprisingly it all worked out. the hubby and i always grateful that although we may not be the rich, but we're lucky in what matters and that we do live comfortable lives.

i turned the big 3-0 this year with no major parties since the hubby was overseas. i did however get a very belated surprise giant birthday cupcake when he came back. and when i say surprise i mean surprise considering i starting singing along to the birthday song not realising that it was for me.

became the proud housewife when i made tong yuen (glutinous rice balls) from scratch for the winter solstice. not that i wasn't the proud housewife before ... but seeing it was so pretty and something different from the everyday house cooked dinners i couldn't help but beam in happiness. one step closer to being a stepford wife. hahahahaha .. that's never gonna happen!

i got the chance to overcome my slight fear of go-karting and now go full throttle without that thought stuck in my head that i will overturn at corners. now i just need to learn to cut the corners right. *evil grin*

dyed my hair purple... then pink. welcomed a few cute adorable babies into the world, non of which are mine of course and built more lego this year than i have ever built in my life. this year flew by so quickly i didn't even have time to blog about it. now to bring on the new year!

happy new year!