Bathing the Baby

The first three weeks since giving birth, I have never bathed for Blake. It was my grandma who had been doing it for me. I was a little afraid, and with me still in confinement, I'm supposed to touch water as little as possible.

On the first day of the last week of confinement, my grandma told me to watch and learn how to bath for Blake for when we return home. The next day, she asked me to give it a go, but I didn't dare to. I never dared to until we really went home, and I had no choice but to bath for Blake on my own. I even thought of bringing Blake over every single day to have my grandma bath for him! I laugh at that thought now, but I remember being very serious about it then.

Cleaning his ears, face, and washing his hair were the starters. These are all done before Blake goes into the bath tub, which was set on top of our sink. Diaper will be kept on until the very moment before he goes in. We don't want any accidents - big or small! After which, Blake goes into tub!

His mittens are kept on throughout most of time as he had the tendency of scratching himself. I guess most babies behave this way? The mittens only come off to have his hands washed just before he comes out of the tub.

It wasn't so tough, actually. I just needed confidence and practice. Gradually, bathing for Blake became an easy task. And it only got easier!

Bath time on weekends are all done by the super hands-on daddy! :)

Blake started to take showers instead, like a big boy, after turning 13 months old! :D

The Art of Baby Manicure

Trimming fingernails for babies is truly an art. It requires skills, good eyes, sturdy hands, and a whole lot of patience.

In the first two months, Sean was the one who did the trimming. However, due to a tiny accident, he decided to stop doing it, and I have taken over since.

What happened? Well, Blake was struggling quite a bit, lying on the bed, as Sean trimmed his fingernails and then, Blake cried. Sean had clipped, and Blake moved his fingers. No prizes for guessing what was clipped instead of the fingernail!

Sean quickly took some tissue to press against the open wound, while I went to get some first aid supplies (very important, people! always good to have them around!).

We did our best in wrapping up such tiny fingers, while still allowing some breathing space for the wound to heal, with big grown-up first aid stuff. It took us a while to figure the best way to wrap the open wound that's secure but not too tight.

Note to all parents with babies: Buy baby-size first aid stuff!

Babies heal small wounds like these at an amazing rate. His fingers were all healed the very next day! No signs of it ever gotten cut in the first place!

Moving Home

The first month after giving birth was spent at my mom's place, where my mom and grandma took care of Blake and me. After Blake turned one month old, we moved back home.

We were more tired than ever cos we had to handle every single thing on our own - housework, taking care of Blake from day to night. We hardly had any sleep. His colic didn't help much either. Blake wanted to be carried to fall asleep, and when sleeping. He wanted to be carried all the time.

Honestly, during his second and third month, Sean and I quarreled every other day due to lack of sleep, and for me, the lack of hygiene as well. I almost don't get to shower (and breastfeeding is seriously messy business!) when Sean's not around, much less be able to wash my hair. Those days I get to stand under the shower for just one minute, I feel very, very blessed.

We took naps whenever we could and slept for as long as we could. And yes, this was how I ate for 2-3 months when I was home alone with him, and he needed to be carried to sleep.

It took me a while to even get out of the house to buy me some proper food for lunch. I was eating instant everything during that period. Not that I mind, I kind of love eating instant stuff like instant noodles :P

On hindsight, I actually kind of miss this period. I miss him wanting to be attached to my body 24/7. Now, he's just running all over the place! Haha.

Admitting Blake into Hospital

Blake returned to the hospital, five days after he was born, for a check up. His pediatrician,  Dr. Yip, says he has a case of jaundice but a blood test was required to determine if Blake had to be hospitalized for treatment.

Sean held onto Blake when the nurse was preparing to draw blood out of our little boy. Only one of us was allowed to be with Blake, so I waited outside. According to Sean, the nurse drew blood from the heel of Blake's foot. The minute the needle entered, Blake struggled and cried.

An hour later, when the results were out, we were told that Blake had to undergo treatment for 20+ hours at the hospital, and us parents were not allowed stay. All infants are placed in one big nursery where nurses looked after them. We had no choice but to leave our baby's side for one night.

After we admitted Blake into the hospital, we left for lunch and headed home for some much needed rest.
Immediately after dinner, we went to the hospital again to visit our little boy. We only had two hours with our boy before he had to return to the nursery for his treatment.

Blake scratched himself badly throughout the entire UV treatment. He had to be stripped down to just diaper for the treatment, and so his hands were free to scratch. It broke our hearts to see his face covered with bloodied scratches!

Time passed so quickly. Very soon, the nurse came to tell us that he had to return for his treatment. She said if everything goes well, we will be able to bring Blake home the very next morning.

I wasn't able to sleep well that night, and woke up early the next morning, waiting for the hospital to call. When the call finally came, I rushed out of the house to pick my baby up.

While waiting for the nurse to process his papers for discharge, I changed him into the clothes I brought from home, while he laid asleep.

Blake still had a bit of jaundice when we left the hospital, but it was in the safe zone. It cleared up on its own eventually :)

Our first family photo :)

9 September 2010:

Minutes after I got to my room, after delivering my baby, Sean came into the room with our baby.

He was so tiny! I remember looking at him wondering if it was all real.

Up till this day, I can tell you, it still feels surreal.

The Baby's Arrival

Let's start from the day before Blake was born.

It was 8 September 2010, our estimated due date (EDD) for Blake was 9 September 2010. I felt a lot movements, which was as usual, but I also felt some pain. Not intense but it was discomforting. I have been quite paranoid in the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy (the day my gynae said, "anytime now!"). I had tons of worries and fears about actually giving birth, and whether my boy will be born healthy (or even born at all!).

So that evening, I called my gynae, Dr. Lim, and told him what I was feeling. He said I could be experiencing early contractions, and that baby could arrive anytime now. The minute Sean came home, I told him and he said, "Let's have dinner first, and we'll head down to the hospital."

The pain was on and off, I had no appetite for dinner. All I was thinking then was, "my baby's coming, and everyone's so calm!"

When we finally arrived at the hospital, we were led to the maternity ward. Dr. Lim arrived a little later, and did a check. He said what I was experiencing was definitely contractions, but in the really early stage. But he said I should stay in the hospital, just in case the baby decides to just 'pop'. The nurses monitored me closely, and we spent the night there. Nothing.

Dr. Lim came in early in the morning at about 7.30am, checked again and said, "Still a little early, but I can tell you, baby's on its way." He asked if we wanted to go home, and wait it out or to just burst my water bag and have the baby now. It was our EDD, after all. Part of me wanted to wait, but the other part of me was afraid - what if I keep him in longer, and he dies? Weird thoughts I have, I know. In the end, we decided to go with Dr. Lim's suggestion to burst my water bag, and have our baby.

So I had needles plugged into me, and my water bag burst. Oh, I had my intestines cleared out too. Whatever the nurse gave me, it only took less than one minute for it to take effect, instead of the supposed ten.


Then we text and called our family to inform them, to which my mom rushed down immediately. Did I mention that it was her birthday that day? :)

When the contractions became a little too unbearable, I opt for laughing gas, skipping the thigh injections. Sean wanted to give my mom an update of our progress, so he took a photo and went out to the waiting area to show her.


The photo apparently shocked my mom, so Sean came back in to take another one, and went back out to assure her that I was doing ok.


Soon, the laughing gas was no longer effective, and I was breathing more laughing gas than oxygen. I was laughing, and crying at the same time, and my eyes could barely stay open. I wasn't high or anything, but I was definitely not in the right frame of mind. I was delirious, I guess. Sean got a little worried when I started crying harder, and asked if I would prefer to go for epidural, which I did.


I was initially really terrified of the idea of a needle sticking up my back, but when I was in that state, I couldn't feel, much less think, of anything! You have no idea how happy I was to have been off the laughing gas, and able to talk normally! Only thing was, I couldn't feel anything from waist down. All I felt was numbness, sort of a fuzzy vibration kind of numbness.

A couple of hours later, it was time. Dr. Lim and the nurses came in. Sean was asked to hold my head forward, Dr. Lim had that sucking machine on standby in case baby needed some sucking assistance to come out. I can't be sure what happened, but the next thing I saw was this thing that the nurse put on top of me, and before I could see much of what it was, it was taken away. According to Sean, I pushed a total of three times, but I was using the wrong muscles for the first two pushes. So technically, Blake took only one push to be out! Hehe.

By the time I was able to lift my head up, I heard the nurse screaming, and a baby crying, and i saw a stream of fluid hitting the nurse's chest. Dr. Lim then said, "Baby's urine is sterile. Don't have to panic."


And there, my baby has arrived :)

The First Post

Just a bit of background information for my first post. My husband, Sean, and I (I’m Mabel, by the way) have been married for 5 lovely years when we got pregnant. The pregnancy period had been awesome and very, very exciting! And when baby (that will be Blake!) arrived in this world, things couldn’t get any better :)

Except, I haven’t been having the best memory of late.

When I try to recall some of the fonder memories from Blake’s first year, almost everything is a haze! And that’s not good! I mean, I can remember it in bits and pieces, but I can’t quite put them all together :( I want to be able to tell my boy about stories of and how he was when growing up - from peeing on the nurse when he was born (first order of business upon arriving into this world, so to speak) to his first baby talk to his first step… everything!

Last night, I kept tossing in bed, wondering how I could best manage a diary of some sort, which won’t require much effort, can be left unattended, and without fear of Blake destroying it. Don’t know why the internet never occured to me until now (I blame my wonked out brain).

I might just print every single post out too, to file them. You know, just in case everything disappears (remember Friendster, anyone?).

So basically, this journal records every possible moment I spend with my little family, and how I grew up with them.