The Bub in the Belly

For the first few hours after the delivery, I was on a drip. My blood pressure was low and I still had a lot of swelling. All these factors made it difficult for me to be up and about, so I pretty much stayed in my hospital bed the first day. My water retention didn't disappear straightaway, in fact it increased a little - I could still feel it in my fingers and I was still weighing in heavy.

Dr Chan visited us every morning, and so did the PD to give us an update on Ryan's check-ups and jabs. We had some visitors on the second day and lots of gifts (thank you!).

Richard did a lot of running around, taking care of odds and ends. Otherwise, he was with me in my room all the time. Ryan also stayed in my room with me, day and night, except when he went for his baths and his check-ups by the PD. His swelling from the forceps subsided within a day. He was a very calm and relatively quiet newborn. He slept most of the time and when he did open his eyes, he usually had a slight frown on his brow as if to say, "What's going on?"

I breastfed him and we changed his diapers and recorded his pees and poos for the nurses. Most of the time, we just stared at him, getting to know his face. I wasn't sure that I would recognise him if he was in the nursery with the other babies!

The nurses were so wonderful and I was so well taken care of that I didn't want to leave. But as it was coming to Chinese New Year, the confinement lady was arriving and Richard's parents and Mary were also coming, we thought that we had better go home. So on Saturday, after attending the hospital's antenatal class (on breastfeeding and bathing the baby), we packed up and went home to start our new life as a family.