The Bub in the Belly

Today we brought Ryan for his check-up with the PD, Dr Ngiam of Singapore Baby and Child Clinic at Gleneagles. This was the first time that Ryan and I had ventured out of the house since the birth.

Ryan measured in at 3.23 kg. When we checked out of the hospital after the birth, he had dropped a little from 3.24 kg to 2.94 kg, which is normal and within the expected range. Looks like he regained his birthweight quite easily.

Dr Ngiam gave Ryan the once-over and checked his colour. He said that there is a small trace of yellow but not enough to be clinical jaundice and the little trace should disappear soon. So it looks like Ryan has escaped jaundice – yay! We were told to monitor him over the next few days just in case. Well done, baby!

No jabs today but some blood was extracted from Ryan's heel for metabolic screening.

Here are some photos taken over the last few days.

Small and tiny at 4 days old

Suntanning on the balcony in my arms

Snug as a bug in Daddy's swaddle

Still small and tiny at 1 week old

We usually go to KL/Ipoh to celebrate Chinese New Year with our families but this year we couldn't go because I'd just delivered so Richard's parents and second sister, Mary, came over instead. They arrived on Sunday, the eve of Chinese New Year, when Ryan was just 3 days old, and they left on Tuesday.

Ryan was hugged and kissed repeatedly, his every limb and feature was examined and marvelled over, his every expression elicited cries of pleasure and wonder. Ryan is the first male grandchild and the first one of all his cousins to bear the family name. Also, he shares the same birthday as Richard's mum. So Richard's mum has given him the title of 'the golden grandchild'.

Here are pictures of the proud grandparents and Richard's sister, Mary, with Ryan.

Here's proof that newborn babies respond to black, red and white images.

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.

Our baby is finally ready to come out. At our last check-up, our gynae told us that we will have to check in that same night and the baby will be delivered. We were supposed to check in at 8.30pm. The day went by pretty fast. This was my last day in office before the long break to welcome our son into our family.

After work, we went home to pack our stuff and then we had a big dinner. We finally checked into the hospital at around midnight. Nothing much happened that night. Leona spent some time watching the TV in the delivery room. She seemed to be not too much in pain which is good. We both fell asleep not too long afterwards.

The next day, I remember waking up and thinking that this will be the day our son will arrive. The nurse told us that the dilation may take a few hours, so more waiting. I went home late morning to feed the pets and to take a bath. Luckily we live quite near the hospital so the journey to and fro takes about 10-15 minutes. On my way back to the hospital, I received a call from Leona. She is fully dilated and ready! That was fast.

By the time I arrived at the ward, everything is set in place. Before long, Leona is pushing with the help of the nurses. I could see the top of the baby's head. After a few pushes, there didn't seem to be any significant progress and I was beginning to be a little worried that there may be complications. The nurse said that the gynae will have to use the forceps and they will page for him.

Once the gynae arrived, everything went by quite quickly. A cut and, with the forceps, the baby was delivered in a matter of minutes. I remember seeing this tiny little boy being lifted out by the gynae and the nurse busy washing and wrapping him up. In the next few minutes, he was wrapped up cosily and placed in the plastic cot next to mum. His eyes were open even then. I looked at him and gave him a kiss on his forehead. He has very intelligent eyes and looked straight back at me. He is also busy looking around.

With that, we welcome our new member into the family. I remember thinking to myself that 'Thank God, everything went smoothly and mother and son are both safe and healthy. Of course, our baby looks very very cute too'.

Ryan's birth was a surreal experience.

I remember that both Richard and I went to work as usual the day before. When we got home, we had so many 'loose ends' to tie up that we ended up checking into the labour ward at midnight instead of at 8.30pm as Dr Chan told us to. I remember going to dinner and thinking that the next time we ate, there would be one more person at the table. I remember going through our house, checking everything was tidy and in place, and thinking that the next time I came home, there would be an additional reason to stay home. I remember looking at my husband and thinking that he was going to be a father. That I was going to be a mother. That we were growing up and had to learn to live not just for ourselves, but for our child as well.

When we checked in, the hospital lobby was quiet and deserted. The labour ward was serene and calm. In the delivery room I was strapped onto the CTG machine and it showed that I was already experiencing contractions 10 minutes apart. I couldn't feel them though. After chatting with the nurse for a bit, I settled down to sleep. Richard slept in the same room, in an armchair. I did some hypnobirthing exercises but that seemed quite pointless to keep up because I didn't feel any of the contractions. Lying there in the dark, I remembered the last time I slept in a hospital bed. That was when I miscarried and had to have a D&C. This time round, I was giving birth to my son.

I remember trying very hard to soak in the moment. It was difficult because everything was so normal, so quiet, so peaceful. It was hard to focus on the fact that something momentous was going to happen. It was all so surreal.

The next morning, I fully dilated from 3 cm to 10 cm in less than 2 and a half hours, but baby was still not engaged so we waited for him to get lower down the birth canal. At 2.30pm, the nurses helped me practice pushing through two contractions. Then I slept and rested till 3.30pm and we tried again. Not much progress. Apparently, the baby was quite long. The nurses told me that it was likely that the baby would need forceps to come out, so they told me to stop and rest till Dr Chan came. They started getting all the medical equipment ready for him - I remembered vividly that they set out a pair of yellow plastic boots for him. I was thinking, wow, does that mean that there's going to be a lot of blood?

At about 4.00pm, I started bearing down and pushing without much success. The nurses called for Dr Chan and once he got to the room, everything was very quick. He washed up, put on his gown and those yellow boots and chatted a bit with me and got to work. He showed me the forceps - man, they were huge! Then, once he was in position, two nurses pushed my tummy to push the baby out, I pushed and Dr Chan pulled and whoosh! Ryan plopped out.

4.34pm. A son, a mother and a father were born.

It turned out that I was having difficulty getting Ryan out because the boy had turned to face the sky (occipital position) when he should have been facing my spine. This also means that his head needed a larger opening to be delivered. My cervix had become swollen because his head had been butting against it and that also made it a little more difficult to deliver him. There were no problems with the umbilical cord so perhaps the smart boy had turned around to shake the cord off.

Dr Chan placed Ryan on my tummy while he clamped and cut the cord and extracted the cordblood for storage. I remember hearing loud screams from the next delivery room, it was another mother delivering. But Richard and I were of course more interested in our baby. I was amazed that this perfect little person had suddenly appeared. Ryan was covered in blood and stuff and I was trying to see what he looked like, but the nurses took him away to clean, measure and check him. Then they swaddled him and placed him next to me. He weighed in at 3.240kg, much more than the estimated 2.8kg so Dr Chan concluded he had heavy bones.

As Dr Chan finished up his stitching, I kept looking over at Ryan, getting to know his face and trying to imprint it in my memory. He had some swelling on his head due to the forceps but Dr Chan assured me this was temporary and would subside in a day. Ryan was already alert, eyes open, quietly observing his surroundings and what was happening. I wondered what he was thinking and I hope he understood that he was safe and loved from the very moment he came into our life.

What a difference a day makes.

3.240 kg, 50 cm
4:34 pm
Forceps
Magical

So, here we are... final score is 14 kg. The last few kilos from the 10th kilo onwards have been completely uncontrollable and I've been yo-yoing up and down. I suspect its due to water retention, which on the one hand is good because it will just disappear once I deliver. On the other hand, I feel the water retention in my wrists and fingers - painful! I've also had to buy larger-sized shoes to accommodate my feet which magically balloon up throughout the day, particularly if I'd been walking a lot.