Sketches of Life|Life Lived in Simplicity

One of the pains that I have to endure after giving birth to my children is nipple cracks. It is because baby sucks on the nipple instead of the areola; the area around the nipple, the colour is darker than the rest of your breast tissue. Mine turns even darker and bigger when I am pregnant! Hey, this happens to all pregnant women. I read that Mother Nature makes it that way so that it will be easier for baby to identify which part to latch.

So, when I complained of nipple cracks, the nurse will tell me that I did it the wrong way. The baby must latch on the areola not just the nipple. I really do not know how to do that coz baby’s mouth is so small. The most he can take in is the nipple and a small part of the areola; how to shove ALL the areola in?

So I endured the nipple cracks. Each time baby latches, it is as though that he is sucking on an open wound. Well, it is an open wound. After a week or two, the wound healed and the nipple become tougher and no more cracks. If you have nipple cracks, just use your own breastmilk and apply on it. It helps a lot to expedite the healing process, better than any cream.

Now I wonder whether the nipples toughen or baby’s mouth is bigger and he can take in more of the areola after 2 weeks being born into this world.

The nurse came to check on baby 2 days ago. I was telling that eating Spirulina during pregnancy can prevent baby from having jaundice. I think Huisia told me about it. Then the nurse told me that there are 2 cases recently in the hospital where 2 pregnant ladies who took Spirulina during pregnancy gave birth in the ward instead of the labor room because they didn’t feel any contraction pain and the urge to push. All of the sudden, the baby just slide out from their “down-under”.

I was telling the nurse, isn’t that good? No pain at all and no energy needed to push the baby out. She said that it is very dangerous and the baby and mother might get infection because the ward is not sterilized.

I don’t think it is the Spirulina. My SIL who took Spirulina throughout her pregnant had to endure 10 hours of pain before giving birth to her only daughter. And I don’t think Baby Jemima slide out of Huisia’s “down-under” but Huisia did have mild contraction pain only.

I don’t take Spirulina at all and I am blessed with mild contraction pain too.

I guess it is just a coincidence eh.

My youngest aunt (my mom’s youngest sister who is the same age as me) is pregnant with her 4th child too. She will give birth in September. Wow! She is even faster than me. She got married later than me but she started producing offspring very fast. If I am not mistaken, their age gap is just 1.5 years. She told my mom that she planned to have 4 children by 35 and then stop production! My mom told me that this time around she is very thin. With 2 roundy boys and a girl, and working as a nurse, I am sure she do not need any Apidexin to stay slim down. Just like me.

Can you loose weight when pregnant? Kind of a stupid question right. Actually some people do loose some weight during the 1st trimester if they have bad morning sickness and are always vomiting whatever they eat. And if you are like me, who does not have appetite throughout my pregnancy, I do thin down when I am pregnant. I see my face shrinking and wrinkles become more obvious. I see my arms and legs have less flesh. The only thing that is big is my tummy. Don’t ask me where to find the top diet pills, I didn’t swallow any. My pregnancy hormone is my diet pills.

MuShie MoShiu told me that she almost fall of the sofa reading The Birth Story of My First Child.

I wonder what is so funny about it. It was the most painful childbirth. So I went to take a look.

No wonder I cannot remember what I wrote because I did not write the post. It was written by my dear hubby.

After reading the cheong-hay (long-winded) and detail re-count of the birth story, without a doubt at all that she almost fall of her sofa because of this part of the childbirth:

The doctor told Michelle to push whenever she feels the contraction pain to hasten the labor. After that, whenever the contraction pain came, Michelle pushed. Every time she pushed, the baby did not come out but shit came out. I had to wipe and clean her. I thanked God that I was there to clean her. If the nurses had to do it, they might have scolded Michelle and that will not be good for Michelle. It was the first time I had to do that job but praise God I did pretty well. It was not the best job though.

As for me…I shed tears reading the post! “Where’s my boy?” I can never forget that part. 

Mother is always right. My mom told me on the 15th that baby will surely come out on the 16th. True enough, it all started around 2am on the 16th of April.I was watching Smallville with hubby and I started to feel mini cramps on my lower abdomen. Could it be the beginning of contraction pain? I have no idea because this pain is different than the contraction pain that I experienced with my 2nd girl.

Hubby told Baby if he wants to come out, please let him sleep first for at least 8 hours. So we went to bed around 2.30am.

At around 5am, I felt it again but I was in between reality and dreaming. Was I dreaming of having contraction pain? Was it for real? This is because I dreamed of having contraction pain before.

The next thing I know, my alarm triggered; time to wake the girls up to go to school. The pain is more intense and comes every 5 mins. Yay! IT IS contraction. I am going to give birth today! PTL that my pain is just like period cramp, very bearable.

I get the maid to help me out getting my girls ready for kindy and hubby to send them to kindy while I get ready to go to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital around 9am and I walked all by myself, holding my tummy to the delivery ward while hubby looks for a parking space.

I checked myself in and the nurse asked me to change into their pink delivery garment. First internal check by the midwife, I am 6cm dilated. Then she called a doctor to do the 2nd internal check (i think this is their procedure before pushing me to the labor room). The doctor press, press my tummy saying that my baby is small. Then she did the internal check and this time she said it is in between 7-8cm dilated. “Push her to the labor room now, she can give birth already.” she told the nurse around.

I was like, “Really, but I am not really in pain. I have no urge to push yet.” So I thought, “Ok, maybe after they rupture my water bag, I will feel the urge to push.” Just like how they did it during the birth of my son.

I was wheeled (i can walk there by myself but the nurse insisted to wheel me there) to labor room 5 but there was another patient there still being stitched so, I waited for about 10 minutes.

At 10am, a Chinese midwife came in and told me to push when I feel pain. Then she waited. I was expecting her to rupture my water bag but she did not do that. Surprisingly, the contraction pain did not come that fast. She raised her voice at me, “No pain arh? You feel pain, Push!” I wonder whether she is against a Chinese who does not speak Chinese. I told her I can’t speak Chinese because she spoke to me in Mandarin the moment she saw me.

Where is my hubby? He is supposed to come in by now.

Right after that, the pain came so I pushed. Then stopped. No more pain mah; no urge to push also. Then the midwife stimulates my cervix and asked me to push when I feel pain again. Even though I feel no pain and no urge to push, I push with all my heart and with all my might just to get this over with and get her out of my face!

During the pushing, I did scream to give more power to the pushing and got scolded by the midwife. It is the rules; you cannot scream or shout when pushing. And each time I push, my right leg tend to close up a lil bit and the midwife scolded me again and kept pushing it apart. After the birth, I find difficultly lifting that right leg without feeling pain.

At 10.10am, I feel baby slide out from my down under. No pain at all because baby is small but surprisingly, he weighs 3.15kg, the heaviest among his siblings. And the happiest moment was to see “balls” instead of “apam”.

The moment the nurse places baby on my tummy, hubby appeared. I think arh, the midwife purposely did not inform the nurse to call my hubby in earlier. If hubby is around, I don’t think she will raise her voice at me.

The stitching was done very rough too but I dare not say a word because I scared that she will pull harder! With my other 3 children, I got a very caring, gentle and friendly Malay midwife. What an experience! Now I understand why many refused to give birth in government hospital.

Whatever it is, everything is over and I am blessed with a healthy and perfect baby boy. And I even thank the midwife for helping me to deliver Baby Ezra.

For the birth story of my other 3 children, click here.

Thank You all for all your well wishes!

I know that most of you are waiting to read about my birth story.

Well, I am pretty busy with baby and catching up with my assignments that I hardly find time to write in detail about my birth story.

At the same time, I am enduring a few type of pain! Talk about enjoying confinement. What is there to enjoy except watching baby sleep; he smiles a lot in his sleep.

My hemorrhoid swells big time this time around. Due to it, sitting down and getting up is really a pain in the butt (literally)! So, no typical confinement food for me; too heaty and no herbal drinks too; only plain water.

Apart from that, the backache from pregnancy still did not go away after baby is out, my nipple cracks and tummy cramps.

So, I will only write seriously after all the above is gone…hopefully in less than 2 weeks time.

Yawn…sleeeeeeeppppppeeeeee.

But I am really sleepy because there were renovation going on at the 3rd class ward. Was supposed to be staying in the 2nd class ward but it was full. Anyway, Praise God for that because we only pay RM40 all in instead of RM350 if I were to stay in the 2nd class ward.

Baby Ezra and myself are doing fine. He is catching up with his sleep right now and I will join him soon after I finished writing this post.

In short, it was a super speedy delivery because I was forced to push even though I don’t have the urge to push yet; my contraction pain was very mild like period cramps only. I got a super cranky Chinese midwife this time around. And she wants everything to be done fast. I think her shift was going to be over soon that is why she is rushing everything.

Leg wide open at 10am, baby came out at 10.10am. You say fast or not???

Will blog in detail once I have catch up on my sleep and figure out what is a rock tumbler for. Assignment lar. .

No sign of me popping yet! *sigh*

I went handphone shopping with hubby and son. I went grocery shopping for MIL. I nap for 2 hours in peace because my children were being “kidnapped” by my youngest sister to accompany her at home while her hubby went outstation. Please kidnap them more often can? hehehe Oh ya, during my nap, I dreamt I had 2 strong contractions. When I woke up, I was hoping it will continue but after waiting for half an hour, nothing happen.

I watched Smallville. I drove to my mom’s to fetch my children home and for dinner and now here am I; blogging.

In hubby’s latest post in his blog; he wrote…

“Maybe he is afraid to meet his daddy after listening to the daddy from inside the womb.” You see, when he is very active doing his kungfu kicks, the moment hubby said something to him, he won’t move a muscle!

“The voices of the sisters and brother screaming, shouting and crying does not help either.” Scared will get bullied by your sisters and brother eh? That is what siblings are for right? If not, growing up will be boring.

Ok Baby, please listen. Mommy is going to give you another day. If you still don’t wanna come out and Mommy have to wait for hours at the O&G Clinic for check-up on Friday, Mommy is gonna ask the midwife to smack your butt hard hard the moment you come out!

I gained back the weight I lost in just 6 days! I am at 60.1kg now. My appetite came back and I have been eating out a few times for the past 6 days. I guess that helps with the weight increased. Hubby kept reminding me “Hey, you need to eat. You need the energy to push.”

Baby head is wayyyyyy down but still no sign of labor. Since tomorrow is my due date, I was given a referral letter to go to the hospital by Thursday or Friday if baby still in my tummy.

So baby, please come out tomorrow. Mommy hates waiting for hours at the O&G Clinic.