It was the calm before the storm, the last Sunday service before Tim arrived and changed our lives forever. Well, papa went for a soccer game, so mama brought the kids to church on her own.
the blithe little girl in matching dresses with her beloved bear, the loony boy who was enamored with all things feline and declared he was a white little kitten whose name was snowflakes...
As usual, the MBS venue was captivating with all the balloon sculptures...
That Monday, it was a school holiday so you followed us to the check-up with Dr Chang. Here was a rather dubious looking doctor in his comical glasses, wanting to give mama and papa a jab.
Well, the doctor said that mama's amniotic sac was only left with 3.8 cm of water, he wanted mama to be admitted into the hospital the very next day. It was kind of unexpected...eh...mama and papa had wanted Tim to come out on 1st Nov, ha...and we scrambled to find wai po and ah ma to take care of you tomorrow morning...both were busy...ah gong volunteered, wai po changed her plans and agreed to come over in the morning and bring you to school...
Last day as a family of 4. We went to IMM to order a fan for our dining area (the best decision for the home this year, it was such a breeze * oooo punny* having meals there now...papa loved working there too.) Went to trampoline park...then to Streats cafe as it was your favourite hangout, then to the library...went home, talked about welcoming Tim home...both were a tad hesitant and clingy...well...was glad we were given a day to prepare and talk through it, rather than being caught unaware in the middle of the night and we had to scoot off without saying bye...
Set of at 7ish...tong was awake and sobbed...later on, wai po told us that he woke jie jie up...then both watched tv till it was time to go...and tong was still downcast...
Put the induction tablet at 8.30am, 1cm dilated.
9.30am breakfast of chicken sandwich and milo.
later on, given the shot to purge out all the yucky stuff in the tummy...
Midwife Josephine was a chirpy and sunny personality..ha...she told me to go and take a walk, but I was too lazy and opted to nap.
1150, mild contractions pain like I was having stomachache.
ha, 1150am, 4 cm dilated. Midwife asked if I wanted epidural. Nope, it was bearable and I really did not want so much medication so early on, thinking it would be a protracted delivery. From my fuzzy memory of the whole incident, your papa went off to buy lunch from the coffee shop opposite Thomson Hospital as Dr Chang was not coming at noon...and mama distinctly remembered having bouts of pain and smelling the aroma of the food papa had bought...and the pain started getting really excruciating and I asked for an epidural.
Eh...then I was given oxygen...and the pain was getting intense...then 6cm...the next thing I knew I was in such acute agony, I was clinging onto the bedsheet and writhing in sheer pain and felt like I was going to die...somehow at that period of time, midwife Joesphine turned the oxygen into happy gas...I heard her exclaiming that she called 10 doctors and all were not free..and how I should have listened to papa earlier...
the next thing I knew, I was falling into a very very deep abyss, and then midwife flipped me over and declared I was 9cm...then Dr Chang was there, and I was on a different plane all together, like I was in a coma, very lucid mentally, but physically I could not respond....
I could hear the midwife, doctor and papa's voices...the tortuous contractions were gone...replaced by an ebbing pain in the lower body...but it was more bearable...there was a warm and fuzzy feeling, I recalled humming "wo yao xiang gao shan ju mu" song...squeezing papa's hand as the pain ebbed on...then one extraordinary tightening...(apparently tim came out then, papa did not even know)...
and i opened my eyes...like I was drawn back into reality, I thought i had woken up from a dream and my first thought was I was so gonna get the bloody epidural now that I had woken up from the nightmare...papa beamed and said tim was born...i asked papa, " is it real?"
it was a very amazing birthing experience...it was not by choice that i did not take the epidural but i was glad i did not take it, for I would never experience such a surreal and life-giving experience...it was like I really worked hand in hand with God to birth Tim, it was...awe-inspiring...still could not believe in it now...it seemed so distant already though it was just 8 days ago!
ha so I thought I would wait till nighttime before I could see you...but from acute pains to delivery, it was under half an hour? Astounding feat. Midwife said she was surprised I managed it...ha and it was such a quiet affair...papa and she joked and bantered...my mind was willing but my flesh was weak, I felt my eyes closing involuntarily...very peculiar experience...
First father-son shot
everyone agreed you were a carbon copy of your gor gor
a shot of 3 of us before we went to our ward
ha finally went into the room...and in awe of the unbelievable encounter
After school, you badgered ah gong to bring you to the hospital..ha...you wanted to see the presents more than tim, I thought...
jie fell in love with Jun immediately...she reiterated many times just how cute tim tim was
papa circulated the 4D numbers around
went back to bathe and came back in PJs for the stayover..both fought to carry tim tim
definitely in better shape than the first delivery...felt more alert and sprightly
godma, mama's family, papa's family came...
the little bundle of joy, fresh from heaven
somehow, the two of you had gotten somewhat clingy and wanted to stay with us instead of playing ipad at ah ma's house! Here, tong was having the whale of a time lounging and watching silly cartoons...
this one, some weird cats who lived with 3 cockroaches...
a picture with the doctor who delivered all 3 babies, and who was seeing mama, er yi and san yi now for our pregnancies. ha...according to midwife Josephine, Dr Chang was really good to let me go for natural birth, she claimed that ppl with 6 cm of amniotic sac were asked to come in for emergency c section...we asked Dr Chang about it...he shrugged it off, saying it was not risky at all, he knew it was going to take a shorter time, that was all...
thankful for such a great and skilful doctor..who was always calm and collected, even when he noticed signs that didi seemed to be on the small side, mama always felt I was in very safe hands...
yay on the way home...
ha dunno why papa sent me this...but yes, whatever you put your efforts in, there your heart was too...
present from TLL
did slept like a log in the first few days...but his smelly pattern started emerging...ha, like grunting and snorting in the night and being really silent in the morning...then today, he started fidgeting in the morning while he napped...cried more and gotten fussier...but mama was unfazed...it was just part and parcel of being a newborn...
yeah, people kept asking how I was coping...was really more chilled for this child...you knew...they would somehow grow up...ha
the burito all snug
tim was a tad small so could not fit even the smallest clothes..hope he would grow big fast
passed on tong's unwanted ducks to tim...ha
sleeping like a boss
then we had a really dramatic night...tong had fever in the middle of the night, gosh...so papa brought him to Thomson to get medicine...then he had to sleep outside with papa and was weeping...it was a horrendous night...
he stayed at home while papa fetched jie jie to school
always asking to carry little tim...could not wait for the day when the three of you could play together... and we changed the blog to the chronicles of xun, tong and jun...
the beginning of new beginnings...
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