The Baby Bee has arrived

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in announcing the arrival of Puteri Maisarah on 19 November 2007...
 
Maisarah wanted to make an appearance 6 days earlier than expected. Luckily Mummy and Abah were ready the receive her. It all started at 4 am when I started to feel pain like period-pain cramps. To be on the safe side I just kept quite and started timing the pains. At 5 am when the pains started coming every 15 mins, I woke Shah up and we got ready to go to the hospital. We reached the hospital at 5:30 am and we had to fill in a form before I was brought up to the delivery room. At around 6 am, after I changed into the hospital gown, my water broke. The midwife assessed my labour progress and she estimated that I was 3 cm dilated. So I immediately requested for epidural (yes!..I am not that brave to endure labour pains ladies and gentlemen). The anesthetist came to administer the epidural and I was as happy as can be (minus the 2 times I vomited because of the epidural effects).
 
Anyway, by 9 am I wasn't progressing much, was still 3 cam dilated. So the midwife put me on the drip (injected with some sort of liquid) to speed up the labour. Then I started to feel the contractions becoming stronger. A sign that the baby is on the way. So I was thought by the midwife on how to push whenever the contractions came. A little after 2 pm, the doctor arrived and I started pushing but I wasn't pushing hard enough. The baby was stuck at the same position for quite sometime. Plus she was in the posterior position instead of anterior which made the delivery harder. Added to that the doctor mentioned that the umbilical cord was almost choking the baby. So the midwife had to assist me by pushing my stomach while I continued  pushing the baby out. Finally at 2:29 pm , Maisarah took her first breath of fresh air. However, her head was slightly mishapen due to her being stuck during labour.
 
After Maisarah was cleaned and I was finish being stiched up, Shah was asked to recite the Azan and Qamat to Maisarah. Then I got the chance to breastfeed Maisarah for the first time. Even though I'm not used to holding a tiny baby but at that time miraculously I knew how to handle her. She too took to sucking with ease and was satisfied. I think I nursed her for almost half a hour when I felt like vomiting again, the after effects of epidural. After another time vomiting, I was wheeled to my room but with my head spinning badly (more effects of the epidural on me).
 
Once I reached the room, I badly needed to sleep off the headache. I managed to sleep for half an hour before the Staff Nurse came with a hungry Maisarah. My head was still spinning and I was afraid I'd accidentally let go of Maisarah when she was feeding, so I asked if one of the nurses could wait with me while I nursed Maisarah (Shah had gone home for a while to rest and the family had all left). Unfortunately all the nurses were busy. The Staff Nurse wanted to put me off the idea of fully-breastfeeding Maisarah by saying that I wasn't producing enough milk and that it needed to be massaged before milk would be abundant so I should let Maisarah be formula fed. But I was determined to give Maisarah as much of my milk as possible. I ignored the spinning headache and nursed Maisarah till she was full. Everytime Maisarah was hungry the nurses would bring her to my room. Luckily, Maisarah is such an easy (insyaAllah as her name means Ease or Kesenangan and Richness or Kekayaan) baby to take care off as that night she nursed at 12 am and then again at 5 am. So Shah and I got a good 5 hours of shut eye after the tiring day.
 
Well, that was the day Maisarah came into our lives almost a month ago. More updates on the first month with Maisarah will come soon. I hope! Please pray that Maisarah caries on the be the easy baby to care for and that I can continue breastfeeding her.

Not long to go now...

The baby insyaAllah will be making it's appearance soon and I think I've got almost everything sorted out.

• Baby clothes - checked (I think I might have gone overboard here..my mum and sis says I've bought too much)
• Baby bath essentials and toilettries - checked
• Breastfeeding items - checked (Do I really need a sleep bra?)
• Nursery - checked (we just bought a travel cot, matress, pillows, bolsters and a portable chest of drawers)
• My hospital bag - almost there (just need to put in a few more stuff and it should be ready)

I think we're getting there. My gynea has given me my hospital registration form just in case I go into labour anytime now. Shah has insisted that I'm not left alone at home. Ever since he got promoted to Head of Department, he's got lots of retreats and outstation visits to go too (almost every weekend this November). So he's insisting that someone comes over to accompany me or I take leave and go stay over at my mums place. I'm not complaining as I don't like to be left alone at home anyway.

The baby is now approx. 2.6 kgs and is now lying head down. From my last scan, the baby has yet gotten into the anterior position (face facing my spine) which is needed in order for a smooth delivery. I pray that the baby will get into position soon so that everything runs smoothly during labour. I've also had the chance to visit the hospital's labour room and wards yesterday. The labour room is private for 1 patient at a time and the single ward rooms are also very spacious and has all the required facilities. So I hope they don't run out of single rooms when the time comes for me to deliver the baby.

Oh my! I forgot to write anything on our recent Raya. As I mentioned, we celebrated raya in PJ. After subuh prayers on the first day of Eid, I started cooking the nasi tomato (as per Shah's request). The ayam masak merah was cooked the day before. I didn't go to Eid prayer because the rice hadn't cooked yet and I only got ready donning my raya jubah at 9:30 am. We then sat down for raya breakfast and not long after that relatives and guests started to arrive non-stop until about 3pm. This pregnant lady was not excused from helping out at the kitchen..washing dishes, setting the table and heating up food. At the end of the day I was knackered. The next day we went visiting to my uncle's and grandma's house. On the 3rd day of Raya, Shah, my sis and I were headed to One Ut*ma as I needed to do my last minute hospital bag shopping. We'll I guess that is normal when you spend Eid in the city. Shah was back at work on the 4th day of Eid while I rested at home until the next Monday. It was bliss.

Well, I guess that's our update for now. I'll try and write more it time permits. Take care and if I don't write before I go into labour then do pray that it all runs smoothly! I'd really appreciate it.

Salam Aidilfitri

It's 2 days to Eid. I'm already on leave from today until next week Friday and I'm planning to make full use of this rest. Ramadhan sure passed by quickly this year. And I don;t quite fel the mood for Eid. maybe because I didn't fast the full month or maybe because there is so much other things on my mind. Since I'm carrying a big belly everywhere I go, I have not made any 'baju raya'. But I did buy a 'jubah' which I love due to the sequined embroidery on the sleeves and bottom. My only concern is it is black in colour. I would have loved it more if it came in any other colour. But I aint gonna complain as long as I have a nice outfit for the frst day of Eid.

I've got to do more baby/mum-to-be shopping after Eid and believe it or not but I've just 40+ days to the EDD. I only have 2 nursing night shirts and I need to get a few more. Plus I've got to get some nursing bras and a few more bits and pieces for the baby. I'm hoping to be able to settle all by next week because once i get back to work I've got to start sorting out work-stuff before I go on my maternity leave. I've got to make sure my Final Year Project students will have a temporary supervisor while I'm away and I've got to list out the tasks needed to be completed by my Research Asisstants so that their work will keep on going. And I've got to make sure I finish marking all the exam papers and input my student's grades before I go on leave. Gosh there's just so much to do.

Well, I guess that's enough of rambling for this time. So to all Muslims out there, Eid Mubarak and sorry for all my wrong-doings.

Come the 11th day and...

I'm no longer able to fast. I got very bad gastric pains which caused me to vomit many times. And for fear of endangering the baby, Shah and I decided that I wont be fasting any longer. And alhamdulillah I am feeling much better now. I think I was also quite dehydrated when I fasted because I didn't drink enough water. I think I only drank about 3 glasses of water a day and that is not good.

I had my monthly doctor's apointment today and based ont he ultrasound scan the baby is now weighing 1.88 kgs as it should be during the 32nd week of pregnancy. Yes, i'm already 32 weeks pregnant and only 8 weeks left before my EDD. According to the doctor, most mommies give birth 2 weeks earlier than the EDD so I've only got 6 weeks to prepare everything for the arrival of our bundle of joy! Yikes!

InsyaAllah, I'm hoping to get some stuff tomorrow. We've still got to get a babycot, matress, pillows and bedding, baby bathing stuff and much more. I hope we'll be able to sort all these out in the next month. Wish us luck!

3 days and hopefully more

It's been three days into the month of Ramadhan and so far so good. I make sure I wake up for sahur at 5 am. I start my sahur with 2 pieces of crackers and then followed by rice. Shah who always doesn't wake up for sahur has been a dear. He's been keeping me company during sahur these past 3 days. During the day I feel quite OK. At times I do feel the gas in my stomach building up but that is towards the evening, around 5pm onwards. By that time I'll just pray to Allah that I can make it through the next 2 and 1/2 hours to berbuka time.

The first day of Ramadhan we went to Alamanda to tapau food for berbuka. We bought a whole percik chicken from Ayamas and rice with ikan bakar from the food court. Unfortunately, that night, the food didn't stay long in my stomach. Yesterday, Shah went to the Pasar Ramadhan in Serd*ng and got us nasi biryani, nasi kerabu, murtabak and buah melaka. I had my crackers and murtabak before Maghrib. Then I ate the nasi kerabu. Alhamdulillah, it was good. The nasi biryani was kept for sahur. We're not sure yet of what to have tonight. I might persuade Shah to take me to the Pasar Ramadhan if he's up to it.

So, how has your Ramadhan been?