If she’d arrived on her expected date of delivery, Anya would have been born yesterday! But since she was forced to make an early appearance, she’s 3 weeks old now. I’m still amused by how frantic she gets when it’s feeding time. Like Adrian says, she goes from 0 – STARVING in about 2 seconds. One moment she’s fast asleep and the next moment she’s managed to work herself up into quite a frenzy. But this baby is perfectly capable of sleeping soundly through the dirtiest of diapers!

I started the first session of my postnatal massage on Saturday. The lady doing the massage is nice and I’m comfortable with her but some parts of the massage are really PAINFUL! She says that my neck and shoulders are very tight, I obviously don’t exercise much, I don’t eat healthily and my blood circulation is bad. Ah well. Can’t really disagree with her on any of those points!

Had some visitors this week (the Lobos, the Loos, Adrian Tay, my aunt and uncle) so wasn’t too bored. But I still want to get out of the house! If I have to be cooped up any longer, I’ll go mad and run around screaming like these two:

More photos here!

Anya has put on weight and has also grown in length so we are very happy. She’s usually fed every 3.5 hours or so but sometimes doesn’t want to settle down after her day feeds or starts fussing earlier than expected. But she tends to sleep more at night and can go for about 4-5 hours between feeds which gives us a bit more time to sleep!

I’ve lost about 9kg since the delivery but it’s not real fats and is mainly the baby and other bits & pieces like the placenta, amniotic fluid, water, etc. I still have another 9kg to get rid of and that will only happen when I start exercising again after my confinement! But my tummy is not that repulsive-looking and it’s really nice to have ankles again!

I started reading the Twilight saga for the 3rd time while I was in hospital and I’m already on the final book. I read while expressing breast milk because I’m so familiar with the books that it’s just mindless entertainment to pass the time with. What am I going to do after I done with the last book??

I’m really quite sick of staying at home and I still have another 2 weeks to go. The monotony is killing me! I’m also quite sick of eating stuff cooked in sesame oil and ginger! SIGH.

This is Anya in Adrian’s hands looking like a tiny, wrinkly old lady :

More photos here!

The Delivery
The c-section was scheduled for 8.45am on 9 Mar, Monday so we checked into Thomson Medical Centre at about 11.30pm on Sunday night. Our room was newly renovated and really nice. From the bed, I had access to the Internet via the trolley table that is used to serve meals! We didn’t really sleep well that night cos we were so excited and also had to wake up really early the next day to be prepped for the c-section. Since I was on epidural, I was awake during the operation and by the time Adrian made his way to the operating theatre, I was already cut open. He tried not to look but did and was quite horrified. Before I knew it, baby was out at 8.55am and they showed her to me, gunk and all, over the ‘curtain’ separating the top and bottom halves of my body. Then they cleaned her up and passed her to me all bundled up and I saw her clearly for the first time. :) I don’t really remember much after that cos I was drugged and I slept for quite a bit before seeing Anya again. Had to stay in bed for a day with a drip and catheter but was allowed out of bed the next morning. The pain wasn’t too bad and I didn’t really need the pain meds except first thing in the morning and before I went to sleep. The cut has healed well and I’ll be removing the dressing in a few days’ time!

Thank you!
A big ‘Thank You!’ to all who visited us in hospital and at home – our family members, my aunts (GL & GM), my grandma, Auntie Iris, Uncle Tim, Selena, Jon, Baby Asher, Chin Chin, Daniel, Bobby, Shelly, Baby Natasha, Nav, Angie, ET, Chris, Jansen, Liz, Peter, Adriene, Joanne, Pam, Carie-Ann, Ker Sheon, Qi, Ren, Edwin x 2, Xin, Yun, Kenneth, Juan, Hwee Lee, Sam, Rence, Auntie Sylvia, Lena, Marcus, Baby Lucas, Suzie, Bianca, Choon Hiong, Candice, Li-Sa, Kee Min, Baby Lauren, Desmond, Colin, Adrian, Ju, Melvin, Amy, Elaine, Wee How, Hazel, Jolene, Matthew, Rachel and Alethea – and to all who sent their well-wishes in other ways. We really appreciate your love, care and concern and are extremely grateful for the ang paos, vouchers, hampers, chicken essence, bird’s nest, balloons, flowers, cards, chocolate, baby clothing, toys, biscuits, etc.

Confinement
My mum is taking care of me during my confinement. I’ve been eating loads of food cooked in sesame oil and ginger and drinking lots of chicken soup. Have also started on the pig trotters cooked in vinegar which I actually like very much. My mum is very flexible about the bathing and all the other things usually considered taboo so it hasn’t been difficult. I guess she knows that she can’t make me do anything I don’t want to and can’t stop me from doing anything I want! My grandma is driving me crazy though. She comes over occasionally and nags non-stop, keeps bugging me about how, when and what I eat and also criticises endlessly. There are a million other things she’s doing that are irritating me to death but it’s no point going into detail. Sigh.

The First Week
We’re doing ok because Anya is quite a good-natured baby. She only cries when hungry and even then calms down quite easily. Adrian is doing a fantastic job and is such a pro at taking care of her! He feeds her, burps her, changes her diapers and bathes her like he’s been doing it for years. I am a nervous wreck and quite useless and he has to teach me everything. In fact, I think the only area I excel in is producing breast milk. Since Anya was low-weight at birth, they started feeding her formula at TMC once she was born. Was worried that we would have to continue with formula after coming home but my breast milk came in and has been increasing since and, other than that one bottle of formula we gave her right after coming home from TMC, we’ve been feeding her breast milk. But we’re feeding her from the bottle instead of breastfeeding her directly. I tried breastfeeding in hospital and at home and would probably have succeeded if I persevered but, to be honest (and I guess I’m a bad mother for saying this), I prefer bottle feeding her the breast milk. Firstly, she gets really frustrated and sometimes even a bit panicky at the breast and, secondly, we want to be able to monitor her intake because she’s a small baby and it drives me mad if i don’t know how much she’s getting! Ah well…

Anya
What can I say about my one-week-old baby? I think she’s absolutely beautiful and the most adorable baby I’ve ever seen. Yes, I’m biased. :) She has the funniest expressions and she smells amazing. When I look at her, I feel like my heart’s going to burst with love.