Isaac & Mummy in Guinness Record attempt!

http://www.singaporebookofrecords.com/news.php?id=OTAwMDAwMDA1MA==

151 mothers with babes in arms across Singapore breastfed their infants at 10am on 8 Aug 2007 as part of the Guinness record attempt for the largest worldwidesynchronised breastfeeding event. It was organised by Nurturers of theEarth, a Filipino support group that promotes the benefits of breastfeeding. InSingapore, the Breastfeeding Mothers' Support Group coordinated the effort atfour locations - MacPherson Community Club, KK Womens' and Childrens'Hospital, the National University Hospital and Mount Alvernia Hospital.

It so happened that on the day we were to be discharged from hospital, there was a Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide to be attempted in one single day, August 8, 2007 at 10am (Singapore time). This is apparently an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for Simultaneous Breastfeeding in multiple sites (17,000 nursing mothers, soon to be credited by Guinness) established by the Philippines on May 2, 2007.

We took part in it, and guess what? The Mt Alvernia picture even came out in The Straits Times the next day! :)

Our favourite pic of Isaac

This is our fav pic of Isaac. Took it in hospital when he was a day old. The sun was streaming in through the window, shining on his face - thought it would make a good picture, so I told hubbs to take one - and it came out perfect! :)

Is@@c has two As...

Yes, while we're on the topic of names... Isaac is spelt with two As... not two Ss nor two Cs... By far, the most common misspelling is the one with two Ss... One way to remember, whilst sms-ing, is that when you type i-s-a-a-c - the nokia dictionary will get it right. But if you type i-s-s-a-c the nokia dictionary will show irrac - which is obviously wrong. Another, better way to remember, is that Isaac's Mummy hopes and prays that he is a clever boy, and hence he will get lots of As for his results next time - as there are already two in his name! kekeke...

Isaac is called Wen2 Yuan1

This is little Isaac, just about 4 hours after he was born - after he had had his first proper bath by the nurses. We love this pic of him coz he looks so... si1 wen2 ('prim and proper'? 'studious'?)

Isaac's chinese name is pronounced as wen2 yuan1 - si1 wen2 de wen2 and yuan1 bo2 de yuan1. Think it's supposed to have a meaning that is very learned and very studious, something like that. Hubbs composed the name himself :)

I think, in this photo - Isaac looks soooooooo Wen2 Yuan1 - if you know what I mean ;p

Out! Safe and sound!

I guess that's the thing with this pregnancy thing. We've been very blessed throughout this pregnancy, and we're very glad. But one can never be really SURE that everything is fine, till after the baby is delivered. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I was really looking forward to delivering Isaac. Not so much because I was getting so heavy with him that it was cumbersome to move around etc, but more so because I wanted him to be out, safe and sound, in my arms. I have heard too many horror stories of how things can go wrong - stories which I will not repeat here. But they were lingering at the back of my mind, preying on my hormonally imbalanced paranoid mind...

So finally, when Isaac was born. I was so glad! We were very thankful that Isaac was well. Isaac was born with his umbilical cord wound around his neck twice. Indeed he is blessed that that did not do any harm. Still it brings a lump to our throats when we think of the harm that might have caused.

We thank the Lord for answering our prayers. And we thank everyone for your prayers!!! :)

Isaac, Mummy and Papa!

That's me and Isaac just after I delivered him. I was pretty tired and exhausted after I delivered him. But after he was out - I was so glad that I guessed I looked pretty upbeat in the picture below hehehe... also coz I wanted to look nice and smiley in the first picture I was taking with my son, right?! :) And below is the first picture Isaac, Mummy and Papa took together! In the delivery ward still, no less! Unfortunately, you can only see the back of Isaac's head - what is he doing? Drinking from Mummy already!!!

First pics of Isaac

This is Isaac after the nurse cleaned off the goo on him. He came out rather "clean". Thanks to the coconuts I ate in the last few weeks of my pregnancy. kekeke... When he was out, he cried for awhile, like 5 minutes, bawling his lungs out. Then he just quietened down and did not cry. Then he spent the next hour or so, just lying there and looking at us and everything else.
There he lay, just staring at us. Hahaha... we were quite amazed that he'd stop crying. We're not complaining!!! :) In this picture, Isaac's eyes were still puffy. He still had water retention - water as in the amniotic fluid in the stomach. His hand looks puffed up - water logged, rather. Later on, he would look quite scrawny indeed. But here he was, born a good 52cm long and 3.22kg in weight.

The Birth of Isaac

See that's me in the stir-ups in between a push. That's Dr Ang my gynae right there at the foot of the bed. She's very good. We like her a lot :) You know, this pushing business. I was on epidural, right? So I couldn't feel anything much waist down. So when they tell me to PUSH, I just pushed. Pushed whatever. They say:"Push harder! Push harder!" I just PUSHED with ALL MY MIGHT.

 With whatever and whichever parts of my body. I was aware I was using my stomach muscles to push. I know I was using my hands/arms to pull myself and push too. What I didn't realise was that I was using my thigh muscles to push as well - coz I couldn't feel my thigh. So what happened was, after the delivery, when the epidural wore off - I had the WORST muscle ache ever in my thighs and butt!!! gosh!!! it brought me back to my JC days when we trained for climbing Mt Ophir and Gunung Korbu! worse!!! 

I was telling hubbs:" I'd expected many kinds of pain for this childbirth thingy - but NOT muscle ache!?!?"

And the second picture shows Isaac just out! :) Then they put him on my tummy whilst Dr Ang arranged for hubbs to cut the umbilical cord. Nervous Papa almost cut the wrong side of the cord. Luckily Dr Ang stopped him in time. The nurse in pink started to use the tubing thingy to suck out the mucous from Isaac's nose and mouth. Only when that is done can Papa go ahead to cut the cord. Coz there after, lil' Isaac has to breathe on his own.

Delivery ward

That's the delivery ward. Where hubbs and I spent 15 hours before Isaac was born. Nice place. Not too intimidating. Nice black recliner in the corner was for hubbs to relax in before he had to be a coach, getting me to push on command. hahahha... That's me below in bed. The lady is a nurse, a Sister (a nun lah), her name's Angie. We told her:"Hey we have a good friend named Angie too!" :)

Before the delivery

Look at me. FAT right. hiaz. This was taken at home, on Sunday, before we left for the hospital. At the hospital, the nurses had my weight taken. 81kg!? urrghhh... hiaz. so the grand total amount of weight I had put on since I got pregnant... is 21kg!!! sianz!

Anytime... NOW?!?!?!

The night before the day we were admitted to the hospital, we were karaoke-ing. Celebrating Michael's birthday. I didn't tell the rest, but I was glad we went ktv-ing - it was one of the things I wanted to do before I delivered. So I was very enthu that night, singing my usual Guang Liang songs and the miscellaneous other songs that I knew how to sing. We also started singing Bon Jovi songs like Always, You Give Love a Bad Name, and, It's My Life!!!! It was hilarious coz these were extremely shoutable songs and we were all screaming our lungs out. We were all laughing, saying that Bon Jovi is bound to induce the birth of Isaac. Especially "It's my life... it's now or never!!!" hahahhaa... We eventually reached home only at 3am, Sunday 5th August 2007.

We kinda slept in, since we got back so late. At about 10am to 11am or so, I started to wake, as I felt the "stomach cramp feeling" - which by now I know it to be contractions. But after the "false alarm" we had on Week 37, I was decidedly more cautious in raising any alarm. So I kinda ignored it. It came regularly, not sure at what intervals, but regular enough. Anywayz, eventually hubbs woke up, and we went to Jurong Point to have brunch.

When we got to the foodcourt, I suddenly had this panicky feeling, I told hubbs:" Oh no!!! Very soon, I'm gonna be eating confinement food for one whole month!!! oh no!!! I want.... I want... I wanna eat char kuay teow now!!! and beef stew! and later I want to eat cheese waffle and and... and ice cream!!! aarrggghhhh!!!" hahahhaa.... and so I really ate all those things, on Sunday morning itself.

I had remembered we had some balance Ben & Jerry's at home. So, I was happily eating my B&J Phish Food whilst hubbs was reading the newspaper. Then we were supposed to go bathe, coz we had to fetch my MIL from the ferry terminal.

Then... I had THE SHOW!!! For the uninitiated, the show is a bloody mucous discharge thingy, it is one of the sure signs that you're about to enter into labour soon. Something like that. Anyway, it means you'd have to call the gynae and ask:"Like that, how?" Plus I was still having the regular contractions at like 7 to 10 minute intervals. So at about 2.30pm, I called Dr Ang, and told her what happened, and is happening... and she was like:"Okay, you come in now." I was like:"Huh? Now?! So fast? We thought still can tahan till 12 midnight *snigger*snigger*" She went like:"No, no, no, you having regular contractions already. You go take a bath, eat something, then come in now!!!"

We still took it easy. kekeke... took a bath, packed our own suitcases (we just realised we hadn't packed our own clothes for staying at my mum's place coz that's where we're doing confinement), took pictures of myself (wanted the before and after look mah, besides, Joel requested pix of me in my ultra bloated state), drove to hubbs' tuition kids' place to pass them some homework to do since tuition that night would now have to be cancelled, then drove to my mum's place to offload the suitcases and some other stuff - THEN we drove to Mt Alvernia...

And all through this time, I was still having contractions... pain lah... but bearable lor... at least, I was okay with it... it's like menses stomach cramps... but worse... just keeps getting a little more painful each time it comes...

So by the time we reach Mt A, it was like 4.30pm. We were in the lift going up to the maternity ward when Dr Ang called me:"You're still not in hospital yet?!?!" We were like:"Er, yah yah! here already!!!" Apparently she called the nurses station and realised I wasn't in yet... hahahhahaa...

Dr Ang came by shortly after, at about 4.45pm to check on me. I was only 2cm dilated. Long way from the 10cm that I had to reach. So she went home first (she'd be keeping tabs on me via the nurses).

The contractions were getting stronger, and correspondingly more painful. When I got pregnant, I had initially not wanted to take epidural. I wanted to experience what labour pains were like. But through the months of pregnancy, more and more people were asking if I was going to take epidural. Most said that it was preferable to take it. A lot of people were going:"If you want to take, better take earlier, don't wait till it's too late and you can't take it anymore" Cos apparently, one had to curl up in a foetal position, and remain stationary in order for the anaethetist to insert the needle for the epidural drip. If one moved during the procedure, it could cause the needle to be inserted nonoptimally (yes, there is such a word as nonoptimal - I checked on http://www.m-w.com/) and this wouldn't be good. And coz if you wait too long to have the epidural, your contractions would presumably be very close together (in timing) and very painful, such that you would not be able to control your body from twitching and writhing with pain.

Thus, I endured the pain up till approximately 7.30pm, when my contractions were about 1.5 minutes to 2 minutes apart, before I decided to go for the epidural. Of course, at the back of my mind were several catching soundbites from well-intentioned friends... One colleague was telling me:"Why choose to have pain during labour when it can be avoided? There are after-birth pains as well, you know. You don't have epidurals for those! So you're bound to experience THAT!" The the nurse at the hospital said :"Don't be a hero... no one will give you a medal for it!"  But most of all, was when I had asked Dr Ang several weeks earlier, if I should take epidural. She smiled and said that I would be more relaxed if I did take it, and that would enable my cervix to dilate more quickly. Furthermore, it would lessen the chances of the baby being in distress.

Thus, hero I am not, just wanna be a mother to a healthy baby boy. I decided that, the contractions, being about 2 minutes apart was as close as it could get for the anaesthetist to get his work done. Besides, the thought of enduring 30 contractions per hour (for dunno how many hours to go) was quite mindboggling. So I asked for the epidural.

It took some time to take effect... for about 15 minutes to a half hour after the procedure was done, I could still feel the contractions... they started to get less painful until I could no longer feel them. I was numb from waist down.

After that, it was simply a waiting game. By 8.30pm, 4 hours after I was admitted into hospital, and 1 hour after I took the epidural, I was only 2.5cm dilated! Gosh! after enduring more than 3 hours of pain and less than an hour of no pain, I was only further 0.5cm dilated?! Gosh!!! Made me feel very glad I took the epidural, coz it seems like Dr Ang was right - more difficult to dilate when one wasn't on epidural...

And so, I continued to read my Half-Blood Prince (re-reading it actually, before I started on Deathly Hallows) and hubbs was enjoying the television, as it had cable tv which we don't have at home... whilst waiting for my cervix to dilate.

Every few hours, a nurse would come and stick their fingers down there to find out how much I had dilated. Boy am I glad I couldn't feel them. *shudder*

So it went like this.

Sunday 5th August 2007

10am/11am - started to feel contractions

2pm - The Show!!!

2.30pm - Called Dr Ang.

4.30pm - Admitted into Mt A

4.45pm - Dr Ang came to check - 2cm dilated

7.30pm - Took epidural

8.30pm - 2.5cm dilated

11.30pm - Dr Ang came to check - 5cm dilated

Monday 6th August 2007

2am - 8cm dilated

4am - Dr Ang came to check - 10cm dilated (But Isaac's head was still quite far up, so they drained my bladder, hoping that it would give him more space to make his way down)

6am - Isaac's head is further down, but not low enough. Dr Ang gave instructions to get me to start pushing at 6am.

6.50am - Dr Ang came back from her 6am ceasarean op at GlenE. Isaac's head is further down now, thanks to my pushing the last 50 minutes. Still had to push more to get him to crown.

7.15am - Isaac Tan is born!!!

HURRAH!!!

The Third Trimester

Alright we're speeding right through now, coz dear hubbs can't wait to upload photos of Isaac for everyone to see. Well sorry for MIA-ing yesterday... kekeke... was busy finishing reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's a good book! Better than Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince. could hardly put it down! :)

Okay, so the second trimester was pretty good. Like most pregnancy books will tell you, it's the trimester that you feel almost normal. In the third trimester, one starts to get tired again. Not as bad as the first trimester though. But defnitely more tired than in second trimester.

Time also seems to pass really fast in the third trimester. All at once, the Estimated Due Date (EDD) seems so near, so soon.

Relatives, friends and colleagues started to offer us baby stuff. So we started to go around collecting the stuff from them. Brought them home, and tired as I was during the third trimester, we just left all the stuff in the living room, intending to pack them later. What resulted was a good 10 sq metres of space (actually probably more) that were stacked with baby stuff - clothes, prams, toys, walkers, milk bottles, sterilizers, shoes... endless! Just a little boy in my tummy and he had so much stuff already! Hahaha... all thanks to the nice aunties and uncles who show much care and concern for us and Isaac. Thanks everyone!!! *grinz*

I was also starting to get ungainly huge. From 35th week onwards, everyone I bumped into at office would ask me:" you delivering soon?" hahaha... apparently I looked like I was ready to pop anytime. Didn't help when I also started to walk very slowly, coz my sense of balance was going a little off, plus the extra weight was straining my ankles and back pretty badly... so everyone was like:" oh please be careful!!!" coz I had this tendency to bump into the copier lah, trip over the dustbin lah, bum off a few files lah... couldn't help it - my bum and hips were huge by now! hahaha... sighz!!!

Also started to panic about work. Seems to be so much to wrap up before I go. Was documenting stuff like an auditor's dream come true. coz figured it'd be easier for the person taking over my duties if I had documented and printed the correspondence between myself/tenant/landlord. Broke the news to my tenants as well, those that I forsee would not be able to close before I went away. They were all very sweet, congratulating me, wishing me luck. Some even started sharing with me their own experiences and giving me advice etc...

Think all in all, I was very blessed during this pregnancy... didn't have morning sickness, and the biggest problem I had was weight gain! hahaha pun intended!!! hahahha... so... it became a waiting game... when was Isaac gonna come out? when? when? when? when is ANYTIME?

Isaac as of 24th February 2007

Here's Isaac as of 24th February 2007. Scan doesn't show his dimensions this time round and we can't recall either ;p But what's important in the top scan, is that it shows Isaac's little birdie! kekeke... This was the day we confirmed that our little baby was a BOY! It was Week 15 of my pregnancy. Quite early, to be able to "see". If you look at the picture, it's from the angle of us looking up at Isaac as though he is sitting on a glass ceiling above us - so we can see his thigh bones making a v shape. And the little bit of something protruding from in between the v shape, is his... uh-hmmm. *grinz* or as my MIL would say (in Teochew): " his 'tool'..." *rolls*eyes*...

Weight Gain = Food Intake – Exercise ???

We also started exercising during the second trimester. Coz I’d put on so much weight in first trimester – but couldn’t exercise them (for fear of miscarriage)- so we started exercising with a vengeance. Dr Ang wanted me to “walk more”. But I had hurt my ankle since December 2006 and it was still hurting, and swollen, so I didn’t wanna walk coz it hurt. So we decided to go swimming. It is often said that swimming is the best exercise for pregnant women, is it not? So, at first, we went swimming once a week. 25 metres long pool, to and fro to be considered one lap (ie. 50 metres), we swam a minimum of 15 laps each time we went swimming. Alas, I still piled on the kgs. Dr Ang was like: ”Once a week is insufficient!”

So, we went swimming twice a week. Occasionally even swimming up to 20 laps when we had the time. But still... I was expanding at a constant rate of approx 2 to 3 kgs a month… So we upped swimming to 3 to 4 times a week… but still the kgs just piled themselves onto me… And I really didn’t think it was what I was eating. I mean, after CNY, I had controlled my intake to cut down on carbo (was loading up on those early on… coz I’d “felt like it”) But now I was eating some carbo for breakfast – bread etc, but for lunch I’d usually have yong tau foo without noodles/rice, or, ‘economical rice’ of fish and vege dishes with just a few spoonfuls of rice. I made sure I did not choose deep fried food items either. For dinner, we usually ate at my parents’ or at my in-laws’ place, so it was home-cooked food of which I ate more dishes, and only a few spoonfuls of rice. So, together with the exercise, it was really puzzling why I was piling kgs on like nobodies’ business. Frustrating that.

All through my pregnancy, Dr Ang has been telling me to go walking as a form of exercise. But as my ankles hurt badly and was getting worse as I put on weight. I’d not want to strain my ankles and that was why we went swimming instead. But during my third trimester, Dr Ang was growing more and more exasperated with me and my weight gain, and frankly speaking so was I. Also, I started to get tired very easily from short walks in my day to day moving about. That scared me coz I was afraid I would not have stamina to push – something which Dr Ang has been harping on too. Thus, finally one day, I told my dear hubbs, that perhaps we should heed the good doctor’s advice and do some walking to build up my stamina. And so the walks begin. We would quickly go back to parents’ or in-laws’ place after work to eat (skipped the swimming – which we used to go before dinner), then quickly go home to JW, where I would change into shorts and tees before donning my running shoes to go for a walk downstairs.

We’d just walk round the garden downstairs our flat. The first time we walked, I was soooooo slow… was very tiring… We walked 2 rounds and had a short rest, after which I did 5 squats (Dr Ang’s instruction to do squats now that we’re in 3rd trimester – supposed to help open up the cervix), then another 2 rounds and 5 squats, and another 2 rounds and squats. I was dead tired by then, and sweating buckets. Hubbs, who had come down with me to walk, was in his singlet, shorts and slippers – hardly broke a sweat during the evening stroll. Hiaz…
But the walking was good. Immediately, the water retention in my feet subsided – I could even see the veins in my feet again. Day by day, my walking “improved” – I was faster and not as breathless as when I had first started. And for the very first time that we went to the gynae’s after we started walking – I did not put on any weight at all!!! It was astoundingly good news! Now I swear I’d start walking every night the moment we know we’re pregnant again! So regretted not starting earlier this time round!

So if you're pregnant - start walking NOW!!! :)

Isaac as of 27th January 2007

Before I continue to bore you with my cheong hey post on second trimester and weight gain, let's have a look at lil isaac when he was inside me... The pictures below were taken as of 27th January 2007 to be exact. I don't suppose you'd be able to make out the tiny letterings on the scan, but Isaac actually measures 5.33cm from end to end here. So small! :)

The Second Trimester

Oh another thing I forgot to mention about the First Trimester was the comatose state I was in during that period of time. Seriously I was sooooo tired all the time. In office, I couldn't last the hour after lunch without dozing off. Which is, of course very bad. So I resorted to snatching 10 - 15 minute naps during lunch, after eating. This was good coz it prevented me from nodding off at my desk. At night, immediately after dinner, I'd sit on the sofa, and start to doze off already.

Second trimester was much better. About a week or two into second trimester, I started to get less tired, and generally had more energy. We didn’t like go out, or stay up late or anything like that. But at least I could watch the 9.30pm news before conking out. Made me feel more normal; had time to do more things to get the house, and us, ready for Isaac’s arrival.

The house was a mess. Hahahaha… Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), both my hubbs EW and I are ‘the same sort of person’ – meaning, we’re both kinda messy, and we’re both hoarders. In other words, we have lotsa stuff at home. Now now, dun be mean, they’re not junk okay… they might all come in useful one day… hahahahaa… Anyhow, both our mum’s area also continually off-loading their own homes by making us bring back our stuff – something we’re still doing even though we’ve been married and staying on our own for more than two years now. Thus, there is much packing to do. So in my second trimester, with more energy, and nesting instinct setting in, I started to pack up the house and the contents in the cupboards…

hahaha and now that Isaac is born, I must admit we're not done with the packing yet... almost done though! had like 10% more to go... NOT BAD ALREADY lah ;p

He's out!!!

haha!!! The reason why I haven't been posting is coz I delivered!!! hahaha bet you figured that out easily enough :)

Isaac was born on 6th August 2007, 0715 hours. 3.22kg and 52cm long.

For those of you who know me well enough, you would know that I love to tell stories in chronological order. I believe that it's "easier to follow" if things are laid out in chronological order. And with the proper "background" of the situation provided too. hehehe... so... am sure you can see where this is leading, right? Yes! I'm gonna continue my story from where I left off (which was the 1st trimester) and only when I get to the end then I will update more on Isaac :)

Yes yes, my friends and colleagues all say I very "long-winded", "lor sor", "very good at telling stories" - depending on how politically correct they are. hahahaha... but I don't care - this is our blog, so I'm doing it as I please. *grinz*

Yes, alright... I'd try to be CONCISE ;p

v.horny ?!

hehehe decided to add some pictures to spice things up... kekeke... above are the pictures I mentioned that we took... was such a coincidence that EW was wearing a shirt which said v.horny hahahaha...

Incidentally, it was at SQ & YJ's wedding, when HJ and company were scrolling through our camera to see our Ang Kor Wat pics when they came across these photos... they quickly passed it around to the rest of the gang and asked:"so, it's yes or no huh?" hahahaha... I was like:"Can't you see the 'positive' sign?" and HJ went:" wah liaoz, how I know... I also never use before... " hahahahhaa... so that's how some close friends of mine got the new broken to them... hahahaha...

The First Trimester

The 1st trimester was, all things considered, pretty okay for me. Primarily because I did not have the morning sickness usually associated with the first three months of pregnancy. Well I started to find out the downside of that soon enough, when I started to pile on the kgs like nobody's business. Well... of course, that's also coz I started to eat more... coz previously I used to eat very little you see... so when we got pregnant, we started to worry that I wasn't "eating enough"... so I started to eat for 2... which is totally what I was soooo not supposed to do... hiaz... so ANYWAYZ... guess who became a fatty bom bom in just 3 months... had put on like 2+kg per month... gynae was always lecturing me whenever we went for visits "Not so fast!" she said. Winner was during the CNY month when I put on 3kg! urrgghhh... :( hiaz...

the other thing about 1st trimester was that we were not supposed to tell anyone that we were pregnant! it's like so anti-climatic coz we're so excited about it, but we can't tell anyone but the immediate family! it didn't help that I was getting fatter and fatter and still can't give a 'proper' reason for it... *groan*...

I used to think this "don't tell people before first 3 months is over" was a superstitious thingy... but it was only when I got pregnant, then I realised that there is a scientific and practical reason for this... Coz, apparently, the first three months of the pregnancy is the most fragile period of time during the whole term of the pregnancy... miscarriages happen very frequently, and sometimes, it's even a "non-pregnancy" - ie. there wasn't any foetus formed to begin with... Hence, it's actually better not to let too many people know about "the pregnancy" until it is "confirmed" - ie. stablised. Why? So that if it is a non-event, or if it is a miscarriage, you don't need to go around telling everyone about it. Save you the heartache you know. It's already bad enough that it's not happening, but you'd have to relive it everytime you tell someone about it. So, can you imagine if you told all and sundry that you were pregnant the day you saw it on the little indicator, and then 5 weeks later you'd have to tell them all again that it's gone? That'd be horrible!

Anyway, that was one of the first things I found out about pregnancy myths that actually had some scientifc truth behind it... hehehe... will talk more on that later on...

;) pst