Granma visits

Granma only came to visit about 1 week after Zhixin was born.

She was very happy that the baby was born safely but she was particularly concerned about the tiny baby and the almost non-existence of my “confinement month”.

Tiny baby, understood. He just have to drink more milk.

Me. A puzzle to her. Since she couldn’t make me feed formula to the baby she decided that she had to feed him through me. I ate 5 meals a day while she was here. Luckily she didn’t force me to wear sweatpants nor disallow the fan. Also as long as the baby was swaddled she couldn’t care less what he was wearing underneath.

Before she went home, she pre-fried a whole bunch of ginger in sesame oil , cleaned up the house and left a whole lot of chinese herbs behind.

We are going to visit her for prayers around Zhixin’s full moon celebration. Hopefully he would have fatten up by then.

Zhixin’s Health

 

This was how Zhixin was presented to me when I had rested and ask for him to be breastfed.

He was bathed and was alert. He latched on like a natural, though it was a little difficult because I was not used to seeing such a tiny mouth. He would smile after an especially full meal and then throw his head back and fall into deep sleep. He’s a  good sleeper too. I think he’s only awake for like 4 hours total in a day. But he wakes up to eat like clockwork every 3 hours or so. He’s also impatient, demanding that his meals (milk) be served the moment he goes waaah. Any delay will result in progressively louder wails and he will not quit till he gets to eat. Boys will be boys. This he definitely inherited from Hubs.

Due to his low birth weight, the doctor ordered his blood glucose to be monitored while we were at the hospital. So every 3 hours, one of the nurses would have to draw some blood from his heel……

It resulted in him being a little jittery the first day that we were home. Poor guy. The needle holes were visible on his heel even at his 1 week check-up with the paediatrician.

Speaking of the paediatrician, he’s a cool guy. When he saw the tiny baby, he just asked to make sure that I didn’t have any high blood pressure. Then he proceeded to check the baby’s organs, reflexes and of course the level of his “yellowness”. He felt the baby, despite his size, is doing great. Hubs and I like his style.

Birth of Baby Zhixin

You are looking at Baby Zhixin (智信) only moments after being born.

The final month of my pregnancy was weeks of agony for us. My placenta had started to calcify and the doctor found that the baby was not growing. Very little nutrients was passing from me to the baby. We decided that an early birth was unavoidable but the doctor wanted to wait until the pregnancy is at least 38 weeks old to perform any induced birth since he had not detected any abnormality of the baby. Other than the very low weight gain, that is.

At 37 weeks, I displayed no symptoms.

July 6th, the doctor did a cervical sweep. At the same time we found out that I was already 2cm dilated-Good news. but my cervix was very unripe-Not so good news. Doctor decided to perform an induced birth on Wednesday (8th), Thursday the latest.

July 7th, I lose my mucous plug. But no contractions whatsoever. I packed my bags.

July 8th, I went for a ctg scan. Baby was doing great, but I had no contractions. The doctor decided to go ahead with the induction. I repacked my bags again. We had a nervous day. I checked into the hospital at 10 pm. A midwife started with medications to soften my cervix. At this point we were hoping to get the contractions to start on its own so that no additional medications would be necessary.

July 9th, The doctor had another delivery in another ward at about 3 am. He came to check on me and performed an ARM(artificial rupture of membrane) He felt at that point that everything was progressing smoothly. Strong contractions started at about 5am. 7-ish, I was feeling the urge to push but the doctor has not arrived yet. Midwife ask to “hold it”, which is rather ridiculous. Doctor arrived. He didn’t even get to change into scrubs this time. He was just wearing his regular tee-shirt :) He proceeded to give me an episiotomy while I told him that I was glad to see him there. (In any other circumstances THIS would be funny, okay?)

7.30am Baby ZhiXin arrived with just two pushes and a loud wail! He weighs in at 2.30kg, perfectly healthy. All our prayers were answered in that instant.

Joy. Miracle. Blessing. Words that felt so inadequate at describing my baby.

Huirou @ 22 months

There are so many things to get ready for the impending arrival of little one #2 and hence the short post here….

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• This month we went back to her old baby sitter; she has handled the situation rather maturely. She practically didn’t cry at all.
• Luckily for me, the sitter will now see to all her daytime meal intakes and has indicated to me that she eats well for her age.

Physical Development and Communications

• Hubs noticed that she now has a louder voice and that she can now pronounce words much more accurately than before.
• She can quite accurately name vehicles on the road such as bis (eng:bus), loyi (eng:lorry), che-che or Chi-che(ch:car)
• and also body parts such as juiba (ch:mouth), jing (ch:eye), erduo (ch:ear), pigu (ch:butt), shou (ch:hand), jiao (ch:leg), ya (ch:teeth)
• She can indicate when she’s hurt by saying tong-tong (ch: pain) 

Character and Temperament

• Her new thing this month? Fear.
• She indicates that she’s scared by patting her chest repeatedly and saying pah-pah…
• She’s now afraid of little bugs, weird noises, strangers and new situations and a myriad of other things.
• She runs to either one of us for “protection”. It’s quite lovely really(coz she will lay her head on our shoulders) but it gets a bit old after a while….
• And now she knows how to fight for toys. She snatches from other people and will proceed to cry (her weapon) if she doesn’t get her way. When she doesn’t want to share, she will hide her things.

A short (incomplete) guide to toddler-ese

A short (incomplete) guide to toddler-ese - aka HUH? what's she saying?

People:
Papa(loudly)- Her father
Mama or MAHM - Me lar
AH Ma - Granma
Shh-shh – Her uncle (relative) OR She needs to pee.
AHN-tee - Aunty, her sitter or any aunty-ish looking individual
A-ker - Uncle, older gentlemen
JeJay - Sister, Pretty looking or young girls. Also when she sees a picture of herself. (Martha Stewart with makeup in a magazine is also Jejay, okay?)
Baby - babies
KOkor – Boys
Didi – Younger brother, specifically the one in my tummy.

Objects/places:
AK-ko - Jusco,
Jia - Our house.
Biiing - Cookies, Biscuits
Bao bao - depending on context, Bread or wants to be held.
Nananana - said in a sing-song manner, Banana.
Nennen - usually followed by pointing at me. Breastmilk
Yummyyummyyummy - Food she likes, eg. Yakult, ice cream, prunes.
Nennen, followed by yummy yummy yummy - Bottled cow’s milk
Mummum - Meals and food in general.
Beyibing, Or something like that- Bellybutton, the funniest anatomy in her mind.
Bis – Bus
Loyi – Lorry
Cheche - Cars
Dog dog, Wowwow - Dogs and the sound they make

Other expressions:
Oh-No - Oh no. She says this with no particular clue to what it means. but it's cute.
Oh-ya - Oh Ya. she has no particular idea what it means either.
Ahh-MUMP - When we pass over road bumps. or when she bumps her head.
Ahh- Bump – Slightly different from AhhMump, falls down.
eeeee, tututututu, ewwww, yeooww etc - sounds that objects make.
Babai - Bye bye.
Dao Diao - Pour away (her bathwater or her potty's contents)
zhou –go away, or go.
boo boo - She needs to use the potty, sometimes it's just to pee though.