Our Little Girl – A Quick Update

As much as I would like to put up a good post showing off how well our little girl is doing, but the fact is she is not.

Baby Samantha 4 days old: 2nd day in ICU

Baby Samantha 5 days old: 3rd day in ICU

Baby Samantha (this is the name we’ve chosen for her) is currently in Prince Court Medical Centre’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She was being transferred here since last Friday, the 3rd day after her birth. Cause of illness has yet to be diagnosed and we are still praying hard that the doctors will be able to rule out the diagnosis by today.  Will write more about her later.

At the moment, her condition is quite stable but still under close monitoring. Praise and glory to God for his mercy and healing powers thus far! Our gratitude and heartfelt thank you to family members, relatives, CG & church members and friends who has been keeping baby Samantha in their daily prayer. Do continue to pray that she will recover soon.

37 Weeks

My body began to change since CNY. Nose growing bigger, legs getting more swollen, getting lazier and restless, and the worst is acne!  Blame it to the burning hot weather. A bath suppose to be refreshing but ended to be like just came out from a hot spring. Night should be breezing cool but it was the warmest part of the day. Because of that, I had acne all over my body.

Now I just can’t wait for my confinement. Thinking of all those delicious food and 2 months leave. Hope I can get to enjoy my two months maternity leave with minimal disruption from the office and without any annoying calls from my boss and colleagues.  They make it seems that their phone directory only has my number and only I can answer or resolve their issue and only I have the access to the information they want! This is the problem when you do not have someone as your back-up that knows the A – Z of your work.

How is the little one doing? Oh…last week’s scan showed that she refuses to turn her head down!

Doc: Come back next week and if she is still not turning, we will have to schedule for a Caesarean.

Me: So soon? My EDD is 25th. Can’t we wait till there are signs of labour?

Doc: No…by then we have to go for emergency Caesarean.

Me: *Keep quiet. Disappointed*

Since then, I had been praying harder and talking much more to baby. I’m not afraid of C-sect but just want to experience natural birth since I had gone through C-sect the previous time.

Got most of the necessary stuff packed for baby, myself and Jonathan. This time will be having my confinement in hometown and Jonathan will be tagging along. Not too sure if I can cope with the traveling in such condition and having to take care of the baby at the same time.

* Update (one week later): Praise the Lord! Little one is very obedient. She turned!! What a relieved. So now, we just have to wait, wait and wait for signs of labour.

A Little Update on #2

Visited my gynae yesterday at week 33.  The scan a little upsetting me. Oh no, don’t worry…little one is doing fine.  Still kicking and squirming actively in mommy’s tummy.

The scan revealed 2 things.

1.  #2 gonna be a much smaller baby compare to Jonathan whose birthweight was 3.99kg.  She is about 1.6kg now (normal weight is about 2kg) and doctor estimated her birthweight to be nothing more than 3kg.  I suspected this earlier from the size of my tummy that doesn’t seems like an 7+ months preggar. I received same comments from people around me. Comparing to my previous pregnancy, it is like I’m just in my 6 months.

Told my eldest sis about it and this was what she said: “You sleep more then baby will grow. My youngest girl is the biggest among her siblings because I slept well. Sis W (my 3rd sis) got all big babies because she slept like a pig.” 

LOL! I’m not hoping for a big baby but just about the right size so that she will be much easier to care for.  Any suggestion on how to increase the little one’s weight? My doc already warned me not to overeat on CNY.

2.  Baby’s position is head up right now.  No wonder I was getting all the squirming and kicking around my lower belly.  Praying hard now that she will decide to turn down when the time comes.

21 Days After His Birth Day

I just need to pen this down…for our family journal and sharing with other parents out there.  This gonna be a long one.

It has been 2 years now…Two years ago of this day, Jonathan boy was diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis and went through a surgery.

It all started when he was 2 weeks old.  He started to vomit forcefully (projectile vomitting) after each feeding.  During the first visit to the paediatrician, he suspected air in the stomach and so gave us some colic medicine. Two days later, we went back to the paed and he said it could be reflux or allergy. But Jonathan boy was fully breastfed and breast milk has never been not safe to a baby. Nevertheless, we listened to him and I stopped BF temporary and gave him anti-regurgitation milk as recommended for the reflux by paed. We were told to monitor his urine and bowel movement too.

Despite all these, his condition persisted and worsen. Still vomit forcefully, no intake of milk and his urine and bowel movement reduced. He was restless and slept most of the time. Losing weight and had sunken eyes. My mom, sis and MIL didn’t know what was wrong and had never experienced such condition in our family nor heard of it. Seeing him like that, I have the feeling of losing him and kept praying to God for mercy.

I looked through all the baby reference books I have and searched through the Internet but couldn’t solve this mystery puzzle. Every time, day and night, I was never at peace when feeding him as he may vomit anytime.  It had became phobia. I had to be prepared with container, clothing and mop.  I lost my appetite and lost weight during my confinement.

I looked through again at Dr. Spock’s baby and childcare book, page by page and word by word. God hears me and fix my eye on a subject called Pyloric Stenosis. I later confirmed this medical term on the Internet. Jonathan boy had exactly all the signs and symptoms mentioned. But to confirm the diagnosis, he may need to go through X-ray, barium swallow or ultrasound. The first two is too much to bear for a baby and so I was hoping that the ultrasound alone can confirm the diagnosis.

The next day, we brought him immediately to the paediatrician and told him if Jonathan could be suffering from Pyloric Stenosis. He was not convinced of that because he didn’t feel any abnormality during his physical examination as usually, you can feel an “olive” at the abdomen. And usually, the symptoms only showing when baby is 3 weeks old. Moreover, it is unlikely to happen among the Chinese, based on the statistics. No wonder he didn’t diagnose this earlier. Good thing the paeditrician was compassionate and he was willing to schedule for an immediate ultrasound to rule this out.

While waiting for the ultrasound report, I was praying to God that the ultrasound could diagnose his medical condition and let it be Pyloric Stenosis so that our mystery puzzle can be resolved. Really praise God that the ultrasound report came back positive to rule out that Jonathan is suffering from Pyloric Stenosis. Immediately, he helped us to make arrangement to see the best paediatric surgeons at SJMC.

We thought things would be fine now since we know what was wrong with Jonathan boy. But not really. They had to put him on tubes and the worst was putting a tube through his nose to drain the fluid from his stomach.

We heard his suffering cries from outside the room. It was so heartaching. When the nurse brought him out, my whole heart fell and tears rolled down. We didn’t expect and wasn’t prepared to see him this way. There was another tube for the saline at his foot as that was the best place they could find after trying from his wrist.

The surgery was scheduled for the next day. That night, both of us couldn’t sleep. He was cranky because of hunger. I can only pacify him and wet his lips with water. The next morning, I was allowed to accompany him at the ops theater recovery area because of his age. Praised the Lord that the surgery went well and the surgeon confirmed once again that it was Pyloric Stenosis and he had fixed it!

That same night, he was cranky. He was not allowed to drink yet. He was only allowed to drink few teaspoons of glucose the next morning just to monitor his digestion. I was only allowed to BF him later in the afternoon. It was such a relieved then.

The above pic was taken one his fullmoon which was 1 week after the surgery. It left a scar on his abdomen. Just a thin and very light line about 5cm long. I didn’t apply any anti-scar oil. Let it be there as something to remember. Anyway, the scar is not so obvious and appear on covered area.

Now, whenever you watches him eat, you  never lost your appetite. And he never stop eating. Praise the Lord!

It’s a Boy…Again??

Third sis gave birth to another baby boy two months ago. Yup…another. She was hoping for a girl who is said to be more filial compare to boys. She has 3 boys now and that makes her worried about her rest of life. “I better start looking for an old folks home”, she said. LOL.  That is just a joke. We know all these are God’s blessing with a good purpose.

Here’s Baby Ezekiel at 1 week old…

Lying down in the bouncer watching TV with Baby Ezekiel.