We interupt transmission...

Home. Not going to be blogging for a while. Still trying to figure out all the mom things and feeling totally overwhelmed. Once I'm more settled, I'll blog. Meanwhile, I'll twitter. That's about all I can manage right now.

Strangely, just by writing this, I feel a tad bit calmer. Heh.

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Photos.

Guest blogger: Packrat. (Doing the dad thing and hacking into mommy's account and uploading photos.)


Girl being burped, rather unceremoniously.


As her brother lies there peering suspiciously at the world around him.


The babies got taken home today.


Lying in their baskets.


And I believe someone here asked for a shot of their feet. Well, here's a pair.

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Welcome to the world...

...we hope you like it here.



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The eagles have landed!

Huzzah!
More to come.

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Boys will be boys

We went pram shopping yesterday. Well, I tagged along because I didn't trust 3 boys to come back with a pram. I was right though because much of the time, the 3 boys were standing in front of 2 transparent plastic boxes, drooling. Why?

Because, this was in the boxes.



The one on the left is $18 500 or something like that, has a leather seat and 9k gold plated handle bars with a carbon fibre underneath. Apparently, there are only 20 in the world. It's the epitome of crass-ness. I cannot imagine who would put their kid in it. Plus, a leather seat and a child's puke and possible leaky poo and pee, not a good combination.

Then there was the one beside it, that was comparatively dirt cheap sans gold handle bars going for a mere $2800. I think, all my baby furniture put together doesn't even cost that much and I'm furnishing for two.

Anyway, when the boys had finished ogling at it and we actually went to look at affordable prams. First we looked at this one.



Which I liked but thought was a little bit costly. It looked sturdy and collapsed quite easily, which is important because my brain has no ability to work gadgets. So we went on to look at this one, which was about $200 cheaper.



Which was cheaper but suddenly looked a lot more flimsy and a lot less durable than the previous one.

Back we went, to the previous one where the boys put it through its paces. I was amused, watching the boys, collapse it, run it up and down the store aisles, basically examine every single bit of it. If it were left to me, I'd be like, "er, what colour does it come in?" and that would be the extent of my contribution.

So, all in, it was useful to have them around once their attention was properly focussed. But we all agreed that most fascinating thing in the store was this mobile that had four adults riveted for a long long while. In the end, we decided to buy it and they gave us a discount so we were most pleased. The only dilemma was whether to buy one or two. Well, Wahj decided one would get this and the other would get some WOW related thing to which my face crumbled. So he changed his tact to buy one and teach them to share which appeased me a little bit more. :)

A fun and fruitful shopping trip and I'm eternally grateful for all who are contributing to the baby-mover. :)

Technorati Tags: Pregnancy, Strollers, Maclaren, Peg Perego, Graco

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Ways of inducing labour

Through the course of my pregnancy, I've learnt through books and listening to other people- friends, doctors, acquaintances, strangers even- of the various methods of inducing labour. All of which I'm trying to avoid for now, well, till Monday at least.

1. Drink raspberry tea.
2. Having sex, protected and unprotected, near the due date.
3. Orgasms
4. Fiddling around with one's nipples.
5. Swimming breast stroke.
6. Walking, shopping and generally being on one's legs.
7. Carrying heavy things.
8. Eat spicy food.
9. Squatting for long periods of time (although that's punishment on its own)

10. My favourite- having the mother over with 3 children, ages 8, 6 and 7 months, with their maid in tow, taking over all parts of my house and throwing my plans of having a quiet afternoon in bed out the window totally! Couple that with the mother nagging you about how you're supposed to be resting in bed but also allowing the children to run amok and need constant supervision. There was also the constant need to keep the older two children fed and entertained. All of which seemed to fall on my shoulders while my mother went about fussing about how tiny my kitchen was and how impractical the configuration of the baby furniture was.

This led to numerous text messages to Packrat and an extreme sense of helplessness because I couldn't do anything about it or chase them out of the house, although that was quite tempting. What I didn't understand was how, any woman who's been pregnant before could possibly think that it was a good idea for someone who was about 37 weeks pregnant with twins to have her house invaded by a bevy of children who all had different needs and demands. And on top of that, remind her constantly that she was supposed to be resting in bed.

It got me extremely frustrated and angsty. It also got me panicky about how I was going to deal with the invasion of people that would inevitably follow the birth of the bubs. And that led to me being panicky about a whole host of other things which eventually led to me being reduced into a puddle of tears and Packrat being worried that that would induce labour.

Anyway, thankfully, it's the next day and I've survived the invasion and feel slightly more peaceful now. Although, like the cat with 9 lives, I don't know how many more of these I can take without actually going into labour.

Technorati Tags: Pregnancy, Inducing labour

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The home stretch

When I used to race competitively, my best event was the 400m sprint. It's a lie to call it a sprint because it's really not a sprint as a sprint implies, short and fast and the 400 m while being short and fast can also feel like it takes a whole bloody painful lifetime to complete. And that last home stretch, where one can see the finish line, where one's legs feel like they've been filled with lead and there is much pain and the lungs are ready to explode, where it feels like to get to the end, one has to run through thick sludge, feels like it takes a lifetime and a half even if it's only 20 seconds at most.

That's where I'm at right now. The home stretch. Bubs should make an appearance late next week and it's at this point where I think most people go to their Ob-gyn begging for their babies to be taken out and I don't blame them. My feet and hands feel like they belong to clowns. It takes me forever to walk from point A to point B even if point A is my bed and point B the bathroom.

On top of that, there's the whole "heaty" thing going on. My mom started to tell me a few weeks back that I should start drinking coconut water and birds' nest, generally things she refused to allow me to eat or drink when I was trying to get pregnant. Her rationale was that my body was generating a whole lot of heat. That I knew, seeing that the airconditioning and 2 fans were just about enough to keep me comfortable. Anyway, with 3 metabolitic systems running at full speed and the amount of waste that is being churned out, it's no surprise that there are physical manifestations of all this "heat", including rash and ulcers!

So not only do I have clown extremeties and a moon face (I forgot to add, water retention occurs in the face too), I have to deal with ulcers in my mouth and rash on my belly. Everyone tries to console me with the fact that it's only for another week or so, but like I say, running through sludge. I know on hindsight, this week will pass very quickly but for now, sludge I tell you, sludge. And part of me knows that when all this has passed, there will be other issues that I will whine about. Breastfeeding, c-section wound and pain, sleeplessness, the barrage of helpful advice etc.

But like a wise person once told me, the mantra will and must be "this too shall pass" and like all the races I've run, no matter how forever it feels, we do eventually cross the finish line and thankfully, this time, no one's keeping time.

Technorati Tags: Pregnancy, childbirth

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All set

The last bits of furniture for the bubs have arrived. The cots. Not that they're going to use the cots immediately though. But it has been at the back of my mind for the longest time, as to where to put the cots.

This was the best position we found, although it means that I have less table space and the bub sleeping in this cot will have full view of me surfing. On the bright side, it also means that I can surf while trying to put bub to sleep or whatever.



I guess now we're good to go although I'm trying to convince the bubs not to make an appearance till next week. We'll see how cooperative they are. I have a feeling they're wanting out ASAP because them Braxton Hicks seem to be more prevalent these days and slightly painful. We'll see what the good doctor says when we see him this afternoon.

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The fine art of balancing

When you're stuck at home and have little to do except laze on the couch and watch tv, you tend to snack a lot. And since the coffee table's too far away, well from the point of view of a very pregnant lady, very far away, you find other places to put your food. Like on the arm rest of the couch, on the couch beside you or my favourite, balancing the plate on the bump. This way, you don't have to reach all that far and the crumbs generally fall back onto the plate. The only problem with this invention is that when the bubs do their little Loch Ness trick and swim around, the plate follows in the same wave pattern.



So only suitable for dry stuff that can't spill and even then, biscuit crumbs on the couch would not be a good thing making this trick one that should be done only under close adult supervision.

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Got water?

What is the deal with the older generation and their wanting to feed newborns water?

Even to my inexperienced mommy mind, it's not a good idea unless the newborn's on formula.

Gah.

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Helpful advice

Because I'm due to deliver in the next two weeks, we've been inundated with well meaning advice. Unfortunately, much of the advice is contradictory and sometimes makes me want to ask "...and you had kids before.... and you're saying this???" And the problem is many a time, you can't tell these people to keep quiet because they're older and the darn Confucian ethic in me reminds me to be respectful to my elders as does the 10 commandments that expects us to honour thy parents.
Usually, I have no issue with that, but sometimes in the face of ludicrous-ness, you want to be rude and tell people to go fly a kite.

So here's what I've been told-
1a. Must swaddle the baby because baby is used to 37 degree temperature and will feel cold.
1b. Baby might be too hot if you swaddle baby and put a hat on baby.

2a. Breastfeed as much as you can but don't be afraid to supplement with formula if it takes too much of a toil on you.
2b. Must breastfeed all the time. Formula no good. You will not love your baby if you give your baby formula.

3a. Feed both at the same time. Saves time, energy and prevents mommy from going insane.
3b. Don't feed both at the same time. They'll kick one another in the head and become stupid!

4a. Allocate one breast to one baby.
4b. Swop one baby from breast to breast every 5 minutes and then repeat with 2nd baby.

5a. Don't use a rocking chair to nurse. Dangerous. You might drop one of the babies on their head.
5b. Use a rocking chair. It's more relaxing. And to make it more relaxing, do it in a quiet corner and drink Milo.

6a. Use the breast pump regularly to establish supply. Also when nipples are too sore for the baby barracudas.
6b. Don't pump. Save the milk for the babies. Otherwise when they want to feed, got no milk.

7a. Nipples don't bleed and crack from nursing. They crack and bleed from yanking the baby off the breast.
7b. Nipples get bleed, crack and get twisted out of shape whatever you do. Just deal.

8a. Nursing's the best thing in the world. It helps you bond with your child and it's good for your child.
8b. How do you bond with your child if your child is chomping on your nipples and they're bleeding and out of shape? Better to go with formula.

9a. Get a twin pram. You'll need to be able to go out on your own.
9b. Don't get a twin pram. You can manoeuvre them easily and you'll die trying.

10a. Go for a C-section. Faster, safer, can choose auspicious date and time.
10b. Don't go for a c-section. It's the doctor's way of conning money out of you. Long time ago, mothers delivered twins naturally all the time!

11a. Sleep baby on the back. Safer.
11b. Sleep baby on the front. They sleep longer.

A lot of this I think boils down to personal preference. The problem is when personal preference is forced upon you and you're forced to make a decision in front of them based on that preference. And then, I get scoffed at, when I do my own research and want to try my own thing, like wanting to establish a feeding schedule rather than feed on demand. So it is frustrating and even more so when you can't smack them over the head and tell them to shut the !@&* up.


Technorati Tags: Pregnancy, "useful advice" for babies

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Progression

This is the way the belly grows...


23 weeks 27 weeks 30 weeks


31 weeks 35 weeks


Truthfully, 31 weeks looks larger than 35 weeks but I think it's the angle more than anything else.


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Diaper test

Being new parents and not knowing what to expect and being fully susceptible to everyone's two cents worth, we decided to buy not one brand of diapers but a whole collection of brands and see which one the bubs would take to.

Of course, the parentals want us to use cloth nappies. So we've acceded to that as well and bought a ton of muslin cloths as well as some very pretty reusuable diapers that look like disposables but are washable and re-usable. Apparently, not as absorbent as disposables but a lot less messy than the original cloth nappies.

Even then, disposables are still needed. So, we bought Nepia (a brand not often found in the supermarkets but seems to have a cult following in Singapore, Pureen (found in the supermarkets and super cheap) and Drypers (because my niece uses them). And being the geeks that we are, we decided to see which one soaked up the most amount of "pee".



The independent variables were types of diapers. The dependent variable was the amount of water it would absorb before it started leaking out through the gathers. The null hypothesis was that the most expensive diaper- Nepia would be able to absorb the most amount of "pee". Results however proved the null hypothesis to be false as it was Pureen that absorbed the most amount of "pee".

We're still not convinced since there isn't the pressure of the baby's butt on it but it is a rough gauge. To further prove our geek factor, we've even broken down cost per diaper for each brand. Here's what it looks like- for newborn diapers, give or take a little depending on which supermarket one shops at.

Petpet- $0.17
Pureen- $0.18
Drypers- $0.19
Nepia- $0.23
Mamy Poko- $0.32
Pampers- $0.45

This is excluding the home brand diapers and those that did not have newborn sizes on the webpages.

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How to pop the bubble?

I went to do my pre-admission paper work today so that in the event that the bubs decide to make an early arrival, I won't have to answer stupid questions like what my name is and what my phone number is while in pain. It feels strangely final though, to have the paperwork done. Like I've been given the green light to have them out- although I don't want them out yet!! It's too early still.

Anyway, another thing I talked to the doctor about today was the mode of delivery. Most of the time, twins are delivered by C-section. I took it for granted too, that I would deliver through C-section as well until I started reading a little bit more and realised that there were people who did deliver twins naturally. What also gave me hope was the fact that one of the bubs was in fact head down.

But when I ran it by the good doctor today, he said that we'd still have to wait and see because the other bub had his/her head jammed into my ribs and that wasn't a good thing if I wanted to deliver them naturally. Even with a single birth, doctors would be reluctant to deliver a breech baby naturally although it is a little bit more common and possible than when one of twins is breeched. So he told me to prepare myself for a c-section birth and told me that while it wasn't ideal, it did have its perks.

Strange thing is I felt extremely disappointed when I heard that. I guess in my head, ideally, it would be a natural birth for many reasons. Practically speaking, I'd recover from it a whole lot faster and with two at the same time, that's something pretty important. There also won't be a lifelong reminder of the birth on my belly and I'd get to nurse the babies almost immediately. On top of that, I have come to realise how much I hate staying in hospital so a natural birth would also mean I get to go home faster although that means the nightmare begins much earlier as well!

There are a whole lot more reasons why a natural birth is favourable but I guess I need to reorientate my mind and remind myself that I should do what is best for the bubs. I don't want to endanger either of them at my insistence on doing it vaginally. I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if that were the case. And I guess, at the end of the day, what counts is that they are out safe and sound. The worst scenario would be if I tried to deliver them naturally and it didn't work and put them at risk and then end up having to do what is called a "crash c-section" which in itself already sounds horrifying!

So for the next few weeks, I will need to start wrapping my head round the idea of getting spliced open. I'll also need to prepare Packrat for it because the future dad's not all that good when it comes to blood and gore and apparently, there will be plenty!

Technorati Tags: Pregnancy, mode of delivery

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Doing the laundry

I have finally got round to throwing all the clothes I have for the bubs into the wash. We now have domestic help so I've taken the opportunity to get more organized. All the clothes that we've bought, my mom's bought, that I've inherited, plus mittens, socks, muslin clothes, all went into the machine. It took two full loads. Unfortunately, we forgot to factor into the equation the fact that my balcony is tiny and I could only dry one load at a time. And it already looked like I was running a hospital from home!



Hopefully the bubs won't go through so many clothes a day otherwise we're going to have to outsource our laundry and I'm still reluctant to buy a tumble dryer. It's expensive and the electricity bill will sky rocket. And we desperately need to be on an austerity drive.

So, anyway, I feel accomplished today, at least I know my bubs will have clean clothes to wear. Now, to pack that dratted hospital bag.


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Labour day

It's been getting mighty uncomfortable for me over the last week or so. That's because one of the bubs is engaged and has all 30 cm of her/his head resting on my cervix. Because of that, there's lots of pressure, especially when I'm standing up and when she (I'm randomly allocating sex here :) ) decides to wiggle around.

So, I've been on the phone quite regularly with my doctor who's warned me to stay off my feet so that she would move a little bit and not irritate the cervix which might cause me to go into labour. At 33 weeks, even though they'll survive, they'll need special care if they come out now and I don't really want to go through the heartbreak of seeing them with tubes and machines and not be able to go back home with me.

The doctor warned me that if anything changed, I was to go to hospital. So I did, Friday morning because there was a little bit of bleeding Thursday night. I thought this was just going to be routine thing where he'd strap me up to the machine to check on the babies, do an internal and send me on the way- I did have tea plans in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just an hour on the machine. While on the machine, which sends out the report following report - the tight black squiggly lines are the babies heart rates; the more spaced out one below measures whether my uterus is contracting- things did not look so good.


The problem was that the little peaks that can be seen here were much more aggressive on Friday morning when they strapped the Dopplers onto me. When the doctor came in to take a look at the print out, his eyes widened and he asked if I was in any pain. I was like "nope, no pain, some twinges here and there but no pain really." I asked why and he said that from the looks of things, I was having some relatively strong contractions and pretty regular ones coming in at every 9 minutes. He kept asking if I felt anything and I kept looking very puzzled and shaking my head. Anyway, because of that, he saw fit to keep me in hospital overnight on a drip to control the contractions because we didn't want them to progress anymore and send the babies into the world prematurely.

The problem with being strapped onto the machine the entire day and having a drip stuck painfully into my arm was that I was extremely immobile. By the end of the day, my legs were numb and my back and butt hurt from lying down. I begged the nurses to let me take a walk after they took of the dopplers but they refused because of the drip. But labour ward nurses, I must say are rather sticky about rules. They wouldn't let my brother come in because he wasn't my spouse, even though I said I wasn't about to deliver, they wouldn't let me take a walk and wheel the drip around with me because I might collapse in a dead faint. Only when I got moved to a regular ward was I allowed to move around and even take a shower.

Packrat was a sweety and stayed with me through the night although I must say, he had more fun than I did. He slept like a baby in the adjoining bed but I hated the drip because it hurt my hand when I moved and I couldn't sleep properly because the sheets were plasticky, and I'd been in bed the entire day and wasn't really tired and every time I moved, my belly went all Braxton Hicks which got me worried that I was having more contractions and I desperately desperately wanted to go home and not stay in hospital a minute longer than I needed to.

Thankfully, the drip helped a great deal which resulted in the above printout with only the mini peaks which didn't mean much and I was able to go home by lunchtime. Unfortunately, the night of observation, plus drip, plus what not cost me $1200 after Medisave. That totally floored me and made me swear that the next time I was going to get warded was when the babies were actually ready to see the world. It's too expensive otherwise and too scary. For the first time, I was faced with the possibility of seeing the babies before they were ready and it was quite scary actually. And I really don't want to go through that again. Hopefully they'll be good for another 3 weeks or so.

Technorati Tags: Pregnancy, pre-term labour

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