The first utterance

This week, Hannah spoke!
Her first 'ahgur'... and her many 'ay!-s'. These seems to be her favourite articulations.
She is stirring her tongue whenever she is spoken to these days. She must be trying to move that tongue of hers so that she can respond.
What girlish voice she has! My sweet lil honey pie!

That day I read her some nursery rhymes from a very colourful board book. She was happy to see the pictures and even smiled at Humpty Dumpty! Can't wait for her to be a few more months old when she can enjoy books better.

Loving books is the first step to language acquistion. Well at least the first step to strengthening the language ability. It has been said by experts that introducing children to TV prior to books is a big NO-NO. The changing images on TV cause too much stimulation for the mind. This slowly conditions the brain to accept things at that speed. Eventually, the child will lose interest in books which are comparatively slower and requires more work (imagination, decoding...) So our aim is to make Hannah love books just like us. I have bought soooooo many books and is anticipating the day when Hannah will sit on my lap to enjoy some bedtime stories.

Talking about love for books... I realised my love for books was cultivated by my aunt Angie. I don't think she did it intentionally but what she did left a great impact and what she did made me love not only reading but also the English Language. She brought me to the annual book fairs when I was young. In those days it was at world Trade Centre ( yeah, the vivocity today). I could stay there the entire day to read and walk from booth to booth looking at the wonderful display of colourful books. My favourite then was the bookworm series. I remember wanting soooo much to be in the bookworm club. (One of the two things that I really wanted as a kid but didn't get to have it. The other is to have a Macdonald's bdae party! haha). Anyway I remember each bookwork book costs $5 - quite expensive then. Aunt Angie was the one who bought them for me once in a while and she also introduced to me Roald Dahl whose books I fell in love with. I have read all his children's books and still have them in my collection today. Thanks yee! :)

Perhaps Hannah can read my Roald Dahl books someday. And if the bookworm club still exist, I will still want to be in the club albeit being overage. As for the McDonald's bdae party, well I'll give that a skip. Too much calories and well... the hype is already history.

Let's go Gai Gai!

Preparing to go for breakfast at East Coast!

Daddy with Hannah

Daddy and Hannah at Paragon. Check out Hannah's new trenchcoat! hahah

Mummy with Hannah at paragon.

Daddy Hoon loves going gai gai. Mummy Hoon can't do without gai gai. Of cos Baby Hoon gotta tag along... but of 'cos Hannah Hoon loves it!

So far, we have conquered many places:

Vivocity, East Coast, Paragon, Takashimaya, Parkway Parade, Tampines 1, Tampines mall, Century Square, Suntec City, Marina Square...

Singapore is too small already... time to venture out!

First few moments for those of you who have missed it....

One month has passed by. Hannah looks so different now! She has certainly grown! Mummy looks different too! Thank God for mum, mil and hubby who took care of me throughout confinement. I have regained 'strength' :)






Check out a pic taken for our recent outing!

BOOKS galore

I've received giftcards from my Sis and colleagues. I can buy another 20 books or so from the online library again! I seriously wonder if there's any space left thereafter. I haven't really got to read to Hannah yet. She's either sleeping or eating these days. But I am sure we will get to read them together a few more months down the road. ( And actually, I love reading children's books! They serve as entertainment during breastfeeding sessions:)).
Can't wait to sit down and go through the selection. Believe it or not, I am now friend with the boss already! haha...

I love books!

The end of confinement

Finally, the one month of residential imprisonment has come to an end. The pain of being locked up within the four walls made even visits to gynae and paed such a welcoming change. I marked the days down on my calendar and looked forward to each visit. ( an opportunity for me to smell some fresh air, wear some clothes that have already gathered quite some dust and to sit in the car to take a look at the world out there).


Then again as the D-day approaches, nolstalgia kicks in.Mum's going home.

The Whole Story

Alright, here's the story of LABOUR.

Well, some people said that labour could happen days before the real pushing and heaving. I guess that's the way for my case. About 5 days before the 'real thing', I went to the gynae for the normal check and he told me that I've dilated for about 2cm and IT could happen soon. That started us anticipating but in vain until 15th Feb, I had some show. I called the gynae and he told me to monitor. The time was close. Again nothing happened. We still went shopping cos I reckon hospital is nearer to Mt Alvernia anyway.

We went home and wondered when the real call would be. At 4.30am, I felt like I needed to pee and then I felt a huge gush coming on. I JUMPED out from bed. (something which I haven been able to do for months! I wonder where that surge of energy came from.) I stood rooted and started holding on to the towel which was already placed nicely beside me in preparation for this moment. I shouted for hubby to wake up. I just shouted, 'waters broke, Waters broke, how? I cannot walk!' He woke up and turned on the lights and asked me to just walk to the toilet although it meant that the water will leave a trail. I went to wash up while hubby mopped the floor. He showered and changed while I took a bottle of chicken essence. Then we made our way to the hospital.

Somehow there was this calmness after the initial shock. Total peace tinged with excitement. We made our way to the car and decided to drive through Mcdonald's for a quick bite before labour begins. Mum said that the contraction pain will only come after the waters have finished flowing so we thought that gives us some time to play around:P. We bought bf but I was gan jiong so could't eat much. so we shared a burger.

We arrived and checked into the delivery suite by 5.30am. Thank God for the perfect timing. Just one hour later there would have been heavy traffic. Just one hour later, hubby would have gone to school. Just one hour later, the pain would hvae come on.

6am- The contractions began. I managed to hold on for 3 hours. Tried using the laughing gas but it was rancid. I'd rather endure the pain than smell that cursed thing. My contractions was strong and steady. Unlke most people mine lasted one minute for every contraction although it was just 'early labour'.That probably contributed to the great pain and faster dilation I guess. When the gynae came and check, it was already dilated 5cm. And after 3 hours, I knew I just couldn't hang on to the end already. I knew my threshold was just a few more steps away. We discussed promptly and decided on the epidural. Epidural was PAINFUL. When the jab went through the spine, I let out an agonizing cry/scream/groan... I can't decide which. Hubby had to stand outside the room but he was right at the door assuring me that he's just there and he'll come back in once the procedure was done. I curled up and never for once felt so vulnerable and weak. I grabbed the bedsheets, buried my head and cried. The cursed medication took half an hour to take effect. That half an hour was bad. Thank God, the anaesthetic kicked in soon enough and we both slept like a baby for another 3 hours.

Gynae came by after three hours. We woke up. He checked and announced that I was 10cm dilated and ready for pushing. We were shock! That was really fast. Hubby said he needed to go toilet first! He rushed to the toilet while the nurses got me into position. Then the endless pushing came. They down the dosage of the epidural by half so that I could feel the contractions to aid pushing. I pushed for an hour with hubby supporting me and counting for me and the nurses cheering me on. It was very tiring and at the end of one hour the doc said I needed help. He decided to use the vacuum. He gave me some medication to up the contractions as well. This time round I began to move into sub- consciousness already. There was only one thing in my head. Push hard so that baby can come out naturally so that i do not need to undergo C-Sec. I saw a group of people surrounding me shouting in unison 'PUSH' and hubby's voice going 'deep breath in and push, 2,3,4 ,5,.6.....' Then someone said the head is out and hubby exclaimed, I can see the head! And with one hard push, something came out. I didn't know what... I just slumped back on the bed in a daze. Someone then threw a baby on my chest. I looked at the baby and I started crying very very hard. I guess it must be some kind of a relief to get her out.Hannah doesn't look too familiar too. I thought I would have laughed in joy but that was not the case. The stitching went on for almost an hour. I hear noise, heard baby crying, hubby talking to me.. nurses walking around. Then Gynae told the nurses to get ready for blood transfusion. Said that I lost a lot of blood. Then nurses asked if I've done that before and so on... I answered in a daze totally weakened by the entire process. Then just as I began to feel a lil' worried of what a blood transfusion may entail, the nurse came back with a report on my blood count and gynae mentioned that I am picking up very quickly so although my blood count was very low I can do without the transfusion. Thank God.

Baby was cleaned and brought to my breasts for feeding. Somehow she had the basic instinct as mentioned in the books that I read. She just suckled on after the nurse helped to latch her on. We took our first family portrait. With daddy in joy and happiness written all over his face. With Hannah's eyes closed, probably still oblivious that she's in the world now. With mummy pale as a ghost but trying to smile as brightly as possible so that she can look pretty. (vanity). The rest as they said, is history.

The story of labour. It is an experience that one can never imagine without having gone through it. That night, I smsed my mum to thank her for giving birth to me. I guess one has to go through the pain to understand that completely. The immensity of the entire experience is never overrated. It is a high price and great sacrifice. A mother's love.

Our lil princess

The process of labour is a perfect experience to blog. But not today. 10 hours is too long to be documented in a few minutes. For now, just a glimpse of Hannah.