First Time Mom

It has been 13 days since I gave birth to our beautiful princess Julie Martin Soo. Taking care of a newborn baby is not as easy as i thought. I had post-partum depression on the 2nd day we brought Julie back home. I cried without any solid reason and being sad all of the sudden. I also had fear that i would not be able to take care of my princess and i would not be a good mom.

Breastfeeding has taken a toll out of me. It's easy to get her to latch on but my princess doesn't seems to be getting enough of milk. She always fall asleep during half-way feeding. When i put her back to sleep, she would sleep for 30-45 mins before crying again. Her mouth would be then searching for something to munch on. I had to breastfeed her again. It was exhausting.

On the 3rd day, i decided to pump out the milk so that i would be able to see how much she has drink. Then it was a little easier. But one problem solved, another problem emerged. My princess is having nose blocked. She couldn't breath well and have to use her mouth to breath. This has make her feeding and sleeping harder. Her paediatrician, Dr. Pria from Tropicana Medical Centre has given us STERIMAR, a type of solution to spray into the nose. We have been using it for almost a week now, her condition doesn't seems to improve. Yesterday, we read in the internet that there is a kind of nose suction for newborn that we could buy from pharmacy and try to suck out the mucus after using the spray. We are going to try that. Hopefully my princess will get better over the time.

 

Summary only...

The Story Of Our Baby Julia

At exactly one month ago, on 12th May 2011, a beautiful baby girl was brought into this world. Her name is Julia Martin Soo Sum Yue. Her English name was given by her daddy, while her Chinese name was given by her grandfather.

She was not supposed to be out yet until 25th June, but due to the complications experienced by her mommy who was having preeclampsia, she had to be brought out. Upon entering this world, she was very weak and had to depend on the machine for breathing. Despite all the negative comments from their doctors, her mommy & daddy had their hopes high.

Her mommy was in ICU for a day before transferring to normal ward. She was still having high blood pressure and was very weak at that time. Her daddy had to stayed overnights in the hospital to accompany both his precious. He was alternating between ICU to see his daughter and normal ward to see his wife.
When her mommy was able to get down from bed on Day 3, she joined her daddy to see her. As what her grandma and great grandma said, Julia looks just like her mommy, especially her nose. Her hair was like her daddy - slightly curl, and fingers like her daddy – short and fatty. She was the most precious treasure her parents had. She was a part of them!

Her parents did not give up, they talked to her for 10mins every 45 mins, starting from 9am to 1am. Everytime, they asked her to be good girl and be strong. They told her about her comfy pink bed and her fun rocking bed. They even enticed her by saying that there are a lot of toys waiting for her at home and everybody is waiting for her to wake up. But she was still too weak to give any response.

Finally on Day 4, Julia left for heaven. She will be deeply missed by her parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties. And they will always keep Little Baby Julia in their hearts.

Summary only...

M's Early Birthday Celebration

Lat Saturday, we celebrated M's birthday at his parent's. It was an early birthday celebration because his actual birthday falls on a Tuesday. We had a 4 seasons dish to start with, followed by a scrumptious tomyam and chicken soup steamboat, and ended with a yummy~licious cake.

According to our norm, the birthday boy/ girl gets to order his/ her food. Usually M's parents will cook for the birthday boy/ girl. But this time round, since M has ordered mine & his mom specialty foods, his dad gets an off day.

Flower deco made with love by me, using tomato skin and cucumber.


4 Seasons : Fried Prawn Dumplings/ Salad Prawns (by me), Stir-fry sweet peas with abalone (by M's mom), Fried Eggs with fan see (by M's mom), and lastly baby octopus (bought from Fatman Steamboat).


Tomyam and chicken soup base steamboat (by me).


Best Tong Tung Kwa Butter Cake topped with almond nibs, baked with love by M's mom.
Happy Birthday again, darling! Am now looking forward to your brother's birthday next month. I wonder what will he orders? hehe

Happy Thursday, peeps! Hope you guys enjoyed the pics i took.



**********
First THREE Commentators

Summary only...

Family Planning

Last Thursday, M & I attended a 3 hours talk on Family Planning at Assunta Hospital. This was part of our CMPC. I had to say this was the most interesting talk i've ever attended. Even though we were both feeling a little fatigue that night but the speaker had our full attention during that 3 hours.

We were taught of the male & female reproductive system, latest contraceptive methods available and latest way of abortion - in which the church is strongly against abortion, before being introduced to the main topic: Billings Ovulation Method (BOM), an effective natural method of planning your family. It is based on the correlation of physiological events of the female reproductive cycle with observations made at the vulva. This method is being used in China and is said to be 90% accurate.

Diagram taken from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/MEDLINEPLUS/ency/imagepages/19471.htm
Interesting facts I've learn:
1) The life span of sperm is 1 day in dry place, and 3-5 days in wet place.
2) A male is fertile all his life long since the day he reached puberty.
3) The testicle is the ideal organ to store & produce sperm because of the temperature. That is why, male are advisable not to wear tight underwear/ pants to allow some room for breathing.
4) A male produces 1000 sperms every second.
5) Not all sperms being produced are healthy. There will be some with big head, some with crooked tail, etc. Only the healthy one will be able to swim to the egg and fertilized.


Diagram taken from http://www.britannica.com
Interesting facts I've learn:
1) The life span of ovum is 1 day.
2) A female is generally most fertile a few days before, during, and after ovulation.
3) Most female ovulate on day 14th from the first day of her menses.

In BOM, we especially the females were taught to recognise the presence of musuc by the wet/ slippery/ lubricatuve sensation & visual observation, and to relate it to her level of fertility and to apply certain rules.

Homework: We were given a charting book to keep record of our observations made at the vulva. The next follow up would be three weeks later. They will then explain your charting.



p/s: I wish i could explain more in details to you guys but I have limited knowledge on BOM and it is hard to explain here. If you are interested, you can contact them yourselves.

Contacts - Natural Fertility Awareness Service of Malaysia
Petaling Jaya & Selangor
English Speaking:
Dr. Celine Pereira Assunta Hospital
03-7782 3762 (H)/ celinadiana@hotmail.com

Mr. & Mrs. Matthew & Serina Chong
012-398 1523/ mattser@pd.jaring.my

Mr. & Mrs. Nicholas & Honey See
012-379 0703/ honeychoo@gmail.com

Tamil Speaking:
Mrs. Cecilia Anthonysamy
013-637 0079

Mandarin Speaking:
Mrs. Magdalene Cheah
012-289 5637/ magdalenecsm@yahoo.com


First Commentator
***5th time in a row***

Congratulations, Marzie! We Love Ya!!! :)

Summary only...