This time round for Mei mei, I joined in mommies’ support group in Watsapp for December 2018 mommies. It is a large group where we have over 200 mommies in our group-chat and many of us are hoping to create a memento for our precious babies hence we proceed to organize a 100 days bash for them.

Was part of the 100 days birthday bash organizing committee and particularly helping out in the sourcing of sponsorships for our lucky draw and goodie bag.  It was great bonding together with the committees because we have been working hard for the past 2-3 months sourcing and planning for the event. Although there are some hiccups, but we are more than happy with the outcome and the process since we are not professionals. We are not perfect but we definitely tried our best. 😊

We were very fortunate to have so many awesome vendors as sponsors which brings the whole birthday bash to a whole new level. Thankful for the dessert table and buffet spread being sponsored as well! Most importantly, we provided opportunities to some local mama to bring their business to our bash. (I have been shopping happily at these booths. :p)

Dealing with #2 is a little easier in comparison to our firstborn period where everything seems so alien to us then. Now, we are more prepared and less paranoid at certain parenting acts. The challenge which we are still juggling is to provide equal attention to korkor and mei mei.
 
Breastfeeding journey seems more difficult for me this time round when she doesn’t latches well and I need to keep pumping to supply for her. This is rather time consuming and sort of taken away the time I can spend with kor kor which makes me feel lousy. I guess i must keep trying if I wanna prolong the journey. On the side note, I am blessed with grandmaKWAN’s support as she reminded me that I have breastfed korkor for 2 years, I should also put in equal effort for mei mei this time round. 

​We engaged My mummy the photographer - maternity & newborn, family & cakesmash for Mei Mei Mayris’s newborn shoot. It is a bundled package together with my Maternity shoot as well as family shoot. I like the mummy photographer – Sandra whom is being very patience to us. Helping us to coax Mayris as she attempts to change her outfit for different styles.

Sadly, she was travelling for holiday during end of the year and we had to wait till almost 2 weeks old for Mei Mei Mayris to take the shoot. It will ideally be better if we shoot it within 1 week because there is less resistance from the baby in my opinion and that was how Kor Kor Morris is.

​Anyway, love how dreamy and princess like on how Sandra captured her. Will definitely consider her again for Mei Mei Mayris’s 1-year old photo-shoot 😊

​She is having a home studio which is a plus point for me because I feel it is convenient for newborn shoot as we know that any possible diaper leak accident can occur, and we can bring to clean up if needed. All the outfits in the photoshoot is provided by the studio inclusive of the accessories and the small plushie.

Really thankful with her guidance on the posing to create better photos. I really adore the photoshoot result and received many praises on how cute Mei Mei Mayris is. Love minimal editing in the images which is very natural. Do check her out if you need photoshoot yea?

'Delivering during wee hours is a whole new experience for both of us as we felt lethargic right after labour. In fact, I was facing post delivery epidural syndromes right after birth of PrincessTAN. Lesser than 30 minutes after delivery, I couldn’t control and started vomiting despite I dint consume any food. I had to ask daddy to bring rush to take a bucket for me to puke.
 
We were then pushed to the ward at about 5am, I was vomited the 2nd time and couldn’t consume anything after as well. PrincessTAN was supposed to sleep in the room with us under the new TMC policy for Single bedder scheme but the nurses suggested me to rest for a couple of hours as they babysit her on behalf. Because of this, we manage to cat nap for a couple hours before the doctors start going on rounds and visitor's arrival. 

We were also very nervous on Morris’s reaction on the mei mei’s arrival but we were fortunate to have supportive uncles and grandparents to help to prepare him on what he will see when he arrived. He asked such an adorable question the first thing he saw mei mei as he goes “mommy, why is mei mei so big but so small in your stomach?”

Overall, we still see smiles on his face after seeing mei mei which is a good sign. We requested GrandparentsKWAN to spend extra attention on Morris as we are unable to return home for that night. We explained to him that we needed to stay in hospital to accompany mei mei and he acknowledged it just like a big boy. Gosh, feel that he is growing up too fast~

​Since I am feeling better towards mid of the day, we decided to discharge the next day. Thank you to all our families and friends who came by to visit us 😊. My first time trying out ringsling on newborn. So so fun! YAY~

We headed to TMC for our weekly Gynae Visit with UncleTHAM today at 39 weeks + 2 days. The clinic has also arranged CTG scan to see if there is any contraction and to monitor the baby movement. Sadly, no contraction and uncleTHAM told us to see us again after Christmas at 40 weeks. We then head out to distribute some of the Christmas cookies which I have baked for some of my friends before meeting our family for lunch and dinner since it is 冬至.

Who knows that contraction starts to surface at around 8.40pm with an interval at around 7-10 minutes each time. The cramp, ache and pain came to me like a Déjà vu which I have previously experienced during the birth of Morris. While trying to be certain that I am in time for labour, we took readings for another 2 hours while putting Morris to sleep for the night and calling GrandparentsKWAN home. The pain was so intense as the hours goes by and I am very certain that the surprise is coming~

We say goodbye to loverboy before driving off to the hospital with immense pain at my lower back as we admitted to TMC at 12 midnight. Immediately we were guided to the Operating Theatre and was nagged by the nurse because I endured with the contraction pain for almost 3 hours. I was already 5 cm dilated during admission and I was lucky that I requested epidural immediately. Understood from the nurse that 6 cm dilation is the maximum possibility for epidural selection: p

 I​While the daddy headed down to register for admission, I was alone facing the nurse for the various injection as well as the epidural insertion. This time round, the insertion causes severe shivers which is something that I dislike. No more than 10 minutes, the contraction pain became minimal but it also causes numbness to the legs which I am fortunate to have daddy to help me massage the legs to make them feel less numb. Then, i become happy girl since the contraction pain is away.

We begin to wait patiently for the dilation to happen as we needed it to be 10 cm before we can start pushing. The wait was kinda boring as we were both tired since it is wee hours but good job to daddy as he managed to stay awake by playing his Nintendo switch. My water bag broke at about 2.30 am before the contraction becoming more and more intense. I think the nurse actually gave me mild dosage on the epidural medicine as I could feel the contraction and the pressure of the baby pushing down.
 
Nurses then started to get prepared while wearing their OT gears and requested me to push 1 time to see how well I pushes before deciding if we needed to call UncleTHAM over. Guess what! 1 push and we can see the head trying to come out already hence UncleTHAM was called over at almost 3am lol. Thereafter, I took lesser than 10 pushes and our princess arrive~

We welcome you PrincessTAN - Myris Tan Xin Rui <3