Saturday, July 25, 2009

Home Sweet Home

Dear Reader,

Too much to think, too much to say, it's been a week now. Myrtille stayed at the pediatrics during two days and she was moved back to Yukyin's side on Monday morning. She was getting better and started to take care of Myrtille, who started to be a bit painful... (baby you know?)

Quickly, it appeared to her that she needed to leave the hospital, nurses are nice, but some of them are "not that nice"... so she was getting fed up by those, but there were some very nice ones that helped her out with Myrtille. She started to breastfed her. We were a bit worried that Myrtille got used to silicone tits as she was on a formula in the pediatrics but thanks God, she started to feed on Yukyin's breast without too much issue.

A breastfed baby:
Breastfed Baby

They came back home on Tuesday and then started our endless days. Having a baby home is tiresome and no joke, it is way beyond what I imagined. From a 24h life cycle, we entered a 3h life cycle. In those 3 hours, Myrtille has a nap, a meal, a soiled diaper and above all, she reversed day and night. During the day, she sleeps right after her meal, during the night, she does not sleep and stay awake with her big eyes looking for people to take care of her. If she does not spot anyone, she'll cry... no ahem, she will yell...

Yelling is the only way for her to communicate. We keep learning one new thing per day. First day, the most obvious, she yells because she is angry. Then she yells because she soiled her diaper and she is feeling ashamed (uncomfortable). Then, she yells because she wants to poo and does not manage to do so. Another night, she was yelling because she did not manage to sleep on her belly. She yells because she wants to sleep, however, we tend to play with her until she literally freeze and fall asleep. She yells because she does not feel well on the changing table.
You'll understand that our home is a noisy house... when she is awake.

The other facet of the problem is that she is very very awaken by night and thus, we don't have a lot of time to sleep. When she is hungry she starts crying and then, Yukyin needs to prepare herself for the meal, after the meal, I need to wait for her to burp and poo and then, she can sleep... one or one and half hour and here we go again.

What she looks like every night:
Hmmmm

Anyhow, thanks for prayers, we are getting fine and hope we'll manage to get ourselves used to her or the other way around... Hehehe, right now, we are trying to keep her awake by day... so that we can all sleep at the same time by night.

Keep praying for us folks :)

Ah and a good piece of advice, if you are looking for a postnatal helper... call us to make sure you avoid our agent.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Hello!

My name is Myrtille, I am a gal and I am 12h old :). Nice to meet you all.

Here is one of the first pic my crazy dad took of me:
New Little Homemade Cuttie :D
Sorry for the bit of milk drooling from the side ;)

I think I look like my grandma... or uncle Marc, but not sure. I'll let the other family members comments.

Long night at the hospital

Dear Reader,

Hospitals... that's the best place on Earth to spend time... I went there at 11AM on Friday and only left at 6AM on the next day morning. 19h spent waiting, that's a load of things to tell everybody, so I'll make it a long post.

At noon, I left my office, Yukyin told me that she was given the green light to go to the labor room. That's quite a milestone, you need to be at least dilated 3cm to go there, and there, you'll have a selective choice of pain killers :D. She wanted an epidural and you can only get it there. Also, one is to note that passed 6cm of dilatation, the epidural cannot be started.

The hospital was very busy, a lot of people everywhere, 40 wards in the waiting room, only 12 in the labor room and we think that they only reserve some of them for people going from the waiting ward to the labor room, the other are for ER we supposed. So, she needed to queue before she could get access to the next room. Unfortunately for her, several people went ahead of her, they were more dilated or had more advance symptoms (water break for example).

From time to time, she came into the corridor where I was waiting to talk to me and I could see how painful it was, every 4 minutes in average, she started to breath strongly and deeply, closing her eyes, grasping my arms during somewhere between 45s to 1mn45. Containing her pain as strong as she could. She was obviously feeling a lot of pain. I would have given anything to take part or even the whole thing if I could.

Then, she would return on her ward, waiting for a potential nurse that would come to examined her and take her down to the labor room.

17h30, visit allowed, I quit the corridor and entered the waiting room, I was allowed to stay at her side. One couple next to us was in the same boat, the wife was crying every 5 minutes at each contraction. She could not hold it anymore, she asked for a nurse to get her examined and they decided to move her to the next room.

At this moment, Yukyin was not feeling happy anymore... crazy things came out of her mind... but she was really not happy of the attitude of the hospitals. Hey public services you know? She waited to long and was watching enviously at all her mates that were going down. So, she asked to be examined, the nurse tried to keep her here by advising her to eat her meal and get reexamined later. She could not hold it anymore... She wanted to leave.

18h30, examination done, she was ready to get going, no jokes now, we want a ward to take us down that's all. So, she was brought to the labor room and I was asked to wait outside. 19h, she called me from the inside and ask me to go dine something as it won't be so early. She told me that all the nurses were trying to persuade her not to get an epidural because of this and that, risk for the mum, risk for baby... etc... I told her to make the best choice for all of us. At that moment, the nurses pierced the placenta and she started to feel a lot more pain... She kept screaming and requesting her epidural but the nurses were trying all their ways to avoid it... by saying that she needs to have blood sampled and tested for verifications and all other stupid lies on Earth. I know that being a nurse is a tough job, but these are our feelings.

22-23h, she finally got it affix... She begged it so much that she got it at the end. She called me and it was a whole other person on the phone... she was still feeling movement, but she did not feel the pain at all. At least, she could continue the labor phase without feeling too much pain. At that moment, she was dilated 5 cm. However, she asked me to pray for something else. Baby's heartbeat is not fully regular, there is sometimes some drop in speed. I start to get worried. It's so painful how powerless we are in such situation.

At one o' clock, she called me back and she told me that she was still dilated 5 cm, but she got a new problem... FEVER. She started to have a fever and was closely monitored. They could not figure out what was the origin of the fever, it can be anything, reaction to the epidural, infection etc... chances are that the baby got infected too. Anyway, moral was lower than ever.

At 2AM, she called me and said that she as nothing more to say... Fever was getting more and more problematic, the medical team advised for a c-section. But as she was already 5cm dilated, she could end up worst case having a haemorrhage. She was fed up that everything went so wrong... the pain, the fact that she could not get there earlier, the fact that her cervix did not dilated at all, the fact that she needed to beg her epidural, the fever... Lost of confidence, lost of will, the only thing she wanted is to go home and have a rest in her beloved bed. She told me that she already sign all the papers and requested to see me before she went in the operation room.

I saw her at around 2h45, prayed with her: "Lord I am laying the two most precious thing at your hands, please take well care of them". And then she went. One guy around me had the same thing happen for his first kid, so actually this guy was of a great support. "All will be fine".

3h15, a nurse asked me to enter the labor room, I had the chance to see our little baby. 3.115kg, born at 2h57AM. What about the mum then? The nurse told me that she is fine, still in the operation room for placenta removing and stitching, she will be under monitoring for an extra hour. So, that's not finished yet. I took pics of the baby and went out... waiting again to know if she was ok.

4h30AM! Yukyin was pushed out on a ward! yeay! I am so proud of her, that's the only thing that came to my mind! woohoo. I left the hall and gave my best wishes to my waiting companions. Then I helped to settle up in her area. Right now, she is recovering, she can't still not stand and walk around, maybe later today.

Actually, She is feeling peaceful and felt how much our Lord blessed her with the fever. If she did not had the fever, she would be kept in the labor room and would have been waiting for her cervix to be dilated to 10 cm before action. Really give thanks to the Lord.

The nurse gave me directions in order to see baby in the Pediatric Dpt. I went there and had the chance to play a bit with her cheeks during 20 minutes.

6AM, I finally left the hospital. Tired, I fell asleep in the train, while waiting the minibus... in the minibus.

It's only 1PM, and I can't sleep anymore... too many people are calling, I will have a proper sleep tonight I think.

Now, there is too much to think, to plan,to do

Again, please ask me for the updates, try not to call Yukyin at her hospital or even visit her before she gives the green light.

Really thanks for your support and your prayers, I pray for the way God bless my family and that He bless you even more.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Time to GO!

Dear Reader,

She can go into the labor room now and maybe have an epidural if room is available. Yeay! Thanks God.
Heheheh
Time to leave the office for me, I am going to the hospital.

Keep praying for us!
Thanks

Woke up Early #2

Dear Reader,

Thanks for your supportive messages and calls, baby's still not there, Yukyin has been suffering a lot more since yesterday, she is still feeling increasingly more painful contractions but at the same pace. She has been told that she won't be able to request an epidural and is very sad for that. So hope you don't mind praying for that :).

Her cervix has dilated to 1 cm since yesterday afternoon, still 9 cm to go!

I'll be going back to office and stay alert for any call as I can only stay in the corridor in the hospital. As I said yesterday, please contact me if you need an update.

Thanks :)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Woke up Early

Dear Reader,

During last night, Yukyin woke me up, she had some regular contraction of her lower belly. Every 5 minutes she felt a little pain and her belly started to get hard for a short period of time.

We monitored it during 20 minutes, then, I turned on the computer... :D I was hoping inside me that I could find her classmate living in France, mother of 3. It was 4am in the morning in Hong Kong... I think it is not too much for me to expect her to be in front of the computer at 10pm her time. Thanks God it was the case :)

She told us that Yukyin might start to be in the first phase of the delivery. Better get her to the hospital before something messy happens (ie water break). After some quick thinking time, we went ahead, I packed her things, got dressed up, pack my camera gears (it may be useful), called a taxi. At 4h50, we were out.

5AM, we arrived at the hospital 7th floor. The nurse asked me to go make the admission registration stuff, "follow the green line on the floor", so went back to ground floor and followed the green line... It was a bit early and the admission offices were closed. After at least 5 minutes of thinking about what to do, my aimless eyes fall onto one line of words directing people to go to the ER admission offices in case the general admission office is closed. "Follow the orange line on the ground"... looked around me...yeah, well, to me, it seems to be yellow... and there is that another red line that looks orange... Finally, got a nurse who tipped me on the place to go... Registration done, went back to the 7th floor.

Yukyin was getting examined by two nurses. Diagnostic is that baby is ok but her cervix is closed. So, she advised me to go home, or go to work... baby will take its time to come... a long long time or longer if it's not for today.

So, after a long chat with Yukyin in the corridor, I decided to get back home, we'll see if she calls me later or not. it's 6:45, I feel like a half walking brainless guy, don't know if I can make a day at work.

Anyway, keep us in your prayers, maybe, I'll be thankful if you don't try to call her (you can call me and I'll keep you updated) or visit her.

Thanks

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Week 39! Not there yet

Dear Reader,

It's been a long time I did not write any news. Days pass and sound similar. Last week, Yukyin started to feel some pains by night, when she sleeps, the higher part of her belly is a bit painful, we manage to solve it temporary with an additional pillow. It works great but she has to move it around from side to side when she turns around... and she does turn around very often at night. So, a good piece of advice for the newly expectant mothers, you need to have the following piece of equipment for the best sleeping experience:
-a banana shaped pillow: stop sleeping on the back, you'll have to sleep on the side, it will relieve your low back pain and it will allow the baby to have sufficient nutriments as there are two main pipes in the low back area bringing food to baby. If you sleep too much on the back, baby might grow underweight.
-a kind of triangular or flat pillow: This one is to be put under the belly, to relieve pain under the breast. I wanted to get a triangular one, but we have just one or two weeks to go, Yukyin said it's fine, we'll live with the flatty one.

So for the news, Yukyin's doing fine, she walk often, not that much, but she has a 1h walk at least every two days. Her belly grew again, now it's HUGE... stretch marks started to appear, it does not bother me but as I am not a girl, I might not understand... (I do have a lot of stretch marks everywhere... a complete lizard suit...) Except from that... hmmm.. Ah, she started to walk very very slowly... In fact, it was quite hard for me to lower my pace as I am a fast walker, but I need to be there for her, so now, we walk at the speed of a lame turtle... Now we are completely overtaken by cockroach in the streets, start getting hard for us to avoid them.

Yesterday, Yukyin went for a check-up at the hospital. Back a few weeks ago, I said that her tummy was a bit undersized and laid them to worry a bit about her health. She had the chance to have a ultrasound scan ... twice... at the hospital. So she went to the hospital, waited... one hour to have a nurse call her in the ultrasound scan room. The machine was great, very high resolution, she had a 20" wide screen for her to see the image of the scan, we don't usually have these even in private OB. So she had a very nice view of our baby. The nurse took a lot of measurements, bones, head, belly etc... The head was a bit hard to get, baby's head is totally down into the pelvic bone, although it does not seem to be in a hurry to come out.

Before leaving, she asked for a evaluation of baby's weight. 7.3 lbs or 3.33kg. In fact, we would have like baby to be a bit lighter, high weigh means -> big head -> eventual high amount of pain during delivery... Then she left the ultrasound room and waited, waited again... I think you spend more time waiting in a hospital than getting real care, anyway, that's normal, just have some hours to spend. One hour later, she got to see a doctor. The doctor just printed out something and said, everything's fine... you can go back to the Medical Health Centre next week for your 40th week checkup... Maybe he assumes that baby won't be there by that time.

Anyway, Thanks God that everything is fine :).

Keep us in your prayers, delivery is just around the corner.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Some Look Change

Dear Reader,

I worked out a new look for this blog. Yukyin was quite unhappy about the black one. In fact, the black background was better to show pictures, but as this blog derived a bit from its purpose, I think a bit of make-up was to be done. I hope this one looks better... at least, we chose it together. It's based on a template in the blogger system. I enlarged it a bit so that the text frame is 640 in width instead of 480... who uses a screen narrower than 640 anyway?

So, a bit of look change before our little one appears.

Still working there and there to match item colors but i am almost there.

Ah, I almost forgot the most important, Yukyin added a very nice looking signature bar in the title area... I am still working a bit to better integrate it though. You'll understand a very big piece of information there.

For the news, we are waiting... waiting... waiting... don't know when it will happen. Keep us in your prayers though. Thanks to you all.
Comments are welcomed!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Homecooking Adventures 3

Dear reader,

3rd episodes of our Homecooking Adventures, hope you like it, I don't have any real feedback on these kind of posts.

These days, I had some weird ideas about cooking and tried several new things, with an old one. First, Tuesday evening, we tried to make some simili-fajitas. We took some fajita bread and added some lettuce with some stir fried lamb along with green/red/yellow peppers... we kind of like those.

Before our hungry fingers laid on it... we need to have a calm glimpse of it:
Home Style fajitas 1/2

Now mix it together:
Home Style fajitas 2/2

And it's ready to be eaten... :) I won't show any pictures of the roll obtain... it was too messy.

Now that we had plenty of lettuce at home, I made a cold pasta salad to use them all:
Cold Pasta Salad

Hehehe :)

To finish today post, I made a desert! Yukyin wanted to have it again for so long that I decided to make it tonight. It's called "Oeufs au lait" literally meaning "eggs with milk". Ingredients are simple: Sugar, milk, eggs vanilla aroma. It's a hugely simple thing to do, everybody can make it so I'll make up the recipe:

1/2l of milk
3 eggs
30 gr of brown sugar
1 pack of vanilla sugar (can use real vanilla too)
some sugar for the caramel

Boil the milk and in another bowl, mix the sugar and the eggs.
Oeufs Au Lait 1/7

Make the caramel: sugar+water. I am not an expert of caramel, but one thing, do not put your finger in it to taste it... don't be as stupid as me... got my finger burnt like an idiot...
Oeufs Au Lait 2/7

Fill some cups with the caramel obtain:
Oeufs Au Lait 3/7

Pour the warm milk in the eggs... need to watch out not to cook the egg! so keep stirring while pouring the milk:
Oeufs Au Lait 4/7

Fill your cups with the obtained mix and place them on a big tray with some hot water ready to be baked:
Oeufs Au Lait 5/7

Bake for 20 minutes until the top hardens:
Oeufs Au Lait 6/7

Take it out, break the edges of the top surface an try to "unmold" it on a plate or bowl... you'll obtain a very nice kind of pudding :) Yummy
Oeufs Au Lait 7/7

You can see that I mess up the caramel... need to find a way to obtain a thicker caramel after baking...

You can eat it warm or cold... any way, it's good and tasty.

Have fun in your kitchen!