Nursery tour Part II

Cute name train from Desiree!

The view from the bedroom door.

A nursery tour

Christmas pressie from Nan and Grandad Byrne

Wall stickers

Change table and cot. Callum doesn't sleep in here yet and the bedding won't be staying!

Another angle (not a very good pic though!)

You'll have to see this to believe it..

Too stupid for words. But a great laugh for Friday morning.

Read this Stuff article

Watch the video - it's hilarious!


Thanks for the link, Holly :)

Caught on Camera!

Just managed to get Callum rolling over on camera this morning...

Rolling rolling rolling ...

I took Callum for his Well Baby check this afternoon. He's gaining weight "nicely" and "looking good" according to the Health Visitor. Good to hear. After the big weigh in we were sitting having a chat with Callum on the floor and got to talking about how Callum is just so active and seems very strong. The health visitor lady noticed that Callum was holding his head up well and looking round whilst lying on his tummy. She warned me that we'd have to watch him carefully as he would be moving a lot, no leaving him on the bed or change table or anything ... and about 10 seconds after she said that.. Callum rolled over. No kidding, he rolled from front to back this afternoon at 7 weeks and 1 day - 6 days before his DUE DATE. So there's me, the health visitor, Leila and her Mother in Law all sitting there in shock and then wetting ourselves laughing. But at least I had witnesses ;)

AND he did it again before his bath tonight, so Mike has seen it too!

Postscprit: unfortunately the excitement must have gone to his head, coz Callum hasn't settled well AT ALL tonight, has probably managed an hour's sleep since 6pm. Ugh. Here's hoping the rest of the night improves! Tomorrow's another day huh ;)

Gong Hei Fat Choi!

Or Gong Xi Fa Cai as they say here in Singapore. Happy Chinese New Year!

Mike is on a week's holiday at the moment so we've had a busy, social weekend and have been watching plenty of the Australian Open too. Dinner at Sanjay and Rupa's on Saturday night which was loads of fun (as usual) despite Callum being too excited by the nighttime taxi ride and new surroundings to sleep. The upside was that after a quick feed at 11pm when we got home, Callum slept all the way till 4am then had another quick (!) feed and slept again till 7am! Made for a much more relaxed day for me yesterday with a bit more sleep under my belt.

Yesterday Mike and I took Callum to his first BBQ. He was a bit of a novelty as every other woman at the BBQ was pregnant with their first baby. Callum behaved sooo well, sleep soundly, looked cute, let me feed him (first time outside our house and wasn't too scary) and then slept some more. It's definitely easier taking him out during the day than at night - so far.

Got some more cute video clips today so watch this space!

Getting around

Well, since we braved taxis and capsules a couple of weeks back, Callum and I have been getting out and about a bit more over the past week. We went to the Baby Cafe on Monday afternoon which was fantastic. Callum and I met loads of other mums and bubbas all of similar ages and got some help with breastfeeding too. Everyone was very taken with wee Callum and impressed with his progress and cuteness!

On Tuesday we stayed in for the day while the lovely Nina came to look after us both - I managed a good couple of hours' kip while Nina watched Callum. Then we had yummy lasagne from Da Paolo (and possibly some banoffie pie, but who's counting?) and watched SATC.

Wednesday was back to Mother & Child for the Well Baby Clinic. Callum was weighed naked this time so doesn't look like as big an increase but his weight gain is still going well - he is now a whopping 2.78kg and 49.5cm long! Yay Callum! Got some more breastfeeding help and reassurance and then we hopped back in another taxi to Paragon to meet Nina and Lisa for lunch at Beviamo. They really need to sort their table layout .. definitely not enough room for Yummy Mummies who lunch with their Yummy Babies!

Here's Callum and Hugh chilling out in their matching Peg Perego strollers while their Mummies enjoy lunch (and some peace and quiet)

Callum's First Bath

Another first this weekend - we finally gave Callum his first bath in a tub. We also tried to upload HD video to youtube for the first time. Here goes!...

Lunching

Mike had Friday off work this week so we decided to go to Crystal Jade Palace for dim sum. We started off well, Callum had a good feed before we went out and went off to sleep well in the stroller as usual. We got to Ngee Ann City just after 12 and didn't even have to wait for a table which was a nice change compared with weekend dining.

We were shown to our table in the back room - the one where you're banished if you've got old people or kids at your table. We ordered all the usual dishes (except roast pork! I can't believe they missed that one!) and started with delicious jasmine tea. Sadly, this is when the wheels started to come off the whole thing. Poor Callum woke up and once he saw the bright lights and new sights of the restaurant he was wide awake. Didn't help that he had a nice, smelly full nappy either. So off I went to change Callum just as the first dishes were arriving. Poor Mike had to sit with all the old Aunties and Uncles and kids eating his lunch next to an empty stroller!

Nappy changed, Callum and I returned to the restaurant and Mike took over the holding duties while I ate my char siu bau and xiao long bau (yum). All in all, a pretty rushed and stressful lunch but the afternoon did improve. Callum still loves being walked in his stroller and it sends him right off to sleep so we managed to get in a good couple of hours' shopping and errands before we needed to go home. Callum's citizenship and passport applications are finally with the High Commission - let's hope the DIA in NZ accepts his photos!

1 month check up time

Callum is one month old today! Back to the paediatrician for his one month check yesterday: he's growing well and is now 2.63kg and 48cm long. Callum was very brave and had his BCG jab .. I wasn't really prepared for it but he did really well and so did I ;)

Even more amazing - I managed to get Callum to the hospital in his capsule in a taxi all by myself - yip, our first taxi ride on our own and the capsule's first outing. Was a bit scary getting him in there but he nodded off to sleep just before we got to the hospital and behaved beautifully the entire time (even when they jabbed him in the bum with a needle).

Looking forward to getting out and about more with the capsule although I'm not convinced Callum is quite big enough for it yet ...

Callum's Birth Story - Part II

On Sunday evening, while Mike and I watched The Beach, I thought perhaps I felt "something" but wasn't really sure and wasn't that keen on admitting it was "anything" even it it was. I told Mike after a couple of twinges - they were regular but at least 30 minutes apart and hardly worth mentioning, not painful or anything. I hoped they were just Braxton Hicks but had a sneaking suspicion they probably weren't.

The next morning I was still getting the twinges and they were still fairly regular. By lunch time, after another fluid leak, Mike and I decided it was time to call Dr Paul again to see whether we needed to come back to hospital. Of course, being Hari Raya, we had to speak to the after hours people who weren't quite as switched on as the people on the phones the week before. Eventually we decided to jump in a cab and go to hospital without speaking to Dr Paul first. He called as we were getting in the taxi and said definitely come in and he would come in later if needed.

Back to the labour ward where I confused everyone as I was still wearing my ID bracelet from my previous stay, they couldn't work out where I had "escaped" from! I was hooked up to the monitors again and by this stage I was having contractions about 6 minutes apart although they still weren't exactly painful. After being monitored for an hour (and given more ventolin) the contractions slowed again and we were sent home. The idea being that the contractions would continue to slow down and eventually stop and I would continue my bed rest at home.

When we left the hospital my contractions were 10 minutes or so apart. They did continue to slow down but I was noticing them more now and feeling quite paranoid. They eventually slowed to about 15 minutes apart, I think maybe even 20 minutes, but then suddenly they were coming closer together again and MUCH stronger. Still not terribly painful, but a lot more noticeable.

So it was back to the hospital for Mike and I at around 7.30pm. This time they did an internal exam and discovered I was 3cm dilated. I was put on a ventolin drip rather than oral tablets and all we could do was hope that the contractions would slow/stop again and I would be able to go home (or, more likely, return to the maternity ward for more bed pans and milo).

The contractions continued all night, getting more painful but staying about the same frequency (approx 6 minutes or so apart). The ventolin seemed to be stopping me from dilating further but couldn't stop the contractions. Dr Paul did give us the option that night of just letting labour happen as there was no guarantee that the ventolin would be able to stop things. We decided to give it a go and hope Richie could hold on just a bit longer.

By 3am I was tired, Mike was tired and the contractions were really noticeable by then so I opted for gas and air. Great stuff! I think Mike was worried I was OD'ing on the stuff but although it didn't take the pain away it made me care about it a lot less and made getting through each contraction a lot easier! We tried to use some of the relaxtion techniques from our Hypnobirthing classes but after only 2 lessons (out of 6) and considering I was fighting my body rather than working with the contractions we never had a shit show. In the end Mike read to me from Marley and Me while I tried to breath through each contraction (with some help from the gas and air).

The next morning Dr Paul came to check on how we were doing. Still sitting at 3cm dilated but the contractions obviously weren't lessening and it looked like Richie just wanted to be on the outside. The decision was made to stop the ventolin drip and let things happen on their own as long as Richie wasn't distressed. Mike came home to deal with our grocery delivery (impeccable timing!) and grab a shower. Suddenly the contractions seemed much less manageable and by the time he returned the nurses had called Dr Paul and he soon suggested I have an epidural. Up till that point I hadn't really believed Richie was going to arrive so soon, but this made it seem all the more real.

The anaesthetist was fantastic, very reassuring and calm and even told the (one and only) horrible nurse to leave me alone while I was having a contraction! The epidural went well and once that was in I was taken to a delivery room.

The epidural was fabulous! Suddenly I felt a lot more "with it" in terms of being present in the room with everyone else rather than inside my own head dealing with the pain every few minutes. We put the Hypnobirthing relaxation CD in the player and managed to drift off to sleep for an hour or so before Dr Paul came back for another visit. Unfortuntately the ventolin had been doing its job a bit too well and my contractions had slowed up a bit and weren't increasing in intensity any more. We agreed to a syntocin drip to get things moving again as Dr Paul was concerned Richie would get distressed if labour carried on for too long. This was just before lunch time.

After a light lunch (lovely chicken sandwiches! Who said hospital food was gross?!) I spent the next couple of hours chatting on the phone and texting everyone back home to let them know we were doing OK and that Richie was definitely going to be here sooner rather than later.

At around 1pm I was speaking to Ali on the phone when the nurse told me I was now 8cm dilated. Ali told to me get off the bloody phone as I would probably be seeing Dr Paul again very soon - and meeting my baby!

Sure enough, things started happening really quickly after that. The nurse told me to let her know when I felt "pressure." I thought that's what I'd been feeling up to that point now that I'd had the epidural but she assured me I would "know" once things changed and it was almost time to push.

She was right, I did know when things were going to happen! They make a big deal of "breathing the baby down" and out in Hynobirthing, rather than "pushing" and it does make sense that your body would expel the baby on its own rather than all the straining and pushing that the nurses and doctors encourage. Funny thing is though, your body wants to push when it's time - that's how it gets the baby out!

After two or three contractions with the nurses coaching me and getting things sorted, the baby crowned and Dr Paul was on his way as was the paediatrician. Just before 3pm, Dr Paul swans in (back to looking his impeccable best, not a hair out of place), puts on his apron, gloves, mask and gumboots and sits down at the foot of the hospital bed where all the action is about to take place. At 3.06pm, following 1 contraction and 3 or 4 more pushes, baby Callum entered the world at 32 weeks gestation and weighing 1.92kgs. He was immediately give to me to hold for just a minute - he seemed tiny but I had no other just been born babies to compare with so I didn't register just how small he was at that point, just that he was beautiful and mine.

He was then given to the paediatrician, Dr Ang Ai Tin, to check over which she did while explaining everything to Mike. Callum was definitely premature but all seemed well. Once Callum was wrapped up in a towel I was allowed to hold him again before he was taken to the NICU with Mike accompanying him for his first weigh in. Meanwhile, back in the delivery room, the placenta arrived and Dr Paul gave me "one or two" stitches before he went to deliver the next baby and left the nurses to finish cleaning up and getting me ready to go to the maternity ward.

It wasn't the birth I had envisaged -being flat on my back with monitors the entire time, having to have a catheter, epidural, syntocin and all sorts of other tests and drugs to alternately slow and then encourage labour. But I wouldn't change it for the world: Callum arrived safe and well and I felt fantastic throughout the delivery and certainly didn't feel short changed or disappointed with how it all went. I'm sure if Callum had made it to full term it's not the way things would have gone (we chose Dr Paul for his hands off approach and his willingness to let us do things "naturally") but we knew we were in good hands and I trusted Dr Paul completely to help us make the right decisions for Callum. When I was discharged later in the week I realised it was the day of my scheduled "32 week" appointment with Dr Paul: the one where I'd planned to discuss my birth plan and Hypnobirthing and choice of doula. Best laid plans and all that ... ;)

Callum's Birth Story - Part I

I was quite excited about December 2nd as The Girls and I were trying out Au Petit Salut for our last lunch together before Christmas and the holidays. The lunch was devine and we spent a lot of it discussing plans for Nina's babyshower, my "last lunch" before my due date and all the other lunches we have to do in the new year. Little did we know that this would essentially be my own "last lunch" before little Richie made his appearance!

After lunch I went to Vivo City to do some shopping - we needed a new vacuum cleaner and I really needed to get moving with my Christmas shopping. I got the vacuum cleaner and some lip gloss, Christmas shopping would have to wait!

Mike was working late as it was month end so I ordered in Pizza Hut, watched some Friends reruns and arranged to meet our potential doula the following week before getting an early night. Sleep had been getting more and more difficult by this stage but I managed to drift off fairly quickly for once and wasn't feeling too overheated either.

I woke up just after 11.30pm thinking I had wet the bed! I jumped up (still half asleep) and stood at the side of the bed, in shock I think, as the water just kept on coming - all over the bedroom floor - and I realised that I hadn't wet the bed but that this definitely shouldn't be happening at only 31 weeks pregnant. I wasn't sure whether Mike was home so the first thing I did was call out to see whether he was in the lounge.

The first thing Mike did was hide the evidence that he had just polished off the last of the Christmas M&Ms by hiding the bag under a sofa cushion.. and then he came to see what was the matter!

From then things happened really quickly. Mike called Dr Paul's after hours number and we were told to head straight to the labour ward at Thomson. Next phone call was for a taxi while I frantically tried to get dressed, wrap a towel round my waist, pack a bag for the hospital and try and find a baby name book just in case we needed to make a decision after all. Having called Dr Paul around 11.45pm, we were at Thomson and checking into the labour ward just after midnight. We hadn't even gotten round to doing the hospital tour at that point but we soon found our way to the right place .. lucky Thomson is a relatively small hospital!

I'd had visions of people laughing at me and telling me I'd merely wet my pants or something equally embarassing, but the nurses were all fantastic and took us very seriously. I suppose having your waters break at 31 weeks is serious, but it never felt panicked or scary. I was given a bed and hooked up to the monitors to check that Richie was doing OK, and he was. Not long after that I needed to go to the loo and was told, "you're not really supposed to but you can go this once." I was a bit confused until the nurse explained that from now on I wouldn't be allowed off the bed - it would be bed pans all the way for this Baby Mama. Ick.

At around 1am Dr Paul arrived, looking very different to his usual well-put-together self and obviously straight out of bed. The plan of attack was to give me (i.e. the baby) two steroid injections (12? or was it 24? hours apart) to help mature the baby's lungs just in case he was really serious about joining the outside world NOW. As well as that I was given oral ventolin to try and stop the contractions (!) that had started since I arrived in the hospital. If the contractions slowed right down within a few hours I would be admitted to the maternity ward for observation.

Thankfully the contractions lessened and at around 5am I was taken up to my room in the maternity ward. I ordered my breakfast for that morning (and agreed that Milo was Ok to drink .. they are obsessed with Milo at Thomson!) and tried to get some sleep. Mike had gone home to try sleep himself by that stage, having called our parents back home to let them know what was going on.

Dr Paul came to see me again first thing in the morning and that's when I realised that even if Richie wasn't going to make an early appearance, there would be no last dim sum lunches or high teas - I was going to be on indefinite bed rest. For now, in the hospital. I was willing the contractions to stay away, not wanting Richie to come early OR to be in hospital for the next 9 weeks. Thomson is lovely (like a hotel!), but at roughly $500 a night it was a pretty expensive hotel, even for Singapore!

I was finally discharged on Friday night with strict instructions to STAY IN BED and not be tempted to do things like housework (moi?! They didn't know me very well, did they?!) or cooking. Showers were OK but no baths or making myself cups of tea. The main reason I was allowed to come home was because Mike was able to work from home to be my nursemaid and chef - although I'm not sure they really believed me that my husband was going to take care of the cooking!

We spent Friday afternoon and the weekend (a long one, for Hari Raya Haji) working out how we were going to do this without both Mike and I going insane. I planned on reading lots of books, playing plenty of DS Lite and watching a few movies once Mike was finished work each day. The Girls and I planned a bedside picnic for the following week and Nina and Giles came to visit on Sunday for tennis and morning tea. Sanjay and Rupa also paid us a visit and dropped off their moses basket before they left for their Christmas holidays.