Smooth and natural delivery

You were born on 15 November 2005 - Chicken Year in the Chinese tradition. Your weight was 3.02kg with a head circumference of 69cm. You cried loudly and shivered when u came out to this world with one Hep-B injection waiting for you. You were brave as you soon stopped crying and smiled at daddy. Welcome to this world, Xiao Zhe !!! You are special that you are a vegetarian baby.

Originally we planned to give you soy milk but KK hospital has only cow milk (Nestle Nan) so you were given cow milk in the hospital. Mummy tried to breastfeed you but no breast milk yet. You were diagnosed with low level of jaundice so repeat test at Polyclinic is called for. A repeat hearing test also required since you failed your right-ear failed the test.

After discharge, the confinement lady (1800SGD monthly pay) came. We were exhausted that night as we were not used to waking up frequenly at night and you were not used to sleep at night. All of us quickly adujusted thereafter. We bought the Isomil soy milk by Abbot Lab as mummy still does not have breast milk. The confinement lady cooked raw papaya and I prescribed some milk-enhancing chinese formula for mummy. Mummy was able to breast-feed you a few days after that. Initially you were not passing motion for 3-4 days and we were quite worried. After 1-2 weeks, you finally settled down with daily 'pooh' 'pooh' with healthy stool condition.

The repeat jaundice test showed that your jaundice level increased. So you were sun-bathing on our sofa for quite a few mornings (see photo). We also bathed you with cooling chinese herbs like 金银花 and 黄柏. Your apetite on the mother's milk and the soya milk were good so I am not too worried. After 3 tiring vists to the Polyclinic, your jaundice level finally subsided.

Mummy's health deteriorated over the first 2 weeks. Daddy thinks that it is due to the Malay tightening dressing on the body (from a TCM perpective, this blocks the flow of qi). The confinement lady is stubborn and gave all types of wrong advice to mummy as well. Luckily daddy is a TCM student so know how to cook proper tonics for mummy.

The Philipino maid, Jeniffer, came to help us. She is hardworking and patient. But I am still a bit not trusting her.