My little baby... so wrinkled and tiny...
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
We Are Expecting Sophie Loy
16 April 2007. My period was 2 weeks late.
“Da..I think I am pregnant…” I called Chee Kiat at the office that fateful afternoon when the second line appeared on my pregnancy test strip. But I was not sure; it seemed too good to be true, after all, we had been trying for almost a year.
The next day, I went to a GP and he confirmed that I was pregnant. He said the test line was strong, a good sign, and I would see my baby in mid December. Although he suggested an ultrasound scan sometime in May, we could not contain our curiosity so we made an appointment with a gynecologist a week later, to do an ultrasound scan of our unborn baby. Of course we could not tell which part of the scan was our baby, but we were still excited nevertheless. In fact, we even decided to name the baby “Xiao Dan” (Little Egg) before we know the gender.
As first-time parents, we spent a great deal of time daydreaming about life with our child; parenthood had not really sunken in yet. We started realizing it only after we bought dozens of books about pregnancy and childrearing. Of course, it hit me particularly hard when I started having all the morning sickness. I was perpetually lethargic and cranky so I decided to stop working altogether. I could not wait for the legendary ‘first trimester’ to end.
Second trimester was a breeze like what everyone had reassured me. It was also the period when we started looking around for baby stuff. I thought the baby was a boy for the longest time; it was a gut feeling, some sort of motherly instinct. I even came up with a boy’s name and bought some baby clothes with neutral colours. I even visualized ‘him’ to be an active and tanned baby. As it turns out, Xiao Dan is a baby girl! So much for intuition! I apologized profusely to her at the clinic after that. We decided to name her Sophie Loy (Li Shu Hui), in hope that she will grow up to be virtuous, intelligent and wise.
Third Trimester was hell broke loose, making the first trimester seemed like a breeze. I suffered from joint and muscle aches due to water retention and I ballooned in weight. At the same time, I had to do my counselling practicum in school so it was a tough time. At week 35, I was told that I had gestational diabetes which might affect my baby. I was devastated! My baby could be too big at birth or suffer from insulin shock. To control my diabetes, I attended a diet counselling and adhered to a strict diet…bye-bye chocolate cake and ice-cream!
We were both so eager to see our little Sophie that we tried to induce her labour by listening to her daddy's "Beatles" performance at Won's pub just a couple of days before her birth on 5 Dec...but she was not the least impressed. So, we waited some more. Then on Saturday, during our routine check at KKH, Dr Han said her aminotic fluid is slightly low and we could induce her birth within those few days. Meanwhile, we must monitor her heartbeat and movement to ensure that her umbilical cord was not coiled around her neck.
We pondered and weighed the pros and cons before finally decided to induce labour on 10 Dec at 2am. It took me 24 hours of ardous contractions and waiting before I surrendered and accepted that my cervic could not dilate. In the wee hours (0134) on 11 Dec, Baby Sophie was carried out of my womb and forced to take in her first breath of air. She was small, only 2.67 kg but she was resilient and strong. Mum, on the other hand, was too traumatized by the ordeal to react to the arrival of Baby Sophie. All in all, everything went relatively smoothly as we ended our pregnancy and welcomed Sophie Loy to this less than perfect world of ours.
“Da..I think I am pregnant…” I called Chee Kiat at the office that fateful afternoon when the second line appeared on my pregnancy test strip. But I was not sure; it seemed too good to be true, after all, we had been trying for almost a year.
The next day, I went to a GP and he confirmed that I was pregnant. He said the test line was strong, a good sign, and I would see my baby in mid December. Although he suggested an ultrasound scan sometime in May, we could not contain our curiosity so we made an appointment with a gynecologist a week later, to do an ultrasound scan of our unborn baby. Of course we could not tell which part of the scan was our baby, but we were still excited nevertheless. In fact, we even decided to name the baby “Xiao Dan” (Little Egg) before we know the gender.
As first-time parents, we spent a great deal of time daydreaming about life with our child; parenthood had not really sunken in yet. We started realizing it only after we bought dozens of books about pregnancy and childrearing. Of course, it hit me particularly hard when I started having all the morning sickness. I was perpetually lethargic and cranky so I decided to stop working altogether. I could not wait for the legendary ‘first trimester’ to end.
Second trimester was a breeze like what everyone had reassured me. It was also the period when we started looking around for baby stuff. I thought the baby was a boy for the longest time; it was a gut feeling, some sort of motherly instinct. I even came up with a boy’s name and bought some baby clothes with neutral colours. I even visualized ‘him’ to be an active and tanned baby. As it turns out, Xiao Dan is a baby girl! So much for intuition! I apologized profusely to her at the clinic after that. We decided to name her Sophie Loy (Li Shu Hui), in hope that she will grow up to be virtuous, intelligent and wise.
Third Trimester was hell broke loose, making the first trimester seemed like a breeze. I suffered from joint and muscle aches due to water retention and I ballooned in weight. At the same time, I had to do my counselling practicum in school so it was a tough time. At week 35, I was told that I had gestational diabetes which might affect my baby. I was devastated! My baby could be too big at birth or suffer from insulin shock. To control my diabetes, I attended a diet counselling and adhered to a strict diet…bye-bye chocolate cake and ice-cream!
We were both so eager to see our little Sophie that we tried to induce her labour by listening to her daddy's "Beatles" performance at Won's pub just a couple of days before her birth on 5 Dec...but she was not the least impressed. So, we waited some more. Then on Saturday, during our routine check at KKH, Dr Han said her aminotic fluid is slightly low and we could induce her birth within those few days. Meanwhile, we must monitor her heartbeat and movement to ensure that her umbilical cord was not coiled around her neck.
We pondered and weighed the pros and cons before finally decided to induce labour on 10 Dec at 2am. It took me 24 hours of ardous contractions and waiting before I surrendered and accepted that my cervic could not dilate. In the wee hours (0134) on 11 Dec, Baby Sophie was carried out of my womb and forced to take in her first breath of air. She was small, only 2.67 kg but she was resilient and strong. Mum, on the other hand, was too traumatized by the ordeal to react to the arrival of Baby Sophie. All in all, everything went relatively smoothly as we ended our pregnancy and welcomed Sophie Loy to this less than perfect world of ours.
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