Dear1 Dear2

I’m writing this post using the wireless connection at Thomson Medical Centre. *hint hint* Do you know what it means? Gee… :D

Quite a number of things happened this week. Dear2 started her maternity leave. Dear1 was trying to quickly finish up his things at work so as to prepare for baby’s arrival. We visited our gynae this week to finalize the details of the planned c-section. And now, we’re at the hospital! I shall let Dear2 elaborate on the details and the story.

Ok, that’s it for this very very short post from the hospital. Will update again once we get home.

-Dear1

ps: oh, and our blog crossed the 100,000 visits mark this week too. Hooray!

Dear1 and Dear2 have been waiting for Week 36 until our necks are long liao, cos Week 36 marks the time that baby is full term and ready to pop.  This week, we will also be going for the next gynae vsit which will confirm if baby will be coming out via a C section or not.  But until the end of this week, it was really very trying indeed!!

Dear1 cut up a big garbage bag and laid it under the comforter on Dear2’s side of the bed on Mon, cos some forumers suggest that this can ‘save’ the mattress if the water bag bursts in the middle of the night.  The result – Dear2 discarded the plastic on Tue cos the impermeable sheet was making the already hot-despite-air-con Dear2 even hotter with the skin not being able to breathe at all.  What a very good idea indeed….  -_-‘”

On Tue night, Dear2 experienced extreme pain on 1 corner of the abdomen, pain that is more like a muscle that is entangled wrongly.  Pain pain pain throughout the night and even after waking up on Wed morning, Dear2 took the morning off to continue lying in bed.  Luckily the stitch-like pain finally went away after that, if not Dear2 thot that she was going into labour pain already.  Doctor, help!!

Dear2 was still indecisive of having early Maternity Leave cos it won’t be maximized this way, but with this scare and the really heavy tummy now, Dear2 decided to bring forward the ML. This week will really be the last week before saying bye bye to all the office mess, yippee…

On Thur, it was finally the much anticipated gynae visit.  As expected, baby has still not turned head-down, and so it was confirmation of the C section date and rebooking of the hospital bed with TMC.

Dear1 read that contractions are usually well spread out throughout the whole tummy, but apart from the menstrual cramp-like BHC that Dear2 gets, it is either the baby tumbles/ kicks/ punches or the expansion-like feelings, kind of as if baby is stretching herself and pushing on all sides of her ‘house’.  We asked gynae about this during the visit and it seems that the ‘expansion’ feelings are actually contractions.  Omg, than that means that Dear2 is experiencing quite frequent contractions every day cos since the beginning of third trimester, the expansion feelings has always been counted as 1 baby kick.  Opps…

Bodily changes wise, this week seems to mark the final league.  Pimples are getting overwhelming now, stretching from the back up the neck and ready to creep up onto the face and into the hairline.  The nipples will feel sore for no rhyme or reason too, as if really preparing for supplying milk to baby.  The worse will be swollen feet.  People have been saying that swollen feet from water retention is very common during pregnancy, and we have not seen it yet until this time round, when the feet are really swollen and the 2 size larger sandals bought specially for pregnancy wear is really sinking into the flesh, wow……

Slightly more than 1 week to go and Dear1 and Dear2 will see baby very soon.  *Anticipation*  ^_^  ^_^

- Dear2

Week 35 started with 2 days MC on Mon and Tue becos Dear1 and Dear2 had Durian ice cream and Milo ice cream from Swenson’s the week before.  Swenson’s still have this student promotion – $9.80 for any 2 Sundaes if you present your Student Pass from 2pm to 5pm on weekdays. Dear1 thinks that it’s a super good deal, so off we went and indulge in these sinful ice cream flavours which we haven’t tried before.  The result – immediate sorethroat and running nose for Dear2.

With all logistics and schedule planning only possible after the C section (or not) is confirmed at the next gynae visit which is end of Week 36 (oh groan), this week is a very enduring week for both Dear1 and Dear2.  Sudden blood in mucus, the second or third time in the past month, was making Dear2 very worried when the next appointment is more than a week’s away, so it was a desparate call to the clinic to ask if mtb should be concerned.  The usual response – nose bleed or gum bleeds are pretty common for mtbs…  So, it was a no-more-blowing-of-the-runny-nose-lest-blood-again for Dear2….

Tummy is feeling very heavy indeed this week.  For the past few weeks, it was just groans and slooow motion while Dear2 rotate on the spot when flipping over on the other side at night.  Now, the weight shift from one side to the top to the other side is so pronounced that mummy feels as if baby will ‘drop’ heavily just by this act of rotation.  So, it was ‘push yourself up’, ‘get out of bed’, and ‘get in bed lying on the other side’…..  Kind of tiring if you need to flip over a couple of times every night….

With the first 2 days off and the rest of the week just trying to finish up all the outstanding office stuff before Dear2 goes on Maternity Leave, possibly next week, the week past fairly fast, yeah.

Come the weekend, it was eat, sleep, eat routine for Dear2, a nice restful weekend after the past shopping weekends and cleaning weekends.  Next week will be Week 36, when all the planning and instructions to family can be given out.

- Dear2

PS: One fine day, Dear2 suddenly have this curiousty.  We have been tracking Dear2’s weight increase and taking photos of Dear2’s tummy throughout the term, how come we didn’t track Dear2’s waistline?  Haha.  So Dear2 whipped out the measuring tape in our house, the Ikea paper measuring tape, and ta da, Dear2’s tummy is sligthly larger than the tape which measures about 39.5 inch.  That makes Dear2’s tummy about 40 inch in size, wow………

We completed our childbirth course earlier this month. Let’s do a short recap of the course and what we thought of it.

We first heard of the ParentCraft Childbirth Course when we signed up for the FBI. Being first time parents, the course sounded interesting and useful indeed. We decided that we should sign up and learn some tips about taking care of baby.

We went ahead and reserved our class once past the crucial week 20 detailed scan. We initially booked a random class that started in October which suited our timings. However, a few weeks later, while visiting a friend who had just given birth, he explained that we should attend the class conducted by Mrs Wong Boh Boi as she was the most experienced instructor for the course. Oh… So, we went back to ParentCraft to ask for a change of class. Luckily there was no extra charge. But the next available class would be in November. And due to the Christmas and New Year holidays, the last lesson would end in January. Well, Dear2 would be in her 3rd trimester by then but we thought it would be worth the wait since we got Mrs Wong as our instructor.

The course was divided into 6 lessons. Lesson 1 focused on some exercises and the do’s and don’ts of pregnancy, as well as food and nutrition. Lesson 2 also have some exercises and some breathing and relaxation techniques. Lesson 3 was an interesting and important one on the entire labour process, and there were exercises too. Lesson 4 was on child care techniques such as carrying the baby, bathing, burping, folding of nappy, etc. Lesson 5 was dedicated to breastfeeding. And lesson 6 was a seminar talk by two doctors – an obstetrician and a pediatrician.

Now, what do we think of this course. Let’s first look at the cost, $192.60 for 6 lessons, attended by 2 adults. That’s $32.10 per lesson, or $16.05 per adult per lesson, or $6.42 per hour per adult per lesson (assuming 2.5 hrs per lesson). It may sound cheap, but note that the class size was very large, about 30 couples or more. Mrs Wong also commented that her class will be more expensive starting from 2010 to encourage more couples to go for other class. I guess this meant that she’s really popular.

Our class was held at a play school in AMK Hub. I would think that the venue is a little too small for the number of couples there. When we were doing the exercises, there was hardly room for the mummies to lie down and the daddies beside. When it comes to Mrs Wong doing her demonstrations, it was hard to see what she was doing as everyone gathered in a big crowd around her.

About the projector and powerpoint slides. Somehow, the projector was always giving problems during our course. Most notably, the colours cannot be reproduced properly. This led to much difficulty in reading the slides and making sense of the pictures. Personally, I don’t think this is acceptable. Imagine paying to watch a movie with the colours all wrong.

Next up is the ‘lecture’ notes, or rather the lack of. Yes, some may argue that we can always copy down the important things on paper. But I feel that in teaching, notes should always be made available to the students. The students can then focus on taking down details or insights that the lecturer provides to supplement what is already printed on the notes. Students should be listening and understanding, not copying.

About the exercises. We hardly practice any of the exercises at home. The reason being, we can’t remember all of them. There were a lot of exercises being taught, some of them form a natural head to toe total body workout which I can see will be very useful to mum-to-be’s. But no notes or videos were given. Urgh. And the textbook wasn’t very helpful when it came to the exercises.

I dunno how the other couples think about this course, but this is my opinion. It is definitely an informative course. We learnt many things from Mrs Wong through her sharing of her many many years of experiences. But, I can’t help but feel that this course can be so much more. That is, the couples attending this course be benefit much more if more effort can be made by the organizers. This course should not be conducted in a seminar style way where people listen and then forget a few days later. At the least, there should be a set of detailed instructions on the exercises routine and suggestions of intensity levels at the different stages of pregnancy.

Before I end, I should give credit to the pediatrician from lesson 6, Dr. Ong Eng Keow. His talk was well supplemented by a small booklet “A Parents’ Guide To Newborn Babies”, distributed to all couples before the talk began. The important points of his presentation were all summarized in this guide for couples to take home and refer to should they forget points afterwards.

Still, despite the overall negative comments in this post, I feel that the ParentCraft Childbirth Course had been very useful and well worth the money for first time parents. We’ve learnt a lot about (untrue) old wives’ tales, malpractices by secondary caregivers (maids and confinement ladies), and first aid tips for both mummy and baby. And it’s a good bonding session for couples to attend a course and learn something together. However, this course definitely has plenty of room for improvement.

-Dear1