How's motherhood treating me?

Whooopeee.. I've been away from blogging for a reallllll long time. And my last post was in Sept, the month that I was preparing for birth! Thank God everything went well, I have good and understanding boss which I started to work from home when I was 8 months pregnant. Baby decided to come out one day earlier from due date and she gave us a very hearty lung cry when she was out. Love her more than words can say.... our pretty sunshine!

So, how's motherhood has been treating me since 28 Sept? Life has really changed and I can say everything changed 360 degrees. From a totally all-time free wife to a super busy wife, from a couple that always do things together to a standalone-couple, from having meals together to having meals alone a.k.a taking turns to eat, from having more than 10 hours of sleep a day to only 4-5 hours of sleep... etc. many more changes but two words to describe all these, IT'S FUN! A new chapter in life.. a higher level in life after marriage. Everything is good and where would we be if it's not because of GRACE! We would want to ask for more EXTRAORDINARY GRACE!

Here's the story after birth, 28 Sept 2011. We checkout from SDMC on 29 Sept 11 and our confinement lady arrived on this day. We've not seen her personally, talk to her personally and really hope she will be a great blessing to us during confinement but things didn't go the way that we expected it to be. Her cooking was pretty good, very nice and appetizing food but some of the food I doubted if it was OK during confinement, like spicy curry. =.="" Talk about handling baby, at 2 days old, she started to feed my baby with water chestnut juice which is absolutely No-No to a newborn. Newborn should only consume MILK, milk only. Sigh...

Few days later, she almost injured my baby's legs because of hot water! She carried my baby and made milk at the same time. My baby screamed when she accidentally spill some drops of hot water on my baby's legs. I asked her whether she accidentally spill some hot water and she said no, only the hot bottle touched her legs. Sigh.. I saw it with my own eyes.

Then, we found out that the red dates that used to make drink for me had worm living in it!! Worrmmmmm......... Problem is how can a person keep a refrigerated food outside in room temperature for days?? She transferred the red dates from fridge and keep in room temperature until one day, I got a hunch that I should check the red dates. Voila, I found worms!! =(

And there was one night that Ashlynn cried non-stop, so she thought Ashlynn was having a bloated tummy. She suggested to stick a black pill (the pill that is used to remove air, eaten by mommy during confinement) on her belly button and she said that can help to remove the air from the stomach. I was like =.="" in my heart, I laughed.. but in front of her, I just "ohh, really can help ar?" Haha.. So funny.

Well, there were really a lot a lot a lot of stories when she took care of Ashlynn for the whole month... Sort of a nightmare for us and for the next baby, we would not want any confinement lady. We will settle everything on our own.. and hopefully my mom would be able to help. Hehe...

Let's talk about Ashlynn's development since day 1. She was quite yellow few days after discharged and on the 3rd day, her Bilirubin level was only 291. Few days later, she was so lethargic, slept most of the time and didn't want to get up for milk. We knew the jaundice was not getting better and we brought her to hospital and we got shocked when her jaundice level was above the border line which is 421!! We got her admitted for 2 nights and phototherapy in Gleneagles was super expensive which cost us RM2k, a huge bomb for us. Almost 3/4 of my delivery bill. Still a bit yellow when she was discharged.

Few days later after she was discharged, she had terrible phlegm and got very fussy and didn't want to drink milk. Confinement lady said she had difficulty in swallowing milk due to the phlegm and we were quite panic with this. Again, first time parents. There we were, rushed to the hospital again and at Gleneagles, the doc on call, not PD did not even care of her phlegm, but said that Ashlynn was jaundice. Very yellow she said. I couldn't agree more because the phototherapy few days ago didn't seem to be helpful. So, she decided to do blood test and get Ashlynn admitted. Taking blood test in Gleneagles was a NIGHTMARE! Ashlynn screamed + cried for 30 mins!!!!!!!!!!!!!! @#$~@!!

Here was the process how they take blood for baby!
1) 2 nurses + on call Dr in the room, parents are not allowed to go in and can only hear baby's scream from the outside.
2) Dr pricked on the hand, but couldn't find the vein, claimed that baby's vein very fine, cannot see... =.=""""""
3) So, pricked on the feet and slowly squeeze out the blood from baby's feet and collect it drop by drop in a tube!!!!
4) Conclusion, Ashlynn had a real nightmare that night and she cried and wet the whole diapers with poo!! Can you imagine how afraid she was until the whole diaper was poo............... At the end of everything, the nurse told me Ashlynn poo. In my heart, she poo not because she wanted to poo, but she was too terrified until she poo.
5) I checked with the Dr and she said that was how Gleneagles take blood from babies. I wish they could be like a leech, to suck out the blood instead of slowly squeeze drop by drop.
6) The next day, I checked with the PD and he said the same thing as well. And now I know why he didn't encourage to take blood test from babies because of the method they are using.
7) I told Justin I will never everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr go back to Gleneagles, if it's not emergency!! At least SDMC gave me a peace of mind, Ashlynn only cried 1min when blood was taken from her and they didn't squeeze her feet, but some stick to suck out the blood. Ain't this much more better... so, say NO-NO to Gleneagles!

Since then, I've never gone back to Gleneagles, even for the monthly checkup. I would rather travel all the way to Subang for Dr Sanjay which we are really satisfied with. He's such a good PD! Thumbs up!

Jaundice issue was finally settled after the 4th phototherapy at Gleneagles and that 2 nights of admission cost us another 2k. Total bill, 4k for jaundice treatment.. which is killing price! SDMC would be much cheaper... =.=

Later on, we went back to Swan and then brought baby back to KL again on 13 Nov. On the 21 Nov, we noticed that Ashlynn was coughing badly again with very bad phlegm... Drink milk- cough, sleep-cough, playtime-cough.. We were quite worried since cough was getting worst on Tues which caused her to vomit after milk. It was scary ! Wed morning, we brought her to PD Clinic at Genting Klang and it was another regret to brought her there. Asked the Dr a lot of questions, he answered but somehow we didn't feel satisfied at all with those answers, like not really answering our questions. He gave phlegm and cough medicine, we tried giving Ashlynn the cough med, but she didn't like the taste so she puked everything out. Sigh..... and the cough getting worst and worst that everyday, she vomited at least once. Until Thurs night (24 Sept), she vomited a lotttttttt on me, and screamed + struggled and after everything, suddenly she stopped struggling and became still and silent!! I thought she fainted and quickly checked on her heartbeat. Thank God she was still breathing and didn't turn blue. I got panicked and quickly call Justin to drive back asap, he was having dinner in TTDI and after receiving the call, he drove 160km/j and reached WM in 10 mins only!! Wowww..... I didn't know he will reach that fast, I called up some of my WM friends to help me fetch Ashlynn to hospital since I didn't have my car with me at that time... I was extremely terrified!

Finally, Justin arrived and we drove all the way to SDMC. Remember, I won't let my daughter suffer the blood taking process in Gleneagles. We would rather travel since Ashlynn is sleeping after all the incident.... The night itself, Ashlynn got admitted because of her chesty lungs and difficulty in breathing and kept coughing. This was the longest stay in hospital .. and no oral medication was provided because 2 mths old baby is too young to take medications. Suspected Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the treatment is Nebulizer every 4 hours to dissolve the phlegm, nose drops for the blocked nose and suction to suck out some of the stubborn waste in the nose and phlegm on the last 2 days, 2 times a day. The suction was the most traumatic treatment and I actually cried when she screamed. Sometimes I tried to delay the nurse not to perform the suction, saying that my baby was doing quite well, she has improved. My poor baby.... =((( She was discharged on 28 Sept, exactly her 2 mths birthday. Went back home still with the cough, but better... and looking at her cough non-stop, we decided to try on chinese medicine. Bought the hou zhao san and surprisingly, after 3 days on chinese medication, her cough+ phlegm totally stopped! Initially I didn't quite trust chinese medicine, didn't want to get involved in Chinese medication because we do not know what are the ingredients .. but this whole situation changed my perception. Some chinese medicines are still good and more effective.

Oh well, that was the whole 2 months ride!! Lots of ups and downs and a lot a lot a lot of things to learn as a new parents.... God, give us more of your wisdom and knowledge! =))) In everything, we truly thank God that in times when we feel so helpless, He's there to lift us up. We can put our trust and hope in Him and He will not disappoint us. Psalm 121 says, my help comes from the Lord! Surely mercy and goodness will follow me and my family all the days of our lives! God is good.... so blessed to have Ashlynn added in this family and so blessed and thankful that we can call ourselves daddy and mommy! Be blessed everyone and look forward to His extraordinary grace! =)