General

Day 5 & 6 at home

The past 2 days has been madness.. Hence the radio silence from me on all social media, except a random rant or 2 when I become immobile for 15mins while I am expressing milk.

Following the PEP bed arrival and the phototherapy session for Jerry, it was HELL. I was changing diapers every other moment and I think I went through like 10-12 diaper changes (due to discharge of jaundice) in within a short span of 6 hours, coupled that while 2-3 hourly expressing of milk, cuddling and soothing the baby, feeding the baby and washing up stuff.. I didn’t sleep a wink. It does not help that my dear mum shifted the changing station to the living room sofa, which was at my knee level and by 5.30am, I was suffering from severe backache from all that bending and carrying the baby up and down and it reached a point where i couldnt put the baby down at all. I couldn’t even walk properly. The pain just intensified and because of my wound, I found it superbly hard to sit, so I had to do all chores standing up.

The husband slept through all the cries, and didn’t rouse at all except when I woke him twice to help wash the breast pumps. I finally woke my mum at 6am and told her to help while I rested my back and catch a shutter, only to wake an hr later to prep for a photoshoot that we have arranged at 10am in the morning.

I was zombified. I placed the baby in the car seat and zonked out moments after the hubby started driving. Apparently, he said I was so in deep sleep that I didn’t hear him calling me like a zillion times asking for directions to our destination.

At the shoot, I was too tired to care a shit and left everything to the hubby, and sat down to rest, only to fall into another sleeping spell and landed up snoozing on the sofa for some 30 mins. Omg. Another unglam moment. Woke only to the baby’s cries and help feed Jerry… And he just had to thank me by POO-ing all over me (he was butt naked) and I had shit all over my pants. Thank goodness they were black pants.

My god. Thing to learn, I should also pack a set of spare mummy’s clothes in my bag as well. I spent the next 20 mins cleaning my pants with wet wipes and tonnes of tissue papers while the culprit simply fall back into lala land after his milk.

Here’s some pictures of the shoot in progress.

The proud father with his son.

Babies look angelic only when they are sleeping!

And guess who is hiding from the sun on the way home?

I doubled up the nursing cloth as a sun shield in the car since the sun was out at full blast and it’s bad for their eyes.

Back home, I didn’t have the chance to sleep since it’s back to the feeding, temperature taking (cos of phototherapy), diapers changing, washing up and milk expressing schedule. Seriously, before you know it, the cycle repeats itself over and over again and night falls. This is so much harder and tiring than work!

Attempting to take a passport picture for the bub. This is super hilarious and der was asking why he looked so fierce? I just had to laugh because this doesnt look like him at all.

I didn’t even take my first meal of the day till 4+pm. Am amazed that I actually pulled through that, but come evening, I ran a slight fever and the entire bod was aching. I took a nap when hubby came home and down loads of water in hope to clear the temperature. Sweet hubby volunteered the night duty and told me to sleep and rest. Thing is, he doesn’t hear the baby cry at all! And when he do wake, he can’t manage on his own.. And more often then not, I hear him losing his temper and shouting back at the crying baby in exasperation, so I just had to help.

The 2nd night was much better and I noticed the trend that between 4-6am, he is the fussiest and refuses to sleep, just crying non stop, screaming and kicking like some kungfu master. Boy, he seriously can whack some punches and deliver powerful kicks. Why are babies that strong? I always think they are fragile creatures.

We survived the 2nd night of phototherapy better, I guess 4 hands are always better than 2 and while the hubby helps, I express my milk, cutting short the amount of time I need should I be doing all the chores alone and resulting in us resting more.

Morning of day 6, it’s back to the gynae for my check up. All is good, wound is slowly healing and I survived the day pretty well on my own, freeing up my mum to do her chores. The thing with my mum is.. She doesn’t do what she preaches and it sorta annoys me.

She told me no one should carry the baby and cuddle him at every whim and cry but I caught her doing it for a few times. I think it’s a natural thing to do, like maternal instinct, but it’s making my life miserable. Well, my mum is not the only person doing it but there is only that much I can hawk over the baby in situations. Sigh.

And then, my mum actually pulled a damn stunt on me. I told her to help me look after the baby while I catch a snooze cos I was majorly sleepy deprived. When I woke, the baby was crying the house down for the longest time, having hiccups at the same time, soiled the entire PEP bed with his urine and where is my mum? Sleeping on her bed. Argh. I’m not faulting her for sleeping, everyone IS tired, but she could at least wake me up to take over before she naps. The worst bit is that the baby cannot exceed 3hrs continuously in the PEP bed so we need to constantly take him out in intervals, take his temperatures and rest 10-15mins before starting all over again. It’s so dangerous! What if I didn’t wake at all?! When I woke, baby was already in there for almost 3 hours!

Other times, she annoys me with the inconsistent things that she says and I get all confused by her. Yesterday, baby was crying and I was changing the diaper., so I asked if she could help me warm the milk to feed. She went ok, stepped out. 10 mins later, I went to the living room and asked for milk and she was happily chatting with my brother and went.. Oh! I forgot! -_-”

It’s only 20 steps from my room to the kitchen and she forgot in that short span of time?

And yeah, am going through a real stressful period right now and I just wish there was a time capsule available where I can hide and sleep and get myself rested.

Routines, routines, I need to get everyone settled into that soon and I am fast becoming the hawk that people hates with my “hey, don’t do this, hey, don’t do that…”

More daily updates to come, if I do find the energy..



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Hi there! Thanks for popping by. I'm Cherie, a ftwm (full-time working mum) to 3 lovely kids (2 boys & a princess) and my motto in life is to BE HAPPY. Sure, life isn't all that smooth but it's the mentality that counts, no? This blog documents my life. Or rather, snippets of my life that has passed me by. I love capturing life memories in the blog and being able to read back and laugh at myself (or anyone). I love to eat (A LOT), travel and paint my own nails so the blog is mostly about that. Is that considered lifestyle? Of cos, the family is also very much an integral part of me so there would be loads of memories about the husband and my kids - Jerry (9yo), Jerome (7yo) and Leia (2.5yo) and everyone else that's close to me. I like documenting the kids' milestones, their growing up years, their achievements (and sometimes, mine), and my struggles and battles with motherhood. It sure ain't easy. I love seeking out good food and travelling, is trigger-happy, love new gadgets, love exploring new places and strives to live life to the fullest. I aspire to travel the world as much as I can, to soak in the different sights across the various continents and visit all the Disneylands in the world (almost there!). Have fun reading and do drop me a comment to say hi! Love, Cherie Lim Find me on Instagram.

8 Comments

  • Anonymous

    Relax and things slow.. 😀

    jie, i was like u. Exactly the same. Feel tired and exhausted. Sick n tired of people telling me this n that, my mum was the same. She make it worse too. She could even just place my bb under the running water at the basic to wash his poo. Duh! he was just still too small for that. Take things slow and easy, slowly find a pace and a routine that suits best for u and baby cause in any case, u r the one taking care of baby the most of the time.So make things easier for yourself. slowly u will adapt to it. Me too the same, taking care of my bb from birth til now all by myself cos i cant stand how others has been spoiling my bb and being rough and not remembering that bb needs the most cleanliness way ..etc. Go all the way to the extend, grumbling and screaming ard at them cannot like this , cannot like that.So from the start i rejected almost all helps from others but to do everything all by myself and learn at the same time. I understand it’s hard to relax but try keep your mind free and calm. In that way, u can handle things more easier and will not affect your milk supply. Keep in mind, stress do affect milk supply! 😀 Stay cool! Be there anytime if u have any needs. Wanted to visit u when u labor but my mom wasnt free so dint go. Shall see u n little jerry again next time in any gathering soon! Loves,cousin Wendy!

    • cherieladieblogs

      Re: Relax and things slow.. 😀

      actually, i think putting the baby under the running water to wash poo is ok, maybe except the water could be a bit cold. LOL.

      i’m just rambling because im tired and reeling from fatigue and wish i had more time to sleep. milk supply is ok also, that’s the least of my worries now actually. i just wanted a time to nap like nobody business (of cos not possible since i’m the milk machine).

      see you soon yeah.. and take care. 🙂

    • cherieladieblogs

      hey there.. *HI!*

      by the time i actually find one, i think the end of confinement is near.. besides, my house cannot accomodate another living being. too cramp!

      anyway, i think it will get better when i do get to establish some routine, or at least a roster so that everyone does shift work around here instead of me caring for the baby all the time. 🙂

      u take care too and i haven’t seen ur baby girl!

    • cherieladieblogs

      haha. but that picture really don’t look like my jerry! the more i see, the more i wanna laugh and go.. eh, whose baby is this?!

      but then again, maybe you are right. i do see der’s features there..

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