Begining of night feed

Confinement aunty left and I have to handle all feeding now and the feeding cycle repeated at a rapid speed. Had my first taste of night feeding and it is really not fun managing the meal time if two babies. I have to make sure that their feeding do not clash and I must have sufficient time to make milk, feed, blup and put baby to sleep before the other wakes up. Oh, not forgetting changing their diaper if they poop. Really busy and after the settling the babies, it is time to express the breast milk. I basically have very little time to sleep n rest, Louis is avoiding feeding them, he is not confidence in handling them but don't think he can run away for too long cos I will be going crazy soon if I have to do this even after i started work.

Babies first month celebration

Yoohooo!! Sincere and Righteous celebrated their first month on 17 april, it marks the end of confinement for me and marks the beginning of new challenge for the 4 of us...me, louis and the two babies. We held the celebration at the function room of my aunty's condo, a cheap and good option, the rental of the room is only $20 for 6 hours. We invited closed friends, colleagues and closed relatives, the crowd were just nice and manageable. The twins were rather well behave, they slept thru the majority part of the celebration under the nosy environment. They should have super nice sleep after the celebration. We received lots of lovely gifts and red packets from everyone. Louis said we should keep all the money for their CDA accounts, so boring!!

babies first outing

We brought the twins out officially today and the experience wasn't too bad but not as easy as I thought. Just half an hour before the departure time, the tiwns decided to cry together because both of them are sleepy but refuse to sleep. I had a hard time trying to calm them down and I have not even change yet. So, I placed them on my bed, change and carry the girl while I do my make up and I have check on the boy to make sure that his pacifier is in his mouth, else he will start screaming. Multi-tasking just to make sure that we get out of the house on time and in one piece.

However, murphy's law is always a challenge, the new stroller failed to work properly and ah boy refuse to sit in the car seat. Ended up, we left the stroller at home, put the girl in the car seat, I carried the boy and off we go. The journey to office was smooth, both of them sleep thru the trip and they behave well while we were at the office too. The trip back was equally peaceful and both of them seriously knock out after we reached home. They must be really tired, especially the boy. Ah girl was tired but refuse to sleep later in the evening, she had enjoyed the attention and the carrying by all the aunties that she constantly wants to be carry now...Happiness!!

Crying babies

Tore between the old and new ways of handling the crying babies. Our mum n confinement lady always accused us of carrying or attending to the babies whenever they cried and said we are simply spoiling them. Where else the baby book will encourage doing so to give babies the security that we are there when they needed us. For me, striking a balance is important, when babies cry, attend to them and understand what happened and attend to their needs. The confinement lady had accused me couple of time that i carried them too much that they seek attention, i told her, i only carried them when they scream and i need to know what happened. And it always ended up that they are uncomfortable n not seeking attention only. The girl was crying so much that she look like she is in pain, then the C-lady said ah girl had wind in hee tummy due to crying thus causes the discomfort. So?? Whatever they said is correct and we as new parents must be wrong.. What the.,,,,

Struggling with negative thought

I feel bad for entertaining the thought of giving up breastfeeding. This is a daily battle, every middle of night is a struggle to wake up althought my eyes still spring open in an auto mode. I need to get rid of that thought, i need to overcome the negativity....now the mind and fresh are both weak, I need to overcome!!!!

Pumping Milk

Pumping milk is my routine task and to increase milk flow, pumping take place every 3 hours, even in the wee hour. Interestingly, I never need to set alarm clock to wake up for the pump, my eyes will spring open when it is time to pump. I give this credit to the nature of motherly love.By the way, breastfeeding is a very difficult and tiring task, it looks so easy but the hard work behind the feed is huge.I apologised if i ever make comments or being judgemental about breastfeeding, i truly repent.

Babies are 2 weeks old

Gladly shared that babies are 2 weeks old, i am enjoying their stage now, infants have their unique charm, need to treasure the moment cos babies grow up so fast.Looking back at the past 14 days, husband support and involvement does play an important role and part to help the weak and post labour mother to settledown and feel at ease and at peace.Without Louis around during the early days when we got home would be unthinkable. It got me thinking about paternal leave and why father should have the right to be involved and help out and they do need the transition period like the mother to realise that their baby had arrived and their roles had evolved.

At the same time, my heart really go out to mothers that their spouse were not at their side when she goes thru child birth and the adjustment thereafter. I knew of a friend's friend that huaband passed on weeks before the arrival of their baby. After going thru labour myself, i knew how tough it is for her and my heart felt the pain for her. I can't imagine how tough it is for her, just know she must be strong for her baby.I will count my blessing and be very grateful for God's grace and having Louis support throughout and going thru this period with me when i needed him most.

Having a stranger in the house

The stranger is the confinement lady not my twins hor. The first few days was fine but like any other stranger, they became less of a stranger after a few days and they began to intude into our life. We need her to take care of the babies and me during this period, thus we try to accomodate but there are moments where I just hope I am left alone.

They being experienced have their own mind set, we do not attempt to change them but having to justify and explained every of our decision is very mental draining. For eg, she question the costing that I paid for my post natal massage, she thinks that I have too many hampers from friends and I should recycle them, she kept asking me to wrap them up and give away. She is disagreed when she found out that my aunty is charging me Market rate for taking care of my babies (this I got to agreed with her) and kept asking me to change my plan, not once for at least 2-3 times.

When friends visited me with gift, she disapproved the stuffs that they bought and suggest that I quickly give away...i am going nuts with all this suggestion. Louis said, one ear in one ear out, I wish I could. I am facing her more than 12 hours a day.

Other than that I think she is over feeding my babies too and she refuse to listen to us. Of cos she had her strength, she encourages breastfeeding and always ask me to try, her cooking is alright thought. Anyway, 5 more days and she will be gone, another confinement lady will come and replace her. This is their arrangement because I got them too late and they are all book before or after my delivery. I think this is good too, at least we will know how to deal with the 2nd aunty when she come to minimised my misery right from the 2nd start.

Blessed pregnancy and delivery

My pregnancy journey came to an end on 21st March and I successfully and safely delivered the twins via the natural way. I must said, this is amazing and I felt truly blessed. Looking back at my pregnancy, I did not have any major issues or discomfort, except for feeling tired during the early trimester, other than that, it was a smooth journey for me throughout. In fact, I was able to drive myself to work till the very last day of leave.

I have heard many twins pregnacy to be diffcult and bed rest are often required towards the end of the trimester. I was also worried that there are complications for the twins which will be costly and of cos traumatic to handle for new parents. Thus, when we heard the loud cry of the babies, it really set our heart at ease and with the assurance of the PD that babies are well, relaxes us immediately.

Well, we have not fully comprehen the roles as parents yet since we still need time to adjust and adapt. Will update soon on how parenthoods changes us. Till then, more night feeding and diaper changing to handle.

Confinement rules are the cauae of poat-natal blue.

Having been thru the labour process and now in the midst of confinement, I can't help but start comparing and see which is worst?? Labour pain are greatly managed with the help of Epidural and that certainly save my life. I can't imagine what it would be like delivering the twins without the painkiller. So, having said the above, the post labour pain is the one that is unbearable. Pain and discomfort starts to developed and no amount of consumable pain killers seem to be working.

As a new mother, Breastfeeding is another challenge, waking up every 2-3 hours to feed and realised that I have insufficent milk to satisfied the hungry babies, this is freaking tiring and discouraging and yes, simply multiply the the above by 2 for twins. On top of the pain, came the rules of confinement. No aircon, no direct wind, no shower unless with the boiled herbal water, no washing of hair for the first week, the foods n red dates tea and lastly no outling for the entire month. I felt suffocated when I sleep in hot environment and I have found myself waking up feeling stress couple of time. Anyway, I really this confinement period will be over soon so that I can fully appreciate parenthoods without having to follow the rules that does not make sense to me.

Maternity leave woes

I actually felt discriminated for being pregnant and taking maternity leave which is my entitlement. Am sure this is a common feeling everywhere, whether we have a male of female boss. I heard comment saying maternity leave is a career limiting move, sure, then don't say you are pro-family when been asked by a female counter-part. There was conflicting message and action around me and this does not make thing any easy for me who is going into Parenthood for the first time.

After much thinking-thru and planning, I thought taking 2 months is a not a bad ideas afterall, at least I can spend more time with my twins when they are older with my remaining two month maternity leave left. However, it was later found out that it will be tough to clear the leave and Cash out option for the leave was offered. I have not taken up the offer, I would rather keep the option open than to be duped aagin into another decision that I will feel uncomfortable with.

For now, I am trying to convince myself that life is such, everyone is selfish and they only think for themselves and I am actually not in such a bad situation. I know my focus will be on the babies when they arrived and I will have no time to be bother with the rest of the issues.

Finally the final stage

I am finally at the final stage of the pregnancy, am into the 9th months and like what everyone and the gynae is saying, it could be anytime from now. The pregnacy has been smooth for me with no morning sickness, good appetite and little discomfort and I am very grateful for the blessing.

What's going to happen in the next few weeks will be the greatest changes in my life and having to handle the two little ones will definitely blown me away. I guess no one will be fully preapred for what is to come, but I will try my best to keep an OPEN mind about things.

For now, I am embracing my special moments with the twins, having them moving inside me and soon this feeling will be histoy, seriously the father will never understand what's the mother go thru...too bad for the men.

Planning ahead...way 7 years ahead

My recent conversaton with Louis includes his plan for the kids primary school selection. Yes, Primary School and my twins are not even born yet. He was telling me that we can't wait till 4-5 years later to decide, we must start planning because we need to plan where to move to if we want the twins to be in the same school. Riddicular?? To him, he felt that he didn't have planning from his parents and he didn't want his kids to be in the same shoes as him. But to plan 7 years ahead is just abit too much for me. My immediate concern is getting them out safe and healthy. The rest can wait till we settled them.

So, the topic...to be continue!! I guess, he can't wait for too long, so we will talk about it after my maternity period, if i am lucky.

While I was shopping for the basic necccessity items for the babies, he was worried about them not having toys to be entertained with. Again, he said, 'I have not toys when I was young, the same things cannot happened to them'...Fine, I got it, let's start looking for some toys that are suitable for them. We did but failed, the search will continue till we find something suitable.

The beginning of Kiasu parenthoods!!

Working till the water bag break

During my 33 weeks medical appointment, my gynae told me that babies are growing well and they are in head down position and they are suitable for natural birth. We were happy to hear this and the shocker came....he said I will probably be able to deliver in 2-3 weeks time. I was in total shock, so is Louis.

We have been looking forward to meeting the twins but in 2-3 weeks time is too fast. We are totally unprepared. We did periodically buy those babies stuffs and items but we just felt so NOT READY. I went shopping immediately after leaving hospital, there seem to unlimited things to buy and they are never enough.

So this weekend will be a busy one, we need to sort the babies clothes, wash them and dry them. We need to bring the babyCot back from my mum's place and all the necessities items. Thanks goodness for friends who are offering me suggestions and help and checklists for me to prepare myself.

Anyway, I am not planning to take early maternity leave, felt that is it a waste to do so...but will my water break while I am working? It will be memorable if that happened right? But I doubt my colleagues will be too excited if that really happened.

Babies progress at 30 weeks

During my 30th weeks scan, I was delighted to learn the weight of the babies. Ah Girl weighs 1.6kg and Ah Boy weighs 1.4kg. They are both at the good weight range. Knowing that they are growing well is the best Birthday present that I had received this year.

The boy finally turned his face out and we could see his feature during the scan, the girl had also turned her head down which mean I am in a better position for Nature Birth if all turns out well.

I am seriously considering this option for the benefits of early recovery and ease of breastfeeding. There is also a bet going on at my office to guess which baby come first. $5 per bet, interested?