Happy Birthday Mr President!

Hah... I just found out that President Obama and I share the same birthday.

I had both my doula and her trainee doula popped by last night and we did a run through of a unplanned home birth scenario. Duncan now knows all the important things to do if Baby M were to arrive so quickly that there left no time to get to the hospital. It seems that Duncan's main task is to 'catch the baby' and to make sure I don't birth on the loo! There's no running around boiling water or wiping sweat off my brow it seems. We were also rest assured that it's ok if baby is a little blue initially as she will pink up within seconds and given a brief description on how to hold the baby face down under the chin and rub her back to gently encourage her to take breath and cry. Oh yes, and for me to lay down after given birth so I don't pass out. Pretty straight forward (I took notes during our chat)... home birth anyone??

Duncan and I must give off a 'we are very relaxed about the birth' vibe because it's the 2nd time now she's brought up the subject of a home birth. My OB and Doula do attend home births. But we need to decide early-ish whether we are going to head to the hospital or have the baby in the lounge room. Just not somewhere in between like in the car on the expressway or the lift When I laughed, my doula mistook my amusement for disbelief, but I assured her I knew full well that that sometimes can happen as my Mum had two precipitous births (less than 3 hours from first contraction). My sister arrived in under an hour and was almost born in a taxi as Mum tells the story and I took two and a bit hours. This also not the first time it's been suggested to me that Baby M my come quickly. I guess I will find out soon enough if this will be the case. Only 30 more days to go.

5 weeks to go!

We've had such a great week this week. My sister Kim passed through Singapore (en route between London and Paris) for the 2nd time this month and it's just been really good to catch up and for Matthew to spend time with his Tai Yee Mah (translates roughly to 'Eldest Auntie' in Cantonese). We took a trip to the Night Safari, a first for Matthew and the next day he had the morning off school so we could head back to the Singapore Art Museum again to see the Art Garden exhibit which he loved just as much the second time around. The next time I see Kim will be in October when we return home to Sydney with Baby M.

Matthew has fully recovered from NOT having HFMD. I took him to his paediatrician for his 2 year health and developmental check and the doctor was also unconvinced that Matthew had HFMD. His paed. didnt have any concerns about Matthew's health. However we couldn't do any of the developmental checks as Matthew amusingly refused to answer any of the doctors questions. Amusing for me as normally, Matthew does not stop talking, he's either parroting what I say or babbling away in a mixture of English words, Mandarin words and toddler talk. He flat out refused to answer when shown a picture of a car and was asked to name the object, likewise when shown a picture of some cats. At the end I had to step in and tell his doctor that I had no concerns about his speech and cognitive skills and confirm that Matthew does indeed speak!

In fact Matthew has been singing a whole lot more these days, with lots of songs in his repertoire, some of my favourite being 'Sing and Hum, Bumble Bee' (available on YouTube), 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', 'Oh Mr Sun' and 'I Love You' (from Barney). As I'm blogging this, I can hear Matthew singing 'The Wheels on the Bus' with Duncan in the bath! Counting to ten and his reciting the alphabet is a bit hit and miss, he recognises some letters and most numbers but will still sometimes get them wrong. He's excellent with colours and shapes and is definitely not colour blind like his maternal grandfather.

Pregnancy is going well, I feel huge even though the scales and the estimated size of the baby says otherwise. I'm still tracking a good couple of kilos less than I was with Matthew's pregnancy and Baby M is predicted to be an average sized baby. Everyone tells me should be pleased about this as birthing should be a breeze this time round... wouldn't that would be nice!

less than 7 weeks to go....

Wow, D-Day is drawing near! That's 'delivery day' not 'dooms day' - just to clarify. We can't wait to meet her, of course I've bought a few more dresses in preparation for her arrival.

Here is a 3D picture of Baby M taken last Wed.

she looks like she's smiling!

That afternoon when I arrived at school to pick Matthew up, I was told by his teacher that they had to send a child home that because of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD), by Thursday morning there had been 2 children. Both of these kids were from Matthew's class. We've been keeping a very close eye on Matthew over the weekend had thought that Matthew had escaped being infected by his classmates but unfortunately Matthew had a restless night sleep on Sat with a very mild temperature and on Sun a single nasty looking blister/ulcer formed on his tongue. We took Matthew to see a doctor yesterday but because his symptoms were so mild that a clear diagnosis that it was HFMD was not possible and were asked to return again this morning for a further review.  When we spoke to his teacher over the phone yesterday afternoon the number of confirmed cases had climbed to 7. When we took Matthew back to see his doctor today he was already feeling much better with no further symptoms hence, Matthew's medical certificate officially states that 'there is no clinical evidence of HFMD' and has been cleared to return to school. Although he's feeling much better, we highly suspect that he has or had HFMD and the ulcer on his tongue clearly causes him pain when he's eating and as responsible parents, we are keeping him home for another day or so at least.

It's been a while since I've had to manage a grumpy 2 year old all day on my own and he's making me work hard. So far today he's thrown a ice popsicle at me and blueberries and grapes on the floor, then asked for biscuits. When I asked him 'how many? one? two?' his reply was 'seven'. When I said 'seven?! that's too many.' he replied wishfully 'eight?'

I'm waiting to see what tomorrow brings...

Art Garden Exhibition 2011@Singapore Art Museum

For those of you who have been reading my blog might remember that this time last year I took Matthew to a wonderful exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum called Art Garden. This year's exhibit is no less interesting and fun for kids and those young at heart! It's just a great way to spend a couple of hours with your little one and watch their little face light up with glee.

Here are some pictures from our visit, the full set is posted on picasa Matthew 25-26 Months

Posing with Walter the rabbit, you may remember him from last year's exhibit! You can actually buy your own inflatable Walter from the SAM shop.

Ticket for entry are $10 for adults and $5 for children aged 6 years and above. A real bargain compared to the ArtScience Museum. Museum tickets also entitle the holder to discounts at the cafes and shops on the premises.

Matthew stopped short when he walked into the first room, he was in awe and went really really quiet trying to take it all in.

Matthew "I like choo choo train"

Fruit made out of paper, with each paying adult ticket, you can trade this in for a cut out template for making paper fruit. Once completed you can trade your paper fruit for a real one :)

Matthew and Dad hard at work making a paper apple and banana.

Eventually Matthew (and I) got a bit distracted and started drawing on the papier mache trees... which you were encouraged to.

Less than 9 weeks to go...

It's been an uneventful week for me with the usual pre-baby things to get done like a hair cut and a trip to the Dentist. I was actually told by my dentist to NOT brush my teeth as often - irritatingly, I love brushing my teeth. On the other hand the past week has been an extremely busy one for Duncan. We've resorted to catching up over a coffee and pastry in the morning just so we can have time together. Sadly I've had to go so far as to stipulate that with coffee I expect conversation to take place at the same time and for Duncan not to be multitasking during this time and take conference calls on his Blackberry while we are out!

I've been finding this pregnancy harder than the previous, the difference has to do with the fact that I no longer have a sedentary desk job and have been far more active daily. Spending 1-2 hours on my feet going about my morning routine negates the need to hit the gym 5 days a week like the last time!  Bearing in mind this time round I also have a 14+ kg toddler to assist me with my weight bearing training. The Singapore heat and humidity doesnt bother me much as I dont generally step outdoors unless it's absolutely necessary. Baby belly also feels much larger now than it did 3 weeks ago at my last OB visit. We shall see how much of the additional girth is me and how much of it can be attributed to our Baby Girl.  I'm still working on my preparation for my drug free, calm and comfortable natural birth both at home and at classes, all is going well if the desired effect of listening to the relaxation CD is falling asleep. I've checked with my doula Ginny and she tells me it very normal. I've listened to the CD about 10 times, by the 2nd track, I'm asleep. I've yet to listen to the whole thing in it's entirety. Duncan jokingly said to me that at the rate I'm going I may sleep through the birth ... somehow I doubt that. Looks like we will have not one but 2 doulas present at the birth, in addition to Ginny, a trainee doula will be there to observe. This is of course in addition to a secondary doula, Catherine, on standby (24 hours a day, 3 weeks prior to by estimated due date). I didn't say no to an extra pair of hands as I think it will come in handy toddler handling during birthing.

Matthew's been doing really well. I think he might have clued on that there's a baby on the way. We can also close the chapter on big bed transition. He loves his new bed and the new furniture, and stickers and art on the walls in his room and it's been a breeze for him to fall asleep on his own. The hard part is keeping his bed covers on overnight as he moves around so much when he sleeps! (he still enjoys a bit of a chat and a lullaby with me before bedtime, but that's OK as I love our time together before bed).

Matthew's Auntie Kim (my sister) is arriving this Sat and will be staying with us for a few days. We are very excited to have her come and visit. There'll be 3 people to share Durian with! She'll also be logging many babysitting hours while she is here ... I think I've briefly mentioned that to her ;)

10 weeks to go

Big bed transition is going really well with the exception of last night where he called out 'Mummy!' in the wee hours of the morning. I walked bleary eyed into his room expecting to see a little body curled up in his bed but couldnt see anything and wondered for a second where he could be. Then I spotted him. Laying face down on his playmat, he'd rolled off his bed on to the mattress on his trundle and ended up on the floor on his mat. I was really lucky not to have stepped on him. The next words out of his mouth was 'mummy, hurt the knee' so obviously he'd taken a little knock somewhere on his cascade down off his bed. After a quick kiss on the knee, as I always do with all his 'owwies' he went straight to sleep again on his bed. Too lazy to go back to my own room and besides it was much cooler in Matthew's room last night I fell asleep on his trundle. Sometime in the early morning, I had no idea what time it was but it was getting light outside, Matthew fell off his bed again and this time on me. Not sure if it was accidental or deliberate, as after a week of sleeping beautifully on his bed and not falling out once, he'd fallen out not once but twice in the one night. Anyway we'll see how it goes.

The other funny thing about no longer being confined to his cot is finding Matthew waddling down the hallway still in his sleep bag on Saturday morning looking for us. Again, we were alert with a curious sounding 'Mummy?'. It was 8:30am by this time and both Duncan and I had slept in (Yes, I know how lucky we are to have a child who likes to sleep in occasionally).

He's still extremely chatty with me at bedtime though and continues to talks non-stop. 'Mummy sleep here' patting the space he's left for me on his pillow or 'Matthew loves Mummy'... the child knows exactly what he's doing. Duncan finds our conversations hilarious. It takes Duncan no more than 5 mins to get Matthew settled into bed compare to my 30mins, sometimes an hour.

Fun stuff we did on the weekend was go to the Art Science Museum again on Saturday to see the Salvador Dali and Van Gogh exhibition. Duncan and I enjoyed the Dali, whereas Matthew enjoyed the Van Gogh. It was more of a visual biography of Van Gogh through the use of projectors rather than a display of his actual works. Matthew enjoyed walking through the installation of images projected on the walls and floor and listening to the music and sounds of the period.

Outside the Dali exhibit

Matthew staring at the lifts at the Art Science Museum (the Lotus inspired building in the Marina Bay area)

Baby stuff is getting there, after the enormous furniture move last weekend, I set about getting on with the task of sorting out Matthew's old baby clothes and linen. Sorting out what to wash, what to store away again  for later, what to throw out and what to give away. Still a couple of loads of washing to be done but not much else to do really. We really are exceptionally prepared this time round. The next job is to make sure I have all the bits and pieces for sterilising breast pumps and bottles ready. Hopefully like with Matthew who was a hearty little feeder who latch on like a champ immediately after birth we wont have to mess around with bottles.

Birth preparation is also underway. I met with my doula, Ginny during the week. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a doula is someone who helps provide support to the birthing mother during childbirth. During my meeting with Ginny, I also met a newborn girl who had been birthed 5 days earlier in the water in her backyard surrounded by her 4 siblings, talk about inspirational! Ginny came upon recommendation from my OB some weeks ago and after much consideration and discussion with Duncan having a doula made a lot of sense to us. Depending on the time of day I go into labour we would very much like to have Matthew with us when we welcome our new baby into our family. In preparing for this and knowing that Duncan may have his attention divided between Matthew and I, enlisting the services of a doula was a perfect solution for this situation. My OB, Ginny and the hospital all have experience with children in the birthing suite, and all three were specifically selected so I could have a drug-free waterbirth here in Singapore.

11 weeks to go - Nesting

Firstly, Happy Father's Day to Duncan! It's Father's day here as it is in most parts of the world and seeing as we are Singapore we thought we might go with the flow.

Here's Duncan with Matthew opening his father's day present.

Oh my goodness have we (the royal 'we' being Duncan, Matthew and I) been busy this past week. We've purchased Matthew's new car seat, bought new storage furniture for Matthew's room to go with his new big boy bed, moved the furniture around between the guest room and Matthew's room, cleared out the storage room and sorted out all the baby toys.

Baby M's room

Matthew's room

Matthew finally got to sleep in his big boy bed for the first time yesterday afternoon and has since had 3 successful sleeps in it. Duncan's just put him down for his 4th sleep. Success in this exercise is defined as 1) not falling out of bed and 2) not trying to escape! Although it seems that Duncan is the only one that can put him to sleep successfully at this point. Matthew insists on talking to me instead of sleeping, he lures me in his room with a sweet 'Mummy come here...'. When I look in on him, I get 'Mummy lie down', which I do next to him and I pretend to sleep followed by a 'Mummy sleep?' query in the dark, he then proceeds to gently pat my face as if to check whether I'm asleep. When I tried to sneak out of bed quietly, in my pregnant state, I clumsily fell out. Then the next thing I heard over head was 'Mummy pillow?' followed by Matthew passing his bolster pillow to me, by this stage I can't help but laugh out loud. The sleep avoidance tactics continue with 'kiss Matthew?'... hmm. I wonder where he's learnt all this??

I was listening out for the 'thump' last night which never came. When we checked on him at 1030pm before going to bed he was nestled into the pillows at the head of the bed and he looked so cute and small in it!

Matthew this morning, not to impressed with me taking his photo.

 He warmed up a little later in the morning shortly after we got ready to head out to brunch with friends.

Here I am at 29 weeks pregnant. Still looking compact, but with 11 weeks to go, there is still much growing to be done!

On the pregnancy front, Baby and I are doing really well. I had my monthly visit to our obstetrician and all is tracking well and it's been confirmed that I don't have gestational diabetes (which I was at an increased risk for). My weight gain is currently 2 whole kilos less than it was when I pregnant with Matthew. Baby is growing as she should be and I was fortunate enough to get this gorgeous picture of her in 3D.

Ultrasound image of Baby M. She looks so cute already.

Matthew's Birth Story

(better late than never!)

Little Matthew Arthur Bradey was born on the 28th of May, 2009. As with most birth stories, this journey began much earlier that day.

Here I am on the 27th of May, 2009 - 39 weeks pregnant

I was at this stage 39 weeks pregnant and experiencing all of the excitement and eagerness that comes with having ones' first baby. The eve before our precious boy was born right before Duncan (that would be Matthew's dad) and I turned in for the evening, we said a few gentle words of love and encouragement to our unborn son that it was time we met him. Amazingly after many many weeks of waiting on that very same night at 2:30am, I went into spontaneous pre-labour.  Mild cramps had woken me from my restless sleep. Having not had any pre-labour symptoms or Branxton Hicks contractions leading up to this, I had a very strong inkling that it was time. Rolling out of bed, I went to turned on the lights in the bathroom to check and found that my mucal plug was coming away. Of course, typical of me, the first thing I decided to do instead of trying to get as much sleep as possible that morning, was a quick tidy up of the house and put the laundry on in an effort to make sure the house was tidy for visitors! It was only around 5:00 am that I decided it was time to tell a still slumbering Duncan that baby was on his way and I set about making sure that the last minute items for my hospital bag were sorted.

The morning meandered on as I continued on with my chores about the house, contractions continued on a little like this..
6:43am big cramp
7:04am little cramp
7:14am little cramp
7:33am little cramp...

As I knew Baby probably had a few more hours before arriving,  I sent Duncan off to work and sat at home waiting patiently for 9:30am to come around so that I could see Anne my OBGYN at my scheduled appointment that morning. Duncan whose workplace was only short walk away from Anne's office met me there. At the appointment I informed her that I was in pre-labour and that my mucal plug had started to come away and that the contractions were at the time erratic and between 5-10 minutes apart. With a quick check of my cervix, Anne was able to confirm that I was indeed in pre-labour and was 1-2 cms dilated. She also told me that my blood pressure was elevated and that it would be very likely that she'd see me in hospital that evening and she would possibly 'move things along' if nothing had happened by then. She also suggested that it might be a good idea not to drive home as I'd driven there! By 10:00am, I'm sitting at home alone rubbing my belly thinking to myself how much I'd like to meet my little baby and how lucky I was that today was going to be the day. Duncan returned to work to let them know that baby was about to arrive.

It's only at midday that we decide that it was time to head to the hospital as the contractions are now 5mins or less. Fortunately the trip to the hospital took less than 10 mins. We were offered a room after a short wait and for the next hour a fetal heart monitor is placed over my belly. At 1:30pm Maggi our midwife tells us that I'd not progressed any further with the dilatation even though the contractions are 3-5 mins apart. The news is not positive as she apologetically tells me that she thinks it's going to be a long labour as our baby is still in a posterior position (facing up). I'd not read up much on birthing a baby in a posterior position as I'd hoped all along that baby would turn in the last minute during labour to the more favoured anterior (facing down) position. I did not know at the time of birth that majority of posterior babies enter the world with assisted forcep deliveries or ceasareans. Also 90% of mums to posterior babies have epidurals as they are said to have more painful contractions, are given Pitocin (the same drug to induce contractions/labour), push for longer and have a significantly higher risk of severe tearing and episiotomies!

Needless to say with this news, the panic set in which I'm sure made the pain of the contractions even worse. In an attempt to dull the pain, they set up the nitrous oxide (otherwise simply known as 'Gas') for me but I found it of no use after failing to co-ordinate my breaths with the rise and crest of each contraction. After each attempt at the gas, I found myself dizzy but unfortunately without the result of pain relief. I turn to Duncan to tell him that I didn't want the gas as I wanted to be alert when baby arrived. It was after this that I decide to have an epidural. Duncan looks to me and asks if I'm sure I want the drugs as he's known all along about my desire to have a drug free natural birth, I tell him firmly 'Yes'.  Although I had been adamant about having a drug free birth, accepting the offer of an epidural was at the time the right choice.

I vaguely recall being asked to sit up right as they exposed my back to firstly give me a local anaesthetic and then later insert the epidural. 

5:00pm ... what a relief, although it had not taken the pain completely away as each contractions could still be strongly felt. The epidural had taken a very very long time to take effect and I had been rocked from side to side to help the anesthetist distribute the medication, with the Doctor returning several times to increase the dosage. It is also at this time the midwife breaks my water. Anne checks in on me at 5:15pm to see how I'm progressing. By 6:30pm, I'm nearly fully dilated (9.5cm dilated with a small lip - whatever that means?) and the midwife predicts that baby will be here at 8:30pm (she was very close indeed!).

At 7:30pm Anne has several attempts to turn baby's head to an anterior position but to no avail and tells me that I'll most likely need a caesarean and our midwife agrees. I firmly tell her 'no' and Anne gives me the option to push and would assess how things progress. At 8:00pm I begin pushing with much determination, using the contraction as they crested to bring baby a little closer each time. The midwives tell me that are amazed at how strongly my contractions can seen and felt through my tummy and wished that the student midwives were here to experience this! Duncan is my rock throughout, beside me all the way, offering words of encouragement with each push, pausing to laugh and share a joke with the doctor and nurses and enjoying every minute of watching the baby crown. With lots of pushes, and lots of complaints from me about reflux (I ate a mint during the afternoon) as baby feet were pushing up again my stomach and a quick rest from pushing so that Anne could perform an episiotomy, baby made his grand entrance. Matthew was born at exactly 8:53pm, weighing a healthy 3.77kg, 51.5cm in length and 34.5 cm head circumference. I asked to have a vernix (and meconium) covered Matthew placed on my chest so that I could start bonding with him right away while new Daddy got busy cutting the umbilical cord. He was then given to Duncan for a first cuddle, then weighed and measured while Duncan watched on. Sometime during all of this, the placenta is delivered and I am stitched. We then asked to have Matthew's grandparents in the room to meet Matthew quickly before I attempted to nurse him for the first time. We were very lucky to have bonded so quickly and Matthew took to the breast immediately.

This is Matthew's birth story, written and re-written as apparently my memory is extremely hazy, and two year after Matthew's birth and now 29 weeks pregnant again with our second child, it's finally published (after being checked and vetted by Duncan for accuracy!).

with Mummy.

with Daddy.

with both of us.

Matthew First School Report Card

Both Duncan and I popped by the school yesterday afternoon to attend our first parent-teacher interview. Having never attended one of these before, we had no expectations nor were we particularly prepared, I certainly didn't expect to be handed Matthew's semester one report card!

We take much pride (add to this a dash of humour after all he is 2!) to say that our little guy 'Aced' his first semester at school. The 'A' stands for is able to to. It seems our Matthew is already able to do most of skills that is expected for toddlers aged between 18-36 months. He is particularly good at music and anything which requires showing off his advanced gross motor skills. The most pleasing part of our chat with his teachers was to learn that Matthew is excelling at Mandarin, both teachers commented on how well he's picked up the new language in the short period of time he's been at school (we don't speak a word of Mandarin at home) and is advancing ahead of other kids who come from Chinese backgrounds. The rest of the comments mirror that of our own, Matthew is very affectionate and friendly and loves to cuddle. He's a very active and happy child that rarely throws tantrums or cries for attention. He's well liked by his friends and everyone at the school knows his name! There were no negatives mentioned (oddly, as Duncan and I think that Matthew could work on his social skills at the playground as he has a tendency to be aggressive) and they think he is doing very well at school and love having him there.

Along with his report card, we were given around 500 photos on a disc, a big bag full of his artwork to keep and display at home and a 'Learning Portfolio'. Matthew and I love looking through the portfolio together. I've shared a few pages here; and I've also posted a select few photos on picasa.

Pictures from Semester One --> Click Here
Sample pictures from Matthew's Learning Portfolio 2011 --> Click Here

Motherhood Exhibition 2011

FYI to my Singapore mummy friends. Good deals on Huggies (newborn diaper packs), Pigeon (Great wipes and breast pads) and Medela products. Also worth looking at are 'Studio Loft's maternity, new born and family portrait photo packages ($100 off)

Details: Motherhood Exhibition 2011
Where: Singapore Expo Hall 6B
Date: 2 - 5 June, 11am to 9pm

For those not in Singapore, this might bring a smile to your face, spotted at the expo was Matthew's picture. Duncan wanted me to ask the organisers if we could take the picture home after they were done with it... I think he was serious about it too. Not sure what I'd do with a 6ft version of the cover...

Spotted at the Motherhood Exhibition 2011 was Matthew's magazine cover: