I'm a full-time mummy

The last I wrote about our kiddos' playgroup session was on the last day of September 2013 (I actually blogged 1-2 weeks in advance) sharing my bittersweet memories that I won't be bringing our 2 kiddos to their church playgroup sessions as our 3rd baby is due then and I will be busy for some time settling down with 3 kiddos then.

First week of October, our 4.5 years old already asking me when will we be going to the playgroup session. I feel like a crappy mum for not being able to bring our kiddos there!

Second week of October, I was so tempted to bring our kiddos there when I backed out last minute after seeing quite a number of mummy friends sharing that their children and classmates are down with cough, flu and cold. It wasn't that I'm afraid our 2 kiddos will get it, I'm more worried that they got it and brought back the virus home and infect our newborn. So plan delayed.

Third week of October, again, backed out last minute due to the viral season still lingering.

Last week of October, I decided this is it. This is the final session for 2013 as the playgroup center follows the national school holidays session whereby schools will be closed from mid November until early 2014. I didn't see anymore postings from mummies about kiddos falling sick so I thought this is just right. Discussed with hubby for him to take care of baby Carolyn for an hour while I bring Benjamin and Alyson to their playgroup session for the last hour activities (we missed the storytelling session as we were late).

I still remember how excited Benjamin was the night before when I told him if he behaves and goes to bed early and wakes up early, mummy will bring him and Alyson to playgroup session. His face lit up literally and he reserved his Spiderman clothes for the playgroup session!

Like I mentioned earlier, we missed the storytelling session since we were a bit late. When we arrived, it was time to queue up to wash hands for snacks. Some mums were surprised to see me bringing our kiddos (for Chinese, I should still be couped up at home for confinement period) and they were surprised to see me being out and about so fast.

After the snack session, the kiddos had a short freeplay session where they get to play with some bricks (refer picture #1) while the parents and caretakers have a short tea break. I didn't join in the tea break as usual as I prefer to be near my kiddos and watched out after them (yeah, I know, I'm like a mama hen!)

The final activity for the day is costume play where all of us went upstairs into this room, all prepped up with jewelleries and costumes for parents to choose for their kiddos to try and wear and take pictures and simply just have fun!

Alyson went straight to the makeup table in the center and sat right into one of the chairs and got busy decorating herself! (refer picture #2)

Wow! I honestly didn't know where she learned all this from since I'm never the type of person to do any make up at all! (*Note: Probably she got it from my mother-in-law as our kiddos are used to seeing her getting ready with makeup and stuff in front of her makeup table)

I managed to take some pictures of our kiddos trying out the costumes and jewelleries they liked. (refer picture #3) I also snapped a picture
(refer picture #4) which surprised me and brought a smile to my face, I finally saw my 4.5 years old boy approaching a little girl in the playgroup center and heard him saying 'Hey, can I be your friend?' Wow! Social milestone!

You see, like his mummy, our boy is very shy and reserved with strangers but to see him ditching this shyness and approaching a girl asking whether he can be her friend, and mind you, I also snapped a picture of the little girl looking surprised hearing his question and then she went on to flipped her skirt sideways blushing at the same time, so so so cute! I hope this will continue and our boy will finally be able to make some new friends!!!

Looking forward for 2014 playgroup sessions!

**Personal notes: Apologies but due to my paranoia of privacy and security of myself, my family and my kiddos, I am not going to reveal what is the playgroup name, the area and so on. Apologies but like I said, I am really paranoid and with info like this being shown in public, I hope you can understand my reasons for doing so.

This is the story of my 3rd supernatural childbirth... you can read about my 1st supernatural childbirth in my old blog and my 2nd supernatural childbirth as well. Here goes the third one:

30th September 2013 ~ 08.00 am

Started feeling some mild period-like cramps. Entertained thoughts on contractions starting and took my handphone, turned on the contractions counter app and start to note down the time and date... and waited for the next period-like cramp...

30th September 2013 ~ 10.00 am

Time gap between contractions are not regular. Within 9am to 10am, the time gap is every 9 to 11 minutes but after 10am onwards, the time gap goes between 3 to 15 minutes. I know they are actual contractions as the pain does not go away no matter what you do. Just as hubby got ready to go out for his appointment, I told him that I am having contractions but they are not regular. He looked stunned and immediately reschedule his appointments for the day and rushed off to meet a client before coming back to get our kiddos and me, dropped off our kiddos at our SIL's place and then send me to our birth hospital.

30th September 2013 ~ 11.40 am

Dropped off kiddos at SIL place, I cried as I see my 2 kiddos going into SIL's house... SIL said not to worry and don't cry, go have a safe delivery! Hubby and I then went to McDonald's drive-through to get our lunch before we head off to our hospital.

30th September 2013 ~ 12.30 pm

Reached the labor ward, registered myself and was told to lie on one of the monitoring beds, got hooked to some machine to check whether contractions are real or false and also checked for baby's heart rate. Was on the bed for an hour. Finally a doctor came in and checked and I was already 3cm dilated. In the hospital, once you reached 4cm, they will break your water bag to start the labor process. Since I was not 4cm yet, I was advised to admit and rest in my room. Unluckily for me, there are no more private rooms available so I had to end up staying in a 4 bedded room (I'm not really comfortable sharing room with others as I would like to rest in peace and quietness and not hear other mums moan or whine etc) but oh well...

30th September 2013 ~ 4.30 pm

It took such a long time for the hospital staff to admit me to my room! Something wrong with my identification card number. In Malaysia, the last digit indicates whether you are a male or female. Odd number = male, even number = female. Mine ended with a 5, hence the hospital system hangs as it kept reading my details as male and rejecting my admittance. Gaaaaa... when they finally sorted out the issues, I got into my room and rest. A doctor came over and checked and said I'm 5cm already. Contractions are getting more intense and I asked the nurse to find a doctor to check me again. But no one came.

30th September 2013 ~ 05.00 pm

Two more contractions came and I felt like pushing. I told hubby to get the nurse and tell them I need to push NOW. Just a few seconds after hearing hubby telling the nurse at the reception counter, few of the nurses rushed in to my room and pleaded me NOT to push yet. They managed to get the doctor in-charge and asked him to check how dilated I was to be sure as there are not enough labor beds yet in the labor ward. I was quite annoyed at this point as I can see the doctor hesitating and scared to proceed. In the end, the nurses decided to just wheeled me to the labor ward. Once we were in the labor ward, I was told to hold off pushing as doctor is on the way and my hubby too. He had to take the long route as he was not allowed to go through staff paths. A nurse gave me the gas mask (Entonox) to breathe in when my contractions kick in and to be honest, that really helps delay my pushing. I could feel myself getting high as well from the laughing gas!

30th September 2013 ~ 05.50 pm

Saw my gynae coming into my labor room all geared up. Hubby couldn't recognise our gynae at first. I was just waiting for gynae to tell me I can push anytime. I'm really really really trying hard to hold off pushing this time! Gynae and a nurse got me ready, legs bend up, felt gynae breaking my water bag and contractions kick in then, I heard gynae said 'Ok start pushing when you feel your contractions coming!' GREENLIGHT! YES! I pushed the first time and thought I pooped or something but hubby said nothing, go on, pushhhhhhhh!!! I pushed 2nd time and everyone around telling me, one more time, one more time, can see baby's head. I was still high and dizzy with the laughing gas and the nurse took the gas mask away from me.

30th September 2013 ~ 05.55 pm

 Then I pushed the 3rd time and felt baby whooshed out from my vagina - phewwww... always love that sensation as baby glides out and the whole burden is lifted off my body! Baby Carolyn is born at 5.55pm! She came out crying loudly and because of this, our gynae granted my wish to have hubby do the delayed cord clamping. We waited for a few minutes and hubby was then passed a device to clamp the cord and guided by gynae on how to clamp it.

30th September 2013 ~ 09.00 pm

We are still stuck in our labor room for hours! I am not sure what is causing the delay but it is getting irritating that lots of hours were wasted when I could've been happily wheeled back with baby to our room to rest. I had a hot Milo, some crackers and then some chicken rice for dinner in my labor room. By the time we got back to our room, it was already 9.30pm and hubby stayed for a while before he had to rush home to pick up our 2 kiddos from SIL's place.

So, there you go... the long story of my 3rd supernatural childbirth. And why I think this 3rd round is still supernatural?

*  Carolyn  engaged herself and yes, I remembered the pain and discomfort when I have contractions especially when baby is engaged!

* I was able to hold off for a long time from pushing Carolyn until I got wheeled into the labor ward

* I delivered Carolyn naturally

* I don't rely on painkillers other than Enthonox (which was for a couple of seconds only)

* I delivered Carolyn in 3 pushes (first one wasted on screaming and pushing while not having contractions)!

* I lost very little blood this round which was the same case with Ben and Alyson.

* No episiotomy this round! Yeay!

Again, I thank God for His divine intervention and for His blessings on our family.

And yes, we're now a family of 5!

Welcome to the family, Carolyn!

I was sharing almost 2 weeks back of my feeling bittersweet as anytime now, I won't be bringing our 2 kiddos to their church playgroup sessions. Reason being our 3rd baby is due in middle of October and I will be busy then (at least for the first 2-3 months).

I still remember when we first joined the church outing to the fire station, I asked Ben whether he liked this class and he said 'Yes'. Now after almost a month of attending the playgroups religiously twice a week for 2 hours each time, I'm very thankful we found this playgroup sessions and we managed to attend the sessions even though for a month long (for now!)

He perks up whenever I said we are going to class tomorrow and he goes 'Is it the class with the slides?'. He still does not want to attend his Sunday school classes in our church (as parents are not allowed to be in the class) compared to this playgroup sessions which I will be together with Alyson as well.

At first our 4.5 years old boy is very hesitant and takes some time to warm up to the storytelling sessions - well, any activities that requires children to sit together away from their parents/caretakers but I noticed that Ben is getting better with each session. It takes less and less time for him to warm up to the sessions. The first time he whispered to me that he wants to go home and doesn't want to be in the class and stomps his feet on the floor. Second time, no more stomping but the whispering to go home is still there. The next few rounds, no more stomping and no more saying wants to go home. He sits through the storytelling session though he still doesn't participate in the singing sessions. It's all fine with me as I can definitely see his progress with each sessions!

I also think that some of the storytelling session contributed to these progress as I can see Ben's interests perking up the first time we listened and watched the storytelling about 'Five Little Monkeys that disturbs the crocodile'. The teacher uses a hand and finger puppets to illustrate the story and it got Ben's interests! Partly because we have this storyapp on our iPad but the cool thing is Ben remembered and recited the whole thing back to daddy during dinner time. The latest storytelling session on Joshua and the Walls of Jericho got Ben sitting still and listening and watching intently, I like that!

I also like that the crafts sessions are creative and different. So far, we made elephant trumpets (the day's lesson was on animals in the zoo), paper plate lantern (the day's storytelling was about history of mooncakes and how messages were passed through secret notes slipped into the mooncakes) and paper plate lion head (the day's storytelling was about Daniel and the Lions' Den). All crafts so far were closely related to the storytelling and lessons for the day. I like the idea and relativity of this!

We joined in 2 of the church outings so far in September, one to the fire station and the other to a pet shop in a shopping mall. We enjoyed ourselves very much in both outings.

Social wise? Well, Ben does not remember his friends' names yet but I noticed he has been sharing more often and introducing himself to other childrens in the class. He also approaches children and adults there without any shyness lately. A milestone nontheless!

So with all these positive progress and milestones achieved after each playgroup sessions, I do hope to still be able to lug my 2 kiddos and baby after October month to the mother's group outing, well there are no lessons or storytelling or crafts during the mother's group outing but at least kiddos get to have free-play sessions with the toys at the center. I'm just going to pray pray pray for things to work out to our favor!

**Personal notes: Apologies but due to my paranoia of privacy and security of myself, my family and my kiddos, I am not going to reveal what is the SAHM group I'm in, the playgroup name, the area and so on. Apologies but like I said, I am really paranoid and with info like this being shown in public, I hope you can understand my reasons for doing so.