Priceless Experiences Part 1

As my due date is approaching, I am becoming more and more nervous with the arrival of my new born baby. 

I remember those first 2 weeks of frustration when I tried to breast feed Elyse.  Thanks to all the baby books.  All of them claimed that mothers would have sufficient supply of milk for their babies, as long as we feed them on demand.  However, it is not so in my case.  My milk flow came in rather late.  Leaving me very depressed for unable to provide for my baby girl.  Determined to breast feed my baby, I've tried every possible ways.  Breastfeeding is really not that easy after all.

Finally when I got used to breast feeding and reassured myself that Elyse was feeding well (she is growing and putting on weight), I have an infection on my wound (C-section).  I needed to go back to my gynae every week to clean up the wound.  It was very painful each section.  The nurse and my gynae would need to poke a hole with a needle or use a knife to cut my wound and pressed on it to make sure it is cleaned.  No pain killer was provided.  Each week I prayed and hope for the best.

Due to the infection, I was under strong medication.  It is not advisable to breast feed my baby.  However, to ensure my milk supply in the future, I expressed out my milk and threw them away.  I did that every 2 hours, even at night.  It was very tiring but I persevered, hoping that this may help to increase my milk flow.

So, every day and night after feeding Elyse, I would need to spend extra time expressing my milk and washed and sterillised the equipment.  By the time I laid down to rest, just moments later I needed to repeat the entire process again.  Thanks to my in laws who helped me tiredlessly.  Many times they helped me to feed the baby.  Elyse drinks her milk rather slow even till now.  There was once my father in law fed her for one hour!

Finally I was healthy again there came another incident.  My body was full of rashes.  Chinese called it 'fong mo'.  Some people said I shouldn't have drink wine, some people said I should have avoided fan blowing directly on me, some people said it's the air cond.  Whatever the reasons may be, I was really saddened by this incident.  I was quarantined for 2/3 days until the rashes was gone completely.  Since the baby was still young, we do not want to take any chances.

Just when everything was fine again, our bedroom was invaded by bugs.  Both Andrew and I have been bitten all over our bodies.  Thank God that Elyse was spared from this.  At first we thought it was mosquitoes, until one fine evening I discovered a bug on my shirt while taking a nap.  We moved the bed frame outdoor and sun it.  Cleaned up the entire room.  Washed everything.  Then peace and quiet was finally restored again.

The next part of the story I'll write about how our lives were messed up by this precious angel.