Siew Gin reemerging to the surface...

Last picture before we headed out.. my goodness, check out that belly!!!

Well, after resting for most of the day today, I'm finally reemerging to do my blogging(and also they fixed the computer so i don't have to enter it thru my phone).

I have to say i'm pretty happy with the birthing process. Wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be. This is the good thing about preparing for the worse, i guess.

And here is the rest of the story: (guys might want to skip over. TMI)

On Wednesday, i woke up not feeling too good due to a bad night sleep and also my belly was hurting on a regular basis. I was thinking, is this it? So, i decided to work from home. And by evening, my mother in law and I were convinced that it was contractions occuring every 5 mins or so but Alan thought the intensity wasn't there. He wasn't the only one. My doctor wasn't convinced either when i called her. But just for giggles, she said, go to the hospital to get checked out.

I took a shower, wrote some emails to work, and headed out with all the bags and everything and thought, it'd be sad if i were sent back home coz really, those contractions were rather annoying to be for nothing. My mother in law said she'll put the kettle on for good luck.

We get to the hospital, they put us in the room and did the usual check - 6 cm!! She said I was well on my way and i thought cool! We did a bunch of registration stuff and asked about epidural and started some IV, and then got my epidural and by 10:15 pm, i was hooked up with so many wires that I was practically a robot. But i didn't really mind. I was in no-pain land. :)


Epidural talking here...

At 10:30 pm another check - 7.5 cm! Jess(the nurse) was optimistic that we were going to have our baby by 2 am. I was like, this is going a little too well, isn't it? And it was, at 12 am, my doctor arrived and broke my water and did a check. Only a lousy 8 cm and said she'd check back in 2 hours. 2 hours later, 9 cm! Arrggh.. just can't seem to get to the end. I was getting a little cranky at 2 am and although epidural is good, i was starting still feel some sensation(maybe super strong pain) and it was getting a little uncomfortable. I thought, maybe another hour. Jess finally came back at 3:30 am and i thought, if it's not 10 cm yet. I was going to kill myself. But thank goodness, she spared me and said, time to have a baby.

So, at 4 am, we went into the pushing stage, she recruited Alan as the co-pushing-coach, which amount to grabbing my legs and say encouraging things to me like "it's great, awesome, you're doing a great job, we can see something, push longer, push harder.. " while i huff and puff and turn myself red, trying to figure out what exactly pushing was all about. But Alan and I must have got the technique down to pat because half-way thru, she sorta abandoned us to do our delivery while she ran off to help somebody else(there were 5 births that night within 3 hrs!). When she came back, we made some progress and she coached a little more and at some point, my doctor was called in. And i thought, must be close.

She set up some station thing at the end of the bed and i thought if i don't finish this off soon, I'm going to run out of energy. So, i gave a few good go's and lo and behold, the baby actually popped out at 5:01 am. I couldn't believe it myself.

They threw him on my chest and there he was, my little baby - Tyler Alexander Mills. After all these months, he's finally here. :)

And to Alan - great coaching, couldn't have done it without you!!!

Early Tyler Pictures

These pictures arent the greatest as Tyler is 'Swaddled', will try and post some more later today !!

Presenting Tyler Alexander Mills

Siew Gin and Alan are proud to announce the arrival of Tyler Alexander Mills.

31st October 2007 05:01am MST.

7 Pounds 10 ounces, 19 and 1/4 inches.

Mother, Tyler and Dad doing well.

Pictures to follow soon !!!

Night time labour is tiring!!

3am, slow progress.. Waiting to get to 10cm, so we can start pushing..

New eta 10/31 4:30am

Labour in Progress

Well after having contractions throughout the day.. it finally got kinda annoying about dinner time and Alan told me to call the Doctor to see what's the plan. Doctor said to go and get it checked out. So I took a shower and sent an update to my boss and headed out. I thought it'd be embarrassing iif they sent me home because that would prove I am a wimp after all. anyways we got here and we were already at 6cm, well on our way. contractions slowing down and more painful.

anways IV'd up and offered me epidural which I took,which is why I am blogging on my phone..

last check 7.5cm at 10:30pm. cant feel it,

next step break water, and hey presto baby...

we are guessing 2am

To be induced or not to be induced

That is the question, indeed.

I was in my doctor's appointment on Friday on for my week 39 check up and after some encouraging words about my examination, she asked me "Would you like to be induced next week?"

I would pay good money to see what my expression was at that moment because right after that, she was apologizing profusely for bringing it up. Must have been quite the expression!!

Anyways, she continues to explain that she often offers that as a relief to most pregnant women who are completely done with being pregnant. Reason being:
1) Baby is completely formed and ready
2) The mother feels like crap and sick and tired of waddling like a whale
3) Baby's just going to get bigger inside

But as we weren't really expecting that question, we declined that offer and decided that we could discuss that at the next appointment after i've gone past my due date.

Anyways, I talked to couple of mothers that have been induced and they all sorta agree, if there is no medical reason for it, don't do it.

Hmmm.. decisions.. decisions...

What's Alan doing during all these time?

When you read the blogs, because it's mainly written by me, you'll probably find more news about me. So, I'm going to create one for Alan just because i think he's been doing a great job in the background being my water-boy, laptop setup tech, patient listener in my breastfeeding class and of course the proud dad of our baby.

Two weeks ago, he even attended Daddy Boot Camp just to make sure he can be better prepared. Now, at least one of us knows how to change diapers(it's not me)!!!

While he was dissapointed that our baby hasn't arrived this past weekend(he put Oct 20th in the baby arrival pool), he soon got over it and went shopping with me(again) at Babies R US and bought his first toy for his son. Here's a picture of it :

In Alan's words : "It's cute!"

In the meantime, he is keeping fit by running nearly everyday and playing badminton at least twice a week.

Belly Pics at week 39

11 days and counting down fast. But apparently i can't be impatient until i'm past my due date... and i don't think the pictures do my belly justice. I should get one when it's all lopsided next. It's actually quite funny.

Week 39 - Final stretch... literally

Well, it's been another uneventful week in the baby delivering scenario although my doctor was hinting rather strongly it was super imminent *wink wink* like sorta thing. I even went for eggplant parmagiana to encourage it because it's "supposed" to help. So, I think that's another myth down the drain.

Anyways, i've been getting lots of questions like "are you having your baby now", "did you have your baby yet" etc. So let's get this straight. I doubt I'll be calling ANYONE when i'm in labor or the next few days after that, no matter how good a friend you are to me.

But here's a few signs to look for:
1) you call my cell and it goes straight to voice mail
2) you get email from Alan either announcing a birth or labor progress
3) you come to my blog and find pictures of some baby that you've never seen before!!!

Visitors and 4th Harvest Party

This weekend, one of my best friends Terry and his wife came over to visit from San Diego. It was lovely to see them after so long and they had a good time laughing at my huge belly. Carine is a wonderful cook and they made me some yummy Malaysian food throughout the weekend. It's not often i give up my kitchen, but this was one of the rare moments. Man, i was in food heaven.

While they were here, I also had my annual Harvest Party. However, due to my constant need to use the bathroom at this stage, i opted to stay home and finish up cooking while the others go have fun at Anderson Farms. After a few hours of roaming in the corn maze and pumpkin patch, the gang came back to the house for some food and drinks before getting on with the pumpkin carving competition part of the night.

With tarp laid on the kitchen floor and furniture pushed aside, the group went to work. Pumpkin carving virgins were given a few helpful tips while the pros went off to create their time consuming designs. Anyways, here are some of the designs from this year and a picture of the group. For more pictures, visit http://www.siewgin.com/

Sabrina won the Pumpkin Carving competition with her intricate Cat design and Terry came in a close second with his house design.

The group then sang Karaoke into the night before threatening to play Taboo at 11:30 pm, which by then i was ready to pass out of exhaustion.

As always, i had fun during my annual Harvest Party and hope that the rest of the group did too. Till next year...

3 cm dilated? What does it really mean?

So, on last Friday which is nearly a week ago, i went in for a doctor's appointment and got the verdict that i was already 3 cm dilated. The doctor looked a little impressed while i stared at her and said "What do you mean? I can't go into labor. I have a Harvest Party to hold tomorrow!"

She then said, "Well, nothing to get too excited about, coz you could stay this way for 2 weeks"

Anyways, maybe she's right. It's nearly a week and other than extreme paranoia on my part and Alan's frequent calling me at work asking how my contractions are coming along, nothing really has happened.

So, what does it really mean? Apparently not very much..... now i've probably jinxed myself and go into labor tonight!! *gulp*

Pro-shoot belly pics

After 3 weeks of anticipation and very patient on my part, we finally got the proofs to our professional photoshoot. Woo hoo!! After going thru about 285 pictures, I decided that we did like the pictures. Here's a small sample of it:

Preggo Pics from Veronica

Ooh, on Friday, Alan called me up and informed me that my friend Veronica, despite her very imminent due date, had sent us the pictures we took about 3 weeks ago. I was estatic! If you didn't read my previous blogs, Veronica and I went up to Chautauqua to get some of belly pictures taken by her husband(Adam). I thought it turned out quite nice.

Here are some more samples:

Warning : Scary images of belly button. May not be suitable for the faint-hearted.

Week 36

4 weeks to go till my due date... and this is what i weighed in last week. 117.6 lbs and 38.5 inches round the belly.

So, it's been an uneventful week, I think. I can't remember it anyways. I think I was just busy at working trying to get as much done before i take off for 3 months. Ooh, that's right. I was stressed all week about work but worked something out with my boss so i "don't get all stressed out" and if i were to go any day "they'll survive".

Then the weekend came by and we spent half of it shopping which seems to be the only thing we do these days. But i think we've got it pretty much covered. We even went to sign up for Costco membership just in case we need to buy things in bulk. Whoo.. serious...

But we did do something fun. On Saturday we went to see Genesis in concert and it was a fantastic concert. I never really was a Phil Collins fan, but i enjoyed it. Good music, well performed, awesome stage work. Very nice. Definitely well worth the effort of lugging my belly up to the nose-bleed seats we got. Alan who actually knew about the group enjoyed it even more. I'll put up some pictures once i figure out how to get it off my phone!

Baby Room pictures.. finally

OK, the moment you've been waiting for. After working on the Joey's room for months with efforts from my parents(stripped out the old stuff), Armen(mudding the walls), Alan parents(painting the room and making curtains), Alan(steaming carpets, assembling furniture and moving them around 500 times while i make up my mind) and me(picking out stuff), the room is recognizable as a "baby room". Final touches like picture frames is still in the works, but here it is for now!

Our car seat is also in one of the pics, i found it quite endearing that Alan put a soft toy in it when he took it to fit it in our cars.. awww...