baby Olivia

rejoice, for a new baby was born to this household. :)

meet Olivia Marie.



born march 24th, 2012. weight ( i don't know why people always ask) 7 lbs 3 oz. already bigger than her brother was. :)

the delivery wasn't as smooth as with patrick. my water broke friday 6.30-ish pm just as hubby was going to work. so we rushed to the hospital thinking within 24 hours we'll surely have a baby. nope. 25 hours later i was still stuck with a 4cm dilation. so i was induced.

then there was the epidural drama. when the epidural was administered somehow it only flowed to my right side. anestheciologist said my backbone might be curved, which caused the epidural to only cover the right side of my body. hmph! so there i was in severe pain only on my left side, while completely numb on my right side. took her about 20 minutes to fix the issue (rolled me to lie on my left side), but by that time i was exhausted. after the effort worked i slept (passed out?) for 1.5 hour.

i woke up when the nurse came in and said she wanted to check my cervix. lo and behold she couldn't find it. so immediately she prepped me for delivery position. feet up. practice your breathing, and finally practice pushing. so i pushed. once. then the nurse looked at me and said "OK, i need you to NOT push again..". i was like .. what, did i do it wrong? well apparently not. i was so spot on on the pushing that the baby's head was already crowning. as in she's coming out! eek! so she made one call: "she's ready!!" other nurse came in and hurriedly prep the room. but we still had to wait for the doctor.

while waiting hubby asked if he could deliver the baby. surrreee, said the nurse. so they prep him. gave him gloves, refresh his memory on delivering babies (hubby is doctor himself), and letting him know the hospital's standard procedure. doctor came in, everybody took their position, i pushed and pop! out come the baby.

baby olivia marie, weighed 7lbs 3 oz

then there was drama #2, unknown to me at the time for i was still busy with my baby. apparently when i pushed her out, i tear an artery and it sprouted blood all over the place. ok that might've been an exaggeration, but it really was one of those bleeding that just wouldn't stop. suddenly everybody was tense and move faster than normal speed. i only realised that something was wrong when i thought it odd that it took quite a while for the doctor to stitch me up. and then one of the nurse grabbed a small hose and started sucking my blood out. and another nurse urgently tried to drew blood from my vein, but failed twice because the blood kept clogging (oh the irony) so she called another nurse from surgery department, and she managed to do it. and they put a clogging agent in that portion of blood, and injected it into my ruptured artery. what seemed like an eternity and a dozen blood-soaked towels later doctor pronounced all was well, shook my hand and congratulated me on the baby, and walked out whistling some happy tune.

i still wouldn't know the seriousness of my condition that night if it weren't for the morning nurses who checked on me. they all said i gave them a pretty serious scare last night. and judging by the soreness i was in in the morning.. yeah i pretty much think they had to stitched me up pretty good. as i'm writing this almost 5 days after, i'm still sore. maybe the doctor didn't just stitched me up, he knitted me up.

but now that we know all is well, it's time to rejoice. for i have a beautiful baby girl in addition to my already perfect little family.

freedom of speech

so sorry if i've been neglecting this blog for too long. i've been away, back, away, back, away and back again for many times this past 2 months. hubby got several interviews on the east coast and we try to go before i'm banned from flying. so we've been living out of suitcases (literally!) for quite a while, and only came home for a few days in between (sometimes a week) so hubby could work, i could clean up the house, and we got to see the poor boys who had to live in a kennel all the time we're gone.

glad to say that's all over now. i'm 37 weeks and therefore can't fly until i give birth, which is pretty soon said my obgyn. indeed, i've been feeling very bloated and had a lot of braxton hicks already, not to mention the back pain .. aahhrrgh.. i wonder how i could forget that.

anyway, today is one of those unusual day when i unexpectedly got a few hours of me-time. the house is pretty clean (at least i vacuumed the carpet), the laundry's been folded (still need to be put away though but that can wait, right?), and both daddy and son is napping quietly. bliss. so what to do beside browsing for some gossip?

i came across this article. who doesn't know kirk cameron? if you're up-to-date with your gossip columns you'd also know that he's now a pastor. so i wasn't surprise about his anti-gay opinion. what strikes me odd is the comments from readers.

i'd actually expected the comments to be harsh and condemning, following the footsteps of GLAAD. especially when nowadays there are more and more openly gays out there, and more states are permitting gay marriage. but i was wrong on this one. they (the comments, and people) are surprisingly understandable and i kind of agree with the commenters. it was Kirk's personal opinion and he was asked. who are we to condemned anyone for their opinion anyway? as long as he doesn't cause others harm, then so be it. i'm sure GLAAD thought protesting was the best action at that time, to defend themselves. but then again, (as mentioned several times in the comments) why ask us to understand you when you don't try to see and understand our point of view?

that's what i like about living in the US, i suppose. i can say what i feel without having to worry about being prosecuted by others who don't see eye to eye with me. and believe me, strangers can be mean. once i tweeted about charice, who got a botox in preparation for appearing on Glee. i commented how she's stupid to have done it, seeing as she didn't need any except that it was offered for free as part of a promotion of a beauty clinic. i got tons of tweets back saying nasty things about me. it's like hell had decided to raise an army to defend charice's decision. believe me when i say the tweets they sent gave me the chills. and to think i'm not even sure charice herself gave a damn. lol.

i wish i can have the ignorance to not think about what others say, though. words can be pretty hurtful, especially when paired with hateful acts. on this case, i agree with every beauty contestants. i just want world peace.