Wanted: Superheroine Moniker

Needing the service of a superheroine? Look no further than me, the... er... ah.... hmmm. I need a superheroine moniker. Any suggestions?




Hush. I just sneaked into the enemy's secret hideout and trying to find out where they're keeping the hostages.




I hear a scream! Hang on, I'm coming!




You ain't getting away, you baddie!




Take that! *POW* *SMASH*




Another day, another baddie in the garbage can. I'm off!

Hui Ning Trivia

Where to start blogging about your baby? There're so many bits and ends and trivias about Hui Ning...

• She's got two spirals in her hair!
  
  



• She had her first smile at three days old, when her grandparents jangled a bunch of keys at her in the morning! This here is one of her sweetest smile caught on film so far, on the evening of the 3rd day.
  
  
  



• She's strong. My husband told me she gripped the sides of the basinet as soon as she was placed in one after birth; and kept kicking when the nurse bathed and wrapped her up in a towel. Until now I can't quite hold her without a swaddle — she'd be a bundle of flying limbs.
  



• She hates baths — and what's more, she's strong enough to desist: she tries to "stand" in the tub when we tried to sit her down. (It's probably those twin hair spirals at work; the Chinese believe kids with twin hair spirals are a handful.) The confinement lady said she never met a baby who hated bath times so much.



• She can be impatient. She'd frantically waggle her head from side to side trying to grab a nipple, and when she can't get it after a few tries, she scrunches up her face and "stamps" her feet against thin air... She's more skillful at breastfeeding nowadays, but darling, I hope you'd grow to be more sweet-tempered. That's one of mummy's traits that mummy hope you won't inherit.



• She gets really cranky trying to get to sleep. I often feel reduced to tears too... but everytime she wakes, she flashes that angelic smile and all is forgotten. Sigh.



• She weighed 2.5kg at birth; now at 1 month she weighs 3.5kg! Not bad at all for a small-breasted mom's attempt at breastfeeding eh? (Although we do give her a supplemental bottle of formula or two at the times of day when my milk supply is not so abundant)
  

What does it mean?

I've been getting questions on what Hui Ning's name means...

Wong 黄 : the family name.
Hui 慧 : wisdom.
Ning 宁 : tranquility, serenity.

Although we were looking more at individual characters rather than what they mean as a group while thinking of potential names, I like to think that Hui Ning 慧宁 means "having the wisdom to achieve tranquility of the soul". I really hope that she'd have a blissful, happy (but not blissfully ignorant!) life, able to take any stumbles and falls along the way without much undue mental and emotional anguish...

The Birth of Baby Hui Ning

!!!!Too Much Information (TMI) Warning!!!!

OK you have been warned. Proceed with care, those of you who aren't sure you want the details of the birthing of my little baby girl. Nothing too explicit, but still, I know some people might feel queasy.



12 days ago, on the morning of 30 July... (if you're wondering why I can almost pin down the times so nicely in the chronology, that's because there's a clock in my face, hanging on the wall right opposite my bed in the delivery room.)

6:05am: I woke up feeling a weird sensation. When I rushed to the toilet, it turns out that I've just lost my plug. Since there was no pain yet, I wondered if I should wake up MC (my husband) — when my water broke and started gushing out. OK then, no need for any more wondering. It did get MC into a bit of frenzy. He kept urging me to get going while I was still calmly (contraction pains hadn't started yet, you see) checking one last time the stuff to bring to the hospital...

6:30am: We arrived at the hospital. All the way the water just kept trickling and trickling, and I couldn't control it at all. Somehow all the traffic lights on the way turned red as we approached them... Luckily we didn't opt for a hospital on the island, otherwise it'll be an agonising journey, what with the midnight bridge closure and all.

6:50 am: My obgyn came in, looking dishevelled in a T-shirt (how do doctors in general and obgyns in particular get themselves going anyway?? Energizers??). I was only beginning to dilate, so he's a bit concerned if it's going to be a long labour. Yeow. In the meantime the nurses put on a fetal monitor, and the baby's heartbeats sound deafening in the room...

7:10 am: I feel the contractions starting, but not really painful yet.

8:20 am: OK they're getting painful now. The nurse handed me the anthonox gas mask and it did help, somewhet. This hospital allows husbands in the labour room, so I've got a hand to squeeze on too.

9:00am: Apparently I've dilated 1.5–2cm; my obgyn proclaimed it "not-too-bad".

10:40 am: AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH the PAAAAAAAIIIIIIN!!!!!

11:00am: I pleaded for an epidural. The nurse told me that my dilation was progressing well (6cm now) and it might be over in another hour. But with the pain I'm feeling at this point I doubted that I'll have any energy to push when the time comes (since the pain gets progressively more intense after this). Plus my muscles are way too tight, and I tense even more whenever a contraction hits — not a good thing. So I asked for the epidural anyway.

11:20am: Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh relief. after the epidural. Just 5 minutes before I was moaning like some pitiable kitten and almost on the verge of clawing someone and wringing their limbs off or strangling their necks.

12:00pm: I'm starting to feel some pressure down there, but it's not time to push yet.

12:15pm: The nurse told me to start pushing whenever I feel the contraction/pressure. It's getting close.

12:45pm: The obgyn came in again, apparently it's time! After some preparations, the obgyn sat down and 3 nurses huddled round and everyone started urging me to push! Push! PUSH!!!

(TMI — If you must know, it was like a bad case of constipation. And the earlier contraction pains were like bad cases of period cramps.)

12:58pm: She's out! Hui Ning came into the world, a small bundle of 2.5kg, gasping for air when I saw her, but otherwise not making too much noise (unlike the cliched loudly wailing baby you always see in movies). A nurse wheeled her out to the next room to be bathed etc, with my husband in tow.

Later he'd tell me that almost immediately from birth, Hui Ning had her eyes opened wide and gazing at everything in her sight, even grabbing at the nurse's fingers as she bathed her, gripping the sides of the bassinet, etc. She was even kicking off the nappy and towel when they tried to wrap her up.

Back in the labour room the obgyn continued his work... OK I guess this part is so TMI I won't relate it here to jaga the faint-of-heart readers. Later the nurse brought little Hui Ning back to me.

She is soooooo beautiful, with her large, bright eyes and soft hair. She's the splitting image of her father, especially her lips...

Sure, any mom would gush about her new-born babe, but gimme a break, this is MY baby and I have a right to gush about MY baby. Geeky moms gush about their cute babies too, see. Hehehe.

Welcome, Baby Hui Ning!

Notice the change in the blog title?

Yeah, baby Hui Ning arrived roughly a week earlier, at 12:58pm on 30 July 2008. My water broke around 6a.m., so I guess my labour wasn't too long for a first child...



I'm still pretty exhausted (and time-constrained!) to blog much -- you know the drill In the meantime, here are some photos.

38 weeks

Until I saw myself on film I had no clear idea how big I've actually become....

1.5 weeks to go (assuming we're following strict due dates)! :D

Counting Down

About 2 weeks to go now. My tummy now feels pretty solid all the time. We've packed the hospital bag, but always feeling as if we're forgetting something or other... well you know the feeling. In the meantime, my obgyn says everything seems to be going pretty well. Hope it stays so (and for all future proceedings too)!