In line with the homeschool activities, it is learning about the number "2" for today. Got Faith to choose some of her favourite colours to trace the numbers and as usual Yellow was the first colour she chose; and she went on to colour the dogs Yellow too. :P

Faith is getting better and better at sticker activities as her motor skills develop. With observation, she's now able to peel the stickers off on her own by bending the corners or edges of each sticker. And for sticking on, sometimes she will use the other hand to guide her if the sticker is too big. Thankful that Faith is growing up well. Praise the Lord! :)

Light blue is the colour for this new unit, after having learnt Blue in the last. Let Faith doodled with the 2 colours today on a drawing block. Spot Didi Edward in the photo too. :)

Faith is rather familiar with the alphabets by now and we are moving on to train her in her numerals. Tried to hold her hand to write "123" today (in blue). And we started a new sticker book on numbers. :)

This week we start off a new unit on Dogs, Friendliness and Light Blue. Thanks to Papa who brought Faith to the library yesterday, we have new books to start off the unit. In view of my confinement during this period, Mama has prepared some of the learning resources in advance. :)

During the trip to the library, Papa also activated Edward's library card and with at least 6 books borrowed, we are entitled to get a goodie bag of good reads and some reading guides. It's really an investment to get the young to start reading. We're glad that we started Faith young; and Edward too (soon). 

Papa also brought Faith to the Dog Park at Nex. Faith enjoys looking at the animals and loves to say "hello" to them. :)

Sharing one of the favourites of Faith at the moment - Good Night Gorilla. We started reading this book as prescribed reading (part of homeschool curriculum) about 3 months back. We read this book almost every night and Faith is still enjoying the book.

The book has very few words in speech bubbles and some pages, no words at all. This allows the reader to be exercise one's creativity and imagination. That's probably why Faith enjoys the book so much - as Papa is so animated when it comes to reading books to Faith! :)

It is really not easy coping with two children in the family, especially a very active toddler and a newborn that demands your attention. Many can identify with that. I'm thankful that I have an ever-supportive hubby (that helps to burp and change baby, and entertain the big one). And of course our family and helper. It does make things much easier and allow me to have more rest and to type this post of course

The new experience as a jiejie has also allowed her to pick up some new vocabulary like "pacifier" and "mittens".

On the homeschool front, mummy managed to have enough energy to restart our learning routine earlier this week and we've just managed to complete the Panda unit today. For the first few days, mummy was still adjusting to Edward's sleeping and feeding routine, but I did try to spend some time with her with reading and doing her favourite sticker book.

​So far, jiejie Faith had been coping well. We are actually amazed at her understanding. She understands that didi Edward inside of mummy is now the didi in front of her. She will say "pacifier" when didi cries, wanting us to bring it for didi. Of course there are times that she wants more manja time with us, even though she sees that didi is crying and needing our attention. Sharing of pillow is definitely a no-no. 

It is slightly before 2 am on the Sunday morning of 3rd July 2016. I had gotten up to go to the washroom and there was some bloody discharge. No contractions yet. Quietly excited as that is a sign that labour is coming; I was already overdue by 12 days! 

Got back to bed and couldn't get back to sleep. It was perhaps 10 to 15 minutes later that the first contraction started. I got to my phone app and started the contraction tracker, thinking that it wouldn't be so soon and thought I'll let Bernard have a little more rest before the real action begins. But I was wrong. I didn't expect the contractions to come in so fast and intense... The first few readings were already like 3-4 minutes apart! Ready-to-go-to-the-hospital kind of timing. I quickly woke Bernard up and asked him to get ready.

We contacted our doula. There was no time for her to come to our place, unlike Faith's birth and we had to meet at the hospital. I like going to the hospital in the wee morning because there's practically no traffic at all. Even then, I had to endure 4 contractions in the car in the most uncomfortable position - yes, I counted, with one just at the door of the hospital. It was slightly past 3 am when we reached the hospital and was so glad to see Doula Catherine waiting for us! She helped me to get to the delivery suite while Bernard went to park the car.

In my prepared birth plan, I had wanted to use the tub for hydrotherapy - the warm water was useful in soothing the contraction pain during Faith's time. However, when the nurse came in to check, I was already 8 cm dilated. "Active labour period" she says and I wasn't allowed to use the tub. And from then I had to be strapped to the monitor and can only stay in the bed. :P

The wait for dilation to 9 cm was rather fast but then it is always the last cm that seems to take forever. The nurse will not allow you to push unless one is 10 cm dilated. And the thing that impedes the development of labour was my very strong waterbag that refused to break. Nurse gave the option to prick the waterbag but we thought we will still want it to be as natural as possible. A few more contractions later, Dr Paul came in and went ahead to prick my waterbag. From then the contractions were even more intense and the urge to start pushing was even stronger...

The nurse quickly informed Dr Paul who was making his rounds in the wards. I was so so glad to see him donning his robe, a sign that I can really start pushing. I can still remember for Faith, it took 2 breathes and pushes for her to be out. For Edward, I lost count. I thank God for His strength and grace to get Edward out. After the long long wait (with me 12 days overdue), it was really a relief to hold Edward in my arms.

Dr Paul then proceeded to deliver the placenta but he was taking quite a while; pushing and squeezing my tummy, trying to push and pull it out... According to doula and Bernard, the usually very calm Dr Paul started to look a bit tense. It was later that I learned that an emergency c-section may have to be scheduled if the placenta cannot be delivered. Bernard and Doula Catherine was praying and thank God the placenta came out in the end!

Then the nurses started to clean me up and got me ready to be transferred to the ward. I was so looking forward to having my breakfast after all the pushing. The nurses helped me out of bed to clear my bladder but I shockingly passed out a lot of blood instead. Suddenly, I started to feel weak and faint. I was helped to the bed and after consultation with Dr Paul, the nurses put me on drip. I'm not afraid of pain, but I just hate needles!

I was had to be kept under observation for another hour in the delivery suite while Baby Edward was pushed up to the nursery for his tests and assessments. For the record, the statistics for Baby Edward at birth:

Weight: 4.09 kg
Length: 53 cm
Head circumference: 34 cm (vs Jiejie Faith's 3.63 kg, 50 cm and 33 cm)

It could be the big size baby that caused the excessive bleeding and dip in blood pressure (Bernard later told me that my bp plunged to 98). Thank God for His hand upon me and I managed to recover quite fast and the blood pressure was normal in the afternoon.

The healing and recovery of body was also much faster and better compared to the first birth. Thank God for watching over us. And thankful for our family and friends for keeping us in prayer throughout my entire pregnancy and delivery. All glory to God! Amen! :)

Having fun with her new toy - a cooking set for her birthday present. And something yummy related to lesson for this unit - Panda biscuits! :)

When Faith didn't have her morning nap and too tired to finish her lunch... She fell asleep shortly after she lay down for her afternoon nap. Before she napped, asked her if she's going to nap for 1, 2,or 3 hours and she said "2". Amazingly, she really woke up in 2 hours exactly! :)