Project Baby: 0 to 13 days



Day 2

Day 4



Day 5

Day 8

Day 10



Day 11

Day 13

Being completely new to motherhood and its attendant sleep deprivation and irritabilities is made worse by the 35 degree heat and nipples that drip for no rhyme or reason.  The sofa now houses a baby bassinet and doubles as my breast-feeding station in the day. It's the coolest room in the apartment with the ceiling fan perpetually on, giving us respite from the heat and humidity.

Night shifts are gruelling, but we've worked out a schedule and refining it as we go along since there are still some hiccups -- literally.  Daniel takes the first two shifts (between 10pm and 2am)  so I can sleep and I take the next one between 4 and 6 am.  The only problem is I don't know how to burp Juju properly (or I don't have much energy left to do a 20 minute burp session after a 60 minute nursing) and he winds up cranky and refuses to sleep resulting in Daniel having to wake up to finish the job.

On other fronts, my wound is healing and I can now move about more or less nornally as long as I am on my painkillers.  My mother brings me dinner and tonic soups daily and I drink only approved concoctions although once in a while I sneak in a cold beverage, an ice-cream or a half glass of wine.  (We are not allowed to have anything cold in the first month while my stomach and intestines are still descending to their original position)  I have dropped 10 kgs and my jelly belly is shrinking slowly but surely.  I still have to wear the awful dark brown stripe down my belly (the pigmentation from pregnancy hormones) but the amazing thing is -- still no stretch marks!

We've been having a steady stream of visitors since Juju came home. He seems to relish the attention when he's awake and is the cutest little thing, letting people hold him without complaining. Once the guests leave, he reverts to Monster Julien and starts howling for his boobies, whining to be burped or punching me in the face if the milk flow is too slow. My flow is still not at full throttle even though there's a lot more than there used to be. These days I nurse him on one nipple and manually milk the other one into a bottle. I feel and look like a cow, seriously.

Daniel will go back to work soon. He will have 3 days off next week and 2 the week after.  I dread the days that I will be alone doing this 2-person job by myself. I said I dread it -- not that I couldn't do it!  Among all of my Singaporean friends, I am the only one I know of who has chosen to do this solo, i.e. without the help of a nanny or a domestic helper in the first month, a norm for Chinese mothers. My friends thought I was nuts and everyone advised, urged or warned me that I could really use the help.

It's day 13 and we are still coping -- albeit with less sleep than we are used to -- and add to that, we've managed to take Juju out to breakfast (prematurely abortive, but not a fiasco), to the mall (he slept right through) and for walks around the neighbourhood. All this at less than 2 weeks of age. I would say that is evidence enough that when you've got the will to do something it CAN be done.