Alina was born

So, at last Alina was born on 26th April 2012. Around 2-3 weeks earlier than the due date. It seems that she cannot wait any longer to enjoy the world :D. Or perhaps her mother’s little womb had become too crowded.

It begun with yuan having the water broke in the early hours of 25th April. We were a bit panic since we were pretty much unprepared :D. We didn’t find a name yet, Yuan hadn’t arranged her hospital’s bag, mother-in-law was still in china. But, well, once the motion sets in, nothing can stop it. The baby will come, ready or not :D.

And so, we got back to the St Mary’s hospital again. Perhaps, Yuan was very nervous.

Yuan got her induction rescheduled. She got the induction cream at around 12am. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to accompany her until the late stage of her labour. So, I went home and tried to have some rest.

At 5.30am, I got a phone call from the hospital. Apparently, the induction made Yuan in pain and the baby was not happy as well. So, they moved Yuan to the birthing room to get close observation (one midwife accompanied us the whole time).

Luckily, the situation didn’t get worse. The baby’s heart rate became normal again. Yuan used almost all kind of painkillers from the non-sense ones (according to Yuan) e.g. gas & air or entonox and paracetamol to the more reliable ones e.g. diamorphine (no pain for a good 2 hours) and the painkiller-of-last-resort i.e. epidural.

Yuan calmed down after injected with diamorphine:

At last, she got her first 2 hours sleep at that day. The pain had kept her awake the whole night :(. Yuan got intravenous fluid replacement and antibiotic pills too (due to her water broke).

For the last 9 hours of labour (in total, 17 hours) Yuan relied on epidural, topped up every now and then. Thanks God, Yuand didn’t have any complication nor side effect.

After the long labour came the great news: Alina was born 🙂

This was the first time both Alina and Yuan said hello to each other :).

Alina was having quite a hard time to get out of her mother’s womb. The (junior) doctor tried ventouse twice and failed :(. Last, the senior doctor took the lead and used forceps and succeeded :).

I met Alina at last 🙂 after 9 months talking to (and singing to) Yuan’s womb hahaha:

And, the first time Alina was breastfed:

In that 17 hours of labour, I felt totally useless. I couldn’t do anything to help Yuan. The only thing I could do was to be there and be supportive. It had been amazing that Yuan succeeded to go through the long labour.

Yuan, our mothers, and all the mothers in the world are truly the unsung heroes. They deserve all the respect from her husband, children, and families.

Water broke

Yuan’s water broke last night (wednesday, 25th April 2012, 1.30am). Then, we rushed to St Mary’s to have a check. After about one hour check, we were sent back home to wait for natural labour. In addition, the hospital also arranged an induction at 8am 26th April. So, it seems that we are going to meet with the baby within 24 hours. Exciting and also nervous at the same time. Please pray for the mother and the baby.

Everything is ok so far.

Here is the picture last night when yuan was having the check:

一晃就九个月了

到今天为止我就正式怀孕九个月了，这意味着离我的预产期只有一个月了，同时也意味着我的宝宝可以在接下来的任何一天选择出来了，想想有些期待也有些害怕。

在上几个月里其实有许多事情需要纪录，但我的懒惰病又犯了，所以一直也没下定决心写。 Continue reading 一晃就九个月了

Baby’s name?

We are confused (and a bit panic) :D. We don’t have any name for the coming baby yet. The baby will take two names i.e. chinese and non-chinese. Both names will be of official names. And, we need your help to give us some suggestions about the name.

picture taken from the dailymail.

The chinese ‘version’ of the name will be of our parents’ (and grandparents’) responsibility :D. Let them discuss among them and find a suitable name for the baby. One of the reasons is because Yuan and me are not well-versed in chinese naming strategy. I mean finding a name is not only about mixing different words that sound nice and have a good meaning. More than that, it’s about to understand the deeper meaning of each words and how they interact and the character or the words. To my mind, chinese name is a complex process.

However, the non-chinese one is our responsibility. And even this simple ‘requirement’ makes us panic nowadays hahaha. We had thought about it from months ago, yet to no avail. And now, as the due date is approaching (very fast *omg*), we become panic :(.

In Indonesia (and perhaps china too), baby name can sometime be given several weeks/days after the birth. In Uk as well. However, Yuan’s colleague told us that the administrative process to issue birth certificate is so time-consuming in UK. It takes months to complete. And this is the problem.

We don’t know how long will we stay in UK after my graduation (supposedly) in between August-November 2012. We need the birth certificate to apply for a passport for the baby. And again, this takes time.

Apart from all the administrative complication :D, we want to think carefully about the baby’s name. Well, since this is the first baby, we naturally want the best things for her including a name.

We thought this was an easy task. But we were so wrong :D. We have listed several conditions for the name in order to help us finding a suitable name. The list *please bear with me* is as follow:

Generic Conditions:

  • A name associated for girl or unisex. The baby is supposed to be a girl. But who knows anyway.
  • The name preferably doesn’t sound like a ‘western’ or ‘middle-eastern’ name *no offence*. However, latin name will be considered :D. We prefer names from Sanskrit or Indonesian. By western, we mean english, french, american, italian, spanish, etc. For example, we don’t fancy “jane” nor “jeanne” nor “jeannete”. I will write another post about this particular condition in the future.
  • It should be pronounce-friendly for our friends and families in China :D. In another word, we try to avoid using too many “R” in the name hahahaha.

Specific Conditions:

  • Preferably, it is associated with “light” or “to enlighten”. It can be of direct association or indirect one as well.
  • We also entertain names associated with “grace” e.g. a grace or to be a grace for others.

Basically, we wish that the baby would bring goodness/enlightenment/inspirations to her surroundings.

So, please feel free to suggest any name :). You can give your suggestion through email, text, or the comment box below. Any suggestion is warmly welcomed :).

闺女，你是在妈妈肚子里练功夫吗？

没想到这一篇日志竟然写了这么久，两个星期前就开始写了，竟然一直没机会把它完成，不管怎样不能留给下年阿，好，现在继续写。

从23号做完B超检查知道怀得是个闺女之后，我们就开始用she来叫她了，以前每次说he和she都要想一会儿，现在不用再想了，但发现我们还是喜欢称她为宝宝。有一次跟同事称”我的娃”，把他们逗笑了好久。
Continue reading 闺女，你是在妈妈肚子里练功夫吗？

The foetus’ sex 宝宝性别大公布

So we had our 2nd USG scan on 23rd December at St Mary Hospital. It was a thorough scan. The scan indicated that the foetus is all well. As a bonus, the scan also gave the first information about the foetus sex.

我们在12月23日做了第二次全面的B超检查，检查结果宝宝发育一切正常，而且我们还知道了宝宝的性别。

Therefore, without further a due, it’s (likely to be) a GIRL 😀 *hooray*.

是女孩，女孩，女孩耶！！！

This is really the best Christmas present for us and our whole family. Merry Christmas, families and friends.

这对我们全家来说是最好的圣诞礼物。在这里，祝我们所有的家人和朋友圣诞快乐。