IT IS THE END OF CONFINEMENT!!!!!
I'm elated although it can't be seen easily on the outside.
I feel instantly 2 degrees celcius cooler even though the weather forecast shows 30 degrees (34 degrees with humidity) right now. Even my body is responding and celebrating in its own ways.
I've been wanting to put together my delivery of Kody on Instagram for keepsake, and even blog about delivery before I do about confinement. However, since the memory is still fresh - especially when Kara is now in school, Kody's sound asleep (as how he has been for the past 1 month 95% of the time) I can take some time to do so. Or at least, before my earthly-conformed mind drifts away and procrastinates as how it usually would, just casually being on the phone again. -Rolls eyes at myself-
This time round, Siti is around to cook my confinement meals instead of catering my meals. Easily one of the best decisions made. We cancelled our order from Chili Padi catering about 1 month before. That was after I got a green light from Siti, our helper, who will be willing to cook my confinement meals. I've thought about it - given that she is able to cook, and confinement meals can't be anymore complex than Indonesian dishes which she aces in.
My mom didn't stay in with us throughout the 1 month of confinement either. She has been of great help by being the one in charge getting groceries. She taught Siti on the confinement dishes i.e. ginger fried rice, ginger fried egg, fish with rice wine and ginger etc. + cooking pig trotters with black vinegar. She also guided her on how to shower and clean Kody up. I'm SOOOOO glad I get to have a lot more noodles this time. I figured just rice alone is not my thing especially when the dishes to go with it is just so unflavourful....
So yes, we were up and going for confinement on the meals and caring for newborn!
Well, as for me....... Confinement was and is a thorn in the flesh. I'm jotting down my personal experience for keepsake. Of course no one's experience is gonna be the same and I certainly do not hope for anyone except for it to be very bearable, or even pleasant.
So the pains of confinement this time for me:
2. Some postpartum blues for the first 2 weeks
3. HIGH body temperature. Basically SUPER HOT.
4. Body odour (led by the aforementioned)
5. Cracked and sore nipples (from 1st two weeks latching / attempts to)
6. Rashes on my right underboob (yup yucks)
I'll just say that there are some things that we can't avoid postpartum such as the lack of and very disrupted sleep which comes with the feeding. It's just exacebated if you choose to breastfeed/exclusively pumping. So the reality is 3 hourly feeding/pumping for the 1st month. i.e. 10pm, 1am, 4am, 7am, 10am so on. Not including the time taken to wash the pump parts, feeding baby, cleaning baby or yourself up each time which can take an addition 30 min-1 hour again. Kody's bowels is exceptionally active between 1am-7am. Even a morning person like myself can't perk myself up that much throughout 1 month other than to feel exhausted at certain point of the day. We had Kody in the same room as us (Rov Kara and I) throughout the night and I wouldn't choose it any other way. Who could be more sensitive than me to the sound and needs of my child? Plus I'm needed to wake up every 3 hours anyway. I'm sleeping so lightly lol..
Not to forget the constant heavy bleeding down at the vaginal for almost 2 week straight. There's stil spotting now at week 4 but much better.
THEN AGAIN, this is just a phase. It shall pass. I don't downplay it neither do I rant all day and night about it. But I think I do rant all day about feel BLOODY HOT!!!!!! The weather the past 1 month hasn't been any way merciful and I do have the aircon switched on here and there. I can only blame myself for not having it on most of the time, especially given that we are gonna shift from this home and the condition of the aircon shouldnt matter to me that much anymore anyway...!!!
Ok, so from point 1-6 mentioned above, I'll elaborate a little more on point 1 cos tbh I'm sure point 1-5 is nothing exceptional to most moms.
So how did stomach flu even happen???????
My highest suspicion is that I caught it from the pregnant mother who was staying next to me in the hospital. From my hearing observation, she should have been admitted due to some sort of stomach flu. I was warded in 4 bedder ward, so inevitably I would have to share the same toilet bowl as her, right??
Figured it was the closer to the time before getting discharged that I got fully exposed to the toilet bowl and bacteria/virus (prior to that I had the pee pan placed on top of the toilet bowl each time to catch and measure the amount of pee - this is the hospital's way to ensure bladder care for those with vaginal birth)
Signs of stomach flu showed itself full force only upon reaching home when my bowels were UNCONTROLLABLE. In all transparency, poop in liquid form leaked out without warning. Once, it leaked so bad that even my maternity pad couldn't contain it (it wasn't meant to anyway) and it stained the floor outside my room. Quite a number of times for the first night, it was explosive to the point the floor of my toilet was covered with dark liquid faeces because I could get my butt back to the toilet bowl in time. THAT BAD. I was so frustrated while in pain and shame and full annoyance with my own bowels while I cleaned and scrubbed the toilet with bleach several times. DAMN. I don't wish this upon anyone.
Then for the first weekish, making runs to the toilet 5-6 times a day, having liquid faeces staining maternity pad / underwear was norm. The stomach flu only fully cleared after 2 weeks. Absolutely distasteful. Lol what a choice of word (taste) for this.
I've just looked at my last post on my blog and realized I didn't document the pains of my earlier postpartum and confinement after delivering Kara. I didn't even complete my post. LOL. Let me document it another time. Postpartum then in 2021 has its own set of problems. Lol if asked which I would choose over, I really can't give an outright answer.
I'm not adding caring for a toddler in the midst of confinement as part of the pains of confinement, but I must say it is a challenge. Kara has been really sweet with Kody - calling his name in the sweetest voice, being gentle with him, sharing her favourite moomoo (when she has 2 of them) with him etc.
However when it comes to moments where she needs comfort especially being awakened in wee hours for whatever reasons, she'll cry out to me and I'll have to carry her who is 10kg. That is definitely not great for the still-recovering uterus. Many days I have to carry her to and back from school when she needs comfort. I can only thank God school is just 2-3 minutes away from home.
Rov and I have taken many opportunities to bring Kara to playgrounds around the neighbourhood to ensure we have some alone time with her and making her transition of having a new family member a pleasant one, as much as possible. When she wants to be carried and it has to be for quite some distance..... It's not pleasant for me lol.
on 13-15 March, 1 week before the end of confinement Kara was admitted to KKH for RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) after being referred by polyclinic and sending her to A&E to get checked. Rov, my mom, Kody and I were all together when that day was also supposed to be one of Kody's Jaundice follow up appointment. Thanks to my dad he could drive us to KKH, as he did ferrying us for every polyclinic visit. So it's a whole day from 9am to 4/5pm before I got home while Rov stayed in with Kara in the hospital. I'd say in the somewhat 2 days following that as my dad sent to me the hospital daily for visits, the saving grace as been the aircon in the ward LOL. Poor girl had so many crying episodes it was prolly uncountable. Rovson had it rough too having to carry her so she could sleep because she refused to sleep in the hospital cot bed. He personally admitted that he wanted to be home more than her!
I'm thankful that I've personally witnessed how Kara has opened up and been more sticky to Siti this period. I'm more thankful than feeling sad (though there's some bittersweet feeling when she chooses her over me). This just gives more light to Rov and I having dates even with 2 kids!! Gonna arrange it real soon.
Ok so here I am, after 2 hours spent typing away on my Macbook feeling pleasantly pleased with myself for completing what I have been hoping to do for the past 4 weeks. That's just 1 down, out of a number of check boxes. But hey, one step at a time!!!!
Slight bummer that I prolly caught some of the virus from Kara, hence having some congestion now which I'm trying to recover from by taking Zyrtec :')
To end off, thank you to the aunts and uncles who came to visit these period!
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