Maya Day 3: From Blue to Green!

In the morning of the 28th of February, I went to see Maya at the nursery where she had spent most of the night under her blue light. She was the smallest of the blue light babies but the others were all crying or fidgeting and she was happily lying there soothing herself by sucking on her fingers - that's my little girl :) 

Shortly thereafter, Maya was finally allowed out of the blue light and back into my room in her normal little crib. She was also given the green light to go home. Below, all dressed up and ready to go. By day 3 she was no longer blue but still had some bruises on her eyelids and nose (you can see them below). 

One last hurdle before we could leave... I had to get the green light from my doc to head out.  That involved waiting and waiting in her office before finally being able to see her and being cleared.

Bye bye room 4365!

Waiting in the lobby of the hospital for our friend to pick us up

My sweet Maya

So happy to be heading home!

Maya in the car seat

We made it home where Noah was eagerly awaiting his little sister

Noah opening the present Maya got him (legos)

Maya checking out her "parc" - it's loud here!

Peacefully sleeping at home

That's something worth chuckling about 

Maya's first day home was very relaxed and wonderful - she slept well and ate well and cuddled well and Noah was so very happy to have her at home with him (as were we). We feel very lucky that even though she was born a bit early, Maya was and continues to be doing great.  

Maya Days 1&2: Turning Pink but Seeing Blue

February 26 was a relaxed day at Mount E. We gave Noah the choice between going to school in the morning and then coming to see me and Maya in the afternoon or spending the day with us. Unsurprisingly, he chose to spend the day with his little sister. He brought some books to read her and to read with us of course. Below, Maya starting to look less blue.

with Seth

with Seth and Noah

her head is soooo small

The Mount E Hospital package included a "candlelight dinner" for the parents and we were allowed to add Noah so that evening we had our "fancy" hospital dinner - our first dinner together as a family of four. 

The next morning (February 27th) we had to rush to get Maya her passport pictures and get everything  ready to go home pending the pediatrician's green light. The pediatrician had been very optimistic as Maya was eating well, had stopped loosing weight and did not look too yellow. Below, me preparing Maya to head out. 

But then the jaundice numbers came back and the pediatrician thought it was more prudent for Maya to spend 24 hours under a blue light before heading home. The blue light treatment was to be done in the nursery which meant Maya could not be in my room with me. The nurse must have seen the face I made when I heard the news because she arranged for the blue light to be brought to my room :)

With Noah, we had jokingly determined early on that Noah would be a conductor (see pic below of Noah at 11 days old). 

It seems - Maya will be a violinist...  below playing her imaginary violin under her blue light.

The blue light was no fun - I could not hold Maya except when feeding her... luckily she took it very well.  And at least she was in my room so I could sing to her and read to her and play her some soothing music. It seems the in utero playings of Guantanamera had some effect because anytime I put the song on, she would immediately calm down. 

A feeding break from the blue light.

That night, I figured that since I could not hold her, we would both be better off if she was in the nursery where someone would watch over her and bring her to me for feedings (also I was starting to get headaches from the blue light). 

Surprise: Mango is here!

During the night of the 23rd of February to 24th of February, I started having some contractions. Not too strong and rather spaced out. I did not think much of it and figured they would die down on their own. Although all was ready for Mango - I still had not finalized my suitcase (yet again) so in the morning, I packed up my suitcase "just in case." Things seemed better though so we met up with some friends at their place (friends I felt comfortable retiring on the couch with). As the morning progressed, however,  the contractions seemed to only get stronger and closer together. Last time with Noah, I had not experienced any contractions (my water broke and I had strong constant pain but no contractions. Noah, with his head still up, was then taken out via c-section) so this was all new to me. Once home, I tried to lie down for a while to see if things would calm down but they didn't so we called the hospital. The nurse suggested I come over for some monitoring. We called all our friends in the condo and sent Noah over to play with his little buddies Luna and Bink. Noah was super excited and kept telling his Daddy that he hoped Mango would be born this evening because he had already waited sooooo long for her! 

Once at the hospital delivery suites (with suitcase and all "just in case"), they monitored the contractions and my doc came by to see me.

As I was barely dilated and as Mango was only at 35 weeks, my doc tried to stop the contractions with various drugs. She seemed optimistic and went home. Seth also went home to put Noah to bed (Noah  had been picked up by our new helper Eleonor and was happily playing at home by then). A few hours later, the contractions had gotten worse (and by then I was more than 5cm dilated!) and finally my water broke... doc came back and Seth came back and... baby Maya was born at 1:38am on February 25 2013!

She was quite small - 44cm for 2.110kg and looked a bit scary because she had some contusions on her face which was quite blue at first. The doc surmised that she had rammed into my uterus during the contractions --- poor little girl.

She cried out after being born but then seemed to have some water stuck in her lungs and had some trouble breathing. Once that was cleared, the pediatrician brought her over to cuddle with me for a bit. Given her size though the pediatrician thought it would be better to keep her in the NICU for the rest of the night to monitor her oxygen level and get a little glucose into her (by then her oxygen level was 100%).

Seth went with Maya to the NICU, after which he was summarily sent to the billing department to pay for the NICU admission (gotta love the insurance system here: no insurance for newborns!). He wasn't allowed back in the NICU for a while (as they were putting in an IV, as a precaution).  Hence he wandered about, waiting for me to be released from the recovery room. We met up back in my room a little while later.  

It was so strange that first night knowing I had given birth (at 35 weeks no less) but not having my baby with me. She was not allowed out of the NICU and I was not yet allowed out of my room. The whole thing felt surreal as Seth and I, wide awake, talked the rest of the night away. For some reason, I was not able to sleep - too excited  (the same had happened to me after Noah's birth - I could not sleep that first night).

The morning of the 25th, I was told she could leave the NICU if she was able to nurse well. They wheeled me into the NICU and Maya immediately started nursing sucking very, very strongly. So they released her from the NICU.  

Maya in our room in her little bassinet 

After my amazing experience at the private clinic in Switzerland, I was a bit worried about how things would be here in Singapore.  Our room, however, was great - more of a hotel room than a hospital room. Plus, I had a view of the courtyard garden with its fountain and tropical plants... and the food was good (I generally had a choice between a Chinese dish, an Indian dish, a Malay dish or a western style dish - you got to love the diversity in Singapore!).

Maya - already a little less blue.

Maya eating...

Early that morning, Seth had gone home to take Noah to school.  Seth napped for a couple hours, picked Noah up, and brought Noah over to the hospital to meet his new sister. Below Noah inspecting his little sister. 

He, of course, had many many questions.

Most important of all, he wanted to know when he could hold her. So we set things up and brought Maya over for him to hold. He proceeded to shower her with kisses and loving stares :)

The boys with little Maya.

From the time when Maya was about 30 weeks in utero - Noah had started "reading" goodnight moon to her almost every night. He knows the book by heart and recites it to her while flipping through the pages at the appropriate times. He had asked to bring the book to the hospital to read to her - below, Noah's first reading of Goodnight Moon to little Maya. 

After that, Noah and Seth went home (visiting hours ended at 8pm).  They had dinner at the Wisma Foodcourt, before heading home for bed. I remained cuddling with my little Maya. Thus ended the day of Maya's birth.

Preparing for Baby Mango

Because Noah was born slightly early (and because I am a bit of a preparation freak), I wanted to have everything (or almost everything) ready for Mango by the 34th week. We started putting her room together in January, transforming Seth's desk back into a changing table and Noah's bed back into a crib.  Most fun of all, we got to redecorate!

Below is a picture of Noah's room as a baby in Switzerland.  (The photo was taken shortly before the movers came to ship our stuff all the way to Singapore.) We had kept most of the stuff - a lot of which is now in Noah's big boy room in Singapore, but not all...

We wanted Noah to feel involved with preparing for his little sister's arrival and (luckily) he wanted to help decorate. Since entering the "N2" class in January, Noah has had art class 5 times a week, mostly from 12 to 1pm (when I pick him up). The school hired a special art teacher and every day they play with a different medium and different techniques and Noah LOVES it. Noah wanted to put his favorite drawings/creations up on the wall in Mango's room. See below some of Noah's creations now in Mango's room.

On the opposite wall, we have three big bookcases filled with our books. We thought that might not be very kid-like so it would be fun and also pleasant for Mango if we hung some colorful origami from the various shelves. I was thinking of a few cranes and the like but Seth and Noah did some pretty amazing and fun origami. They started the origami project in January - doing a few a week for the smaller ones or one every few weeks for the bigger more complicated ones.

We also put up the cat mobile that Noah had above his changing table in Switzerland (thank you again Dana) as well as the little animal wall hanging I had found in a thrift store next to our apartment in Switzerland. It feels so familiar and yet strange to see them up in our apartment in Singapore.

Noah at about 4.5 months on his changing table in Switzerland with his beloved cats hanging just above him and the animal print tapestry in the background. 

And like in Noah's big boy room, a few small animals can be seen crawling on the wall.

We also put up some postcards like in Noah's baby room and current room.

... and we found (on Craigslist :) ) the same baby gym that cousin Audrey had.

We got also got a European style playpen for the living room (also from Craigslist - who knew it would work out here in Singapore!) which Lhasa decided to warm up for Mango (interestingly and luckily - now that Mango uses the playpen - Lhasa is no longer interested even when it is empty).

Finally, we were lucky enough to receive many many cute outfits from friends of ours who had daughters in the last year (and me being me - I cataloged them all so I would be able to return them at the end). Basically, Mango already had almost four full sets of clothes from 0-6 months if you include Noah's clothes! Lucky little Mango (and us - no need to buy any baby clothes). Below is a very small sampling...

From Celine

From Gwen

From Noemie

Thus, by 34 weeks, Mango's room was ready, her clothes all washed and neatly folded in organized bins and all ready and of course all the little things, diapers, wipes, shampoo, cream ... were bought .  We were not expecting her for at least another four weeks, but always good to be prepared, right? She must have heard that things were ready for her....