One week of Lukas

Today Lukas is one week old.  Yay!

The not so yay part was when he had to be hospitalised on Wednesday for jaundice.  Initially the PD told us that it it might be for two days but thankfully, his levels dropped to an acceptable number after the first night so he got discharged! :)

Leaving Lukas that afternoon at the hospital was such an emotional thing for me.  It felt as if I was abandoning him at the torture chambers when I knew all they were going to do was just give him some phototherapy.  There were a couple of other babies there sunning too and seeing them stripped bare to their diapers in such a 'cold' environment didn't help at all.  As soon as the nurse started to take Lukas' clothes off, my tears rolled down even though I tried my darnest to be strong.  All I could think was, "My poor baby!!".

Anyway.. all is fine now :)

Here is David's first cuddle to his baby brother on his first day home :)

That afternoon when Lukas got discharged, our confinement nanny helped us to further sun Lukas in the evening sun.  Lukas seemed to enjoy it!  Slept through it making it really fuss-free.

Lukas is at home!

We are home!  Here is Luka in his cot that his big brother had used four years ago! 

As much as we are glad to be home, we are also a little nervous because our confinement nanny will only arrive in two days time!  All knowledge of taking care of a new born had been thrown out of the window together with David's last poo-stained diaper!  Figuratively speaking of course.. please don't report me to the authorities with killer littering!

Mei Jie, please come soon!

Here is kor kor David with his little brother at the hospital.  As you can see, he is absolutely delighted and all ready to take up his big brother role :)

And here are the two boys together with their maternal grandmother.  Ah ma here is now a grandmother of five grandkids!  Woo-hoo!!

Lukas' Birth Story

I will just cut to the chase of this story since I'm really not sure who will be seriously interested in reading yet another birth story!  Posting this merely for record purposes and hopefully the boys when they are older will read this and realise how much pain they had put their poor mother through! Haha..

Mild contractions were felt on Thursday night after a sumptuous seafood dinner to celebrate my younger sister's birthday (her actual birthday is on Friday, 31 Aug).  By about 1am, we decided that we should call our gynae to let him know that I was already experiencing contractions.  He advised that we should admit myself soon so we dragged our little big boy out of bed and drove to the hospital thinking that we could keep him with us till morning at least.  Unfortunately, the nurses told us that kids were not allowed in the delivery ward.  Gevin had to bring the sleepy boy back home at about 4am.  

Gevin joined me back at the hospital at about 9am after dropping David in school.  Yes.. we made him go to school even with the crappy sleep hours because it was just easier for my parents to pick him up after that and help watch him till I pop.

The gynae eventually came at about 10am and burst my water bag.  He also put me on the oxytoxin drip to 'force' contractions otherwise it would have taken a lot more hours of labour.  

In all, active labour took about four odd hours and I eventually delivered Lukas at 2.48pm on 31 August 2012 (my sister's birthday!!).  He weighed in at 3.052kg and was 49cm. 

The contractions this time I felt were a lot more painful and I almost succumbed to getting the epidural.  In fact, during the course of active labour, the nurses kept asking me if I wanted 'the injection' and I got a little annoyed and commented to Gevin that the nurses do not seem to be very supportive of a natural delivery since they kept asking me if I wanted the epidural! I seriously thought that 'the injection' was 'the epidural.  

At about 1 ish, I thought I could take the pain no longer since I was only about 5cm dilated at that time.  So.. we asked for 'the injection'.  Get this, the nurse went to the cabinet nearby and took out a syringe and was about poke me in the thigh when I asked, "Is that the epidural?!'.  At that moment, in my agonised state, I really thought that the nurses were now able to administer the epidural as well! 

She went,"Oh no.. epidural must call for the doctor!".  This is Pedthedin.. a pain reliever." and jabbed me.

The contractions after that came fast and furious and out Lukas came about an hour later. 

This time, no assistance was needed since Lukas was almost a good 500g lighter than David.  He popped out after less than 10 pushes.  The same gynae had to use forceps for David.

Some interesting facts the two boys share.  They were both born at 38 weeks, on a Friday and on the same Lunar day!  David was born at 1.48pm and Lukas at 2.48pm.  Exactly one hour apart. 

And so you have it.  My painful story that ended up in unspeakable joy :)

Lukas Peter Png

Today, we became a family of four :)

Lukas Peter Png arrived this afternoon safe and sound.  We are now complete.  I can tell Luka this, "Luka, you complete us."

Yes, we are done.  Definitely done.

We are thankful to our gracious God for His grace, everyone's well wishes and our family's support.

Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

I realised that I have not posted something food related for a while now.  The last food post was in January when I made 'muah chee'!  It's not that I've not been cooking or baking but the first six months of the year saw me not quite being myself (as you will read in the next couple of paragraphs).  At the same time, I guess I also got lazy where taking photos were concerned.

Well, I'm now back with a lovely muffin recipe.  I actually made these for one of our little big boy's classmate's mother.  She had the other day given me a little gift for the impending birth of our second boy.  Oops.. guess I've not officially announced that on the blog, huh?

Ok. Let's just get this out then.  We are expecting our second son in less than a month now! :)  I might just blog about the pregnancy soon.  We are very excited!

So anyway, these muffins were made for her and I wanted something healthy since she has two small boys too.

I really liked how they turned out.  Moist, crumbly and not too sweet.  The rolled oats added wonderful texture and the raisins shone in the taste section.  Even David ate half of a muffin! That itself is quite a breakthrough since I have not been able to get him to eat anything with oatmeal so far!

I adapted the recipe from here, replacing the chocolate chips with raisins and some of the flours.  I also omitted the last step of sprinkling the tops with more sugar before baking.

Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

1/3 cup wholemeal flour

1/3 cup almond meal

1/3 cup cake flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup (57g) butter at room temperature

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 180deg C and line your muffin tray with muffin cases.

Add oats to a bowl and add 1/2 cup of milk. Let soak for 5-10 minutes, while you prepare the first few steps.

In a large bowl, combine egg and brown sugar and whisk until smooth.  Add in vanilla and butter, whisking well.  Try to smooth the butter as much as possible - there may still be some small butter chunks but that is fine.  Add flours, oat mixture, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix.  Add remaining milk and combine until smooth.  Try not to overmix.  Fold in the raisins.

Divide your mixture into the cases and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.