[Our prince's progress...]

[My 8-month old]

My little boy is 8 months old! Sounds...old! Haha. 4 more months will zoom by and soon he'll be 1. Wow!

Some of his milestones include:

1.  Being able to stand up on his own with support.
2.  Drinking from a sippy cup.
3.  Saying IBU!! (My fave one kekeke)
4.  Going da-da
5.  GOing from commando crawl to a full crawl.

He keeps standing in his cot now so we had to lower it. At least now onnly his head pops up. Though it's scary sometimes when we turn around in the middle of the night and see a head popping up and crying. Lol.

I'm so proud of my boy. Soon he won't need me anymore! Sigh... (haha)

[Eid Mubarak!]

And so we celebrate the boy's first Eid with us.  It's been a long while since I've blogged - due to busy schedule and lack of inspiration. Or well, keep forgetting to get down to it even though I've had ideas.  Anyway, this Ramadan was a great one, 3 of us as a family.  I have many things to be grateful for. Firstly the hubby was very supportive. He not only bought food when I was too zonked out looking after the lil monkey to cook, he even volunteered to ease my chores even on days where I thought I could have managed. Alhamdulillah. Secondly, even though I was initially worried, my milk supply did not dwindle, at least not noticeably. In fact, the lil one seems to be even more energised instead of going to sleep after I fed him. Alhamdulillah. Thirdly, our Eid itself was an enjoyable one. I got an Arabic gorgeous long dress and lil H got a local costume to suit the theme. Next year we'll make Baba fit into the theme too heh. Alhamdulillah.

We had a simple celebration today which started out with the usual baths and wearing new clothes. Then the "Maaf Zahir Batin" part and of course receiving ang pao from Baba. Keke.  Lazed the day away - I didn't even cook! (Thank you Baba again for giving me an "off day") It was partly because one, we woke up pretty late after morning prayers and two, we had a dinner invite anyway so we would've "wasted" the effort to cook just for one meal.

All in all, this has been one of the best Eids since I've come here (as if I've had so many lol). Thank Allah for His wonderful mercies.

My lil cutie pie wishes all readers Eid Mubarak / Selamat Hari Raya!

[Don't judge]

I'm writing this not as a "warning" to others, but more so of a reminder to myself, of my previous folly.

I used to judge parents/mothers. Not that I attacked them per se but since that is the topic close to heart these days, that's what I'm focusing on.

One of the memories of my "judgemental" views that came to mind recently was when my Burmese friend told me that shortly after the birth of her daughter, she chose to work at the Myanmar-Laos border (or something of the sort) because she needed to be away. She was not into the whole mummyhood thing and needed some distance.Of course I gasped, not realising the emotions she must have been experiencing.

Many years later as a mummy now I realise how she must have felt.  No, she was not abandoning her child, she was doing what was best for her family.

I had always suspected that I wasn't going to be the stay-at-home mum, especially if I had still been in Sg.  Nothing against SAHMs but I am the independent, go-getter person that needs to be not confined at home with a baby or not.  Lately however, especially because of experiencing a less than welcoming work environment, coupled with the desire to watch my precious prince grow up, as well as fill the void I felt when (some) other mums used to be around with their children in my primary school days, I decided that being a SAHM would not be a bad idea afterall.  And of course the environment here is very condusive for SAHMs, coupled with societal pressure and all.

And then comes the BUT...

But...my husband will not allow it.  No, he is not some money grabbing man who wants to profit from his wife's earning.  The total opposite is true - he wants H's mummy to be sane with exposure to the outside world.  He knows that as much as Ibu enjoys looking after the lil one, she'll be at her wits' end bored by the third day at home, knowing that there's no work waiting for her in her inbox.

Unfortunately in my 3 months back here I have already faced a few comments of how I'm seemingly neglecting my child.  2 from people I'm not even close with.  One said "Leave your job; it doesn't need you, but your son does."

Well, thank you very much for your advise, as if I didn't know that already.  To these people, who probably have set ideas on how mummies should be at home 24/7, JUST BECAUSE I "STILL" WORK DOES NOT MEAN I LOVE MY BABY ANY LESS. So please, keep your gasps and uninvited comments to yourself. Thank you.

[I could]

I could watch you sleep all day
Your closed eyes so peaceful are they
As you stretch and yawn so innocently
I hope your dreams make you happy

I could play with you all day
Make you laugh cheerful and gay
Your giggles brighten up my dull hours
I hope for everyone you have these powers

I could hold you in my arms all day
With you all my fears allay
Your curious gaze and wondering fingers
When you're away a thought or two always lingers

For you, I could.

[a new trick a day]

I'm really blessed to be able to watch my son grow. Everytime I feel down about being in this socially pathetic place, I remind myself about this blessing.

Lil H seems to have a new trick up his sleeves, or onesies so to speak, every day. One day he tries to pull himself up when we hold his hand, next day he is playing with the hanging toys on his play mat, another day he rolls over.  Which mum wouldn't want to be there to watch her child roll over for the first time? Alhamdulillah.

Today he came up with yet another trick.  He has been trying to pull the hanging toys into his mouth, and gets frustrated when he fails. Today he was MashaAllah so smart - he pulled his head up and pulled the toy at the same time, and finally managed to put it in his mouth. Doing crunches so young eh?

He's also been trying to get his toes into his mouth. He had not been successful yet, but as of yesterday while I was cleaning his poo-poo, he managed to get it in. Maybe he feels more flexible when his bottom is free-and-easy. Lol.

Oh my growing son, I could never get bored watching you. This morning I was actually bored waiting for him to wake up (cos I got up way earlier than him). The moment he woke up I smothered him with kisses, not before he gave me his precious "good morning" smile. Oh the wonderful moments of having a child. =)

[My First Mother's Day!]

Wee! Sent by his proxy, but I'm beaming nonetheless. Happy Mother's Day to all mummies out there! =)

P.S. H gave me the sweetest of smiles this morning when he woke up. Must've been his way of wishing me Happy Mummy's Day :)

[aww-ful moment]

Had a sudden recollection of how the hubz used to drive down all the way to my deserted office location with lunch, just so that I would not get hypo or puke because of not eating.

He loves me. =)

[our 4 month old]

It's been some time since I last blogged. Guess I'm losing interest now after finding out that no one reads my blog. Plus the hectic schedule of handling a baby while trying to work leaves me not much time for leisure, and whatever leisure time is best spent SLEEPING. Ok, maybe not sleeping all the time but resting. Rest is preciousuthese days. Very precious.

Our prince is already 4 months old. By SG standards I'd have gone back to work full time now. I'm glad I'm not in Sg because although I had to go back to work earlier, I still have time to watch him grow when I work from home.

The biggest moment was on 23rd March April (omg where did time fly to??) when I sort of saw him rolling. At least the aftermath of it, which was a very shocked looked on his face. I guess he wasn't expecting to end up on his tummy. I was so excited I called Baba to tell him about his son's feat. He hasn't rolled again since, but he's achieving other milestones.  For instance, he now wants to sit up, so when we hold his tiny hands, he actually pulls himself up to sitting position. The most adorable is when he does his "pilates" pose - using the momentum of his legs in the air to pull him up to sitting position, with our help of course. He's also starting to make more noises - apart from the ng-geee and gee gee. Now it's like he's babbling more and having conversations with us.  He's also very curious about what we do. Every motion like me drinking or lifting up something, his eyes will follow.

Had excellent news at his appointment last week where he was declared ASD free. Yay! With no hole in his heart now, I told Baba our lion can go scuba diving - in 20 year's time..lol. Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah for the wonderful news!

Here's a pic of my lil Pilates instructor. Oh I wish I were as agile as him!

P.S. Did I also mention that most of his clothes are going into the "undersized" bag now? Explains his oversized shorts in the pic heh. He's growing!!

[Happy Birthday Habibi!]

This marks yet another year of us celebrating Habibi's birthday together. With a difference this year, because our little one is here to mark it with us. Unfortunately, with the little one being here it made it all the more harder (what with transport nonsense and such) for me to go out and get something for Habibi.  But as he said, and I agree, he's a happy man, he doesn't need anything else. Kekeke. Afterall, he did buy a tablet recently, and he said he's a satisfied man because his little bundle of joy is here, so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad.

I did try to make it up by cooking him his favourite dish - ayam masak kicap and cumin rice.  Almost missed that even because the night before I had to wake up several times thanks to you-know-who, so I was totally knocked out when I came back from work (have to thank you-know-who though for letting me nap so long hehe).  By the time I woke up, I barely had enough time before Mr F came home. Good thing I managed to finish cooking on time. 

Our family pic :)

My birthday boys!

Incidentally Baby H also turned 3...months that is...so it was double celebration.  We ended our lil celebration with an ice cream cake from BR - yum yum! Happy Birthday Baba, love you lots! Happy 3 months sayang..muak muak!

[2 months]

My lil one is already 2 months old. Time really flies when you're looking after a little one. I would say I am more confident about handling him on my own now.

My cutie pie!

In one of his I-want-to-play moods. Simply adorable!

He has (unfortunately) developed a habit of wanting to be put to sleep since he turned 1 month. It's ok when he's not too cranky. But when he starts screaming, all hell breaks loose. Sometimes we panic because even with all his crying, he still won't want to sleep. Several times I've had to comfort nurse him to sleep. Several times my sis has given up on trying to get him to sleep lol. He also seems to fight sleep. Sometimes we put in realy hard work to make him sleep, put him down in the cot and he wakes up immediately. On good days he lasts half and hour. Ha. Not enough time for mummy to catch up on chores and snooze. But who said looking after a baby was easy yeah?

Apart from his sleep patterns, he's become more active. Not the usual go-to-sleep-after-drinking like before. These days he wants to play and talk. His coos are so adorable you could spend hours looking at him. Once Sakura and I even heard what seemed like a laugh. MashaAllah...the miracles of a baby.  He's also developed a habit of putting his fist into his mouth....didn't know mittens tasted so nice but with a baby anything can happen heh.

It's time to go back in 3 days. My family will feel the absence a lot. H has managed to bring everyone closer together. The first baby in the family after a long time. They will miss him a lot.  Hope we get to come back to Sg soon so that he can grow up with his family. Meanwhile, mummy's gonna miss the love she experienced during the 4 months here. Hope 3rd March won't be too tough on me. Sigh....

I have mixed feelings about going back to work. On one hand I'm bored to death at home and feel as if I'm wasting away my brain cells not doing anything productive i.e. I concluded I will go crazy if I become a SAHM. On the other hand, the thought of leaving my baby with someone else while I go to work is a little scary, coupled by the fact that I will miss him terribly while I'm at work. Hopefully Boss will be flexible and allow me to work from home as usual.  Right now trying to get a nanny because I don't think I can bear leaving him in someone's house while I'm working whether from home or in the hospital. At least when I work from home I can have the luxury of breastfeeding him and keeping an eye on him and the nanny.  And if I'm at the office at least it will be easy for me to have him at home the moment I'm there, instead of having to pick him up from someone's place. Hope we can get a suitable nanny soon *fingers crossed*.

[One month on]

If you were to ask me how my birth experience was, I would say at this point that it was an interesting experience. Of course while going through it, it was scary but now that time has passed, I am able to appreciate the wisdom behind it. Most of all I am grateful to God because He let me know that it was the right time for H to come into this world. I would not have to live with thoughts of "Did I take him out too early?"

The first few days were tough as I could barely move in bed, much less prop myself up everytime it was feeding time.  At certain points I almost gave up but since colostrum is important, I persevered. I did not like feeling helpless and counting on people to do simple things like get out of bed.  I did not like losing my "dignity" like having Auntie follow me to the toilet to help me out, but I soon learned that when you need help and people are around, just accept it.

Coming home was a different matter. At least in hospital I had the bed bars to hold myself up, and the up/down buttons to move around. At home, I had to rely on habibi to pull me out of bed and carry H to me especially at night.  Dealing with my wound was also scary because well, I hate wounds. Haha. I still remember the first time I had to bathe - my mom and MIL offered to accompany me in the toilet but I was like NOOOOO. SHY! Lol.  Unfortunately habibi was the poor guinea pig but thank God he was very supportive.

The first couple of weeks were tough as we got to know about H's huge appetite. Even in the hospital he kept wanting to nurse.  The same pattern continued at home and we couldn't figure out why. Thanks to Auntie's friend, the lactation consultant, we managed to figure out that his weird pattern was because A) He was falling asleep while sucking hence not getting enough milk and B) He had a big appetite and so had to nurse for a longer time.  We resorted to pumping out breastmilk so that we could monitor how much he needed and true enough, for a newborn, he was drinking a lot.  So came our endeavour to put him on a schedule, 80 ml per 3 hours. Turned out he needed 100 ml per 3 hours, which is a lot for a newborn. 

Between worrying about his huge appetite and why he was "growing so fast" (he could lift his head very early on and even rolled on his tummy once when we placed him on his side), the first month was quite trying. I was also dealing with post-natal depression (at least I think it was that) and everyone in the house had to deal with my lots and lots of crying. I think I really freaked them out heh.  Lack of sleep and crazy hormones really drives you nuts.  Having to deal with Baba leaving and the school year starting (i.e. no more mum and sis to help me out at home) also made me a nervous wreck.

But Alhamdulillah with everyone's help, things fell into place.  Mama quit her job to help me (luckily it was an easy job to quit and rejoin later when she wants to).  F kept reminding me that I could do it and that he had faith in me.  I became stronger mentally, emotionally and physically and we've also figured him out now - mostly at least.  He only cries for food lol (ok well, lately he also cries to be put to sleep).  InshaAllah when we get to Ruh things will be easier to manage.  Here's to a changed life forever....

[Labour Day - Part Two]

I get more and more nervous as they wheel me in into the OR. Everything is a blur as they half knock me out with a sedative. I'm a little nervous because the spinal is about to be done, and hubby was not inside the room yet. I keep asking the nurses when he can come in and they say only AFTER the epidural is done. Sigh. This is when I need him the most. There is a nurse who reminds me of Soefie and I keep telling myself - think of Soefie. Think happy thoughts. With that, after one contraction, I get the epi and soon I feel warm and fuzzy in the legs.

After some time F is finally by my side. He holds my hand and tells me not to worry because he is there for me. I feel relief and am grateful he is there.  I feel a lot of pushing in my abdomen and figure it's the drs trying to push the baby out. F looks over and I tell him not to in case he faints.  He continues to look over and in a while I realise it's because baby is out.  Dr says "Your baby is holding on to the cord." In my half dazed mind, I wonder which machine's cord he's holding on to.  Baby starts crying and it seems so near yet so distant. Was that my baby? Tears well up in Mr F's eyes and I know that H is out. Wow. So surreal.  I had requested for delayed cord clamping and dr honours my request. After awhile, not sure how long (hubby said a couple of mins) dr said baby is a little cold so they have to cut his cord. In my half dazed state I started worrying - oh dear, why is my baby cold. Is he ok? Dr then lifted H over the screen and showed me - here's your baby.  Alhamdulillah, he looks fine and his cry is very strong.  I'm not sure at which point Mr F left the room but he reassured me he'll be by my side when I was out.

The midwife, after wrapping H up, came to me to talk some crap about skin-to-skin. She said my procedure would take long so I couldn't do much skin to skin since they had to take him to the nursery to be warmed up. I had already known this so I was wondering why she'd still brought him to me. Anyway, her version of skin-to-skin was to she put his face on mine (in the process compressing my nose till I couldn't breathe lol) and said that was skin-to-skin. Duh, even in my semi-conscious state, I knew that wasn't it. Anyway, that was that. They took him away and I dozed off as they stitched me up.

I woke up in the recovery room shivering madly - a reaction to the anaesthesia.  I was very frightened, the trembling was quite severe. Being alone, I felt even more fearful. My teeth were chattering uncontrollably and I was extremely cold even after the thermal blanket and many layers of other blankets they had put on me.  After a while Auntie came in and I felt better in no time. She assured me that everything was fine and that it was a normal reaction. The dr eventually came to give me something else to reduce the shivering. It took almost an hour but finally I was out of the recovery room.  I was surprised to see my family there - everyone from Mr F to PIL to Sakura congratulating me and asking me how I was. I couldn't reply much but I do remember everyone joining me in the lift to be wheeled back to my room.

I was still shivering in the room and needed another layer of blanket.  Everyone was gathering around H and I felt almost envious that I couldn't hold my own baby. Auntie brought him up to me to show him to me and I was like - wow, that's my son.  Mr F then later lifted him to me and I kissed him.  Mr F and I held hands and looked into each other's eyes - our new family had begun. =)

[Labour Day - A Divinely Guided Delivery, Part One]

Let's back track a few days so that I can boast about what a wonderful hubby I have. 

On the 20th of Dec (seems I can remember the dates clearly, too bad I just didn't have the time or right frame of mind to blog sooner), hubby sent me a message to say he would be back late from work.  I found this suspicious because he hadn't done it since I came here.  A couple of hours later he texted to say he was home and he would be sleeping in the next morning. I suppose his intention, or supposed intention, was to tell me either not to worry that he didn't answer his phone or not to disturb him (I hope it was the former lol).  I had not-so-secrretly been hoping that habibi would come earlier to ease the tension of an unpredictable impending day of Baby's arrival.  Even blatantly told him to surprise me by coming earlier, and provided an SIA officer's contact number to help him change his ticket.  However, since 23rd was fast approaching, I had mostly given up hope. If I could wait so many days, what would 2 days be right?

But alas, hubby had something up his sleeve.  While watching TV on the 21st, I was still thinking "if he doesn't come by 2pm then I guess I must've made the whole thing up in my mind". 2 o'clock came and went and there was no sign of him so I gave up hoping. I guess I had to wait for the 23rd afterall.  Suddenly at 2.30 there was a ring at the door and Sakura got up to answer the door. There was "no one" at the door so I went out to investigate the source of the door bell.  There he was - after looking far right - my mischievous hubby grinning away! He was here! 2 days early! What a great surprise it was!  He wasn't too pleased with my "What are you doing here?!" reaction, but nevertheless I hugged him really tight and welcomed him with open arms. I knew he had been up to something the day before!! Apparently my suspicions were right afterall. Trust a women's instinct eh? Keke.

Thanks to his early arrival, he was able to come for our last prenatal appointment.  Dr S could sense how relieved I was that habibi was here. She told Mr F "She was a nervous wreck when you were not around, now she's glowing." Hehehe. Well my love, now you know how important you are to me.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So the labour story begins here. 

I was still feeling a bit jittery about the whole major operation thing. I had told Sakura to give me "tough love" as I headed off for the hospital that night.  Tough love because that way I wouldn't get too emo. Yes, I get emo-er when I get "soft love". But nevermind that.

We were given the option of coming in at 12am or 6am on the morning of 27 Dec since ours was the first op of the day (8.30am).  12am sounded like a better option so that we could settle in slowly and get used to the hospital environment.  So at about 11.30pm we said our prayers and goodbyes to my family and Mr F and I headed to the hospital to check in.  The next morning was going to be a big moment.

At around 4am after trying to catch some sleep (quite impossible with nurses coming in to check/do this and that), I felt like a stomach ache coming on.  Maybe I had eaten something wrong that day. Darn, what a time to have food poisoning, or so I thought.  The pain became quite regular, about 7 mins apart.  After awhile of tossing and turning, I decided to go to the loo to relieve myself then tried to get back to sleep.  The pains continued, 7 mins apart but lasting only a few seconds. This couldn't be labour I guess since the "contractions" only lasted a few seconds. Plus they came on suddenly and were already 5-7 mins apart, weren't they supposed to come more irregularly first?  About an hour of the same pain later, I decided to go to the toilet to relieve myself yet again.  This was when things got interesting because as I was cleaning up, there was a bloody show on the toilet paper (on hindsight, I'm quite amused I had the instinct to check before washing up straight away. And on hindsight, apparently that sharp pain I felt before leaving home was probably a sign of things to come, not just a backache).  I woke hubby up to tell him that I was in labour, then alerted a nurse who said she would monitor me. 

Monitor me she didn't (bleah) but the contractions continued and I was amused, irritated and amazed that Baby decided I should go into labour on the scheduled day itself. How accurate - on his EDD at that.  I took it that God was giving me a sign that we had chosen the right day to schedule the c-section. And apparently, even with the c-section, I was meant to have a taste of labour pains afterall; though I wasn't entirely amused by that (note by irritation). Talk about double whammy - contractions PLUS c-section!  I went through the contractions quite calmly thanks to my HB sessions, breathing through them as they came. Trust me, even with all that training, going through the surges were no walk in the park.  It did help though because I was calm and knew how to brace myself through the pain.  Since we hadn't forseen going into labour, Mr F hadn't learnt the ways to massage me from Sakura. Though from how I reacted when I asked him to put his hand on my tummy to soothe me (by being my "heat pack") during one surge, I think I would've been more irritated than calm if he had tried to massage me. Well, I guess G did say that different women react differently to touch when they are actually in labour. (Note: during class, the massages simply felt shiok...hehe.)

At about 7am I was almost ready for the op. Auntie had come some time before that to see how I was doing. She was a little annoyed that the nurse didn't monitor me afterall even though I was already in labour but she couldn't do anything since it wasn't her ward or domain.  Mama and Sakura arrived in time before I was due to go the the OT.  My OT gown was damn unglam, it was made for shorter people so when I wore it, it hardly covered anything.  Auntie was busy taking photos with her iPad even in my unglam state (exposed, during contractions and al) - I wonder if the whole thing was amusing to her lol.  The crazy attendant wanted me to walk down to the OT but I'm glad my mum insisted that they wheel me down instead otherwise the walk there would've been very slow and painful.  Auntie came again while we were in the pre-op room. Her presence was really reassuring and she seemed to be pretty popular around the hospital. 

Soon it was time to go in. I would see Mr F in the OT once I had been prepped up.......

Since I can't possibly be 44 weeks pregnant, I guess it's time to take off my pregnancy ticker.  Here comes my new ticker to track H's first year. =)

[Labour day part zero]

It started out when I woke up on 16 Dec. I remember the date clearly because it was one week till habibi was due to come.  It also turned out to be a memorable day because my Syrian friend had her baby that day.

I noticed some wetness as I got up.  Thinking it was nothing, I headed to the hall to have my breakfast. The leaking continued and then I started panicking. At the back of my mind I was thinking, the signs look obvious, but something was not right. This couldn't be it.  To add to the panic, I did not want to go into labour without my habibi around.  By 11am I called him up (yes, it was 6am in Ruh on a weekend - sorry baby) to tell him what was going on. Tell him wouldn't be an accurate description, more like crying to him. I kept saying I did not want to go into labour without him and that I couldn't do it without him. The sensible thing was to get myself checked at the hospital yet I kept thinking, "if this is it, and I go get myself checked, I'm sure the doctor would induce me."  My brains got the better of me and as habibi said, the right thing to do was to get myself checked so that baby wouldn't be in danger if I procrastinate.

Bracing myself, I walked into Sakura's room and tearily told her I was in labour.  The poor girl, half asleep, looked a little shocked and asked why I was crying. So I repeated again that I did not want to have baby without his father around. Sigh. Sakura being the clear headed lady she was, very calmly asked me to start my breathing exercises.  She then freshened up and even warmed my rice sock for me.  We called Auntie to ask if we should go to the hospital, to which she said we probably should.  She sensed my panic and tried to calm me down and "warned" me that if it was the real thing, I should prepare myself, even without Mr F, since it was best for baby.  After the breathing exercises and regaining my composure, I told myself I could do it. I had Sakura with me afterall.

I still did not believe what was happening. Yet, even Sakura said she could smell my "labour fluid", or whatever it was.  I prepared myself; removing the nail polish from my manicure (darn :P), packed my hospital bag (or the last minute stuff that had to be packed into it) and we headed off to the hospital. My mum said she'd meet us there. The taxi driver took my mind off things by joking a lot along the way. He said stuff like, don't worry, when I drive, there won't be a jam on PIE.  Then he said I should ask my baby to wait till new year so that he can be a new year baby. Thanks uncle for keeping me calm! Till now I wonder if he knew, or perhaps he was just being his usual jovial self.

To cut a long story short, after a long hour or so in the delivery suite, Dr S came to check if I was truly leaking amniotic fluid.  The CTG machine was annoying me so I was eager to get the procedure over and done with. By then, I had psyched myself that I was able to have baby without Mr F around.  After checking, Dr S gave the clear and said it was probably some other fluid, and I wasn't in labour. PHEW. Silly me, there I was panicking during the wait because I thought the peaks on the CTG machine meant I was having contractions. Seems they were just baby moving inside me.  All the while, Mr F was "by my side" sms-ing and calling me asking for updates.  Even my MIL sms-ed to tell me to be calm. How sweet.  After the long wait, I went to tell Sakura and mama the good news and we headed home after that eventful day.

Thank God I had my wonderful family around me. Calm Sakura, who later said she was just pretending to be calm (she did a mighty good job - I wouldn't have known); darling mum who rushed down from her tuition to be there with me; cute father who finally saw the urgency of getting a mattress for a cot after we told him about the (false) labour; and Auntie who came from her duty even though she was busy to check on me.

During all that excitement, Sakura and Auntie had told Mr F that the day might come anytime soon so it would be good if he could come down earlier. Unfortunately flights were fully booked and Mr F couldn't get much more leave anyway, so it was a wait and see thing whether he could come. Being practical as he was, he even said there was no point in him coming early if "nothing was going to happen". Gah.

In any case, labour part zero was a good preparation for the actual day; had I gone into spontaneous labour. More to come about things that transpired up to the actual day...stay tuned... ;)