* He first smiled in his second week.
* He hated being swaddled since his second week.
* He loves Vivaldi.
* He has his grandpop's wavy hair.
* He has an astonishing range of facial expressions.
* He grunts and snorts in his sleep (sometimes).
* He is growing eyebrows now!
* He stops and concentrates when he poops.
* He looks at me and sticks out his tongue when he wants to nurse.

1. You will feel an overwhelming love for your baby

And this will escalate over time.

2. You won't feel the episiotomy cut

They inject you even if you have an epidural (just to be safe). If you see the scissors like I did, close your eyes and just push.

3. You will forget the pain of childbirth and labour

The sleepless nights that follow are responsible for that, and also the joy of nurturing your child.

4. Your body needs to heal

Get help during your first month, preferably Mom or a confinement lady (so you won't feel guilt about Mom taking the night shift all the time).

5. You will feel some pain below

Take them painkillers and sit on a doughnut cushion.

6. Breastfeeding will be a tough nut to crack

But persevere. I dreamt each day of weaning but told myself one day at a time. Now, it's cakewalk.

7. You will get used to the night feeds

Good grief. I used to love sleeping in, sleeping 8-10 hours everyday especially on weekends. How I have thrived on broken sleep of 1-3 hours each time is beyond me. But I coped within the first week of trying, which is this week.

8. Throw out the superstitions

I ate soya sauce with relish, watched horror movies and Animal Planet, bathed daily, washed my hair, and we're all fine. Do check which things you are supposed to avoid from your doctor.

9. Take pain relief when you need it

Whether it is in the labour ward or post-delivery, take the pain relief that is offered you. Technology is there for a reason. Keep your options open. Plus, for me it was easier to concentrate on pushing with an epidural while watching the chart, rather than racked with agonising pain.

10. Breastfeeding does help you lose weight

I gained 20kg during my pregnancy. Lost 6 kg post-delivery. Looked 5 months pregnant when I left the hospital. Pumped milk every three hours for my jaundiced baby from the get-go. Breastfed as much as I could while supplementing with formula. After 5 weeks I have lost 13kg and breastfeeding exclusively. I look like my old self, more or less. Tummy isn't quite flat but getting there. 7 more kg to go.

11. Your back will hurt like hell

From breastfeeding, carrying baby, and just being plain old tired. Buy the MyBrestFriend back support cushion (for when your tum is gone), stock up on koyok, book your massage lady, take pilates, get a Baby Bjorn baby carrier.

12. You will never be the same again

It's like Jean Grey rising from the lake. Dumbledore's phoenix rising from the ashes. Neo taking the blue pill (or was it red?). There's no turning back. Your life has irrevocably changed. You're now a mom and are responsible for that little one in your arms. Welcome to parenthood!

Technorati: birth, pregnancy, motherhood, parenting

How quickly the past 5 weeks have flown by. I have barely been able to get some time for myself, let alone 2 hands to type a blog entry. We're getting into a schedule now, Jack and I, but first, the highlights of the last 5 weeks.

Week 1: Pumping extravaganza. Feeling helpless and useless as a new Mom, I pumped for almost every feed and delivered the milk to the hospital three times a day. Boobs engorged to the size of rock melons, with emphasis on rock.

Week 2: Jaundice level down, home to Mom's for confinement. Epi wound healing but sore. Bought doughnut cushion. A necessity. Exhausted from night feeds. Baby smiles at me. Photographic evidence. Struggle with breastfeeding. Try unsuccessfully to go watch X-Men III.

Week 3: Hubby and I got dengue from errant mozzies. Fever for 3 days. The itching and ugly spots were worse. Immune to pain of drawing blood now. Whole estate was infested with a total of 26 cases to date. Spared of night feeds by a concerned Mom.

Week 4: Final week of house arrest. Getting better. In-laws arrive and coo over baby. On Independence Day, Mom takes us out to celebrate. Can't remember where. Maybe Plaza Singapura to buy Baby Bjorn baby carrier. Watch X-Men III with hubby. Sorely disappointed.

Week 5: Home alone with baby. Coping well with night feeds and getting baby on schedule. Breastfeeding second nature now. Baby farts and coos a lot.

Painful and regular contractions (notice no capital CON) started around 10am, waking me up on Sunday morning and continued every half an hour till 1.15pm when we decided to head down to the hospital. Some CONs in between.

Must be the placebo effect for the dang contractions stopped then. They put a heart monitor to gauge the heart beat of BB and measure the contractions. His heart was racing. To my surprise I was having 1 contraction (no longer CON?) in 10 minutes although in the 1.5 hours I was there, I only felt one moderately painful one. Dilation was disappointingly only 1cm although my cervix was softer. But the doc did say I was in established labour because of the latter and reckoned I'd be back tonight or tomorrow.

So we came home. My folks brought mother's day lunch to me and we ate up hungrily. Watched telly till about 5 with no contractions till they returned at 6.18pm when I was dozing. Another arrived at 7.18pm and continued every half an hour to forty minutes all through CSI.

Anxious to avoid another having to come home thingy, the hub examined me (still 1cm - dang!) and has gone to sleep (around 2am) while I forge on with the annoyingly more regular painful contractions since midnight (every 15 minutes) and now edging along 10-12 minutes. The contractions seem more bearable when I sit up, so I am sitting on my squidgy cushion and surfing to distract myself.

The contractions (those even worth logging) range from ho-hum to back-breaking howlers (that being me). Let's see how long I'll hold out here...

I don't know if this is a good thing... after the membrane sweep, I have had no more painful CONtractions. Yeah, the uterus still contracts regularly. BB now kicks more in the morning, hassling me to wake up and feed him, but has stopped the nightly kicks. Very strange.

Speaking of which, I better feed him now again. He just did a song and dance...

After the FiveCat Bath Exercise, I am pleased to say that Kaku's tail looks better. The fur around her tail and bum area is growing back.

The one thing I learnt from this pregnancy is to expect the unexpected.

What I have always learnt from my Mom is to be prepared.

With pregnancy throwing curve balls left right and centre, I sought to be as prepared as I could possibly be with the few variables I can control:

1. I read every single book I could get my hands on about pregnancy and child-rearing, and asked for advice from those who have gone through it.

2. I packed my hospital bag at 34 weeks.

3. We agreed on an English name way in advance, and at 36 weeks, a Chinese name when no better suggestion came along.

4. I paid all bills for the month and some even for next month.

5. I ground 4 months worth of medication for Boy.

6. I made sure the kids have enough food to last a month.

7. I got all my hospital paperwork done and arranged to donate his cord blood.

8. I bought all I need for BB.

9. I wrote and packed my birth plan.

10. I completed, handed over, planned 3 months worth of content, and trained a capable young woman to handle my work for the duration I would be away.

11. I arranged for my home to be reshuffled and repacked.

12. I even suffered a membrane sweep to try to be on schedule.

That's why I loathe last minute things. Stupid petty things that I should NOT have to stress about in the final week before my due date and that we had already prepared in advance, to be dissected and criticised. The time to speak up has come and gone.

At the end of the day, this is my child. I suffered and bled for him for 39 weeks. I should be the one making decisions for him. If you want to do the same, go have your own child.