Confinement Drink - Red Date Tea

This is the drink that I had for the whole month instead of water. Other than that I had Milo with milk in the morning and after three weeks cheating with two cups of coffee. :P This tea is simply delicious. I put everything in a slowcooker and let it cooked overnight on low and enjoyed it the next day. I used red dates, black dates, tong sum and dried longan. My slowcooker is the big one so everything I added was based on agaration.

For the complete recipe, click here . Courtesy of Peony and thanks for posting the recipe.

Confinement Food - Pork Knuckle in Black Sweet Vinegar

This is one common confinement must have food. I put the leftover in the refrigerator and trimmed off the fat and had it the next day.

Recipe:

1 pork knuckle
0.5kg old gingers, smashed
4 cups sweet black vinegar
8 cups water

Method:

1. Rub the pork knuckle with salt and wash it.

2. Add the vinegar and water in a big pot, heat until boiling and add in the gingers. When boiled, add in the pork knuckle. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for a few hours or until the pork knuckle is soften.

Confinement Food - Mee Sua Soup

This is the mee sua soup that I have for lunch most of the times. My mom cooked for me for the first three weeks and I cooked the above myself. It actually pretty delicious.

Recipe:

Sesame oil
Shredded gingers
1 large egg, beaten
Cut sweet snap peas/ snowpeas (optional)
ground pork

Season to taste with soy sauce, salt and sugar.

Method:

1. Heat the wok with sesame oil and when hot, add in the shredded gingers and stir-fry until slightly brown, add in the egg. Stir-fry for a little while and add in the amount of water you want (for soup).

2. When boiled, add in the ground pork (drop it in like meat balls). Boiled until the ground pork balls are cooked, season to taste with the seasoning above.

3. Quickly boil another pan of hot water and drop the dried mee sua to soften. This only takes a second, dish out and place in a bowl. Scoop in the soup and enjoy it immediately.

More Pictures!

I hope you guys enjoy looking at baby pictures because I have not been cooking and no food picture to post. :P

This is Edda at 2 plus weeks old. She still has jaundice and it has been two weeks and she is still yellow looking. Her blood test today showed slight decrease in the bilirubin level, so that's good news. She will need another blood drawn this Wednesday to see if it's down for good. My poor baby feets were covered with bandages since birth. Poor thing!


My mom burping her.



Sun bathing in her bassinet.



Sun bathing in her bassinet.



Picture with her big sister.

Birth Story

Oct 3rd was like another normal day for me. I brought my mom and Evy to walk around the neighborhood since the weather was nice. Went to bed as usual, but awoke with some coughing and found I was leaking fluid. Thought I peed myself since I never had water broke on it's own before. Cleaned up and went to bed again but with a towel underneath just in case. Another burst of water few minutes later and started to think it might be my water broke. Went downstair to tell my hubby and it was around 12:30am. Called my birth center to let them know I was going to come in, packed up some last minute item, woke up my mom and Evy and headed to the hospital.

On the way to the hospital, around 1:30am, I started to have some contractions (not really painful). Reached the hospital at 2am, checked into Triage and got checked, I was already 5cm dilated and 90% effaced, and contractions around 3-5 mins apart. It took them awhile to get me a room and by the time they did, it was already 3am. Evy was too excited about the new baby coming that she couldn't sleep at all. I was having contractions on and off and the pain was manageable. Got checked again around 4:15am and I was only dilated to 6cm but fully effaced. I was thinking it must be awhile before I was going to have this baby since the progress was kinda slow. But my mom predicted I was going to have the baby at 5am.

But at around 4:45am, I knew I was in transition, I asked to be checked because the pain was very intense and it had moved to the back. I was right, I was at 8cm and half of my cervix was gone and the nurse rushed out to call the doc. on duty. I wanted to push around 5:05am but the nurse asked me not to push yet. The doc. came in at 5:10am and I was asked to push around 5:15am. After 4 contractions and pushing, the baby was out at 5:18am. I did it all without epidural or pain medication, so I felt the "Ring of Fire" through and through, it's the most painful thing I had experienced. No episiotomy this time, but a 2nd degree tear. My healing was so much easier and less painful from the last time.

Glad to experience both natural birth and birth with pitocin (induction with Evy) and gladly say that it's so much faster and less painful with natural birth then being induced with pitocin, so for the ladies out there, if you can hold on until your body is ready to have the baby, just wait it out, the contraction is soooooo much less frequent and less painful. Also, let it tear naturally instead of an episiotomy, talk to your OB/GYN about it because the healing is so much faster and less painful .



Lastly, sharing two more pictures of little Edda. She is still under the light treatment as her last blood test showed her level was still high. Will get check again on Monday.

Update

Edda got jaundice and she has been under the light since yesterday and continue today because her level is still high. Will do another blood test tomorrow and hopefully it goes down further. She hasn't been pooping well also and thus she looks pretty yellow.

Since she is breastfeed, she rejected the pacifier and used me as her pacifier instead. So, she needs me to fall asleep. She loves to be carried or sleep besides me instead of her crib. So, we are working on letting her sleeping in her crib. But if I am tired, I will let her sleep besides me since she sleeps well like that.

Sorry won't be able to update as often as I like, quite tight down with a sick baby at the moment.