An unexpected start to the ‘year of the dragon’

For days leading up to this Lunar New Year, I was quite the eager beaver; looking forward to the celebrations.

Things didn’t turned out quite as planned though.

Ironically being pregnant, I had more new clothes (a Chinese tradition) than previous years (pre-pregnancy) all ready to be worn for at least 10 out of the 15 days of celebration. I had more enthusiasm to spring clean the home than before. And I definitely had more energy to go and bask in the festive atmosphere by hanging out at various Chinese New Year (CNY) fairs with the husband over the weekends. I also had more of a better appetite as I savored pineapple tarts, bak kwa, kueh lapis, deep fried prawn rolls & love letters with the little one returning a powerful kick each time.

And I think I was really embracing this CNY so openly & acceptingly after 2 years of dreading it because baby chungkin was finally with us. I no longer had to answer to anyone; even if I only saw them once a year, why our family planning was not as immediate after the wedding. [p/s: to international readers, CNY is also the time when older relatives think they have a right to grill you about your personal matters/life out of concern although one might think it's to fill their gossip quota for the rest of the year :p] I no longer had to worry about looking the least pregnant or be asked strangely if that extra weight gain was due to a baby being on the way  - which was the case for me last CNY. I no longer had to be nagged about which zodiac aka. animal we should consider to have our baby born by – now we know baby chungkin going to be a ‘dragon baby‘, which is also deemed as the most powerful animal of the 12 in the Chinese zodiac. Not that it matters to the Bo & me because all we want is just a healthy, happy baby regardless of zodiacs.

Doing house visits this CNY posed a different sort of challenge though. We had 5 places (aka. older relatives to visit) to visit on the 1st day, and by the 2nd home, my feet was swelling so bad I could hardly fit into my shoes any more without hurting. We also didn’t get any proper food to eat, mainly just pastries and Chinese goodies that was served till the 5th visit which was at my mom’s place. And being pregnant, that was quite a torture because at one point I really just wanted some real food aka. rice.

Visits was very enjoyable though, answering to how far along we were in the pregnancy and how I was feeling. :p

But it wasn’t till the 2nd day of CNY when my festive cheer and mood was dampened. I had barely kick-started my string of celebrations and there I was in the morning, waking up to a very bad throat & headache. I thought it was probably due to insufficient sleep and that it will go away but came yesterday afternoon at the 2nd house visit of the day at my godparents’, my reflux got so bad that entire lunch just came out. I was also starting to run a temperature, was shivering and a bad headache that we had to cut short our visit (thanks to understanding godparents). The Bo also had to cancel a visit to the boss’s place by just hopping over (boss place was just 3 min drive from my godparents’) to explain that I wasn’t feeling well and we were headed for home right after that.

Popped in a panadol, took a nap hoping that the slight migraine & fever would subside by evening time so that I could go to my aunt’s place for our supposedly 4th house visit (plus I was really looking forward to her signature curry & lemak dishes for dinner) and although temperature went away for about an hour, it came back with a vengeance soon enough. Didn’t help that the Bo went out to a nearby coffeeshop with his bestie for a while during the time when my first fever had subsided and by evening time, I started to burn so badly that my eyes were both watery & stingy, and my belly was terribly hot. I quickly placed a cold compress on the belly to bring down the temperature for baby chungkin but the towels would warm up within a minute or so. I was worried sick, more for baby’s health. It must have felt like an oven in there and while I’ve read about fever potentially causing miscarriages mainly in the 1st tri, I didn’t want to take a chance.

I called for the Bo to be back immediately. Said I was burning (he did chide me for not calling earlier), and we headed to KKH 24-hr O&G for some medical attention. I was in tears, in between shivers and burning temperatures, praying that all will be okay. We got to the hospital in good time, and I was quickly sent to the delivery suite because I was over 6 months pregnant. They registered me quickly enough (didn’t go to TMC because I heard that my gynae was away for the holidays and I needed immediate attention), sent me & husband to the delivery suite where I was strapped to the CTG machine to monitor potential contractions and baby’s heartbeat. Apparently any increase in temperature or fever does impact baby’s heartbeat and baby chungkin’s was beating way faster than the usual. I was given more cold compress to bring my temperature down as we waited for the gynae on duty to attend to us. There had been recent cases of H1N1 virus aka tamiflu making its rounds so the staff wanted to make sure that I was clear of it.

We waited for about 15 minutes for the gynae to arrive while I was being monitored and I was praying my heart & tears out that all will be okay. Here we were, with only about 8 weeks to go and I really didn’t want anything to go absurdly wrong – I was asked a few times to confirm that we were about 29 hitting 30 weeks and I kept thinking connecting with the little one to ask if he could bake in there for a while longer as I saw the incubator in the delivery room.

The gynae gave me a body check, tapped the tummy to incite movements from baby, checked my throat (good thing my tonsils weren’t inflamed badly yet) before discharging me. She prescribed some drowsy medication to address every symptom I had and I was told to monitor my temperature over the next 2 days to ensure it goes away or I’d have to come in again for another round of checks.

I was thankful that we had got ourselves checked out early and nothing serious happened to baby. Thankful for the prayers that came streaming in via SMS and whatsapp by concerned family & friends. And happy to received 2 prompt email response from my gyane that he was back in town, asked what happened and  that everything sounded okay after I updated him on heart rate and what the KKH gynae told me. I left KKH still with a relatively high fever, shivering, hungry with no appetite to absorb anything but it was all okay knowing that the chungkin was doing just fine.

The Bo sponged the tummy the whole night and when my belly finally cooled down, we saw a series of movements from the chungkin that absolutely made our night! And as of this morning, the high fever has subsided leaving me slightly feverish and I am just going to make sure I rest up and recover from this one properly. I can’t imagine having to deal with another similar incident apart from labour in the next few weeks.

Not quite the start I was expecting for this Lunar New Year (missing out from all the visiting and feasting) but as long as baby chungkin is going on strong and well in there, that’s all that matters.

And that leaves me with only photos from the celebrations prior to the heart-stopping incident:

{doing our Yu Sheng Spring Toss aka Loh Hey to usher in the Lunar New year at grandma’s place}

{doing the toss. It is said the higher you toss the ingredients, the better the luck and the more your wishes will come true..}

{Bo cuddling baby Michael}

{taking a break post-reunion dinner}

{new shoes to go with our new togs}

{couple shot}

{mom cooks a nourishing pot of bird’s nest for us}

{Bo taking a shot with nephew Joshua}

{Mom taking a shot with baby Michael}

{taking a shot while lying in KKH delivery suite and being strapped to the CTG  machine}

And lastly, here’s me at almost 30 weeks!

{  in my CNY day 1 outfit :)  }