Last visit

19 Aug

the doctor called to let us know that Minzy will be getting her MRI scan and will need to be anaesthesized before that. usually mri scans are done just before babies get discharged. i wonder why minzy's was done so soon. in any case... she was about 1.85kg, still far from her surgery weight... she was also only drinking 22cc. just nice since i'm only producing 25 per boob T_T they also told us that they have downgraded her respirator to the smaller one so hopefully she will take that well.

22 Aug

Not much difference, she grew 10g to 1.95kg. Maybe when we see her she would be 2kg!

23 Aug

Due to the church-spread covid in korea... our hospitals raised their social distancing level and ban visitors from visiting NICU. a message was sent to our registered numbers on the 21st saying that it will be implemented from monday (24th) onwards. 

i sent it to nampyeon hoping that i had read it wrongly. but it was true. so we quickly called the hospital to verify and told them we would be coming down on sunday for a last visit T_T just before the ban sets in.

we carried one whole luggage of breastmilk over (about 2 weeks worth) since we wouldn't be able to visit once a week anymore (but our space and ice pack was limited so we couldn't carry more). when we reached, nampyeon went in first since it was time for me to pump.

minzy was sleeping so so soundly when he was there. the one good thing since she got out of the box was our freedom to touch (and disturb her). so nampyeon disturbed her.

a cute little yawn

she does like grabbing fingers / scratching hands. i love it when her little hand escapes from her swaddle and she puts it on her face like that.

she gave a little smile at the end! it's a smile right?

when i went in, she was very very much awake.

or rather she looks like she was in shock or surprised. her face was like that from the moment i entered. it was so funny.

the nurse told me that i could carry her after that and i held her for the first time in my arms. unfortunately i couldn't take photos of my first hug of her, but i slowly managed to hold her with just one arm. she was only 2kg, so light, so it was possible with one arm. she looked at me with such shocked, big eyes. however, she started struggling after a while and i wondered if it was because i held her uncomfortably though the nurse said it was ok. my neck got tired after a while and because she was struggling so much i was afraid i would drop her and i placed her back in the incubator. by then she already had one arm out.

not sure why but she started crying and i could see tears T_T poor minzy. her voice was much louder than before and she cried intermittently. i didn't really know what to do except to pat and coo her.

eventually the nurse came and change her diapers and re-wrapped her so she had no more arm sticking out. but she was still sticking out her tongue and making funny faces.

it looked really cute and funny but i sure hope she isn't in pain or anything...! this is the last time i was gonna see her for a long, long time. i hope she doesn't forget me... T_T

since we came all the way to seoul, we thought we might as well do a little shopping and eat some good food. we headed to the express bus terminal and ate at a teppanyaki place. the noodles were so asian! i like it because it reminded me of sg food.

went to get waffles and bubble tea from the basement supermarket as well. it was cold and not so good. sad. the alley forever does not have the crushed crunchy milk tea i want to try. why...

i pumped twice at the nursing room here (at shinsegae shopping mall). it was so big and posh!! spot the tripp trapp chairs there... wow!

there's even a playground just next to the nursing room. it's a kids floor so they've everything moms need~

however, everything was expensive here. still, there was this baby drool cape that i really like, where you could customize the embroidered writing on it. so i got one for minzy. nevermind it's about 50bucks for a piece of cloth that babies are supposed to get their saliva on... it's still pretty!!

after 1.5hrs spent in the nursing room, 4hrs of journey back and forth, we really don't have much time. so we headed home after that. even nursing rooms are closed at 8pm so we couldn't really linger any longer.

Minzy out of box!

15 Aug

The shit scooping was definitely working. Minzy became 1.7kg when the doc called us. they were worried at the sudden spurt and told us that they would be reducing the amount of shit going back in. she was also eating lesser, at 20ml now every 2 hrs. babies were probably supposed to grow by 10g or so everyday but Minzy grew by 50-60g each day. 

fortunately, they said that there wasn't any dangerous issues associated with this spurt and it wasn't water retention or anything. she seems to be growing normally but they would monitor it closely.

16 Aug

for the first time since i pumped.. for nearly 3 months... i had been under the impression that i was producing a lot of milk. or at least, minzy had more than enough to drink.

i've always thought that i was producing about 120ml? from the sealed pack it just seems like i had more than that. i was so so wrong. jackie and my sis told me i should use the bottle to measure and so i did. that was actually only about 25-30ml (each boob). i had so little milk!!! i'm not sure what's wrong but i know my milk ducts were always blocked and my flange size was probably too big (28mm), since it was sucking my whole nipple+areola in. i was pumping for 30mins each session and yet i only got so little. i asked my sis to help me get supplements from legendairy milk so i could increase the volume and help unblock the ducts. for whoever has this issue... you can try their products here.

17 Aug

Fresh out of the box! Having crossed the 1.5kg line at 1.79kg today, Minzy was finally able to sleep without a cover in her incubator. However, her breathing wasn't so stable yet. they tried to remove the respirator but her oxygen levels decreased and they had to put it back again. guess they will have to take that slowly. it is still a marked improvement to be able to see minzy without the panel of glass between us. coincidentally we came just right after they removed her cover so we could touch her as much as we want that day! awwww. here's a shot nampyeon took of her incubator and surroundings.

nampyeon disturbing the soundly-sleeping minzy...

i find her really cute when she sticks out that hand unexpectedly... XD

but for some reasons she seems to be just struggling a lot. towards the end of this vid it's as if she struggled so much then suddenly pass out =_=

but for the most part she just kept sticking out her tongue. guess babies do that a lot...

i guess she is having some delicious milk in her dreams..?

sometimes she will struggle and stick her tongue out. wonder what that means..

here's little minzy opening her sleepy eyes to see her mommy for just a second.

hmmm my little minzy... love you so much... T_T i guess it's because she hates the respirator that's stuck to her face, that she's scratching it so much. hopefully it will be removed soon!!

Minzy Swaddling 1.55kg

i received new labels today with minzy's name at 3 months! whoppeeee~~~

as you can see her name is min hee (pronounced mini). her chinese name is minxi and that's where minzy comes from. i didn't know that the korean pronounciation was so different but since the name has been registered she's now sort of stuck before mini and minzy. i guess she'll just be mini minzy XD

It appears that the 'surgery' that nampyeon was saying is actually not a surgery. it's just a process of putting back in the shit that comes out of her big intestines back into her small intestines. i was curious about this and the nurse sort of demonstrated and explained the process.

they have only been doing it for about a week, but she's already put on quite a lot of weight - 1.55kg now! 60g overnight. wow. it seems that her small intestines is really hardworking.

minzy was so naughty today, she kept grabbing her breathing tubes and waving it in front of the nurse, and the nurse had to wrap both her arms. she couldn't move her right arm suddenly and she let out a shout. it was so cute XDDD

minzy woke up completely in the middle and had such a shocked and funny face.

the nurse also drained her saliva - finally, it was bothering me because her drool was so big x_x

and finally she's being wrapped back in her larva stated. looking at her like this, i noticed that she has really big eyes! i wonder where she inherited that from hahahah.

can't get enough of her sticking out her tongue. kyaaaaa~~

she looks so contented here. hahah. clean diapers, clean face, yup!

our very pretty and sweet-looking minzy (",) love you so much!

Crying Minzy

6th Aug

we finally heard Minzy's voice properly today. in the past i did hear her a couple of times but it was barely audible but as soon as i arrived i heard her crying and i was finally relieved. nampyeon was so scared that she might not be able to talk since we've never heard her cry, although the nurse assured us that she did.

however, minzy wasn't gaining weight fast enough (she was 1.29kg today) so the doc suggested doing a surgery to let her digest food in her small intestines, since the small intestines has not been working at all (food came out from the big intestines parked outside). the doc was explaining to nampyeon but i wasn't really sure what the whole thing was about but i panicked because she was going to do another surgery and i hated the idea. still, there wasn't much that we could do. they got our consent to put some stuff in her body for MRI and xray purposes. i thought it was weird there was no consent for surgery. perhaps they were still looking for other ways?

we tested some reflex that nampyeon mentioned previously. normal babies usually retreat their feet when you tickle them and grab your hand if you tickle their palm. minzy was only doing it half the time and i wasn't sure if that was right. still, i guess it's still too early to worry.

look at her little twitch when nampyeon jiggled his finger in her palm. so cute.

i was sure she was smiling a little in this!

minzy was staring into space for some time before nampyeon managed to get his hp to take this. this was how she looked when nampyeon came in to see her at the beginning. 

i wasn't able to take pics and touch her at the same time so all i had was minzy struggling and being frustrated with her breathing tubes. if i was taped like that i'd be frustrated too... T_T poor little minzy...

my little minzy's tiny feet and hands..

byebye my little warrior, looking forward to next meeting~!