There it was, 2 lines, the test line was more faint that the 2nd line, very faint in fact, but as we all know, there are no false positives in pregnancy test results. The test lines got darker in the next few days, and it was confirmed, we were going to have another baby. This was back in July 2019.
It was not a complete shock to me, we did wanted another child and were trying to conceive since I weaned our second child off breastmilk a few months back. It was intentional and we wanted the kids to be spaced about 2 years apart. We made plans on how to announce it to our family, and started to figure out how the dynamic of having 3 kids will be like , with the kids aged 4 years and below once baby number 3 is born. It was during this time that we decided to register our oldest to attend daycare after school in the coming year 2021 (but we eventually stopped his after school day care, partly due to pandemic), so as to not tax the grandparents who took care of the kids when hubby and I are working. Not an easy decision to make but it would be for a year at most, at least until our second child starts school with her brother.
We invited my in laws over for dinner on a saturday, and amidst normal chatter and making sure our kids to eat up their dinner, I told them that we were going to have some one new staying with us in 2020. They did not get it at all, they assumed we were letting a friend move into our home in the coming year.
I then said she will start staying with us in March’2020, for long term. Ok, at this point to stop confusing husband’s parents further we finally said I was pregnant. They were shocked, but thankfully happy too. I felt relief and we asked family to keep it low at least until we had a 8 week ultrasound appointment made to confirm baby heartbeat and growth. The scan turned out well, baby was growing, but this pregnancy was by far the most difficult of all 3, as I had severe migraine quite frequent during the second and third trimesters, and I was unable to take painkillers due to potential risk to baby.
Fast forward, I was diagnosed with pre-term labour at 34-35 weeks, with mild spotting and consistent contractions as confirmed by the nurses when I was strapped to the fetal and contraction monitoring machine , which led me to be admitted at hospital for monitoring overnight ( and a hefty medical bill). Subsequently I was discharged and had to take medications to stop labour, followed by a few days of ‘bedrest’ or so. The only good thing was baby girl was a chubby baby and the doctor was not too worried about her coming out before her due date of 40 weeks.
In the end baby girl was born in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic on 24th March 2021, at 39 weeks 4 days via successful induction. The country was in full lockdown at that time, and hospitals were extra careful, we had no visitors at hospital or at home for the next few weeks / months.
We only went out for hospital visits for her new born and my post partum check ups, and then later due to her jaundice we had to go to klinik kesihatan frequently for her blood test, eventually she needed to go for phototherapy ( her phototherapy was done at home as we managed to rent the bilirubin lights, this reduced our need to be at hospitals and avoid risk of infection during the pandemic) to bring down her jaundice levels.
Unfortunately being a pandemic baby ( and now we are in an even worst pandemic situation than during her birth, strangely) she has not met many friends or family as borders are closed and our kids are too young to bring to church (SOP requirements), thankfully my parents managed to meet her before the borders closed last year.
Number three is not a baby anymore, today she turns 14 months old, and is cheeky as ever. She still wakes up at night to feed (le boob), and tries very hard to keep up with her older siblings. Being our third child, she has pretty advanced gross motor skills compared to her siblings, being the fastest to crawl and walk ( 10-11months). Her speech though came later than her older siblings, but she has recently picked up new words, words like ‘ball’ and ‘nen nen’, and her all-time favorite .. ‘ Wow’, as well as mimicking any funny sounds or words she hears from us.
We love her so very much, as to how we love her older two siblings. Grow well my ‘baby’.