Childbirth Education Course - Antenatal Class 4

Lesson 4
Practical Hands-on Baby Care	• Hands-on Child Care • General Care • Skin Care • Diaper Care • Bathing • Coping with a Fretting, Crying Baby • Coping with a Sleepy or Wakeful Baby • Coping with Colic • Instructional Video • Q & A

As usual, the class starts with a video. This time, it is not an overseas video using mainly Caucasian people. It is a locally produced video starring Mrs Wong Boh Boi herself. An amateurish production since it was done by a daddy and she also said that a better video is in progress of producing.
The video essentially shows the process of bathing a baby. So why bathe the baby you ask? Why not just get the domestic helper to do it? No, you should not do that. By bathing the baby, you are bonding with the baby. Babies like to be touched and proper bathing can also make them feel very relaxed.
Steps to bathing a baby

1. Your own cleanliness first. Make sure you scrub your hands and fingers. Keep your nails short.
2. Prepare the bathtub, washcloth (Wong does not support use of sponges), bath shampoo and towel. Bath water should be at EXACTLY 37 degrees so as not to startle the baby. So, we probably got to get a thermometer to measure the temperature.The other method will be to use your inner wrist to test the water temperature.
   
3. Consistently keep talking to your baby or sing to him
4. With his diaper still on, moisten the cotton wool ball and clean the eye area using cooled boiled water.Throw away after one side and use a clean one for the other side. Confinement nannies tend to swap the cotton wool around.
5. Once done with his eyes, clean the face with the wash towel.
6. Pour ONE DROP of non rinse shampoo into the bath and then wash his hair with the wash towel. NEVER squirt shampoo direct to his head like for adults. Their skin is still extremely sensitive and this could result in cradle caps occurring. Not a very pleasant sight.
7. Strip the baby of the diapers. Support him properly by the neck and butt and then lower him slowly into the water, feet first, then butt and body. If done properly they will love it as it imitates what he has been experience in the mother's womb for months covering in crystal clear water.
8. Use the cotton wool to clean creases on the neck and under the armpits. To release his tightly clenched fingers, draw small circles on his hand and he will release. Wash all his fingers, palms, fingers, toes gentlely.
9. Flip the baby to his back by supporting him from the front using your arms. Clean his back and bottom.
10. Place him on the towel already on the table and pat him dry. Do not use powder as there is a concern about respiratory problems should newborns sniff in the talcum. If required, use the liquid form instead. At the first month, Mrs Wong also mentioned that newborns have a special smell in their feet!
    
11. Clean the baby's outer ear with the cotton sticks. Clean the private areas. Do not pull back the foreskin of the penis for boys.
12. For the first few weeks, the baby has some natural barrier protection. However if you think it is required, put some barrier cream on his bottoms and then wear his diapers.
13. Clean the baby's cord with cord spirit or medical sterlie swaps. There will be some mucus discharge. It is normal.

Lots of things to do ya? I also think so. It sounds like a one hour bathe time! Longer than what she needs! Hahaha.

Other important notes from the session

• Mittens should only be worn for about six weeks. After that, stop using mittens and trim their nails on a regular basis. Use a special baby nail clipper for better control. Infants start to develop their skills after about one month and covering their fingers will hinder their development.
• DO NOT wear those velcro bips or caps, hoods for them to sleep.It may cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
• Clean the private areas properly after poo poo and wee wee. For boys, clean the penis first and then the balls and then the sides. Then clean the anus area.
• Never shake the baby which might cause blood vessels to break.Do not throw baby around. Monitor confinement nannies or domestic helpers in this aspect.
• The head is the heaviest organ during the infant years. Always support his neck and head when holding the baby.
• Learn to listen to different cues of crying as it might refer to different things.
• Read her book! Everything discuss here is fully detailed in her Basic Childcare book priced at about SGD$13.00
  

Tweet

Baby Jayden Ang

Presenting our baby's name that we have confirmed.

We love it!

Tweet

Childbirth Education Course - Antenatal Class 3

Yesterday, we went for the third antenatal class with Mrs Wong Boh Boi.

Lesson 3
Labour	• Antenatal Exercise • Physiological Approach to Breathing Relaxation • Learning to Cope in Labour • Mechanisms of Normal Childbirth • Husband's Role • Instructional Video

The above is the lesson plan for lesson 3. The setting of the lesson is the same as usual. Videos first. We were shown various methods of labour and delivery, normal labour, entonox labour, epidural labours, c section and then water birth. The video is very educational in presentation and gave us a good glimpse of what we should expect during the labour period of Hazel. That was actually the second time I watched such a video so I guess, I didnt feel so "WAH" at that point. The first video that I saw was just recently when I googled for more information on child birth and a youtube video popped up.

Next, Mrs Wong refreshed us with all the antenatal exercises that she has taught and also on the relaxation/breathing methods. I will not go into the details as that is too much even for me to type it down. We also just collected her three books as part of the "free gifts" for signing up with FBI, Thomson's First Birth Incentive. All that she has taught is properly presented and documented in the book.

Important things in this lesson to note

• Labour stages: Three. Early labour, active labour stages, seperation of placenta stage. The early labour stage take quite some time at about 7 to 8 hours. Active labour kicks in when it is more than 3 cm. Choose your pain relief method at this point.
• Crowning: LISTEN TO NURSE if she says stop and Pant pant pant!!!
  
• Perinum massage: Cut your nails short. Clean them properly and put two fingers in your vagina, stretching and pulling the skin (called the fourchette) closest to the anus. This will help stretch the skin and muscles and prevent any episiotomy cut required. Do it everytime you bathe.

She also then talks about the role of husbands in this area. It is still quite sad that daddies are still not that well exposed and given a chance for active involvement in the children. A simple way to see is the much lesser commercialization of Father's day as compared to Mother's day.

She also demonstrated a kinda crazy idea of drawing on the daddy's back to educate the baby in the womb. The effectiveness of this exercise can never be properly experimented on.

Tweet

Active Fathering Series: Dare 2b a Dad-2b

Last night, we went to our first parenting related workshops together, the EMCC Active Fathering Series, Dare 2b a Dad-2b.

We were naturally the first since we knock off quite early and arrived at Liang court at 1745hrs. By the time we finished with our dinner, we still have time to walk around and rest. Hazel was quite apprehensive about this event especially when we are the first couple there and the next earliest ones did not attend with their partner. I guess she felt quite left out and weird in a male dominated class. Thankfully, it was in a few minutes that other couples came marching in.

The layout of the class was quite unexpected. I have expected this course to be conducted in a small lecture style environment but the tables layout was more like a discussion related type of course. Three cluster of tables were placed in the small room. I supposed that design is to facilitate interaction with other daddies. I actually had a tiny bit of regret that we did not really communicate much with other couples or daddies to get to learn more first hand experience.



We were given a few handouts. A folder with other EMCC workshops details, a book by Maureen Ng (which our friend actually dropped me a email about it, thanks again!), a nice collar pin from DadsforLife.sg, the presentation slides and a newspaper clipping about infant care centers.

The speaker was Edward Zaccheus and co speaker Jean. A few important points to note from this course:

• The happiness of the children and the family depends on the love of the husband and wife. If they have great relationships with each other, the children will grow up in a blissful and happy family. In turn, the children will more likely to be good children.
• The ever growing debate of caning your children. There is a growing population of family not caning or spanking their children and results are not too bad either. I also think that I would rather not cane my children. I would want to be a nurturing parent and not a critical parent.
  
• Children tend to remember bad things that happened to them when they are young and this will etch in their minds. I will kinda relate to that. My dad used to belittle me and said that I am not smart enough. And that he will be happy that I can just go into ITE. I guess if I asked my dad about this, he will probably not remember saying it but that memory is very very strongly engraved in my mind. I am lucky that I did not think that I can only attain such academic levels and managed to finish all the way to my graduate studies.
  
• Interesting exercise that we did. I rated myself about 40+ on the fathering profile but when Hazel rated me, it is only about 20+. Of course, we disagreed on some aspects but that is kind of a revelation to me.
• Care givers. Look for the relationship and quality that the care giver can give to your baby and not the services and facilities that they have.
• Most importantly, there are no ideal fathers. If you make a mistake, it is ok. Learn from mistakes and grow from there. Enjoy the fathering experience!
  

We also bought the book, "Dim Sum for the Family" by John Ng during the event for just SGD20. The preview of the book looks good and SGD20 is not much to spare for extra knowledge.

Tweet

Childbirth Education Course - Antenatal Class 2

We just went to our second round of class with Mrs Wong Boh Boi.

Lesson 2
Pain Relief	• Antenatal Exercise • Physiological Approach to Breathing Relaxation • Changes in Pregnancy Leading to Signs & Symptoms of Labour • Other Alternative Types of Pain Relief in Labour • Instructional Video • Q & A

This is today's lesson plan. We were first told to watch a video showing during types of Pain Relief and also methods of relaxation. This video lasted for about 17 mins and is also most probably shown to let Mrs Wong to take a break. Her classes starts from 2pm all the way to 9pm without break! 3 classes one after another. The video also shown that epidural is the most effective pain relief method. Other methods include massage, Water Bath, TENS (a type of electric shock to the nerve - Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation), Enotonox (50% oxygen, 50% nitrous oxide) and Pethidine injections.

Epidural is administrated first by numbing the site of injection and then inserting the needle into either the 10, 11 or 12 section of the spinal vertebrate. A catheter is inserted through the needle and then the machine is turned on. There should be no pain felt except for a slight pressure sensation at the epidural site.

Three Breathing Techniques
Next, she introduces to us some breathing techniques.

• Deep breathing for relaxation - BREATHE IN deeply and then OUT SLOWLY. Then picture a scene of calmness and relaxing.
• Shallow breathing - Breath in and then pant pant pant.
• Transition Breathing - Breath breath and pant pant

So why the different breathing?

It is all about energy conservation and of cos relaxation. She said that many a times, some mothers have used too much energy until she is depleted and cannot push her baby out. That is a sad thing and so, the breathing techniques are supposed to help you in conserving your energy. You should also listen to the nurse. If the nurse tells you not to push, DO NOT PUSH! The cervix needs to be dilated till about 10cm for the baby head to come out. If you push at 8cm, you are likely to create more problems. The cervix opening might become smaller as the baby head is repeatedly banging against the wall and causing the opening to swell. Then you have to wait for another 3 hours for the swelling to subside and then wait for the cervix to dilate again.

How to picture a scene of calmness? Imagine that you are on a beach with clear blue skies and crystal clear water. You should start to feel your body and limbs getting heavier and heavier. If you are still not in labour, picture seeing your baby and then reassuring that everything is ok. If you are in labor then picture looking at the birth canal, on the another end is your baby, call out to him, ask him to come out into the another end where everyone is waiting, coax him out, assure him that everything is better outside.

Is daddy spared today? If cos not, she taught us about laboring for the mummy in the labor ward and stories where daddies even collapse due to exhaustion after laboring by helping to massage the mummy. Mrs Wong taught us about using our palms, fingers and knuckles to give the mummy a massage on the lower back when she is laying on the side or if she is sitting up, massaging from the neck all the way down to the waist where the two dimples are.

Pelvic Floor Muscles

Three types of exercise that she taught us.

• Tightening up of the anal sphincter muscles. How to locate? If you know how to control your bowels, especially during a diarrhea, then you know. Purpose? To prevent hemorrhoids during pregnancy and especially when giving birth. The baby will be pushing against your rectum and there is high chance that hemorrhoids will occur if you do not have strong sphincter muscles.
• Birth Canal exercise. Tightening up of the vaginal walls. Need I explain further? Purpose? To assist it in returning to the original size and shape and prevent vaginal wall collapse.
• Urethra exercise. Holding the muscle as if holding pee. Purpose? To prevent and strengthen muscles to prevent urine leaks after pregnancy.

The final exercise combines all three. Tighten sphincter muscles then tighten birth canal and then tightening urethra. You should feel the whole area going up and then relax.

Signs of Labor

Normally, the cervix will dilate 1cm in 1 hour. That is the norm. So typically, it will be a good eight hours before the mummy goes into the labor ward. There are others who can also dilate more than 1cm per hour and they are fast. The daddy will not be permitted to leave the hospital in this case. The last is a long labor process where the cervix dilates are less than 1cm per hour!

If you know that your water bag already burst, RUSH TO THE HOSPITAL! There should be no delay. For example, if you happen to wake up with the bed wet, first smell the bed and see if it irks of ammonia or there is no smell. If it has ammonia smell, then it is urine but if you are positive that it is the water bag. Please go immediately to the hospital. The water bag actually serves as a protective barrier to your baby's head and immediate medical attention is required.

Click here to go to my post about the first antenatal class.

Tweet

Stemcord & Cordlife - Cord Blood Banking

As her due date approaches, this matter has to be treated also with more urgency. I find more and more things coming up that we have to make decisions now since we still have time to think and consider the pros and cons of it.

Cord blood banking. What is it? I am still reading up more and more of the benefits everyday.

Cord blood is essentially placenta blood which is drawn from the umbilical cord during the delivery of the baby. This cord blood will serve as a future hope for any unforeseen circumstances for treatment of disease which might require stem cells. It should take about 3 minutes and will not hinder the normal birthing process.

Stem cells come from three sources - Bone marrow (the most common, you should have heard of cases where people are searching for suitable bone marrow donors for their child to treat leukemia), Peripheral blood (I learnt this in Biology!) and Umbilical cord blood (This is new to me!) They are able to regenerate the immune system and have the ability to differentiate into different types of cells.

It was reported that the first successful cord blood transplant was done in 1988 and till date, over 14,000 cord blood stem cell transplants were reported worldwide.

So with these brings us to the two local options. Of course public blood banking is out if you want to retain the blood for your privileged use.

Cordlife - http://www.cordlife.com

and

Stemcord - http://www.stemcord.com/

Cordlife is seems to be more established than Stemcord. Stemcord is founded in Singapore in 2002 by practicing doctors. They claimed to have more than 10,000 stored units as of March 2007 and are not venturing into any other business ventures that might undermine their financial status. Cordlife states that they have established themselves since 2001 and the website is more informative, showing certifications and accreditations that they receive. So in a nutshell.

Cordlife - Founded by business men to capitalize this growing potential in biomedical field.

Stemcord - Founded by doctors to make business.

Reliabilty wise? You figure. I would say both are the same. Afterall, they are open to make business.

Cordlife utilized a fully automated cord blood processing system where details are fully disclosed in the website. Of course, they will only show the good things to promote their company. However, I cannot seem to find any information on how Stemcord processes the cord blood. Veil of secrecy? There were also many reports on the methods in which Stemcord keeps the blood. Stemcord keeps the stem cells in 4 different vials whereas Cordlife keeps it in one pouch ready for use. Actually, as far as I recalled, I remembered vaguely that the stem cells from one baby is not even enough to save a full adult. Most probably that amount is just enough to save a baby to a teen. So why the separation in 4 tubes? Even as technology improves, I doubt that small amount in a tube can do much. Unless, we are talking about cloning stem cells. But that is a different topic all together.

Stemcord also promotes the advantages about storing at different locations. Why? Is there a growing trend to rob a blood bank? Are they not confident of their fire prevention and rescue procedures? Isn't that just a marketing gimmick? I wonder.

Netizens also mentioned that Stemcord has refused visits to be made by potential customers to their lab whereas Cordlife will allow customers to visit their lab and can arrange for it. I wonder why. I am seriously worried about contamination issues. No sane person is going to pay a respectable sum of money annually and see it having a higher chance of contamination. It also seems to me that Cordlife does more tests to ensure that the blood is not contaminated before cryo storing them. Besides, who is to know that if the blood is contaminated and the blood bank keeps mum. I just keep paying without knowing! It is also more reassuring that Cordlife has a policy that should any contamination take place, it assures of a cord blood replacement or a compensation. Not that I want the compensation but I am more interested in the replacement guarantee!

As you can see, I am more towards Cordlife at the moment even though it might be more expensive than Stemcord. For this I need to go find out.

Tweet

Motherhood Expo June 2010

We went to our first baby expo/fair today together with my mother and did some shopping. My first impression was "Wow, this is not very big."



Maybe this is not a good representation of the actual space allocated but it only occupies half of an expo hall.

There are various stores set up to sell products ranging from the ever persistent and irritating insurance agents, motherhood mag sign up booth which was huge, various small stores selling baby apparels, educational stores, photography booths specializing in pregnant photography and children photography to pampers, drypers etc. While the space seems small, we actually spent quite some time in the place buying stuff.


Here's Hazel and my mummy buying some clothes for our baby!


Some "walking past" shots. Actually, I haven't got a clue what they are doing.

Our spoils of the day.


1) Electric Sterilizer Set - $120. Consist of the Electric sterilizer + Teething gear + 1 Magic Cup + 1 moisturizer.


2) 2 X 260ml feeding bottle and 2 X 125 ml feeding bottle - $54.


3) Free gifts from lucky draw. 1 stylish Avent Urban Bag to hold diapers, bottles etc. 1 daily moisturizing cream, 1 daily liquid talc, 1 normal 125ml fedding bottle. I think the bag is very useful! Much better than the free gift we received from FBI.


4) Hazel bought these bibs for $10. Cute right!


5) Gifts from my mummy. Pillow + Bolsters. By the way, they are expensive!! And button clothes!! Hahaha.

We also went to the nearby Hall 4 John Little sale to take a look around.


Buttoned tops is the theme for today. No whole suit one hahaha.

Tweet

Childbirth Education Course - First Antenatal Class

As our gynea, Dr Adelina Wong is at Thomson Medical Centre, we also signed up for the First Born Incentive Scheme, FBI. With that, we have also enrolled ourselves into the Childbirth Education Course, or some call it the Antenatal classes.

Our first class started today at AMK Hub with Mrs Wong Boh Boi. I did chanced upon her name quite often while surfing around parenting forums. Hazel also thinks that she is highly recommended and sought after, and so we specifically choose to get a class with her. Our class was about 20 couples.



You can actually see from this photo that it is quite cramped and also since we came quite late, we did not have any luxury of choosing a good seat.

Lesson 1
Physical & Mental Preparation	• Antenatal Exercise • Nutrition Before & After Delivery • Myths & Traditions • Coping with Pregnancy Discomfort • Back Care & Postures • Instructional Video • Q & A

The above is the course outline for today. When we entered, she was actually showing some videos about breastfeeding, breastfeeding twins to be more precise. Later on, we had a series of exercises being taught to us. An improvement note to the course would be that some handouts with the exercises mentioned could be given out during the classes. I think that she has probably got through about 20+ different types of exercises. Now that I have returned home, I could maybe only remember 50%. Tomorrow, 30% and soon the normal person can only retain 10% of what she has taught unless you have written it down. It does seem like she is using the class to hard sell her books too.

Thereafter, we had a presentation showing us the nutrition to be taken during and before delivery. I think Hazel lacks Calcium. Must force her to drink her milk daily!! Mrs Wong also touched on postures. She taught about ways to massage the wife and also a proper manner of getting up from the laying down position. Personally, I think those are quite useful information if you follow to the book. I was also puzzled as to why she did not mentioned that ginseng and peanuts are not so advisable to pregnant ladies but instead she even suggested taking them, in moderation of course.

Finally, she dispelled some confinement beliefs that I hope our confinement nanny will not be doing. No bathing, No washing hair, No aircon, Cover blanket, Drink lots of wine are all ridiculous beliefs that originated from decades ago, most probably in Mainland China. Modern medicine and science believes that all this can be done although she also mentioned that washing of hair should be avoided for at least 2 days after delivery to prevent getting flu or falling sick.

The most interesting thing that I gain from today's lesson is about communication with your unborn child.

• Never rub your tummy in a circular manner as it is simulating a whirlpool inside and might lead to premature labor. Instead, use your fingers and firmly pressed down on all sides of the tummy. Left-Right, Top-Bottom.
• How do you know if your baby likes it? If your baby does not like you touching him/her, then the top of the tummy will feel very hard and not soft to touch.
• Another way to simulate your baby to move is to do a butterfly manner and send ripples in the waterbag.
  
• Also, at week 26 onwards, your baby can head as the nerve endings have grown to the ears.
  
• NEVER in any case, put a headphone or earphone at the tummy. It might make him tone deaf or even worse, lead to premature death. Instead, talk to the baby from the outside at a neutral voice. "Hello, how are you today? Be good to Mummy ok?" In fact, I just told him to kick more and Hazel was complaining to me that he is kicking like crazy inside. Hahaha.
• The next interesting thing is that you can actually start to use torch light to shine at your tummy and introduce him to light. Sounds corny? She said it works!

Was it worth the money? I think it is worth at this point of time! ^_^

Tweet

Combi Baby Chair - Rashule

I realized that I forgot to mention the baby chair that we saw in my last post on Combi Shopping. While the nice lady was introducing to us the walkers, she also did introduce us to the baby chair. And wow, if she did not do the introduction, I would not have known that this baby chair has SO MANY FEATURES! The one she introduced us is the Rashule. A economy class model, she calls it. It is priced at $279 and you can use it from newborn to 4 years old. The business class model - Roanju retails at $479. A $200 difference. Same as the difference between Miracle Turn and Urban Walker, it is really just a higher premium with features that you can actually do without.

Some scans I took from the catalog. Click on the pictures for the high resolution photos.







Anyhow since I did some scanning, I might as well scan the other products that I bought.

Tweet

Baby Name Part 2

We have been at it for quite some time. It is quite difficult to make up our minds for our baby name, more so for the baby chinese name. I wrote a post about it quite some time ago and we went around looking for the book. So far, we only managed to see a badly worn out book in Bugis Kinokuniya. All other major bookstores such as Borders and the main Kinokuniya do not have stock of it. And so, Hazel recommended this book and we got it.



Frankly, I still think that this book does not really help matters in our headaches in choosing a Chinese name. I think we would probably have to go to my dreaded choice. Using a Fengshui master to conjure up some names based on the 八字. I will do somemore research to find a good, cheap and trustworthy fengshui master and also waiting for Hazel's help too. If you have some recommendations for Chinese Fengshui master, do drop me a mail.

Back to English names, we have shortlisted a few.

• Jayden Ang
• Lucas Ang
• Ethan Ang
• Wesley Ang
• Issac Ang

I think we are more towards the Jayden Ang and Lucas Ang. You know what? Jayden is the top choice for a baby boy name in 2009, based on the report by BabyCenter Singapore. Ethan and Lucas are also in the top 10 list. Frankly, I did not look at this site when I was choosing my name. I did chance upon it before but I could have sworn that I already forgotten about this site till I re-read my last post.

Actually, after thinking hard about it for some days, I have shorten it to the last three.

• Jayden Ang - Raising popular name even in USA. Top 4 name in USA. A modern creation. Probably created from the nick Jay and name Hayden. First Jayden was thought to be named in 1994.
  
• Lucas Ang - A Greek origin name. Man from Lucania. Also last name of famous director, George Lucas.
  
• Ethan Ang - Hebrew origin. Meaning strong and firm.
  

So what is his name going to be? I only have about 94 days to think about it!!!

Tweet

My Wisdom Tooth Saga

This isn't about our baby, baby products, or anything related at all to pregnancy. It's about my tooth, the third molar, the wisdom tooth.

I am a guy who is afraid of pain, especially pain to do with things happening in my mouth. I hate dentists. I remembered that in the primary school days, I hate it when some other students from other classes comes over knocking to pass the dental card to the teacher in order to call for the next "victim" to go to the dental clinic. It is a scary experience. Why did I have to remove my wisdom tooth? Well, a few dentists have already recommended me to remove them for quite some time. The lower ones are horizontally impacted, meaning that they are pushing against my other teeth. The result is visible, my inscissors have been twisted a little due to the growing wisdom teeth. I didnt really bother too much about that but unfortunately, due to the placement of the wisdom tooth, I am not able to clean it properly and it started to have a cavity which could not be filled. That cavity created an extreme pain whenever I eat or drink cold things and the cold stuff hits my teeth. And with that, I decided to remove that lower one and probably the upper one too.

After taking an x ray at Q & M Toa Payoh with the dentist Dr Winston Lim, he told me that mine was a difficult case and the roots are very near the nerves. That will mean that he cannot remove it himself and would have to recommend it to an oral surgeon to do it. So, I took an appointment with the main Q & M branch and waited for my turn. Honestly, there are many times during this waiting period that I decided to cancel the appointment and live with the occasional pain but I was also worried that the decaying teeth will create problem for the neighboring molar. And so, I finally had it removed yesterday.

The main HQ is at City Square Mall, a place that I have never went before. I was thinking that it is some small neighborhood mall. I was wrong. It is huge, at least from the basement perspective. The main Q & M is also HUGE. I think there are like 20 over seperate rooms? I was soon ushered to a room to Dr Asher Lim. He briefly spoke to me about what he is going to do and what I should not do. When I mean brief, it is really brief. I was then being prepared for the surgery. I was really really anxious and feeling stressed at that time. I could feel my heartbeat increasing and pumping hardly.

1. A surgical vest was donned and I had to put on a headgear and my eyes were covered.
2. A topical numbing cream/gel. It is actually a gel to prepare me for the injections that follows.
3. One shot of local anesthetic given. Ok, feels a slight tinge. Second shot given. WHAT? Not finished? This one hurt a little more. Third shot given. I jerked and got shocked. That really hurts!!!! I could feel the third shot going in all the way down into my gums.
4. The oral surgeon told me to rest a while while they prepared their tools. At that time, I caught a glimpse of the needle they use through a small opening. IT WAS HUGE! I waited for like an eternity and soon I could feel the numbness coming. It started with my lips and teeth on the right side and then even the cheek. Soon my entire lower right side was pretty numb. I could not feel anything. He asked if I was feeling ok and then said that he is going to start soon.
5. A huge cable went across my body. Didnt know what was that. He tested his drill/saw. THAT is scary. I guess it does help being not able to see what is going on there. Some thing went into my mouth to open it better and it started.
6. I think he probably cut open my gums and then started drilling/sawing. I really didnt feel a thing but it was quite traumatic. He told me that due to the size of my tooth, he will have to cut it into four pieces to remove it. So there is quite a lot of drilling and sawing going on inside my mouth. He used quite a lot of strength too, pulling on the stubborn teeth to get it out.
7. Soon it was finished. I could feel him stitching up the wounds. I had to bite on the gauze for an hour to stop the bleeding.

A six day MC was given to me with plenty of medicine. When I asked him about the upper wisdom tooth, he told me that normally he would have removed it but he thinks that I am way too stressed up and it is not advisable to remove it then. But that tooth is still OK, the only problem is that gravity will continue to put it down and one fine day I might start feeling uncomfortable since it might touch on the lower gum. I think he gave me more painkillers cos I told him that I am adverse to pain. I actually felt super after the operation since it still felt pretty numb but it started to hurt like hell when I drove home. I was like crazily driving home to take my painkillers and other medicines. Told Hazel to buy porridge but later decided not to eat anything to prevent food getting stuck in the wound creating problems. I AM SO NOT GOING TO CUT MY GUMS AGAIN!

The whole experience is quite a traumatic one especially waiting to get cut up and getting all those shots of LA. So I am one down, three to go. But after this experience, I think it will be even harder to convince myself to go for another surgery.

I pray that my recovery will be speedy and there will be no problems on my wound when I remove the stitches on 10th June 2010.

Post Wisdom Tooth Surgery Wisdom

I am no expert since I am also still recovering from the surgery. Today is day 2.

• Take your painkillers before the anesthetic wears off! I took the painkillers before that and it still hurts! Can't imagine if you only start to take the painkillers after it wears off.
  
• Change your gauze after when it gets filled up with blood. I changed mine about seven times till I went to bed.
• Take plenty of rest.
• Sleep with your head elevated to prevent swelling on your face. My face only has a very slight swell today. Hope that I dun face the tennis ball swelling that the dentist told me that some will get.
• Avoid brushing your teeth on that night of the surgery. Resume brushing the next day, taking EXTRA care on the wounded area.
• Take soft food like mashed potatoes, creamy soups or even yogurts. The point is to minimize chewing and maximizing the recovery time.
  
• Resist the temptation to touch the area with your fingers and tongue since it might break the wound again
• Rinse your mouth with salt water after food. Do not use normal mouthwash as they may contain agents to disrupt the blood clotting process
  

DO NOT DO the following

• DO NOT do strenuous exercise or work.
  
• DO NOT use a straw to drink. It creates pressure difference in your mouth and can cause the blood clot to dislodge creating a symptom call DRY SOCKET which is painful.
• DO NOT smoke. Same theory as straw
• DO NOT drink carbonated drinks for the next few days.
• DO NOT spit excessive or blow your nose. I will avoid handling my dog, Truffle till I am better since I sometimes tend to sneeze when I am with him.
• DO NOT eat things that create residual particles that may get dislodge in the wound and create infections and dry sockets. Things like pop corn, peanuts, chips. Some even say rice.
  

Tweet