Baby cakes

There were no words.

The first thing I ate after giving birth to Kate on January 15 was a bar of Snickers. It tasted so indescribably good, so toe-curlingly divine that I seriously would’ve bitten off my husband Z’s head if he dared utter a word to interrupt.

I had been a gestational diabetic for three months and was making up for lost time. After the Snickers, I scoffed down Polar sugar rolls, curry puffs, sardine puffs, beancurd with syrup and kueh pie tee in quick succession. Every time the menu card came around, I made sure every beverage choice was either apple juice or sweetened soy milk, things I couldn’t even have a sip of pre-birth.

For three long months, I was a grumpy, embittered old hag because I couldn’t eat what I wanted. It wasn’t until Kate was born that I realised it held a greater purpose. After just three hours of labour and 15 minutes of pushing, she emerged so cute with chubby cheeks and a full head of hair — but with a deadly umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.

Because of my gestational diabetes, Kate had to be induced one week early before she grows too big to be delivered naturally. I shudder to think what could’ve happened if I wasn’t diabetic and had waited for another week to full term. And no wonder I had such a fast labour, compared to the epic 10 hours it took for my first child, E, to arrive.

Every mother thinks her child is special. But there is something about Kate that makes her exceptionally so. She was born on the same date as my mother on the Western calendar, and the same date as Z’s mother on the Chinese calendar. Perhaps a tribute to the women who came before her? And perhaps as a sign of her great appetite for life, she drinks twice the amount of milk prescribed as average by the doctor. This mama is gonna be chained to the breastpump for quite a long time to come 🙂

I find myself lapsing into fear when I think about what could’ve been. But Z has a far more positive take on things: God is in control, often turning what is bad into something miraculously good. For that I am in awe. Thank God. Praise You.