Cheryl is 3!!

Cheryl turns 3 yesterday. I can still vividly remember the day she was born. It was my first pregnancy. I was very worried when the contractions kicked in. I remembered going to the hospital around 2.30am and only gave birth at around 12pm the next day. Since it was my first pregnancy and I did not know a thing about pregnancy and labour, I bought a book. I got to know from this book that I am suppose to head to the hospital when my contractions are 8 to 10 minutes apart if I stay quite a distance away from the hospital. I already sensed that I am going into labour that very day and stayed awake waiting for the right moment to head to the hospital.

By 7am the next day, my cervix had not dilate and the pain from the contranctions had became more intense. The doctor began to discuss the possibility of a cesarean section. He advised me to consider a cesarean section as according to him, the baby will suffer from lack of oxygen if I continue to insists on natural delivery. After discussion with hubby, we finally agreed to this. Hubby was not allowed into the operating theatre. The sedative given to me was quite strong as I only fully regain my consciousness at about 8pm.

Then only I realised how painful it is. I have just had a major abdominal surgery! It was so painful that for the first 3 days, I was not able to stand up. Even sitting up is a problem for me. I can't sit up by myself. I don't know how some of the others who have also just had a cesarean section managed to stand up only 1 day after the surgery. By the 3rd day, I still can't manage to stand by myself. It was so painful that I vowed to myself never to opt for cesarean section in my subsequent pregnancies. That was why I didn't even want to consider cesarean section during my second pregnancy and have to endured almost 1 full day of labour pain.

I think I have swerved too much from the original subject. Now back to the main topic which is Cheryl's birthday. I baked cupcakes for her this year. I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. As the name of the cake suggested, it should be red in colour. But my cake is brown colour. Originally what gave the cake its distinctive red colour is the chemical reaction between the unprocessed cocoa and the acid in buttermilk. But now, more often than not, the distinctive red colour of the cake comes from artificial colouring. As I do not used unprocessed cocoa and I am not a fan of artificial colouring either, I just ommit the colouring from my mind.

As her everyday staple is porridge, I decided to prepare something different for her on her birthday. So she had fried chicken nuggets for lunch and my homemade hakka yam balls for dinner.