Forget-Me-Not

Today's the last day Mum and Dad here. They'll be flying home early morning tomorrow.

Dad didn't make any progress at all. The neurologist could only motivate him to do more brain exercise and watch his diet at the same time.

For the past 3 days, dad woke up with his list of questions like why he was here, whose house was this etc.

Sadly, he has forgotten my name too. Yep, his one and only's daughter name. Only when we told him, then he would say, "Yes!! It's you. I can't recall all of a sudden.."

As speechless as I am, I continue to pray for him to recover. To pick up his memory. To relearn all things back.

I love you, Dad!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Now We Need Fresh Air

My 2 babies at home took turns to fight with nasty viruses over the past 2 weeks. It all started with Bosco's cough after the Genting trip. Then Chloe's high fever. Then Bosco's wheezing last Friday. So bad that he had to use nebuliser for 4 days. Poor baby~

Both Chloe and Bosco are still nursing their cough. It saddens me to see the amount of medicines they took in everyday, especially for 7 months old Bosco.

We visited SBCC again this evening to review on Bosco. He no longer needs the nebuliser anymore, but has to continue taking Ventolin for his phlegm. Get well soon baby! Get well soon, so to resume your solid food quest!

Speaking of that, I failed myself as a 2nd time mummy terribly. Where is the puree that I promised to make for him? I can't even make him finish 2 tablespoon of cereal!! I must jiayou!!!

All in all, they have lost some weight during this period. Chloe now weighs around 13 kg and Bosco's weight is 9.2 kg. I just hope the viruses would disappear from now on and stay that way for the longest they could.

I want everyone at home to be healthy and happy!

Shoo Shoo Go Away

"Hey you nasty virus, please go away soon!"


"I mean it!!!"

Drained

It has been an exhausting weekend for me.

It all started from Thursday where I was not feeling well at work. Came home to see the doc and given 2 days mc. Body chilled and ached the whole afternoon. Good thing was I managed to nap while Chloe and Bosco were still with their granny. Only picked them up during dinner and both greeted me in their own level of cheekiness.

Came back home, trying to change Bosco and put him to sleep. Effort wasted cos he was more energetic and awake than me. The husband came home just in time to save me! He took my temperature and it was 40 deg C. I went to bed around 8.30 leaving the kids to the husband. He did a really good job! :)

Next morning, I woke up feeling so much better. Fever's gone, but body was still aching. Wanted to plant kisses on the three of them, then I heard Chloe coughing with thick phlegm. Checked on her and her body was hot! Sigh..

Mum in law offered to bring Chloe to the doc and babysit her for the day so that I could rest. Aww... But that afternoon I didn't have a chance to rest at all, because Bosco started to cough too. My poor boy~~

That night, Bosco couldn't sleep well. He coughed and wailed. Coughed and wailed. So heartpain to see my 5 months old that way. The next morning, we brought him to the PD.

As a mother, I haven't been so busy and exhausted like last Saturday. Bosco would throw up some milk when he coughed. He became this super cranky baby that needs to be carried all the time. He got worse when close to bedtime. All the crying and shouting must have caused his tummy upset. I don't know how I survived that night.

Thankfully the fever and cough subsided on Sunday. It was my first tough lesson to have two sick babies at home. Twice the heartpain, twice the attention.

Now the three of us are still recovering from the stubborn cough. Hopefully this coming weekend we could all go out and have fun. Through this episode I learn to appreciate people even more. I'm so thankful to have a supportive husband, very helpful inlaws and friends!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

胎毒? Baby Acne?

I have been troubled by this bad rash on Bosco's face for these couple of days. Thanks to the kind mummies in the forum, I have a better idea on what it is and should not overdo the cleansing to make sure it heals well.

I think Bosco is having baby acne!
"Patience is usually the best course of action.
Your baby's acne doesn't bother him in the least,
so try not to let it bother you, either."

Other useful links to read up on newborn's skin condition:
• http://www.babycenter.com/400_my-baby-i-s-6-weeks-old-and-have-a-bad-rash-on-his-face-ears_1210262_165083148769.bc
• http://www.babycenter.com/0_symptom-guide-rash-or-skin-condition_1196431.bc
• http://www.skinsight.com/infant/erythemaToxicumNeonatorum.htm

Confinement: Entering The 4th Week

It's another 9 days til Bosco is 1-month-old.
They say the first month is always the toughest. And I couldn't agree more!
The confinement days so far has been like a roller coaster ride for me, especially the breastfeeding journey. I was overly-confident that, if I could feed Chloe well 2 years ago, so could I this round. I was so wrong. And the fact that Bosco is a 'lil milk monster, is making it tougher.
I hope I could conquer the coming days in a breeze...

First Week
• Beaming with smile after a smooth delivery - seeing baby well and healthy (and does actually look like me a little!)
• Suffered from bad engorgement in day 4-5 and never can latch on hungry baby successfully.
• Resort to feeding baby EBM but at the same time, could only pump out so little, on the contrary to how hard the breasts are.
• Finally the blocked ducts were cleared with a lots of massaging, and I could pump out a good 8 oz at one go.

Second Week
• Both mummy and baby had to go back for 1-week review. I was healing well but poor Bosco had to be admitted for phototherapy. His jaundice level shot up to 21 points and boy, I was heartbroken.
• Decided to let the nurse feed him FM during the treatment as we're suspecting too much ginger in my food intake. That 2 days were the only time I could store and freeze my EBM.
• Continue to feed Bosco for 2 more days after he's discharged with the jaundice level at borderline, 9 points.
• Towards the end of the week, feeding was back on track. Bosco could latch well and I continued to pump to store too. "That should be the way," until...

Third Week
• Out of nowhere, Bosco rejected to latch and was screaming his lungs out each time I offered him. If he wasn't crying, he would fall asleep half way feeding.
• That few days were already enough to make my supply drop into half.
• And as I'm typing this entry, I'm already thawing the frozen EBM to keep up with Bosco's growth spurt.
• Though sometimes he would still latch on, I hardly could keep him full for long. Bottle feeding still does a better job.

Geez... I really don't know how long I could keep up with this moo moo job. I'm downing lots of soup and hot beverages. Please bless me with lotsa milk! Moooooo...

Detailed Scan at Week 19... and Week 20

This blog has been quite for almost a week. Nevertheless, I thank everyone who continue to drop by to check out updates of my detailed scan.

Last Thursday (9/14), I went for my detailed scan appointment at TMC. I was anxious to find out baby's gender more than anything else.

Our wishes to have a boy came true. As I was lingering with the good news in my mind, the sonographer mentioned some unusual find in the scan. That stopped the joyous beam, the happy imagination, basically everything.

Then I was scheduled for another re-scan on the next Wednesday (15/4), when the doctor-in-charge (of scanning) would be available.

So, yesterday afternoon, both hubby and I took leave to go for another re-scan. The sonographer repeated all the measurement. "Baby is growing well, looking at how much he grows from last week." Phew, that's relieving...

My selective hearing filtered a lot of "good", "OK", "oh, now that baby has grown a bit more, I could clearly see this, which I couldn't last week" coming out from the sonographer. She showed us the male organ again, to further convince the worrying parents.

But what she claimed as the unusual finding, she left no comment but asked us to wait for Dr. Chang, the specialist doc, to explain what it was. After a good 30 minutes or so, she left the room and asked for the doc to come check on me.

A good-looking-pretty-young-male-doctor-with-a- serious-look came in the room and casually greeted hubby and I. He was quiet and serious throughout the scan. As compared to the sonographer, he's fast and skilled to spot the 'unusual finding'.

The whole session summarized that there's a dilated vessel in my baby's liver. A rare one which both of them, and even my gynae haven't come across to. It's a little section of the artery which seemed to be more open than usual. "Blood flow in the area is perfectly normal though." The doctor then urged us to wait for the report outside the ultrasound room.

15 minutes later, we were at my gynae's clinic, hoping that he could elaborate more and share with us his opinion. As the true angel he was, he answered our questions patiently. "It shouldn't be anything serious that is affecting baby's health at the moment, or even til delivery. Although we could do a thorough scan on baby again after he's borned. What we can do now is just monitor closely on baby's growth."

Dr Adrian Tan, my gynae, did mention that there were a few similar cases from his patients, where the dilated artery was found in the baby's kidney. And all of them were perfectly healthy. That summed up to our consultation of the day, before he cheered us more, "Stay happy, enjoy the pregnancy, God has answered our prayers!"

If you could witness us there, you would see how quickly our facial gestures changed. Our frowns were erased, our lips started to curl up, eyes turned small and our bright-but-not-so-white-teeth started to show!

Here I sincerely thank everyone who have prayed for my baby boy. He will continue to grow strong and healthy. I will do my best to take care of myself for the next 20 weeks. Thank you! :)

Chloe: 16 months and 1 week

Your toddler is learning which of her tricks get a laugh out of you, and which bring your disapproval. She's studying your reactions, so now's a good time to start teaching right from wrong by cheering on "good" behavior (picking up a toy and putting it in the toy box) and frowning on "bad" (throwing the toy across the room). And don't forget to watch what you say and do around your child: Imitation is one of the ways toddlers learn socially acceptable behavior.

Source: BabyCenter

Another recent traits of her:
Chloe has been refusing to sleep early these days. It takes 2-3 attempts of putting her to bed before she would willing to sleep by herself.
What does she do to get out of the bed?
- Wails, cries, squeezing tears out of her eyes
- Crawl down the bed by herself
- Ask for 'help', by calling out, "爷爷，爷爷，爷爷" while pointing to the door
- When asked, "What do you want?", she continues to point to the door
- Immediately behaves herself and smile when she gets out of the bed

Chloe wakes up in the middle of the night, kicking furiously and making a fuss out of nothing. Not for milk, nor for water, not even for pacifier. Then she would repeat the above acts again to get out of bed!

•••••

Chloe, oh dear Chloe, Mama hope it's just a passing phase. Perhaps you're teething. Or maybe you're just being plain naughty. But please be more 乖乖 especially when I have to handle you alone when Papa is overseas.

Pardon Me...

Last night I was awaken middle of the night and couldn't be able to get back to sleep. I was thinking about my blog! I miss my blog! I miss blogging!!

•••••

Pardon me for not being able to blog lately. My 11th week with baby no. 2 was tough. I have been visiting the toilet real often, almost every night. I knocked out almost immediately whenever I went to bed with Chloe at 9 plus.

•••••

Last week was extra drained after taking care of a sick toddler. Thankfully Chloe has recovered since yesterday. She started having fever on Tuesday afternoon, examined as a result of throat inflammation by the GP.

The on-off fever stayed its way til Friday, plus extra cough with phlegm too. Then her cheeky cloth-lifting act shocked me and hubby with the sight of rashes all over her body! We brought her to another GP on Fri evening. This new GP examined her carefully and concluded Chloe had viral infection.

Parents, take note, quoted by the GP: "Normal bacteria won't cause fever this long and would be cured by antibiotics soon enough. Only stubborn virus would keep infants/toddlers to have fever this long. Not to worry though, as long as the child is well-hydrated and still behaving as usual. Most importantly is to keep the temperature down."

Extra note: "Children will somehow be affected by viral infection, sooner or latter. There are hundreds or thousands types of different virus surrounding us. Common case is when children start to attend the playgroup or child care centres"

The rashes must be part of the heat-releasing from her toxic body. And also, accompanied by diarrhea consecutively on Friday and Saturday (3-4 times daily).

Another parental lesson learnt really! We were really relieved to see her appetite coming back, and her hyper-activeness too!

•••••

As for my 2nd pregnancy, I'm moving towards to the end of my 12th week now.. I do sense that the morning sickness is starting to wear off, although I still keep my fingers crossed!

Have a great week ahead :)

*Ouch*

Dear Chloe scratched her own eyelid yesterday upon waking up from her nap.

I got even more 心痛 *heartpain* when she cried uncontrollably when she got up for her midnight feed, rubbing her eyes.. Aiyo...

Point-and-Shoot

I have just broke my Ixus 75 LCD screen this evening!

-______-

Now gotta bear 'screenless' camera and really just,
point and shoot wholeheartedly.... :(

The Aftereffects

I don't know why but I easily fall sick during/after holiday. This time is painful sore throat that doesn't seem to heal. Have just seen the doc again for more lozenges and medicines :(

Chloe caught a flu too few days before we came back from Medan. And now it has developed to some nasty cough with thick phlegm, I think it's due to overeating of biscuits during the trip! Let's hope both of us recover soon to enjoy the weekend!

There are a few more changes that are happening after the trip too:

• Despite sleepy, Chloe is refusing to sleep every nite!! This is the most headache caused for hubby and I. Put her down, she climbed up. Carry her, she cried and struggled and could really fall down if I don't quickly put her down. So far, our best tactic is to ignore her and we pretend sleeping, but has to make sure all the surroundings are safe for her to crawl, pick up and play. Then she gets a little bit more settled down and one of us would be the bad guy to force her to sleep. Then she'll cry, cry and cry pitifully, the other person would play the nice guy to offer to carry and sayang.. And she would sleep soundly after the soothing. Earliest time she would sleep is 10pm!! *yawn*
  
  
• Hyper-active. She is a lot more hyper these days. She just won't stop exploring things around her. Well, good and bad. So tiring for us :P She also has the guts to crawl all around the house now knowing there's no one at the other corner.
  
  
• I just came to realize that she doesn't put her toys into her mouth anymore. This is good!
  
  
• She would crawl to us and say "Mam Mam" when we're eating something. She must have learned it from Jazeline back in Medan, always asking for adults' food!
  
  
• And oh, new milestone, clapping!
  

My Two Dearest

Hubby went for his lasik op yesterday at Paragon. He spent total 11 hours (11am-10pm) of waiting and wandering for the eye examination and operation. The clinic is packed even at 8pm. I went to accompany him after work last night. I'm glad I did.

The media always describe lasik as an easy, brief 15-min task for patients. But I didn't see it that way. I was more worried that I might seemed. Seeing him having eyes discomfort after op, then still got to queue at the stagnant taxi queue with that two lens protector on his eyes.

Phew... I'm glad he's feeling better now. And already telling me how he can clearly see the car plate from our 2nd-floor-flat without wearing glasses.

Whoa! So lasik is indeed an easy and quick relief! Having said that, I'm still quite 'chicken' to opt for it. I guess I'll trust my daily lenses for a couple more years :)

• • • • •

It's not a very good day for Chloe though. Her sleep was troubled by some thick mucus in her nose. This morning she woke up with runny nose. I don't know what's went wrong. She was fine the previous night. MIL has brought her to see GP this morning. Let's hope she gets well soon so we could enjoy more quality time this weekend.

More Mozzie Bites!! GRRRRR

Good Morning! Another Thursday!
Another mozzie bites! I'm so gonna kill the mozzie!!!

This time Chloe was kissed 3 times! on the nose, eyelid and forehead!!!
my poor baby...

You see we've put 2 anti-mozzie patches near her when she's sleeping,
one on her pyjama, but useless..

Hubby was on mozzie-operation this morning to spray the whole house with Shieldtox, before we left for work. I hope all the mozzies would be gone forever!

Updates on Chloe

When my family came over for the weekend, their first comment on Chloe was, "Chloe lost a lot of her baby fat.. no chubby chubby liao..." Then I took a good, long... and deep look on Chloe. Despite her big feet and long legs, indeed her chubby cheek is gone, her head seems small, and shoulder too! Must be not drinking enough milk I think..

So then hubby and I decided we really should increase her milk intake again. Back to normal, of what she used to drink 2 months back, 6 0z per feed. Just that it'll still be a diluted mixture, with 5 scoop of milk powder, to avoid constipation.

• • • • •

Another factor could be also that she's actively moving around. Now I can use the phrase, 'crawling from one end to another' to describe her mobility. Trying to climb up and reach our TV console, pushing the rollable drawer, or grinning at her own reflection at the display with built-in mirrors. My vain darling... :)


As a full-time working mum, it's great to spend good long weekend to see Chloe growing up, physically and emotionally. And being her first choice of person to seek comfort and love, it just melts my heart :)


Though I hate to see her being kissed by the mozzie again! Grr..!!


Add-on: She waves goodbye on cue now! Yepee!

A Mother's Thought

As much as I'd love to see Chloe grows up, I'd wanna cherish this moment with her forever. Though being very clingy, she sometimes push us away when she can't get what she wants. Yelling and showing tantrums. Wriggle and cry (last resort).

Hug your little one tight (and even tighter), before she starts walking, and then running away from us!

I can't help but to think how time flies. Baby Chloe is turning toddler soon (9mths and 3wks now) Wow, I mean WOW! Why do good moments always have to pass so soon?

Bite-me-not!

Chloe has better judgment and control over herself now towards objects in her surroundings. What's can be bitten? What's not to bite? Which are for play?

That's a good improvement. But on the other hand, we parents need to add more toys to keep her entertained. Way to go, Papa! :)

Pacifying The Lil' One

Came home to see Chloe with a bruise near her right eye! And to think that no one actually knew what had happened... -___-


I succumbed and had to pacify her with more hugs and kisses. Even feeding her milk before sleep, a habit that i was told to wean off. I can't help it!

Too Much? Too Little?

So, i tried transferring her usual meal into our general bowl.
Now this is the ratio. 3/4 full of normal bowl.
Is she having too much or too little porridge per meal?


And the nurse also advised to feed Chloe 3 solid meals per day...

9th Month Development Assessment

Chloe had her 9th month development assessment on Fri 18/7. Her weight is now 8.7 kg, height 69.4 cm and head circumference 46.5 cm. This must be the slowest growth over the 3 months. It could due to her falling ill 3 times during the period :(

Overall, the nurse at the polyclinic commented she has good growth, except one thing; Chloe lacks in concentration! Nurse advised not to let the TV or radio on all the time. Baby should grow and play in a settled environment.

Err......