Sick

I had fever 2 days ago due to blocked milk ducts again (ya, the other time when i had fever, it was also due to blocked ducts). My fever went up to 39.5 degree. Felt really miserable then, having to fight the fever, pump, and take care of Shawn in the morning when my mum was not around. Luckily the fever went away yesterday. But the stubborn ducts are still blocked as I'm typing away...

Cherylin fell ill too. She had fever in the middle of last nite. Gave her a dose of paracetomol and she was ok in the afternoon. She didn't go for her playgroup as we didn't want her to infect the others (to play safe since HFMD is on the rise recently). While i was out for dinner with my friends, YC called me and told me Cherylin was having fever again. Brought her to see doctor and the temp was 40.9 degrees. Doctor said it's just viral infection, nothing serious. Gave her nurofen which is meant for fever that is more than 38.5 degree. Got to sponge her too during the nite.

As for Shawn, he's still coughing, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Notice he has slight blocked nose too Poor boy. Probably bring him to see PD later (even though won't be giving him medicine since he's so small).

Aiyo, why 3 out of 4 of us fall sick leh (if includes my mum whose having cough, will be 4 out of 5). Hmm.. Let's hope tomorrow will be better! :)

Cherylin & Playgroup

Ever since Cherylin started her playgroup this year, she's changed quite a lot:

1) more sociable - last time she'll pull me along with her when she wanna play with her cousins/aunties/uncles. Now she'll happily play with them on her own.
2) likes to sing - she sings everyday, even when outside, she'll hop and sing as we walk.
3) speaks more english - my MIL used to worry abt Cherylin not speaking english. but now Cherylin will speak in english automatically. sometimes we find it funny when she says something in english (probably cos we are so used to her conversing in mandarin)

Cough Cough

Last nite heard Shawn coughing away while sleeping. Poor boy. Wonder how come he kenna cough. Feel so sim tia to hear such a small baby cough. Hope his cough will go away soon.

EBM

I've been pouring away excess EBM as there's really no more space in my freezer. Have tried to use up the EBM I kept in the fridge (max can only store for 48 hours) by giving it to Cherylin. Still I ended up pouring away the EBM when the 48 hours are up. Sometimes I even pump and throw the EBM away if I had drank coffee earlier. Yesterday, YC drank up 240ml of my EBM so that it's not wasted (cos I told him I'll be throwing away). Yikes, I myself dare not drink leh. :P

Shawn's growth development

Better note down his growth development before I forget:

3 Mar 08 (4w4d) - 4.49kg, 56cm
17 Mar 08 (6w4d) - 5.35kg (didn't measure the ht then)

Currently his milk intake (if I were to feed him ebm) is about 120ml. Sometimes he only drinks 100ml.

外婆 home alone

My mum was alone with Cherylin and Shawn again last evening as YC and I went to attend my company's function. Shawn didn't want to sleep since afternoon. He wanted to be carried. When I left the house at 5.30pm, Cherylin had fell asleep. Luckily she slept cos it means that my mum only needed to take care of Shawn. We came back at 10.20pm and mum was still carrying Shawn in her arms. He didn't sleep much for the past few hours when I was out of the house. I immediately took over Shawn from my mum and asked her to go to bed. So for last night, Shawn slept with daddy and mummy (so that 外婆 can have a good nite sleep).

Must be due to the coffee I drank during the dinner, I couldn't sleep till almost 1.30am. By the time I wanted to fall asleep, Shawn woke up for his milk. In btw, he cried on and off. Very tired when I woke up this morning. Guess I have to 'tong' the tiredness till Monday afternoon when my mum is around to catch a nap.

Zhou's Restaurant

Brought my mum to Zhou's Restaurant at Far East Square for lunch yesterday. As we were approaching the entrance of the restaurant, Cherylin said "在这里吃团年饭". I was surprised that she actually remembered the place where we had our reunion dinner with YC's family. Kids nowadays sure have better memory than we had when we were young.

Bath by Mummy

Yesterday was the 1st time i bathed Shawn. I've never dared bathe a small bb. So when Cherylin was a baby, the task was handled by my mum and YC. I only started to bath Cherylin when she's much older. Why did I try bathing Shawn then? Cos the weather was hot and he was perspiring all over. If I were to bring him out (met my mum and Cherylin in town) in that state, he would feel very uncomfortable. Hence, I decided to give it a try and luckily everything turned out ok. :)

Family Day @ East Coast Park

We went to ECP to attend YC's company's family day. It was raining earlier the day. Luckily the sky had cleared when we reached. The weather was just right then. Only complaint was the muddy field. Our legs and shoes were all covered with mud. Cherylin was having fever the night before. Not sure if it's because she's just recovered, she did not seem interested in the ice cream that I offered her. Cherylin appeared bored too and was asking to go home at abt 4pm plus. YC brought her to the game stalls and they came back with little prizes comprising five stones, paper aeroplane - basically those toys that we used to play when we were young. Buffet dinner was provided. There were Cherylin's favourite food such as satays, longan desserts. Too bad she fell asleep while daddy went to get the food. :P We left at abt 6pm and headed home to freshen up before heading to YC's grandma's place.

Trip to Bollywood Veggies

Luckily I recovered just in time to join YC's family for a visit to Bollywood Veggies. There are many types of fruits, veggies, etc and the kids enjoyed roaming around the plantation. We had an early lunch at the cafe. Simple and tasty dishes. Cost $85 for 6 adults and 3 toddlers.

We proceeded to Hay Dairies Goat Farm where the kids, except Cherylin, had fun feeding the goats. This timid daughter of mine only dare to watch by the side while her cousins feed the goats.

Fever fever go away

Was down with fever yesterday. Temp went up to 39.1 degree at one point. Hence, I had to take paracetamol to lower the fever. I ever heard that it's safe to continue breastfeeding even when you have fever/taking paracetamol. But being ks, i dare not bf bb. Hence, bb was on fed ebm yesterday. I latched him on a couple of times (which was more than 6 hours after i last took my medicine). I continued to pump out the milk else supply may drop. As I dare not feed my bb with the ebm, in the end threw away more than 1 litre of ebm. So sim tia.

This morning found out from a fren that it's ok to continue bfdg even when taking paracetamol. She has been taking it as a pain reliever since giving birth. That sets my mind at ease. So, I'll continue to bf my bb and not waste the bm. :) Temp this morning ranges from 37.1 to 37.6 degree. Hope I'll get well soon.

Mummy's milk milk

My freezer has run out of space to store anymore ebm. Throwing away the ebm is such a waste. Hence, we've been adding my bm to Cherylin's milk lately. First time we added 60ml to 120ml. She didn't notice it. Second time, we added 120ml of bm to 60ml of fm. This time round, while drinking her milk, she commented to my mum: 有妈咪milk milk 味道。 Nevertheless she continued to finish her milk. keke.. :P

Posed like a model

Took a candid shot of Cherylin on her way back to my mum's place after her playgroup. Somehow, managed to capture the model-like pose :P

Mossie mossie everywhere

Ever since i gave birth to Shawn, my place seems to be swarmed by lots of mosquitoes. Previously we only encountered mosquitoes once in a while. Now, we are bugged by these irritating mosquitoes almost everyday. Yday, we killed more than 10 mosquitoes! Horrible right. I really wonder where these creatures came from. Have checked the possible breeding places in our house but didn't find clue. Poor Shawn, kenna badly bitten by the hateful mossie. And for me, i hadn't been having a good nite sleep cos I will be awake a few times in the middle of the nite to catch mosquitoes (not forgetting having to wake up to bf Shawn). :(

Full Month cum Birthday Celebration - Part II

PG couldn't deliver the cake to us at our preferred time slot. Hence we had to travel all the way down to AMK to collect the cake. We left the house at 830am. When we arrived at the shop, we were told that the cake will only be ready in 20mins' time. Due to the delay and the distance, it's already 10am plus when we were back home. Gotta rush to bathe the kids and get ready the stuff for the celebration in the afternoon. Haven't even decorate the function room when the first guest arrived. Anyway, we don't have much deco. Haha, just some simple wordings that I've spent 1 whole day making and balloons for the kids.

The caterer came on time to set up the buffet. However, when i saw the quantity provided, I had a shock of my life. It's so miserable (as compared to the caterers that I've used before). Well, there's nothing we could do then. Just hoping that there will be enough food for all the guests. (afternote: blame myself for being geh kiang and wanted to try something else. so had a tongue lashing from YC after the event :P)

It'll really be the first and last time we'll use this caterer. Not only is the qty and quality of food not up to standard (don't think our standard is too high cos the other caterers were really much better in both areas), there's also several hipcups:

i) the guy did not light up the warmer and wanted to leave the place
ii) he claimed he did not have lighter with him and wanted to borrow from us. We have none unfortunately and he had no choice but to get from his van
iii) he did not provide us with laddles and tongs!

Aiyo, the hipcups above shouldn't have happened as these things are not something exceptional for a buffet setup. I really blamed myself for choosing this caterer. humph.

Full Month cum 3rd Birthday Celebration - Part I

We decided to have a mini post birthday celebration for Cherylin when we hold Shawn's full month celebration. It's to make her happy too in case she wonders how come didi has so many presents, etc when she has none.

Birthday cake:
PG or SO? We can't decide which bakery to choose. One wins in terms of cake flavours while the other has nicer design especially for kids.

In the end, we decided to go for PG. Got a 3 kg cake for her with slight modification to the cake design which the cake shop has emailed to us. After gathering feedback on the more popular flavours, we went down to the shop and bought Lychee Martini and Triple Layer Choco to sample. YC, my mum, Cherylin and myself all voted for Lychee Martini for its refreshing taste (i suppose it's something unusual from the normal choco/vanilla cake that we have).

Buffet:
Wanted to use back our all time favourite caterer but i wanted to try another caterer. In the end, we chose YLS cos I heard of good feedback from pple who have used them. My MIL was not very keen to try a different caterer and kept commenting what if portion not enough, food not nice, etc. Knowing my character, YC went ahead with my preference :P

Cherylin's 3rd Birthday

It's Cherylin's birthday today. YC bought her a set of blocks as he saw her enjoying herself when she was at his friend's place during CNY. Cherylin was delighted when she saw the gift from daddy and immediately asked daddy to open it up for her to play. Nowadays, she'll keep her toys after she's finished playing. Not sure if it's due to her going to school or becos of an incident where YC threw his temper on Cherylin when she refused to keep her toys despite repeated reminders. Any way, we are glad that she's doing the right thing now.

I bought the Leapfrog Wordlaunch system for Cherylin as her birthday gift. Think she's still too young to play with the system now. Nevertheless, she enjoyed meddling with the alphabets. I shall figure out how the system works and play with her one of these days.

YC bought a cake to celebrate Cherylin's birthday. Thus, we sang a birthday song for her and let her cut the cake. She also distributed goodies pack to her classmate this morning when she went to school. This little darling of mine helped in the packing of the goodies bags. See how engrossed she was when doing so:

Sibling rivalry/jealousy?

Friends/relatives had been telling me to prepare Cherylin for the arrival of her didi. We did tell her that she'll have a didi soon before Shawn was borned. But I suppose no matter how much we prepare her (kids will be kids afterall), she will at some time be difficult to handle.

When she's in good mood, what will she do?

1) gently sayang didi
2) gently talk to him/wanna teach him to read ABCs/wanna him to play toys with her
3) help us when changing bb/bathing (e.g. she'll bring my tissue/handkerchief, bring towel to 外婆, etc)
4) tell us when didi cries (her fav phrase: 妈咪，弟弟哭了，快点去抱他)

When she's in bad mood/cranky (usually when she's sleepy/has lack of sleep)
1) purposely disturb/hit didi
2) wanna 外婆carry her instead of didi
3) says she doesn't like didi

Overall, I would say Cherylin has been quite a good gal since the arrival of didi. That day when YC's aunt visited us and jokingly said she'll bring didi home with her when she carried him, Cherylin was so worried and kept telling me to carry didi back. She's afraid that YC's aunt will really bring didi back. Haha...

Shawn is back home

Shawn had to stay in the nursery for phototherapy. He was sleeping soundly when we visited him before checking out of the hospital. So poor thing to see him stripped naked with only his diaper on. Was glad that he at least he wasn't crying else will be real sim tia.

During his stay in the nursery, we visited him twice a day. Each time, will breastfeed him as well as bring whatever ebm that I've managed to express out.

PD updated me on his development every morning. As the jaundice level had gone down and was stabilised, Shawn was able to go home on Day 6. Yippee! At least he can spend his CNY eve at home. :)

31 Jan 2008 - It's the DAY!

It's the first time at nite that I was woken up a few times since I got pregnant. Woken up not by bb's kicking but by contraction of my tummy. I thot it's false contraction hence just ignore it and went back to sleep.

Was given 2 days' MC hence not going to work today. Before YC left for work, told him my tummy is 'hardened' (meaning there's contraction). Shortly after, the tummy turned soft again. So I still thought it's false alarm and YC proceeded to go to work.

Shortly after he left, I woke up and had my usual morning shower. Took my breakfast and started to do some packing of bb clothes/my stuff. I experienced more and more regular contraction but kept brushing it off. It was only at around 9.50am that I decided to time the interval. I was having contraction at an interval of 10mins! Still trying to keep cool and think it's 'not time yet', I continued with doing my stuff. At 10.30am, I went to the toilet and realised I had show! It was then I finally came face to face with reality that it's really time to go to the hospital. Immediately called YC and told him that. He tried to rush home asap and informed his parents and brother in the meantime.

While waiting, my contraction got worse, the interval got shorter and I was perspiring all over (out of fear i think). I could feel that little baby is pushing down and had the feeling that he's coming out! Told baby to guai guai wait for daddy's return. Did some last min packing of my hospital bag and got myself changed.

My MIL and WR arrived at abt 11.10am. Told them I can't wait till YC's return. Hence we headed to hospital and informed YC to go there directly.

On the way to hospital, I called Jenny to inform her and that I could feel that bb's coming out anytime. Jenny said Kenneth is at the Woodlands Clinic and would call to inform him.

Reached Mt A. Put on wheel chair and was pushed to the deliver ward immediately. It's 11.42am then. I was already fully dilated but gotta wait for Kenneth's arrival. Hence, I had to 'dong' the intense contraction for another 20 mins. Kenneth reached at about 12.02pm. He broke the waterbag and I was asked to get ready to push when the next contraction comes. Finally, Bb came out at 12.06pm after one push and i was glad that everything was over.

YC and my mum commented that little bb looks exactly like Cherylin when she was born. :)