Baby C @ 2 Months Old

Baby C turned 2 months old on 9 June 08. Her weight is now 4.9kg, which is an increase of more than 1kg per month. Her birth weight was 2.75kg. Baby C is now trying to flip over and is always on her side trying to push herself over, whenever she is awake. Therefore, it is not safe to leave her alone on the bouncinet anymore, not even for a short while. She also loves being sang to and talked to and she is always trying to immitate me by cooing "aaar...o" whenever I say 'hello' to her! She will smile to me whenever she sees me smiling to her or talking / singing to her.

Baby C is still breastfed exclusively and she is latched on to my breast almost the whole night... and sleeping under my armpit! As she's most likely going to be on maintenance antibiotics for several years for a suspected Kidney Reflux problem, our paed said that it's best to breastfeed her to strengthen her immune system. It is also not advisable to bring her to crowded places. My hubs has even suggested that we should not bring her to the church until she's stronger. Looks like I will be in prison for the next few months. I can't even bring her out shopping, unless it's on a non-school holiday weekday, early in the morning where there are very few people in the shopping malls. Apart from having a suspected Kidney Reflux (which we will need to send her for an MCUG test to confirm the diagnosis next month), Baby C is otherwise a healthy and happy baby.

Baby C Loves Being Sung To

Baby C loves being sung to. Each morning, I will play a children's nursery rhyme CD and sing to her (complete with actions) as I feed her antibiotics. She will coo, gurgle and smile as I sing to her. I will sing to her for at least an hour, till she finishes the 3ml of antibiotics. Then, she will take a short nap before I nurse her and bathe her.



These pix were taken last night just before bedtime. Baby C was crying and Sherilyn tried to pacify her by singing to her. I had taken videos of it but had accidentally deleted it after downloading it to my PC this morning. Baby C was smiling and responding happily as she heard her cheh cheh singing to her. She was moving her hands and kicking her legs gleefully non-stop as her eyes were fixated at her cheh cheh. Sherilyn felt so proud that she could pacify her little baby sister from crying. I'm going to try to capture another video of Sherilyn singing to Baby C tonight!

I've Started Exercising Again!

I finally moved my butt and started exercising again yesterday. Though I really missed my daily running sessions in the mornings, I just cannot find the time and opportunity to escape from Baby C for a half an hour session in the morning. She's just too clingy to me and she seems to have an innate sixth sense that I am leaving her. You see, each morning when I wake up and creep quietly to the bathroom, Baby C would wake up too and cry. There's no way I can 'escape' from her. Yesterday, she slept very soundly in the evening. So I jumped at the opportunity, went to my porch and jumped on my trampoline for 20 minutes. Whilst I jumped, Alycia and Sherilyn cycled on their tricycles. Woot, it really felt great to be able to exercise again after a 11-month exercise hiatus.

I gotta go now before Baby C wakes up.... to jump on my trampoline again!

Liver Pate

For foodies who love liver pate (a type of rich paste made of finely ground liver), you will love this dish from Delicious. The yellow paste in the white bowl in the middle is made of chicken liver. The appetizers at the side go very well with the pate and the thinly toasted french loaf. The liver pate is to be spread on the thinly toasted french loaf, like butter on toast.

Verdict : I am not a fan of pate, so I wouldn't say that the chicken liver pate is delicious but I love the appetizers and the thinly sliced toasted french loaf. Alycia and Sherilyn loved the toast and spread slabs of butter on it. We even ordered another tray of toast for the gals to munch.

Baby C's Face Cleared Of Eczema

During her 4-day stay in the hospital, Baby C's face was practically cleared of eczema or heat rash. Her complexion was flawless. I deduce that it's because she was in an air-conditioned room all the time. Baby C sweats very easily and whenever she's hot, the eczema would flare up. My diet was as usual the same food which consisted of milk, Milo, wholewheat bread, eggs, some nuts and I even ate 'kai jau' which had alcohol. Despite all these food which are known to cause eczema, Baby C was free from eczema during her stay in the hospital. The day she returned home (which happened to be a hot day), the eczema started to flare up again. So I can only sum up that my little princess cannot stand heat and must always be kept cool and moisturized to prevent an eczema outbreak.

Simply Irresistible

This red bean paste with a scoop of homemade durian ice-cream is simply irresistible. We had this dessert at Duck King restaurant. Had I been able to start exercising again, I would have gobbled down the entire bowl of it.

Sherilyn's First Day Of Pre-School

That's Sherilyn on her first day of pre-school yesterday. Sherilyn and Alycia have polar opposites in terms of their character and disposition. While Alycia cried for 3 days straight on her 1st day of school last year, Sher who was very well prepared for school, having had followed daddy in the car ride to bring cheh cheh to school every morning for the past 1.5 years was very upbeat and excited. She showed no fear or separation anxiety but treated the school like her second home and even cheered up other kids who cried! I did not even accompany her to school as I had to stay home with Baby C. Daddy just brought her into her class, snapped some pix of her in her classsroom and left. Her teacher said she is really outgoing and demanding too.

Sherilyn with Alycia at the porch of the pre-school.

Sherilyn in her classroom. She's the most outgoing kid in her class.

Baby C Trying To Tell Me She Hates Her Antibiotics

During my stay in the hospital with Baby C when she had UTI recently, the nurses were all amazed that at only 7 weeks, Baby C could try to tell me that she hates taking her antibiotics. Each time she was fed antibiotics, she would turn her head left and right, repeatedly, as if shaking her head to tell me "mummy, no, no, no". When I held her head with my left hand and gripped her cheeks with my right thumb and forefinger to force open her mouth, Baby C would give me the most pathetic stare with her eyes wide opened and eyebrows furrowed. She would then muster some pathetic sounds, as if pleading with me not to force feed her with the horrible tasting thick stuff. I would then kiss her head and tell her that she has to eat her medicine if she wants to get well and go home. She threw up anyway each time she took the antibiotics. Seeing her throw up so painfully broke my heart into pieces.

Salad For Me

We went to Delicious for lunch 2 weeks ago. While hubby ordered pastas, spaghetti, nasi kerabu and a chicken liver patte combo, I ate something light - baby spinach salad with cranberries, grilled chicken and strips of bacon. The portion was really big and of course I could not wallop the entire plate down myself. I also ate a little bit of everything but stayed away from the pastas and spaghetti. Well, so far my high protein/fibre + low carb diet is working. With breastfeeding and so much stress taking care of 2 toddlers + 1 sick baby, my weight is slowly but surely going down.... though I have yet to start my daily exercise regimen. But I must work towards getting started on my exercise regimen soon, once Baby C gets well and is not so clingy and cranky.

Sher's Eyes Are Bigger Than Her Tummy

Sherilyn's eyes are always bigger than her tummy. She has a habit of stuffing her bowl full with food that she loves though she has not finished what is already in her bowl. She also has a quirk when it comes to eating sandwiches. You see, Sher's a great fan of bread and jams. She would insist that she makes her own sandwiches..... and she would go to the fridge to bring out all the bottles of jams that she can lay her eyes on by herself. She would then demand that I slather generous amounts of all the different types of jams on her bread like this :




These are Sherilyn's favorite jams - homemade peanut butter, homemade pandan kaya, organic almond butter and black sesame paste.... oh, not to forget butter and cheese...


And her sandwiches will have a little bit of everything, like a rojak sandwich. Looks gross isn't it? But they taste good!

That's Sher's rojak sandwiches (in wholemeal walnut bread), cut into triangle wedges. She loves them and never seems to get fed up of them. She even eats them twice a day - breakfast and lunch / dinner.... and washes them down with fresh Marigold HL milk.

Poor Baby

Hopefully, there will only be 7 more doses of antibiotics jabs to be administered on Baby C and that by Tuesday next week, the IV line can be removed from her hand. After the IV line is removed, I will have to feed antibiotics to Baby C orally and that will be another hurdle which I have to cross as Baby C will most probably need to take antibiotics orally for the next 5-7 years of her life until her kidney matures and stops growing (this will be confirmed by the pediatric nephrologist much later). Though Baby C has no problem eating paracetamol syrup, she just cannot stomach the bitter taste of the antibiotics and will puke each time she takes them. Well, whether she likes it or not, I will have to train her to swallow it for the sake of protecting her kidney.


Click here to read on....

Hospital Food Sucks

I hate staying in the hospital and I even hate the food. This is what the hospital provided me for dinner on the first day :

Chicken stir-fried with celery and carrot.

Tofu, sawi, cabbage and carrot soup.
The food tasted really wierd and bland.

I was already so very upset that Baby C had UTI and had to be hospitalized and I just didn't have the appetite to eat the food. Luckily, my mil cooked some nice food and put them into the lunch box for me to eat... for supper.

On the 2nd day, I had fried chicken and stir-fried chinese cabbage (no rice for me). That was not enough to fill my tummy but luckily Barb visited me and brought along some buns for me to munch.


I know I shouldn't complain too much coz hospital food is supposed to be bland and tasteless as they are cooked for sick people right?

Eat First Diet Later

The tasty chocolates that my brother brought back from Hokkaido.

Ever since I started breastfeeding Baby C, I feel hungry all the time.... and I've also developed a sweet tooth. It's easy to refrain from all these sweet stuff when I don't buy them and they are out of my sight but when friends and relatives keep giving me chocolates as gifts, it's really hard to resist my temptation. My mil who also loves eating kuih, sweet snacks and cakes buys them quite often. So, I end up eating them conveniently and then feel damn guilty afterwards.

Recently, my sil and brother returned from Hokkaido, Japan and brought home some very tasty chocs. I've been eating a few slices of these chocs everyday and it's really hard to resist eating them coz I see them too inviting each time I open the fridge. What's life if there is no luxury and some occasional indulgence on the food that I love to eat right? My friend has asked me to just eat whatever I like and then pop some diet pills when I have weaned Baby C from breastmilk. But I prefer to exercise and eat right rather than pop on diet pills. Well, I may consider diet pills if everything else fails to help me shed off those unwanted pounds.

My Poor Cassandra Has UTI

My heart ached so much when the dr poked Cassandra's hand and foot to find the vein to insert the IV line and to draw out blood (a total of 4 pokes!). Her painful cries will always be etched in my mind. Read more here...

Getting To Work On A Bike

I am sure the whole nation is lambasting over the hike in petrol. The sharp increase is just too much to bear for everyone. The hike in petrol will leave a spiral effect and soon, the price of many things will increase too. A couple of my male friends told me that they plan to ditch their cars to buy used Harleys to get them to work. Though Harley bikes are expensive, they nevertheless consume lesser petrol than cars do. Maybe I should ask hubby to consider getting to work on a bike too to reduce the amount of his petrol bills.

Baby C's Stay In The Hospital

Click here to read Baby C's stay in the hospital.

Baby C And My Stay In The Hospital

I have so many complaints with the hospital that Baby C and I stayed in recently. If it wasn’t because of convenience sake (the hospital is only a stone’s throw away from my house), I would have gone back to the hospital that I delivered my 3 kids to treat Baby C's UTI. The room that we stayed in did not even have tissue papers, no closet to hang my clothes, no wall clock, no ventilator on the ceiling, no TV and no newspapers, not even advertising pens or writing papers in the drawers for me to write. The bathroom was old, dirty and felt creepy. Worse of all, I could not access internet. So can you imagine how boring it was for me the past 3 days staying in that hospital? It was like a prison and the room rates are not even cheap. I don’t think I will ever want to go back to this hospital in future, knock on wood!

Sleepless Over Streamyx

Lately Streamyx has been really really really unreliable and downtime is UP most times. Two weeks ago, Streamyx was disconnected from my house for 8 days. I was so relieved when it was finally re-connected.... but only for several days and my joy was short-lived. Then one night, I had a nightmare. I dreamt that it was disconnected again and lo and behold, it was indeed disconnected 2 days later. How spooky!

Streamyx was again down for 2 more days and when it was finally up again, connection was super unstable. I could only log in to 3 out of 10 websites. I also had to turn off the modem and restart it every 10 minutes throughout the day for 7 days.... and the problem is not even solved yet. I was told by TM Net staffers that there are problems with their server. But why on earth do they need more than a week to rectify their server problem? Why is TM Net / Telekom so inefficient? I tell you, I am really super pissed off with Telekom. I am really getting sleepless nights over this stupid Streamyx.

Our Anniversary Dinner

We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on 27th May with a dinner at Seoul Korea Restaurant, my favorite Korean food restaurant.

What I like most about this restaurant is that the appetizers (which are provided FOC if you order a set menu) are really delicious and there is also a wide variety. The appetizers are so much that they are enough to fill you up before the main course arrives.

Sherilyn who has just mastered the skill of holding chopsticks is now taking full advantage of every opportunity to practise her new found skill and I must say that she's really good in using the chopsticks for her age.

See this pair of stainless steel Korean chopsticks that Sher is using here? It's flat and heavy and even I find it difficult to pick food up with the chopsticks but Sher can adeptly use them.







Sherilyn munching on the raw greens like a cow.

While all of us were busy eating, Baby C quietly slept in the stroller. Luckily she did not wake up and cry for my teat teats or poo poo.

Our Sunday

We had buffet lunch at Shangri-La Hotel today. Though there was so much good food, Sherilyn only ate crackers, bread sticks, cheese cuts, butter and a scoop of banana yoghurt ice cream on cone. This 'kwai poh' daughter of mine loves food that 'kwai lohs' (caucasions) eat.... lots of fresh milk, bread, butter, cheese, sausages, pastas and spaghetti.

Click here to read on.....



Guess how Sher ate her cheese and butter? She spread chunks of butter on the sliced cheese and put them into her mouth!