What I Do These Days

Christmas @ Woodleigh Close

Walking Hao Ran

I Drop You Pick

Honk! Honk!

Sitting up to Drink

Missing posts

Mum deleted all the posts she put up between Aug 08 and Jan 09.
She's trying to put them up again.

Looking Cute!

Uncle An

Uncle An's rocking chair - his favourite when he was young like me.




Mum holding Uncle An when they were young.
Next to Uncle An is Auntie Lisa, Kellin's mum!



Here's Uncle An's mum, grand-auntie Mulan holding me!



Here's grand-auntie Mulan holding my mum when she was young!

Me

Cousin Kellin and I

Cousin Baby Kellin is almost one month old! She's born on 15 July 2008.

She sleeps. I am awake.


I sleep. She wakes.

She sleeps. I sleep.
Loves the way we bond!

Sound Asleep, Looking Cute

Sitting up

Mum's roundish!

I'm longish!

Looking like Ah Beng here!

Head Lifting

Me

Mum

Mum & I

Enjoying Milk

BabyGym

Aunti Jaki!

Pram from Auntie Hua Siew

Almost Naked

Yellow Car

National Day Coming

National Day coming up soon - 9 August 2008!

Baby cousin Kellin

My beautiful cousin, Kellin William, born 15 July 2008.
This is her at one-week-old.
Hey, I used to wear that cute, comfy shirt!

See! Here's me in that shirt, when I was slightly more than one month old.

Baby Tui Na

Sorry I've been MIA for more than a week now. You must be wondering what's going on in the picture. It's a long story.

The third day after I was given the rice cereal, I developed fever. Went to a paediatrician who told me I had sore throat. He said I was too "heaty", that the rice cereal was too "heaty" for me. So I am off the rice cereal and mum had to water down my formula milk. Dr Hiew prescribed me anti-biotics and told me I had to finish the course over five days. My mum was up for two nights measuring my temperature every hour to check my fever.

Two days after the medicine, my temperature was back to normal and she fell sick herself. She consulted a friend who scolded her for giving me antibiotics at so young age. Gave us directions to see a Chinese physician who specialises in children tui na (Chinese massage). So what you see in the photo is me having my back rubbed. It's not as bad as it looks. I enjoyed most part of it, I just hate to lie on my stomach.

When I got home, I fell asleep immediately...deep deep sleep...


The massage starts gently, with my palm. You can see me enjoying it.




Then my arm....



Stomach is next...



Whew...this is ticklish!



Mmmm...back rub!




Woah...this rocks!

First foods

It's another milestone! Hao Ran is eating his first semi-solid food.

I found the following book very helpful.


They gave instructions on how to introduce new food to the baby, what kind, how much, when etc. It is quite an art. It also lists the kinds of food most people are allergic to and thus to avoid during the baby's first few months. The recipes are very clear and I'm really impressed that they can make every kind of puree look really appetizing.

Spinach puree

Banana puree


Frozen purees
(my friend told me this is not a good idea,
a friend of hers fed her baby frozen purees for 2 weeks
and ended up with food poisoning,
best to make food fresh every time)

And I'm skipping ahead to food for 9-12 months:
Imagine, Chicken and Avocado Delight!

According to the book, iron-fortified rice cereal is recommended as the first food for the baby, before starting them on the various types of vegetable purees and fruit purees. I found this available in our local supermarket (NTUC) and Hao Ran took his first semi-solid yesterday at Day 99 of his birth. He lapped up every bit, and the video shows him being fed the last spoonful this afternoon (Day 100).

Babbling

Funny face!

You'll probably find me cute now, but in a few year's time, you'll tell me it's rude to make faces...Geeheehee, I'd better make all the faces I want now...

Baby fever

Little Muffin Rinpoche went for his first dose of 5-in-1 vaccinations yesterday, against diphtheria,tetanus, pertussis, polio and Haemophilis influenzae type b (Hib).

Last night he started developing one of the side effects - fever. For the first time since mid-May, he did not sleep peacefully through the night, stirring every 1-2 hours. I was awake the whole night attending to him. Every time I picked him up from his bed, I could feel his little body warmer than usual. There was a sense of panic that arose within that took a while to settle.

His appetite reduced quite a bit; before he could drink 120ml of milk within 15 minutes, now just 60ml and he stopped drinking. We had to feed him his usual feed twice about 30 min apart. When a day passed and his temperature still remained higher than normal, I called my faithful best friend from secondary school and received very helpful advice from her.

She said, "If you are measuring temperature from the ear, if your child has temperature of less than 38.5 deg Celsius, there is no cause for panic. Take the infant paracetamol (goes by the name DHAMOL) as instructed by the doctor. Don't swaddle him or cover him with blankets to try to sweat him out, instead just let him wear loose comfortable breathable clothes."

"If temp goes beyond 38.5, it can be dangerous for the baby. Bring him to see the doctor immediately for another prescription. The ibuprofen liquid prescribed according to your baby's weight, will supplement DHAMOL, to bring down the temperature and you have to take both medications in conjunction, ibuprofen one hour after Dhamol. Ibuprofen helps with high-grade fever and Dhamol with low-grade fever."

"If you can't see a doctor yet and the temperature has risen above 38.5, start sponging him. That is, wipe his forehead, neck, arms and legs with a towel soaked with room temperature water. Let the water evaporate to bring down his temperature."

"The change from low-grade to high-grade fever can happen very quickly, and it can go unnoticed at night. So start filling up a schedule of people who can wake up to take his temperature every so often, every one hourly if need be."

"Make sure he drinks lots of water to bring down the temperature. If he does not like to drink water, than add a little ribena to the water for flavouring to encourage him to drink it."

I thought to post this if it helps anyone else.

As I was typing this, Hao Ran woke up and I picked him up from his rocker. For the first time in the past 24 hours, I felt his temperature normal. Double-checked with the thermometer and indeed it is back to 36.9/37.0! Bounced him with joy!!! Geshe Michael would call this instant karma! Hopefully the temperature stays down.

Newly recovered Hao Ran.
Photo taken right after his temperature measurement.