Happy 3mth old to YY

YY is exactly 3mth old on 25th February 2011. Happy!! Here's her milestone achievement so far, from birth to-date.

3week old ~ her neck is quite strong, as she had attempted to lift up her head many times, whenever we carried her in cradle position.

1mth old ~ a good poser! YY smiles a lot, very much more than QQ's baby time. So I can always capture her cheeky smiles easily. 

Newborn ~ 3weeks old

@ 2.5mth old

@ 2.5mth old

1.5mth old ~ she already started to giggle, and even laugh out loud many times! Lately, we discovered that she can't stand the itch of being tickle behind her ears and armpits =) Whenever we do that, she'll definitely be laughing. She loves people chatting with her. Each time we talk rubbish to her, she will respond by cooing a lot. Sometimes she's a bit long winded, and ended up membebel non stop. Though we don't understand her language, we just say "yes ar?? Oooh yes meh?? Hai yar?? Hai meh??" Lol!! Her neck is getting stronger as well.

2mth old ~ reaching out her hand to grab toys which we hold in front of her. Popo started to put her on potty, and she seems to be quite cooperative and enjoy herself on it most of the time. Very seldom to find her nappy kena stained or soiled, so lesser washing involve - on both nappy and her lil bouncy buttocks :P

I strongly feel that introducing potty to a baby at early stage will help a lot in potty training journey. My mom  put QQ on potty when she was 1mth old, and by 1.5yr old, she already fully potty trained for day time. She only wears cloth diaper during her nap and night time. Will blog further about it separately. Start early, and that really save us lots of trouble and headache too. This is also 1 of the benefit for having own parent as baby's care taker. I'm lucky to have my parent's help to take care of my 2 gals =) 

3mth 4days old (as of today) ~ over the weekend, she showed us her new stunt i.e. turning her body to the side way. Now we've gotto be more careful with her, and always surround her body with pillow/cushion while lying on the sofa, in case she makes a big flip and the next thing we know....she might end up on the floor head down.
 

@ 3mth old

When I don't smile....

In 4 days time (4th March, 2011), YY will be 100days old and we will celebrate it with a BIG steamed chicken drumstick for her (to lick only)! That's to initiate her "hoi zhai" day, one of the Chinese tradition lah. I don't know, just follow as what MIL has asked us to prepare for this earlier. QQ had this too, last time. 

Happy 7th Anniversary

Little did I realize.....today marks our 7th Wedding Anniversary! I don't really know what makes me remember this day. Coz for the past 2 years (at least!), I have totally forgotten about our anniversary *_* How pathetic.......

But nothing much to do on this special day, as HubB is out of town today. But I've managed to pamper myself with some goodies on this special occasion. Ahem...as if I've never pamper myself with shopping on normal days huh :P Same old lame excuse to shop!

My friend went to Nose warehouse sale yesterday. The price is crazy, starting as low as RM10/pair!! Apa lagi, my colleagues and I zooooomed over to the warehouse to help them clear their stocks during lunch hour :P

Here's the catch of the day.....

Satisfied....satisfied....

Dear Mr Pang,

May we be blessed with more wonderful years ahead, to spend together with our 2 lovely lil monsters princess. Wishing we both white head till old ya! ^_^

RM20/pair

RM10/pair

RM10/pair

 

 

 

 

 

Long overdue jab

Yesterday morning, I took time off from office to bring YY to the pediatric clinic for her jab.  She's weighing at 5.8kg (increased 200gm in a week) and 61cm tall. It was an overdue jab actually. Due to her phlegm attack during CNY, she has to postpone her 2nd month jab until she has recovered from it. She will turn 3 month old this Friday, and she yet to take her 2 month old jab! Erm...there was a miss communication lah. When we first brought her to see Dr. Tan for her phlegm problem, she was supposed to take her jab at that point of time. But Dr. Tan said to wait till she recovers first. I thought that she has to be FULLY recovered in order to take the jab. Last week, we brought YY to see him again as she has already finished her medicine and yet still having phlegm. Only then I realized, the moment we noticed YY had recovered a bit, we may have sent her in for the jab much earlier +_+

So yesterday, she had taken 2 jabs + 1 orally for Rotavirus. The total damage was.......RM551!!! I took the "better" one from Wyeth (13 in 1). And the best part was, they are now having promotion. Funny....injection also got promotion?? Buy 3 get 1 free. Hahaha! So for the 4th jab, I only need to pay Dr. Tan's consultation fee. Anyway, I can claim the medical bills from company, my entitlement is RM2,500/yr :)

When Dr. Tan poked in the first jab on YY's left thigh, she was steady, no crying. Wow, I turned to my mom and said "eh, not pain leh". But when Dr. Tan was about to poke her right thigh, YY screamed! So...it was a delay respond from her lah. She felt the pain actually :P She didn't really cry, just screamed a bit only and was back to normal within 5 seconds =)

In the afternoon, mom told me that she was very cranky and even refused to drink milk. She was very restless and wanted to be carried all the time. From morning till late evening, she didn't show any sign of fever.  When I reached home, I had been taking her temperature every hour, coz Dr. Tan has informed me that she might get fever due to the jabs. At around 8.30pm, I measured her temperature and the reading was 37.4 degree. Another 0.1 degree the thermometer will beep. Seemed like on the way to be feverish liao, so I gave her the fever medicine. The texture was quite thick, so it was not easy to feed her. I poured bit by bit onto a small spoon (got it from Baskin Robbins ice cream) and feed her few times, till she finished the 1.5ml dosage. She was OK when I breastfed her yesterday night, not cranky at all and even smile and laugh happily when I played with her.  Looks like she was looking for my 2 au de naturelle pacifier during my absent =) so she "protest" to her Popo the whole afternoon.

She didn't have fever throughout the night. Mom will keep monitoring her temperature today, hopefully no recurrent of fever lah.

Ms Chatterbox

QQ is in year 4 class this year, although she's only 3yr 4mth old now.  I always feel that a year end baby  benefits a lot in academic coz  in QQ's case, she gets to learn year 3 stuff when she was only 2yr old , same for this year too. This is the first academic feedback from Teacher Nel, written in QQ's message book. I was so happy to read the first few lines, coz she got all the praises from her teacher for being able to catch up with her lesson very well. Yeah, QQ is indeed a fast learner =) 

BUT....check out the last line of the message -------"sometimes she is TALKATIVE in the classroom".

Does this really work? Fast learner = good memory skill = talkative?? :P

I had a word with Teacher Nel about this, to find out more how my lil rascal can be so talkative in the classroom. Teacher Nel said, "I've moved her seat from middle to front row. And yet she dares to talk while I'm teaching. Other pupils already kept quiet, but QQ still happily chatting with her buddy, XR". But luckily that QQ speaks English with XR. At least there's a good point out of this bad behaviour :P Last time, she used to speak in Cantonese with her classmates.

When I asked her did she talk to XR while teacher is teaching, at first she denied it. When asked her again for the 3rd time, she admitted with a broad smile on her face. Instead of nagging her, I told her that if she continues to talk while teacher is teaching, other pupils will learn more than you. And you won't get to learn as much as your classmates. I asked her "do you want to be left behind, where all your classmates can answer teacher's question except you, coz you were talking and not listening to the teacher". QQ replied "I don't want....". Well that's her default answer most of the time. She'll say it with her sad looking face. Nah...she's not that sad actually. In less than 3 seconds, she is back to her chirpy joker face =)

Anyway, I've gotto confess this.....that I am also a talkative person. VERY talkative :P But I don't talk while teacher is teaching =) I  actually love to talk and laugh a lot. Sounds like a soh-poh ha? And when I was back to work from my 2mths maternity leave, my colleagues said this to me "when you are not here ar, the office is like dying, soooo quiet". I'm an amplifier is it? Maybe a woofer cum tweeter, I guess :P

I'm slimmer, she's fatter

As what I've predicted during my confinement period, that I'll be back to my original skeletal body when I report back to work. True enough lah, now I'm weighing at 40.7kg only =( Sob...Sob.... But at least I know that all my precious fats have gone to my precious baby YY. 

Although YY is still having mucus/phlegm problem, she sleeps well and eats well , thus her weight increases "beautifully" :P 

At birth ~ 3.17kg

1 month old ~ 4.2kg

2 month old ~ 5.5kg (as of yesterday)

YY weight gain pattern is much more better than QQ's baby time. I still remember that during QQ's first few months checkup at the pead clinic, she only gained a pathetic of 300-500gm/mth. QQ was a small eater too, and she started to reject bottle at the age of 3-4mth old. That even slow down her weight gain also.

As for myself, I really don't know how to gain more fats. I'm too thin!! Many people feel that I'm so lucky to be back to original shape in such a short period of time after gave birth. Tummy turned flat  on 2nd week after gave birth and at the same time shed off 10kg too. Yeah...I'm lucky. But I still prefer my pregnancy look. Back then, I had more flesh, more fats. Now....only left with bones underneath my thin skin. Chinese says "phei bao kuat" +_+ I know I know...as long as I'm healthy I shouldn't worry so much right? But hor, I want to be healthy and pretty at the same time ma! Greedy me =)
 

BEFORE : That's me with my big tummy, 5days before I "letup"

 

 

AFTER : Me and my ex-schoolmates, pic taken 2days ago.

Extra frozen EBM stock give away

2 weeks ago, after I came back from Ipoh for CNY, I have done something which I felt really bad. Mom's freezer is full of my frozen EBM again and I can't sumbat anymore frozen EBM into Teacher Nel's freezer too as hers also fully occupied by my stocks as well. I had thawed more than 25 bottles of frozen EBM  (each bottle 4-5oz) and all went into the drain ;( Before I decided to do this, I've thought of donating them to the needy babies. But I was asking myself, if other mommy offer me their EBM, am I willing to accept it? Honestly, I'll be in dilemma then. Somehow I just find it a bit weird to feed my baby with EBM from an unknown mommy. My concern focus on the cleanliness and worry on the risk of disease/contamination . BUT if I feed baby with formula milk, then it will be like feeding my baby with cow's milk from soooo many unknown cows too! LOL!! I don't have short supply of BM for my baby so let's not crack my head to think whether I can accept or reject other mommy's BM or not lah. All I know is, donating breast milk is just like donating blood to the hospitals/blood banks. No harm doing so.

Even after throwing away so much of my precious EBM, I still need more space. But I was very very reluctant to do it again (throwing away my milk), as it will be such a big waste. So I've decided to just try my luck to offer my frozen EBM stocks to public by posting it at The Breastfeeding Advocates Network page in Facebook. I was thinking there might be some mommies out there who can't meet their baby's demand but only wish to feed baby with breast milk and not to supplement with formula milk. 2 days after my posting on that page, there were 3 mommies responded to my post! Wow!! I was surprised and very happy reading mommies who have feedback that they need my stock. I quickly PM them my mom's add and my mobile no so that we can arrange for collection soonest possible. 

Out of the 3 mommies who had responded to my post, I was only able to keep in touch with 2 as the other one was actually responding on behalf of her friend. From there on, I've discovered something greater. 

 JC was the first to accept my offer. Due to logistic problem, she has asked her brother, KC to collect on behalf. But after discussing with JC via email, apparently KC also needs some of my stocks too. Both of their baby boys are of same age i.e. 3mth old now and the 2 babies are sharing the same date of birth too! How cool is that, bro and sister's son both same DOB =) JC's problem is her baby boy eats more than what she can supply, whereas KC's wife is on a long term medication which makes her unable to feed her baby with her own BM. FYI, the wife has to take steroid, so baby can't be fed with mommy's BM =( I am very glad and happy that KC supports BF very much. Although his wife is not able to do so, he's searching high and low for BM stocks for his son. According to KC, his baby boy was only weighing at 1.8kg at birth, so baby was very much underweight. Just a few days before our meet up, I stumbled upon my ex-college mate's photo in my Facebook. And to my surprised, in my that friend's picture I saw a lady who was seated next to her carrying a baby was tagged with the name JC. Both of them sharing the same surname. Uhhh Oohh....as I investigate further (try to be Agent Scully konon :P) JC and my friend must be sibling. I quickly PM JC about that picture and BINGO! JC is indeed my friend's younger sister!! The world is really really small lah. So now I'm actually supplying my EBM to her nephews. With that, I've become the babies' "nai-ma", ibu susu :P I've given KC a total of 24 bottles of frozen EBM. And BTW, as I'm typing this, KC sms me that his son has no problem taking my EBM =) He has kept aside 12 bottles for JC so he will only use the other half for his son.

Another mommy whom I met yesterday is actually staying very near to my own house in Kajang. But since my stocks are in Kepong, her husband drove all the way to Kepong to collect my stock. I have given her 30++ bags of frozen EBM, ranging from 6-10oz per bag.  Her job requires her to travel quiet often thus not able to have sufficient BM supply to her baby son as needed. 

Now both freezer units are pretty spacious already, leaving behind mid-end Jan 2011 stocks, and now I can start to pump more frequent to fill in the blank :P But I've been sick for almost 2 weeks, currently coughing very badly. So my BM supply has dropped a bit. As long as I continue to nurse YY more and pump every 3hr in the office, hopefully I will be back on track soon.  Also I have not been giving YY any frozen EBM ever since she has those mucus/phlegm in her throat (or lung?? not sure) since last week. She needs more nutrient and antibody to fight against the infection, so I only let her drink fresh EBM. At the same time kinda worry also,  once she has recovered I'll start thawing frozen EBM for her and she might reject the frozen EBM taste after enjoying the fresh milk for so long. Hope not. 

If you are a breastfeeding mom, do join this  and this page on Facebook. There are lots of stories and info shared among the mothers regarding breastfeeding. Eats on Feets Malaysia is a dedicated page meant for mommies who want to share her EBM with others. For those who are looking for BM  offer may also check out that page as they have a list of donors too. I get a message from a lady who's managing this page in Facebook, asking me to post my offer on Eats on Feets' wall. She saw my post in The Breastfeeding Advocates Network =)

Happy Breastfeeding to all gorgeous moo moo mommies!!

CNY @ Ipoh

This year, we went back to Ipoh a day before the CNY eve. We departed at 5am to avoid the massive traffic jam on highway. Luckily not many cars on the road =) so we reached Ipoh around 7.15am. We had a smooth journey all the way. When I carried YY into our car, she almost woke up so I quickly breastfed her and she was back to slumber very fast =) I put her into her car seat and she slept all the way to Ipoh, same to QQ too. 

Reunion dinner was done at home, as MIL cooked for all of us. It would be quite messy if we were to eat out. Both my SIL's baby and YY were still very young thus to handle 4 kiddos in a restaurant seemed to be quite handful lah. 

At night, QQ refused to sleep with her daddy next door, she insisted to squeeze in our queen size bed with me and YY. Adui, I had a hard time to rearrange the sleeping position for 3 of us. I was like solving jigsaw puzzle on bed. QQ doesn't really sleep quietly on 1 position throughout the night. She will surely turn her body 360 degree. What I worry most was her "mou ying geok" shadow legs. The moment she turn a bit and spread her leg to another side, YY will be roti canai liao...kena lanyak by her sister. The very first night, I let her sleep on bed first. As soon as she was in deep sleep, I get HubB to carry her down to the tilam on the floor :P Did it really quietly and slowly. The next morning, she woke up and looked up to bed with a smile on her face, greeting me Good Morning Mami!! Then, she looked at herself on the tilam, and started to ask me "eh, why I sleep here keh?". Hahahaha I thought she didn't realized it :P I just bluff thru saying that there was mosquito so I carried her down to tilam, so that she won't get bitten :P Well...she bought my idea! 

The second night, I didn't want to let her sleep on tilam coz  there would be massive fireworks  going on when the clock strikes 12. So I slept in the middle with QQ on my left and YY on my right. But these 2 fella couldn't be bothered at all by the loud noises out there. The dark sky was so colorful, with lots of fireworks in the air! They continued to ZzzZzzZzz.....Good, good.

We headed back to KL on Chor 3 (Day 3 of CNY) after breakfast. Again, the traffic was smooth, and weather was great too.

Here are some of the shots taken before and during CNY in QQ's pre-school and in Ipoh.

Hand-in-hand with her classmate, Belle. Belle's mommy used to be my classmate in college too =)

Buddy buddy with her cousin TT.

Also buddy buddy with another cousin sista, MM.

See....both of her cousins are so much BIGGER than her physically :P Both her cousins are just a year younger than her, but it looks the other way round rite?!

Me and my 2 yellow lil huat huat girls + MM

 

 

Happy Family! =)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Huattchew CNY

This CNY is not a very pleasant one for the 4 Heavenly Queen - Popo, YY, QQ, me :P 

Just before CNY, we all shout "Flood ar!!". Then during CNY when we "lou sang" with family we shout "Huat ar!!". Finally the 4 of us now say " Huatttchew!!" +_+

The first victim was YY, as she started to have blocking nose on Chor 2 (day 2 of CNY ) while in Ipoh. QQ and I caught flu when we were back from Ipoh last Saturday (Chor 3), and finally my mom also had flu and cough since Chor 1!!. Besides collecting ang pao with $$ inside, the latest collection for QQ, YY and I are the below - bags of ubat!

Here's some update on YY's condition. On Monday, we brought her to see Dr. Tan. To our surprise, the clinic was full house! As I registered YY's name, she was patient no. 71 and at that point of time, Dr Tan was with patient no 34 @_@ We purposely went there at 12.30pm (clinic will close at 1pm) hoping that there would be lesser patient hence waiting time can be shorten. Unfortunately, still have to wait 2hours there. Luckily YY was quite Ok there and while waiting for her turn, I've breastfed her twice too. Most of the kids had cough, flu and fever. Weather is bad plus all the irresistible cookies and dried meat, these are the culprits I believe. 

Dr. Tan has informed that YY had lots of mucus and phlegm deep down her throat and lung. I told him about the flu medicine which I get from the normal clinic. He said that a small baby shouldn't be taking flu syrup as it is too strong for a young baby. Thus Dr. Tan prescribed her phlegm/mucus medicine as this is not as strong as the flu medicine,` and a bottle of sea water solution spray. It's 100% natural and it helps to clean baby's nostril. Furthermore, YY only needs to take 1ml of the phlegm syrup. The flu medicine which the other doctor prescribed, the indicated dosage was higher i.e. 1.5ml *_* I personally felt that 1.5ml was way too much for a young baby, thus I only gave her 1ml. Dr. Tan will determine the medicine dosage base on the child's age and weight. Whereas the normal doctor didn't weigh YY at all when we met him that day. Sigh.....moral of the story is if baby is sick but not too serious, best not to refer to normal doctor. If can wait, just go straight to the Pediatrician lah. 

Despite to the nose block, YY is still very active and happy as usual. Phew... at least she still smiles and coos a lot to us, so this is a good sign =) Please get well soon my dear baby. I really feel terribly sorry each time I need to feed you ubat ;( 

Oh btw, although I had super bad running nose yesterday, I still breastfed YY as usual. My antibody will be transferred to YY thru my BM. Hopefully it helps to speed up the recovery process lah. 

Get well soon YY!!

Mucus mucus go away

2 days ago when we were still in Ipoh for CNY, YY's nose was blocked. I can hear some wheezing sound from her when she had a deep breath ;( Then she started to sneeze a few times too. Cham....looks like she has caught some flu. Must be due to the air-cond in our bedroom. She didn't have running nose, so whenever she sneezes only the mucus will be out from her nostril. She is still active and happy as usual, thus it's not a very serious case though. 

Yesterday, as soon as we reached KL, HubB and I brought her to the clinic. I was very hesitate though, coz she's still very young and I would prefer to refer her to a Pediatrician. Unfortunately, Dr. Tan's clinic was closed for CNY and only reopen on Monday. We worry that YY's condition might get worst so we brought her to the nearby clinic. Upon checking her body temperature, the doctor told me that YY had fever and the thermometer reading was 38 degree!! @_@ I couldn't believe it coz I've been checking her forehead with my hand many times and I don't feel any extra warm on her. The doctor has prescribed her 3 medication : flu, fever and antibiotic. Oh dear, I felt so bad coz YY is only 2mth old and she has to take antibiotic +_+ The doctor even asked me to cover YY's head with a hat, reason being that she had fever. Huh?? Fever = must wear hat? Have you heard of this before? 

When we reached home, I quickly measured her temperature with my thermometer (Microlife brand). I did it 5x and the reading was 37 degree!! Meaning NO FEVER!! What went wrong leh? How come the doctor's thermometer showed 38 degree whereas mine was 37 degree? 38 degree is consider very high for a small baby. Anyhow, HubB and I decided not to feed YY with fever and antibiotic medicine and only let her have the flu syrup. On the same night, YY seemed to sleep well. She was not bothered by the mucus which stucked deep inside her nostril. I did try to suck out the mucus from her nose, but after a few attempts I still couldn't get a single drop of mucus. Suan ler ba....

Tomorrow, we will still bring YY to see Dr. Tan. We will be much relief with a Pediatric's advise =) 

I hope YY will have speedy recovery as I really don't like feeding her ubat. When QQ was a baby, she didn't fall sick at all for the first 1.5year of her life. 

Wishing everyone good health and Gong Xi Fa Chai!!