Start Over Again

This is really funny guys. Bought Ethan to see a Pediatrician today (sort of his 6 weeks check, thou he is only 5 wks today) to check his 'reflux' thingie out since the GP put him on Zantac for a week. When we got there, the Pediatrician, Barry, checked him out with such intense concentration & lengthy period of time that Brian and I got worried for a while. After what's been about 20mins of thorough 'pressing' & 'kneading' of Ethan like he was a dough, front & back, he said "dress him up & we'll have a chat". Huh...sounds like something's wrong isn't it?


Finally he said - no problem with Ethan! According to him, 100% of babies have reflux, its just a matter of how mild/ serious it is. He thinks the problem with Ethan is that he's been overFED and over STIMULATED!! That's why he's in agony & pain of straining out his milk all the time & affecting his sleep, since his stomach juices need to work overtime. He wants me to cut his feeding from the current 9 times to 6. No wonder Ethan's piling on the weight so quickly. He's gained another about 430grams this week. If he could stomach all of the milk, I dun mind him getting bigger faster - God knows that's what I want. But problem is his little stomach can't take all that stimulation. If we carry on feeding him this way, my milk supply will be affected as I'll have no rest, and hence supply will be short - no wonder these days I feel I can't seem to fill him up during the evenings!




So what happens when he cries & appears to be hungry -- settle him in any ways we can, feed him about 3-4 hours apart! This is such a humongous challenge. Currently, whenever he cries, everyone just assumes he's hungry & stuffs the baby to ME. No wonder its so easy for everyone else to settle him, coz he shuts up once he's got tits to suck! Finally someone is standing on my side! Barry's arranging for a Lactation Consultant to come in & teach us how to feed him the right way. So we are to put Zantac away for the moment & try giving Ethan about 80ml of milk at one time, make sure he's got a full tummy, so that he can go to sleep & eat again, only abt 3-4hours later. That he says, will give mummy enough rest time to generate milk. and for his stomach to rest...let's hope this will work in the next few days & ease his 'gaging' agony + giving this vending machine a little break :)

Ethan Turns One Month

Yes our little Ethan 'Man Yue' yesterday!! Finally we can bring him out 'gai gai' and of course, with my confinement over, tis a reason to clelebrate! Hence as with Asian tradition for good luck, we did a mini get-together dinner with some friends (all of whom I have greatly missed for the past month). At first we were worried that he'd be unsettled with a crowded house & too much noise, but who knew, he was surprisingly really good. Seems like he's a people person who loves to be amongst the crowd. To think he could even sleep with all the noise in the background!

We bought fresh prawns, scallops & sashimi from the Fish market - which I could only watch and not eat coz apparently there's to be no seafood for 40 days after giving birth (I have 10 more days to go. Dun ask me who made this rule...I just follow suite to avoid mom's nagging). For significance sake, Yew Peng went all the way to Chinatown just to get noodles from East Ocean + Gueh Lapis cake from Maroubra (signifying long life & bu bu gao sheng). Kel, Kian & Stephen also bought loads of roasted meats. What a feast we had! Ethan missed all of that as he was in dream land. But perhaps he did have his noodles & cake afterall...having digested into his milk??

Well he surely is a blessed little one coz not only did we celebrate for him here in Sydney, his grandparents did a little cake thingie for him as well in Singapore! Loads of ang baos & gifts too! On behalf of Ethan, a huge thank you to everyone :) especially Elsa, Elsie, Ad & Ger who came with presents again.


This is indeed a milestone for Ethan and us as his parents, so what's next? I soooo look forward to his second month...

Pointing to Ad's tummy, already in her 8th month. Her little bub is coming to 4kg already inside her now! He's surely gona be super chubby & cute when born, like the michelin tyres icon. Can't wait to see him.
Need to also let everyone know that Ethan's name has been changed from Kai Jun to Kai Xin (Xin as in new). Why? Hmm....its an astrology thingie as decided by his grandparents :)

A Test of Patience

From this:


To this:


Brought little Ethan to the Early Childhood Centre this morning for an update check up. Not good news. First, his jaundice seems to have gotten slightly worse. Alison says its now reached his chest level whereas last week it was only his nose. She said its probably breastmilk jaundice which is common in Asian baby and nothing to be alarmed about, but since he's just 4 weeks old, its better to bring him to the GP for a check, just in case... Fingers crossed, we're seeing the GP this afternoon. Ethan's left hip is also apparently stiffer than his right, which causes some imbalance in knee height?? Duno what it means but we are meant to have it checked out by the Pediatrician in 2 weeks.

Good new thou' is that he's piling on the weight (eventhou he vomits milk after every feed!), weighing about 4.15kg now. Height at 53cm.

Biggest concern and challenge now is how to settle little Ethan - coz the minute he cries, Brian & I become headless chickens. My mom had to carry him from 5nish AM this morning till 8!! Once she put him in the pram, he started to fuss & cry. In order to not disturb the sleepers in the house, plus she feels that its not good for baby to have interrupted sleep, she had no choice. My poor mom, away from home to cook me my confinement food, prepare bath ritual for baby everyday, putting baby to sleep after feeds, etc...what's worse, she has to sleep in the hall (which I feel extremely bad about) & sleep sitting upright carrying the baby!! What am I to do without her next month!!

Alison is persuading me against carrying the baby to sleep all the time. She reckons baby must learn to go to sleep on their own and not be carried so often. So she suggested that Brian and I book in with Triscillian to spend a day there, where the experts will watch what we do, provide advise on how to settle him & teach us to read signs that baby is tired or when its time to play etc...tis good, but we have to wait for 2 weeks for an appointment! When we got homr from the Centre, I tried to do what Alison had advocated - put him in his cot while he's still awake, thou sleepy as indicated by his yawn, and gently rock him to sleep. Did it work? Of course not!! He was ok for a while but then started his wailing ritual again.

Mom's advise is this: Bub is yet to 'man yue' (only a month old on the 10 Nov, thou' according to actual calendar calculation, he is already 4 weeks 6 days), its not good for him to gasp in so much air when he's crying so pathetically. Hence maybe we can teach him to sleep on his own only when he gets older, meantime, just work with his demand....honestly, I duno who to listen to. Mom's advise is a shortcut for me, coz at least we get some peace & quiet in the house. Alison's advise is definitely good for the long term, but it certainly requires alot of patience & the ability to watch Ethan's heart wrenching cries. What are we to do?? God help us help him...

Dream A Little Dream

First Prize $21,000,000.00!!!
Sing the slogan with me:"Its the big red ball that makes dreams come true" Yes today's lotto has jackpotted to $21 million! Brian and I were day dreaming yesterday (as usual), asking ourselves what we'd do if we had won 1st prize tonight. Hhmmm... 1st thing of course we'd go get a house, probably the Northbridge one we'd been drooling for weeks. Without a doubt too, car craze Brian will get his 'favourite car of the month' (it changes every month). I can't even catch up with what it is now coz one moment its the Audi RS4, the next moment its the new TT or the Saab he saw at the Motorshow recently. Oh yes, and the undergroung Cellar that can store up to 500 bottles of wine too!

What numbers shall we buy? My mom asks - obviously numbers that will be out as 1st prize tonight! But dun ask me tonight if we'd won, coz as usual, I'll never check our tickets till days or weeks later....well as least that way we can keep our dream alive a little longer?....in denial, yes, but no harm dreaming a little isn't it :)

My Much Neglected Other Baby

Felt extremely sad for my little Dixie Queen this morning. She kept meowing while I was carrying little Ethan, trying to put him to sleep. All she wanted was to be carried & stroked. Poor Dixie, she used to be the centre of attention before the bube came and was allowed anywhere in the house - sleep on us, rolling on our beds etc...now she's forbidden into our room, being chased out everytime she steals her way in. She's afraid of Brian - coz only he will shout "Dixie! out!" snd she'll go running out. But next minute Brian will go "come here..." and starts to stroke her while she lies submitly on the floor.... aw.....

Every morning around 2nish or 5ish am, you'd catch her little hand trying to push open the bedroom door. She'd wait for me to come out of the room by sitting right at the door the whole night. Whenever I get the chance to carry/ stroke her these days, she'd just purr for the longest time.....poor thing. Guess she just wants to know she's still loved..... Yes she is still my little precious, and one who's much easier to look after too!!

Time No Longer Flys

Inspired by Baby Ethan's Godma, I decided to start a blogg as well to pen down my days of being a stay-home nursing mom, at least till March that is. Hopefully it'll make my days pass faster. At this stage of being a breastfeeding newbie, pregnancy certainly seems much easier, and the nine months certainly seemed to have passed much faster!

I believe everyone would have, at one point or another said this phrase "Wow,how time flys, seems just yesterday that..." Well this notion has temporarily suspended for me since the day Brian and I officially entered into parenthood... Our little Ethan turned 3 weeks yesterday (with what seemed like the longest to get here) and I am still in confinement, till 10 Nov!!

My day passes by the hour, spending most of my time (day & wee hours of the morning) on Kian Li's arm-chair, doing you know what... The only consolation at this point for me is to know and hope that he puts on weight everytime we weigh him. Being a typical paranoid new mom, I worry if he is getting enough milk from me (since he spits out & poo so much!) I keep saying to my mom "working life seems so much easier." These few weeks have been the toughest for Brian and myself, all 31 years of it. Guess we were totally unprepared for the loss of freedom and the amount of sacrifice it takes to be parents. Alison (the kind Early Childhood Centre Midwife - duno what I will do without her) said something to me which I made alot of sense "You might wish to return to work now & resume your career life, but trust me and remember what I say - who will remember you in future, your work or your son?"

Anyways I thank God I have my mom and mil here to help - at least I can shove them the bube when nothing I do can stop him from crying. Being the 1st & only grandson, he's certainly being treated like royalty by his grandparents! Its also simply amazing how he'll stop wailing the minute my mom carrys him, guess this is what you call an experienced "old-bird"!!

Well, I have another battle to fight tonight...so pray for me...