of scare and gas...

Sue Yi gave wifey a bit of a scare tonight. She have been a bit gassy for the past couple of days and have been feeling uncomfortable lately. When I visited wifey this evening, she was telling me about how Sue Yi have been crying in the morning and having gas issue. Based on recommendations they gave her some Chinese medicine which relieved her a bit. She looks better when I went over to see her this evening but still squirming as usual. When it was time for wifey’s supper we pushed her back to nursery and since she is starting to cry wifey asked them to check if she had just poot pooted.
After supper we wend down to check on her again, she seems more comfortable now, but still not sleeping. Since she’s awake we asked for her so that we can talk to her a bit. But then, she started to squirm and stretch uncomfortably again. And there was when it came, Sue Yi threw up the milk in her tummy. It looks pretty severe as the milk shot out from her mouth sort of like water from a hose. Wifey gave a scream and Sue Yi threw up the rest of the milk, this time some even came out thru her nose. Wifey was shocked and quickly picked Sue Yi up from the crib. The people in the nursery also came out and helped wifey. They quickly took Sue Yi back to the nursery and cleaned her up.
Some of the mommies who were hanging around the area told wifey that it’s pretty ok and tried to calm her down. Then only I realized how big of a shock it was for wifey when I saw her eyes were red and she had tears. I am not sure which breaks my heart more, seeing Sue Yi in such discomfort or wifey shedding tears. Wifey said that I didn’t really panicked during the whole situation and according to wifey later was pretty cool. I don’t think it’s because of not being shocked easily or anything (in fact I get shocked easily) or anything like that. Probably the main reason is that I was probably too slow to comprehend the situation and reacted too slowly. One thing is that I do feel a bit scared just now, but I did not show it to wifey. I figured that I must let wifey see me as she is shaken up and need my support. I guess that’s how we are in our relationship, when one is angry the other will be calm or when one is bored, the other will un-bore the situation or when one is being chicken shit, the other will toughen up.
I think probably a baby throwing up her milk is a common thing, but I guess when it is your first time seeing and it is your precious who is going through it, the emotions gets amplified by tens of thousands of times. Anyway, the folks at the nursery are really experts in their work as the managed to clean Sue Yi up and calm her down is no time. She was already halfway into dreamland when I left.
Sometimes we do see people who seem to be so protective of their child. Cannot touch this and that, cannot play this and that, if fall down will panick like no tomorrow. I used to think that these people are just being anal but after tonight, I am beginning to see from their side of the fence. I guess when it’s your child, your own flesh and blood, you will want them to have the best that you can offer and keep them away from even the tiniest ant that might harm her. I just hope that I don’t become an anal retentive jerk in doing so.

of peaceful feeling and gas...

Sue Yi Seem to be growing fast (or at least that’s my impression). Every time I went over to see her, she will look much bigger. Probably an optical illusion, but the thing is that she never fails to give me a peaceful feeling when I see her. Something kind of like a joyful feeling when you see your loved one. Or maybe something like the feeling you get after a long flight and seeing your loved one at the arrival terminal at the airport.
Her skin seems to be fairer these days compared to the days after her bout with jaundice and her face seems to be rounder too. She is also very big on sleeping and will sleep most of the time, even when we went down to see her.

For the past few days the staff at the nursery mentioned that Sue Yi is not sleeping well at night. They suspected gas and according to them he was up crying and feeling uncomfortable throughout the night. Wifey and I also noticed that she have been having a lot of gas lately. She will burp (and fart) most of the time and gets very uncomfortable when doing so. The lady at the confinement center suggested some Chinese medicine and after wifey confirmed with her mom, we gave her the go ahead. I think it did have some effect as wifey told me that Sue Yi is not that gassy. But she still not sleeping well at night. Maybe something else is bothering her…

We also noticed soemthing about Sue Yi, everytime she wants to fart, she will push up her left knee. So i think the cue now is that if she wince and squirm and have her left knee raised up, most probably a 'poot!' will follow.

of standing ovations and no memory of pain...

Some updates.
Sue Yi is back at the hospital due to jaundice. Dr. Tan told wifey on Friday morning that Sue is a bit yellowish but Dr Hasanah (Paed) discharged her anyway as Sue still look OK at that time. When the govt nurse visited wifey and Sue Yi at the confinement house she said that Sue Yi is a bit yellow and probably should send to the hospital ‘bagi kasi lampu’. But she also mentioned to leave her at the confinement home for the night and see what happens. Saturday morning, she still look yellowish and we immediately decided to bring her back to the hospital to be checked by Dr Hasanah. I must say that the confinement house folks really know their stuff. When they heard that we are going to take Sue Yi to the hospital, they fed her, changed nappies, and dressed her up. They even packed a bag with extra nappies and 3 servings of milk powder.
I guess Sue Yi is a bit cheeky, while waiting for Dr at the hospital, she farted a few times right there into my palm! Initially I thought she poot poot’ed but turned out to be just gas.
Anyway, Dr took blood samples from her (a most excruciatingly painful experience for wifey and I) and later mentioned that she have to be admitted. So back to the nursery we went. By the time we were done, it’s already 1pm plus and we had to send wifey back to the confinement house. Later that night when I was chatting with wifey, we both talked about how it felt strange to have Sue Yi at the hospital. It feels really odd to have us there (at the confinement house) and Sue Yi far away at the hospital. Although, brain tells us that she is in good hands, the heart still worries for her.
I visited Sue Yi at the nursery before going to see wifey in the evening. She looks less yellowish. I timed my visit so that it will be feeding time for her when I get there so that she don’t have to be disturbed. Unfortunately, she woke up early and the nurse is already about to finish feeding her. I held and cuddled her for about 30 mins checking her head (vacuum mark) and everything else I can check. I am also beginning to learn of her responses to touched at different places. She also did something funny, while in my arms she tried to snuggle her head near my armpit and opened her mouth as if she is trying to suckle. I am not sure what she is trying to do but she seem to have developed an liking for my armpit. She did that earlier in the day while waiting for Dr. Hasanah and she did it again that evening. Probably she is trying to imprint my scent.
I’ll be visiting her again today. Let’s hope that she recovers well and can be discharged so that she can be with wifey. I really cannot get used to the idea of having her there away from us at the hospital.


Tim and Emily were co cute and cheeky. They visited wifey after we delivered Sue Yi. When wifey were wheeled from the labor room to the ward, they stood on attention and clapped for wifey. A standing ovation! Tim even instructed me and my mom to clap! The nurse also mentioned to wifey that she’s a celebrity.


Wifey told me something very profound while we were in the ward before she was discharged. Se mentioned that although God make you feel pain during delivery, He will also take it away and also erase the memory of the pain. She said that she can’t remember the pain and how it feels like. She can just remember that there is great pain but that’s all, no memories of the pain itself. I wonder if other mothers also have that experience.

Wifey had to change room at the confinement house yesterday. She was initially put into a room together with another mommy in a person room, but the other mommy kept asking wifey why the people at the confinement house did not open up a new room for her. Not once but every time she sees wifey. So wifey got pissed and told the people at the confinement house to be put into another room with 2 other mommies. I mean if she is not welcomed in that room, then why stay.
Anyway, it worked out better for wifey. In the 3 person room, one is a new mother who came in at the same time as wifey while another is a 3rd time mommy (the pro) who is nearing the end of her confinement. The pro is very helpful and informative. According to wifey, she shared and taught them a lot of good knowledge. So I guess it turnout to be a blessing for wifey.

of confinement house and tau kua...

OK. We just got back and Wifey is now fast asleep in the bedroom, carpet is vacuumed, laundry is in the washer. A bit of time for me to write down a few things.
We went to register and put down our deposit for the confinement house. According to the lady at the CH, we were pretty fortunate because they will be full for February, but she managed to reserved a place for us since we did showed interest during our last visit.
According to her that our due date (15th Feb) is near Valentines day and some couples like to have their child born on that day.
Anyway, the reason we chose this CH is because we were really impressed with their facilities. (Actually our judgement were a bit biased as we never really did visited other CHs. It is just that those other CHs that we went to, seem a bit quiet and a bit unkept from the outside. Wifey said that she didn’t get a good feeling from them.)
But like they say, the proof is in the pudding, so we’ll really see if they are really good when wifey stays there.

As with the last visit, the CH also gave us some samples. Some reading materials (unfortunately in Chinese), disposable panties, diapers and a small bottle of those *ahem* cleaning fluid. The lady also explained to us what we need to bring when we check in. I find it funny when she try to mention sanitary pad to wifey. She seem to stutter and did not manage to mention it. I think she’s a bit shy as I was there but wifey tired to help her by agreeing and nodding. Hehe.. for a person who deals in this business, I find it a bit funny that she had problem saying sanitary pad. Maybe next time she should have just use the code word : Tau Kua.

for those who are interested to check out this place ther are here*

* and no, i do not get any incentive, kickback, discounts nor comission from the said business to link their website in this page. (although i don't mind if the offer me)

and we have lift off....

OK. it is now 10.19pm. I have managed to finally get the counter and haloscan thingy right.
Reset the counter to zero. Put all my earlier writings up so the next step is to get the traffic in. let's see maybe i'll send to leader, isaac's mommy, mh, icy and whom so ever who got the misfortune to come across my path in the next few days.

There is something interesting on at 8TV, a lady was dancing ballet to some hot rock music. I think's it's one of those reality show and this one is about dancing or something like that. That got me thinking. Why don't folks get taller dancers instead of making those poor ballet dancers stand on their toes?

anyway, back to the blog. Wifey and I will be going to register and put down the deposit for the confinement house tomorrow. Yup, we finally decided on a confinement house instead of a cofinement lady. I guess it's more our of convenience and also when comparing the cost, it seem more viable to go for the confinement option. Nett cost for the confinement house is slightly higher but if you throw in the extra costs that comes along with the confinement lady, we figured that the CH option is more viable.

We visited the confinement house last week and was pretty impressed with it but maybe that will be another blog entry.

something to keep us busy...

Now that the fact and excitement of having another new person in our life have sunk in, wifey and I are beginning to go through the motions of getting ourselves ready.
After some discussions with some female colleagues and friends, I opened up an account in babycenter.com. for those not in the know, this is a fantastic site that helps you track your pregnancy. It gives you info of your baby’s growth and discussions on issues with regards to pregnancy. Definitely much better than just thinking that pregnancy is about a growing lump in your wife’s stomach. My only gripe is that it seems to be more catered for female coz the newsletter that I got is something like ” your pregnancy is now so and so weeks and your body is now blab la”. If there is one improvement I think maybe have an alternate account for expectant dads.

We were also starting to look for confinement homes and asking around for confinement ladies. Since baby’s due will be near Chinese New Year, we were naturally a bit concerned about the cost and availability of confinement ladies. An ex-colleague told me that she went to a confinement house and enjoyed the experience as she get to talk to other mothers and on top of that she can focus on resting while someone takes care of the baby. Sounds cool, but we really need to weigh in the pros and cons.

We have also cleaned up the 3rd bedroom and moved all the stuff into the second bedroom to make way for baby. I took a few days off from work to work on the baby’s room. Wifey wanted to have the room painted and since we are not sure baby will be boy or girl yet at this time we decided to go for a neutral color. So baby’s room’s gonna be yellow. Bright and cheerful. At first I was a bit hesitant about the color but I must say that after painted the room and looking at it, I must say that I do hope that baby will inherit the color sense from wifey.

Probably next will be baby’s name…. (but not until we find out it’s it’s gonna be banana or papaya)