Taking the baby’s temperature was such a difficult task. Using the digital thermometer (orally), she wouldn’t allow that thing to be placed inside the mouth for even a second. I thought of cheating her by waving it to her like a toy, hopeing she would chew on it. No! She wouldn’t buy that either. The ear thermometer was not much simpler to use too. I need to “pull” her earlobe, then stuck the pointy end into her ear to use it correctly. Try doing that to a lousy feeling child! She would turn her head, twist her body, do anything to stop the foreign object from invading her ear. When finally got some readings, they were mostly unconvincingly normal, or frighteningly high. It would be like 36.7, 36.5, then 38.8, 38.9. It even registered 39.2, 39.5 last evening, almost sent me speeding down to the paediatrician immediately.

Getting the medicine down her throat is another difficult task. I thought the baby paracetamol and ibuprofen have the banana and orangey flavour that she would find agreeable. Fat hope! She didn’t even want a drop. We force syringing it into her mouth initially. It worked the first time, but subsequently, she just spat them out or cried until she vomited her stomach empty of the horrible syrup. In the end, I have to “bury” 0.25ml of the syrup with a spoonful of her favourite cereal to trick her into taking the medicine. Thankfully, she only needs two medicine totaling just 3.75ml, else she will need a really huge bowl of cereal to conceal the medicine.

I have enough stress last night, finally more at peace now. My dear baby has been having some mild cough for the past few days, so mild I don’t think it is necessary to visit the doctor. Yesterday, she started having runny nose. very mild too, just let her recover naturally. She slept early last night but started fussing after midnight. I sleepily try to pat to sleep in her cot, she didn’t complied, so I moved her to our bed. She tossed and turned and was rather cranky, only then I realised she felt like a baked potato.

My first reaction was to nurse her, thinking that breastmilk contain antibodies to fight any viruses or bacteria. Then slapped a piece of “byebye fever” sheet on her forehead to dissipates the heat (at that point, I thought that was the best item James had bought for the kid). I left the ear scan thermometer at my father’s place, luckily still have the SARS kit with us. It was difficult to use the oral thermometer with the baby. I forced it into her mouth, under the toughen but she was fighting to get rid of it. However, the thermometer already registered 38.6C before I could get the accurate reading. I have already decided to bring her to the 24hr clinic nearby. Well, mothers are always worried that the temperature will escalate. Though I thought it is not boiling hot yet, but “what if” (apparently, we should bring the baby to see the doctor if the rectal temperature exceeds 38.3C, according to babycenter)? Better be safe then sorry. James agreed, but his reason was different. He thought I was the one that need to “see” the doctor, to stop myself from a worrying sleepless night.

She`was running a temperature of 38.8C according to the doctor. The normal medicine was prescribed, fever seemed to lower some time after syringing the medicine into her mouth. I was quite awake then and decided to stay up monitoring the situation. Well, obviously I am not a night person, fell asleep too when everything was back to normal.

She seems active as usual this morning, but still feverish. Hopefully she will recover today!

Yesterday, my father visited my maternal grandma, and found that she was alone at home. She is almost 80, and her health has deteriorated greatly recently. Weak legs, back aches, bad hearing, I would described her as vunerable. My cousin’s wife (who looks after her) is back in Thailand for a few weeks and probably is not returning until she delivered her baby there next year, my uncle and auntie are working, my two cousins are working and in school. So, we realised no one looks after her at home. She always reminds us to visit her more often, and I always said I will, but hardly shown myself. Sigh, so bad of me. Must make it a point to visit her at least once a week . If I can’t do anything to improve her health or her living condition, the least I can do is to keep her company.

At this stage of life, when I am eargerly encouraging the baby to “walk”, and having learnt about my grandma’s state, this article/ad/campaign just got me sentimental again.

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I wasn’t used to sleeping in air-con room in the past, I would even woke up in the middle of the night to switch off the air-con if I ever decided to use it on extremely warm nights. But not James, he absolutely needs one, else he will be sweaty and smelly. And now, we have another addition, the little one seems to take after the father, must have air-con.

The father was down with sore throat, then fever, and now bad cough. Either he couldn’t tolerate the cough anymore or was really tired of my constant nagging, he finally went to the doctor. The problem with this father was, he went to the doctor to get medication, and didn’t bother to ask question like: what caused the cough, is it infectious, what food to avoid, does the baby needs to be isolated from him and etc. He didn’t even know the name of the diagnosis. He only remembers that he is to avoid eating oranges and sleeping in air-con room.

So, no air-con last night, and Yauyau didn’t slept well. She stirred so many times with irritated cries, and wake up as a totally smelly stinky baby with the hair all wet. I heard babies usually sweat buckets, hopefully she doesn’t inherits her father’s sweaty sticky genes and grows up to be more like me.

Siau Yien and Wei Meng visited me this afternoon. It is good that friends visit me occasionally, to keep me updated and also make me tidy the house. Tidying and cleaning action in full swing this morning for two hours. Cleared the thick stack of documents and bills that need to be filed, wiped all the dusty table, scrubbed all (ok, only four) the mugs with stains, put away the books lying around , folded the clothes that have been in the drying for 4 days. At least, the place looks presentable on the surface.

I am glad that this time round, Siau Yien didn’t bring any more news about her son Elias(about 18mths now) falling sick again. That poor boy was down with some aliments almost every month for a period of time, lost weight and made the parents very stressed. I remembered SY once lamented that she wondered if it was because Elias wasn’t breastfeed and therefore more prone to falling ill. She sort of regretted not trying harder.

She gave up breastfeeding because it was too painful. Elias was birthed naturally without any pain relief. SY said breastfeeding was more painful then the labour contractions, so it must really be a very painful experience! She tried direct feeding, couldn’t endured the pain. She tried expressing, but was bleeding with sore nipple. She gave up after a week and I was one of the guilty busybodies who tried to comfort her by saying :” Don’t worry, we are all formula fed babies and we all grew up to be healthy and intelligent adults.” If only she had better support from less ignorant people like me, she would probably have persevered and succeeded in breastfeeding.

Our society is really one that is not pro breastfeeding at all. Most people are ignorant about its benefits. Many think that it is troublesome. Some think that breastmilk is not sufficient to fill the baby up. While others think that it is a disgusting sight. . Sometime, even the nurses or paediatricians aren’t encouraging. And like myself, many first time mommies lack confident and question our ability to produce enough milk. Thinking back, there were so many times I wanted to give up too. Luckily both James and my mother-in-law are pro breastfeeding, whom always reminded me that breastfeed babies are healthier and easier to look after. And thank God I have friends who gave me tips, and a lactation consultant to turn to when problems arises.

And if SY or other non breastfeeding friends are planning for more children, I will definitely be more busybody this time and poke my nose around, spread the wonderful message of breastfeeding and cheer them on when they start to loose heart.

As I have mentioned in my earlier entry, reading to the baby nowadays is a struggle. But all parenting guides, magazines or website recommend caregivers to read to the babies from about 6 months, or even when they are just newborns. They claim that reading aloud will stimulate the baby’s growth and development. There is certainly no harm reading or talking more often to the baby, but these two activities really aren’t my forte.

It was quite easy during the initial months. The baby couldn’t roll over yet, she wasn’t mobile at all and didn’t protest so much when I laid her down. I have two big books of classic fairy tales and short stories with colourful illustrations. All I had to do was to snuggle up to her, opened the book and read to her. She was really interested in the books then, probably the colourful pictures caught her. I could read for 30min at one go. I got bored before she did. But very soon, her attention span started to shortened (at an alarming rate). She wouldn’t stay still to let me finished reading, or would looked away or reached out to grabbed the pages. Got me frustrated and I lost momentum, became inconsistent with this activity.

I switched to reading shorter stories, but still couldn’t captured her attention. I strapped her in her stroller or bouncy chair to restrain her. She struggled to come out. I sat her on my laps and read to her, she fought for freedom. Recently, I let her stand inside her cot while I read to her, aiyo, she listened for a while,then starts to pat pat the cot railing. I think I am really trying too hard to get her attention, so desperate! I almost regard it as a chore that needs to be completed everyday. Obviously what I have done are so wrong.

And suddenly, I remembered different strategies deployed to teach babies at different ages mentioned in the Glenn Doman’s books. For newborns, session could be slow but often, it is basically for stimulation. For infants 3-6mths old, they are always hungry for new informations, the flashcards are to be shown quickly and new cards to be added often, sessions can be longer if the kid is interested. For 7-12mths babies, their mobility is expanding, therefore their attention span is getting shorter. Cards sessions are to be very brief, but often. For 12-18mths, sessions are to be very very brief, and stop before the baby wants to stop (to facilitate his physical development and keep him interested in learning).

Flashcards aside, that explains why she used to be so keen in listening to me reading, but simply couldn’t be bothered with me now. I tried too hard to read long stories to her (which is so boring) while she prefer to explore. I changed my strategy this morning. I took a very kiddish story book (with very short sentences and lots of pictures), sat her on the floor in front of me, opened the book, showed her the pictures as I read, then promptly put it away after finishing the pages. Took me only about 1 min. I repeated this a few times (until I cannot do it anymore) with intervals in between. Seems to work, she was able to sit still for that minute and listen to me! I am more encouraged now!

It look gross to some people. Some think it is plain silly to keep the dried umbilical cord stump, but that was the life line that connected the baby to me when she was still swimming inside me. Maybe it is a traditional practice, I notice that many mothers here keep their child’s umbilical cord stump.

I still have mine kept in a plastic jewelery box (the very traditional kind) at my father’s place. My mom used to say that keeping the children’s cord stump will ensure them to excel in studies, ie : intelligent! But according to my mother-in-law, the practice is slightly different. She told me to sew a little red triangle pouch, put the stump inside, and pin it to the baby’’s clothes. Suppose to bless the child, keep her healthy, protect her from harm. I thought keeping it in a little glass bottle, complete with a pretty golden ribbon is a more attractive idea, and provides more viewing pleasure. So here it is, that little stump finally settle itself in its new found bottle home, cushioned by cotton after 8 months of pathetic life in a dirty little plastic ziploc bag.

I really wonder if I have a serious problem with time management. Why is it that I can’t find time to do more things. I don’t have much housework to do, I don’t take nap, I don’t wake up late, I don’t sleep early, I don’t watch TV all the time, but why I just can’t find time to do those things I wanted to do so much. I would really like to bake once a week, leave the house and go jalan jalan once a week, swim at least once a week, ride my rusty bicycle again, catch some movies, read some entertaining books, memorise more poems and proses, take up knitting or crochet, try to make a doll, practice calligraphy more often, go sailing again…. The list never ends, but I couldn’t get any started.

I have come across mothers that are able to complete tons of housework, always sewing dresses or toys, bake all the time, cook all the time, read all the time, attend aerobics class, do yoga, learn social dancing, go for facial, spa….How I wish I could be like that! Well, it is either 1. they are super in time management, whereas I wasted too much time whining why I can’t find time. or 2. I spend too much time “looking” at the baby. I certainly hope it is the second reason, at least the time gone are worthwhile. Maybe I spend too much time blogging, surfing the net and reading bulletin board too.

My dear baby managed to clap her hands today! I was thrilled and wildly amused. Apparently, Indah has been playing some clapping hands game with her for a period of time. Today, she finally responded , brought her hands together, and went clap clap clap. It was a funny sight. She moved her entire arm and bounced her bums while clapping.

I woke up suddenly last night and frantically searched for the baby. She should be on our bed, but she wasn’t. I saw James hugging a white colour thing. I thought that was the baby’s leg. Oh no, he had crushed her!

I must have pushed or barked at James, else he wouldn’t have woken up and assured me the baby was not on the bed. The “leg” turned out to be the comforter (no glasses+just woke up, blur blur cannot see properly). And the baby was soundly asleep in her cot, I have transfered her back there earlier on. What a fright I have given myself.