Another Baby In The House

I think by this date Evelyn has already been to our place for a few weeks? She's my niece and great to see that Meimei is reliving the job of a little baby. That baby smell is addictive and its even better when you only need to play with her and not worry about the feeding or poopoo schedule.

I'm happy to have another baby in the house. Everyone is so excited to have a young one grace our place again. It is also good for 萱萱 and 阳阳 to understand they are no longer babies of the family.

A New Perego

Baby purchases have picked up pace as we draw near to delivery day. I've been thinking about a new stroller for boyboy so made plans to visit the baby fair. The original plan was to get a cheaper stroller but after checking out the various brands we still find Peg Perego's quality the choice selection. There were limited models on display so we made a trip to the distributor's showroom at Ubi.

This was where we purchased the first stroller Pikko P3 model. The place hasn't changed much. There is the floor section with a wide selection of Peg Perego strollers. They carried almost every model from each year.

Altough the designs and utility of many Perego models were perfect for our needs, cost was a primary driver in our selection. Plus Meimei wanted to get a infant carrier which can double up as a child seat for the car. The seat cost $300 and so our choice of the stroller were constrainted to the lower end or prior year models.

We eventually set on the Book which cost a hefty $700. I suppose that’s a reasonable price to pay for quality of the make. Meimei offering to pay half certainly made the decision easier haha. 

A Sun To Complement A Moon

I had to leave it to Meimei to figure a Chinese name for our boy. I'm never good with Chinese and am likely to fumble onto a silly incoherent name. She had came up with a couple of nice names like: 憬杨 (Jing2Yang2)，憬阳 (Jing2Yang2)，憬浩 (Jing2Hao4)，憬涛 (Jing2Tao1)，憬民 (Jing2Min2)，憬铭 (Jing2Ming2).

Since we were at Hillview today, Meimei brought up the topic about the names. She sounded out that she liked 憬阳 very much but was concerned that it sounded the same as my brother's yang. Thankfully Grandma coolly exclaimed that it's no problem at all. And then went into a conversation on how my name was messed up because the 'old folks' think it sounded the same as one of my aunties. I ended up with a 'Lian' instead of a 'Liang' in my name and how she was not happy with it.

Meimei was relieved that Grandma was open-minded about it. Grandpa didn't have any particular preference but did like how 憬阳 sounded. We also threw in the English names for consideration, Jonathan, Elson and Justin. Grandma chose Justin immediately and kept repeating the name while commenting how nice it sounded.

So yeah, 憬阳 Justin it is. We loved it too! The 阳 (The Sun) is a complement to my 亮 (The Moon).

Gynae Visit - Dec 2017

It's always exciting when we go for the gynae checkup. Baby has grown to close to 2kg so we are making good progress. Meimei asked her usual queries on what she can eat. But she missed one after we were done so we waited patiently for him to finish the next patient.

Meimei caught Dr Loh as he was walking into his office and exclaimed with a sweet grin "Dr Loh, can I start to eat coconut?" Everyone in the clinic was staring at Meimei and I can see a couple of them letting out a grin at the corner of their mouths hahaha. I think everyone was amused and tickled about the question. Hehehe that's what I love about Meimei. She has this youthful persona that invigorates me.

BoyBoy Names

It’s time to brainstorm an English name for our Boyboy. It feels easier this time with a number of good boyboy names that goes well with my surname. I seem to lean towards names with 3 syllabus to match OO’s, but it’s not a must.

Anthony - Meimei finds it old and traditional. I think it's ok but somehow it reminds me of a Shakespeare play. Hmmm maybe not then.

Gavin - Gavin is a good name that strings well with my surname. However one of Meimei’s cousin is named Gavin so we are dropping this down the list.

Jonathan - This used to be my first choice before Meimei came up with Justin. Somewhat common and traditional but I like that it’s 3 syllabus and yet you can use the short form of Jon readily.

Justin - This is the top choice as of writing. Justin. Nice ring to it. Meimei came up with it and it looks to be her prime choice too. Helps that there are famous singers named Justin too, like Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, etc.

Kenneth - Meimei seems to like Kenneth but I have a cousin with the same name so I wasn't as keen.

Leonard - Leonard is one of the male protagonist in The Big Bang Theory sitcom. LB has a nice ring to it too.

Matthew - This was a strong choice till we ran it with Mama. She had a hard time pronouncing the name so this went down the list.

We have about 3 months to go before Boyboy arrives so if no new suitable names pop up, he may well be named Justin. The tougher task would be finding a good chinese name for him.

Gynae Visit - Nov 2017

Exciting visit, we could see the outline of our boyboy's face. Doc was pretty happy with the checkup which means so are we ;-) At 1.55kg he seems to be small to me but Doc seems satisfied. Meimei received the go-ahead to eat durians but I think we have to be cautious ... we don't want boyboy to get too big too soon haha.

Gynae Visit - Oct 2017

I didn't blog about last month's visit as there wasn't really much updates. What's important is that both Meimei and baby is doing well. 

This month's visit was preceded by a test for pregnancy diabetes. It was quite a torture not being able to eat or drink 8 hours before the first test at 8.30am. Meimei was pricked at the arm for blood and again at 10.30am for another test.

We made up for it with lunch at Wild Honey. It was a birthday treat for me hehehe. But more than the food, I like Meimei's company.

We were back at Dr Loh's place early after lunch and went through the regular checkup. The only thing worth mentioning is that he OK-ed Meimei question on ice cream. Haha. She's always throwing such stuff at Dr Loh.

Gynae Visit - Aug 2017

Dr Loh seems more keen to discuss the black garlic that he has been eating rather than talk about Meimei's pregnancy. And this is actually a good sign. He had looked through the Panorama results and looked relaxed about our progress. All looks good :-)

We were excited to see outline of baby. He was sleeping and Dr Loh cheekily push his buttocks to try to wake him up. But that didn't work haha.

And It's A .....!

Meimei received news from the clinic today and couldn't wait to tell me about it. The important news was that the Panorama test results shows all low risk, which means baby is more likely to be born healthy.

The bigger news though ... which Meimei is extremely elated about, is that it's a boy! Woot! She has been longing for a boy so her wish has now come true. Of course I'm sure she would be just as excited had it been another girl. But she can't contain her glee after finding out.

Now all we hope for is a smooth delivery and for baby to be healthy and strong. Hurray!!!

Another

We have been trying hard for another. And today we finally receive good news.

It's been a very hard journey for Meimei, both physically and mentally. She has to take meds and jabs that mess with her hormones. So much pain and sacrifice for our little family. But thankfully after 3 failed IUI attempts and our first IVF, we are blessed to receive our new member of the family.

Although it's still early days, we are looking forward to another baby. Most importantly we hope he or she is healthy and happy.

Happy 2nd Birthday 妹妹

OO has grown a lot over the last year ... faster than anyone would have let her if we had a choice. Already she is coming into her own ... stubborn, bossy, opinionated, 古灵精怪, that million dollar smile. She has filled a void I never really give any concern on but ever so often feel.

March - Starting to walk

April - Attracted to rides

May - 手牵手大家一起走

June - Falling Sick

July - Slipper Thief

August - Helping clock steps :-P

September - A rare outing with Ah-Gong and Ah-Ma

October - Playpen can no longer keep her in

November - Getting used to new home

December - Shining pearly whites

January - Starting School

February - Falling Sick

The past month has been very trying for everyone, especially OO. I'm glad she is home now and hope she doesn't fall sick so soon again. When she's healthy she is amazing fun.

回家了！

You can't have my ball ball~!

I can self play now

着么又生病了～ *Cry

Making friends

Having a treat with Papi

Building creativity with Crayons

Now that she is a big girl, I guess I'm gonna slowly limit the posts on 11th. I'll still post pictures of our little cutie, just not a regular thing on her monthly anniversary. This was always the plan and I think it would be good to blog about us as a family rather than focusing on OO.

Happy 2nd Birthday our little princess *Love from Papi & Mami

OO @School - Birthday Cake

Meimei and I deliberated quite a while on whether we should get OO a cake at school to celebrate her birthday. I doubt she knows what a birthday is about other than having cake to eat. But given the recent illness we decided we might as well liven things up.

Initially OO was placed at the table alone with the rest of her class mates in PG1 & PG2 staring at her. She looked lost and awkward, unsure of what's happening. She only relaxed when the rest of playgroup mates, Lora, Daniel, Javier joined her for a class photo.

I wished I could be there but I'm practically out of leave days at work. Luckily Mama and Meimei were able to join in the celebration at school and capture all the lovely moments. 

Falling Sick Is Expensive

Falling sick is expensive ... and especially so when you do not have adequate insurance coverage. We had taken the free basic hospitalisation plan from Great Eastern for OO but stupidly never looked into getting more coverage for her. And regardless it's fair or not, I put some of blame for that oversight on the agent. Another part of the blame goes to myself for trusting that he is giving us the best simply because he is Meimei's agent.

Since the first febrile seizure last June, we approached him to see if we could get more cover. He seemed nonchalant about it, commenting that it will be difficult to get more because of the hospitalisation. The best part of it was my utter dumbness to sign up for an accident policy with him for OO. I wasn't thinking right at the time. He's only interested in signing up the easy ones and leaving us dry on the critical ones. Meimei's close friend or not, he is not ever getting my business again ... no matter which insurer he works for.

We also tried getting OO a life policy with early critical illness at the same time. But because of the hospitalisation, we were again rejected. The underwriter deferred it till June 2017 to see if OO will go into hospital again. What the ... and this recent hospitalisation stay has practically closed all possible avenues of getting any coverage from Great Eastern.

Sigh ... Her stay costed about $5.8k and we weren't even in a single bedder. About a thousand was paid through Medisave and basic hospitalisation covered another thousand. We had to pay the balance $3.8k in cash ... It practically burned through any holiday plans for the year. Aaarrrrghhhh!!!

So now I'm trying to get coverage with my AIA agent of 25 years. He has 5 kid of his own so he knows the type of coverage a parent should have. If he delivers the hospitalisation plan, I'm gonna change all of OO's insurance and mine to AIA. Already we were able to sign up for a life plan through him ... hopefully he can push this through too.

40 Degrees

It's painful to blog about this but I suppose it serves as a gentle reminder of how fragile OO can be. After close to 2 months battling the flu and cold, her tiny body finally couldn't take it and the fever came on Saturday night. It went up as high as 39.2 degrees at one point and it was a scary sight to see her dazed and listless.

She was feverish throughout Sunday and right after her nap in the evening she started twitching. We had learned to recognise the signs of her seizures and immediately took drastic actions. We took her for a bath to try to lower her temperature. She was about 39.5 and was flushing red on her cheeks. Dr Ang had given us what we thought was the rectal insert of Ibuprofen and we administered it right after the bath. Afraid that her fever might continue to escalate (the bath only brought it down 0.5 degrees), we took the opportunity after the bath and medication to send her to Thomson.

Thank God (this has to be the first time I ever wrote this) we took her to the hospital ...

It turns out that the rectal medication we gave OO wasn't Ibuprofen. It was a medication meant for her seizure, and was to be given only after a seizure episode. Wow ... what a relief that we came to the hospital. I cannot imagine the anguish we would be going through thinking we had given Ibuprofen and yet her temperature was constantly rising. We would be out of options to bring her temperature down till the next doze 6 hours later.

So we admitted her on Sunday evening and she was given Ibuprofen through the rectal  to bring her temperature down quickly once we got to the room. Before that I had taken her for a blood test while Meimei worked on the admissions. Dr Ang came down at around 8-9pm when the blood test results were out and ordered two courses of antibiotics. OO is very very sick.

Because one of the antibiotics was through a drip, Dr Ang and the Nurses took OO to a room to insert a needle on her right hand. They also had to bind her left so she wouldn't be able to pull out the needle. She was screaming at the top of her voice while they did the procedure. Meimei and I wasn't allowed in and we could only stand helplessly outside the room while we hear OO's cries for help *Cries >.<

Again like at KK, I stayed to accompany her. Meimei had wanted very much to stay but she had to pick up the new maid on Tuesday. That night I was up every hour and didn't get much sleep. After the Ibuprofen wore off close to midnight her temperature started to climb again. The 2am temperature check put her at 40.2 degrees. She was given another dose of Ibuprofen immediately and I tried my best to sponge her. Thankfully it slowly went down after that.

Monday was trying too. The fever kept coming back and went as high as 38.8 on one of the checks. OO was on a constant course of paracetamol, antibiotics and also an inhaler of sorts to help with the phlegm and breathing. It was only till Tuesday morning that the fever was finally under control.

Seeing that OO was looking better, I took her for a treat at the Delifrance cafe. She loves the cinnamon pastry. Sadly she wasn't well enough for Dr Ang to clear her and she has to stay another day. I let Mama and Meimei fuss over her through the day :-)

As I had an important presentation I couldn't accompany OO for her discharge today. I could only watch for the regular updates from the messages.

Even though she is allowed to go home, OO is still sick and on antibiotics. Nonetheless we were all glad she is back home where everyone can watch over her. I was especially happy when Meimei sent over a picture of her taking an afternoon nap at home. Phew ... the worst is pass but we still have to keep our vigilance up for the week.

OO @School - Hand Prints

OO likes to work with her hands. And they encourage it as part of the motor skills training at playgroup. She has been asking us to draw the outline of her hand when she places them on pieces of paper. We didn't know exactly what they were learning in school but thought they could be doing the same.

Then we saw the pictures from the school's portal and discovered she was playing with paints and making handprints.

Nyama was especially excited to see OO enjoying the activity and proudly commented that OO made the best prints in her class #GrandmaPride. Meimei and I love that the school is simulating her senses with different activities, things which is hard for us to replicate at home.

Poop-Poop @ Vivocity

OO decided she needed to poop and squatted right there and then along the walkways at Vivocity. I, of course, accompanied her and simply wait for her to do her thing.

Falling Asleep On The Highchair

Not sure what happened but OO fell asleep on the high chair during lunch. I suppose her illness contributed to it.

Afraid she is uncomfortable in the chair I tried to lift her out. That was a big big mistake. She became agitated and her knees pulled in against her thigh, clamping tight on the chair. Sigh ... and she was screaming and crying because we interrupted her sleep. The more we try to pull her out, the tighter she holds her legs ... Arrgghh strong to self ... never disturb OO when she's sleeping.

OO @School - 我的五官

The week's key theme is learning about self. I think because it's playgroup they weave a lot of play and hands on activities for the kids. That's good, OO likes to touch and feel.

The only thing I would liked them to do better is have individual shots of the children and not put them up in a montage. I don't want any of the other parents complaining that I put up their child's photo on the wild wild web.

23 Months - Horrible Temper

OO has been sick for most of the month. In fact I think she hasn't recovered, only keeping the ailments at bay with medication. And with the irritation of an illness comes quick temper and frustration. She has been pretty stubborn. I wonder if it's just due to the sickness or part of it comes from entering the terrible 2 phase.

"The Mama on the Bus go Shh Shh Shh~"

A snuggle feast with friends 

Out with Piyao~

The only way to travel on a pram

"Gong Xi Fa Cai!"

Tidbits ... Mine all mine!

Gaigai with NyaOng

Relax Time with NyaMa

Sticking to Mama

OO @School - Expressing Feelings

OO is learning about expressions of feelings this week through handiwork. She looks like she likes to draw. Hmm maybe we should get her some colouring pens or crayons.

It's been a month since starting school. She seems to be enjoying the activities. I'm still monitoring to make sure she really fits in. I suppose I'm trying to convince myself that we did not send her to school too early. These photos are always encouraging that we made the right choice.