Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Updates

Gee, after being MIA for so long I really don't know where to start. DH will occasionally ask me when i will start blogging again, but i'm just too lazy to get my ass moving. Each day at work, i'll tell myself I'll write something at the end of the day, but truthfully, i'm just so brain dead on some days that I just can't bring myself to log on.

Peanut is now, let me see, around 27 months, or to non-parents, that's 2 years and 3 months old. And she's finally potty trained haha. We decided to potty trained her the moment she reached 2 years old, perhaps very late by some people's standards but to us, it's just the right age to start. The credit has to go to my MIL really, for she managed to trained Peanut in less than 2 weeks. What she did was to just let Peanut go diaperless during the day and let her wet herself. The first few times, she was reluctant to use the potty but after wetting herself a couple of times, and finding that she hates it, she started using the potty and it went on from there. My MIL was so successful in her training, that Peanut refused to wear a diaper at night and when we go out!!

I'm definitely not ready for her to use the public toilets when we go out because I'm pregnant (and that's another news :)). And you might wonder how being pregnant has got to do with bringing Peanut to the toilets, but let me tell you, i have my reasons. For one, i'm getting heavier by the day, and there's no way i'm gonna carry Peanut onto the toilet seat each time. I don't plan to let her pee on the toilet floor because the thought of the pee seeping onto her shoes is icky..
Also now that i'm tired more frequently, and need maximum hours of sleep when I'm already getting so little, I'm not going to get up every few hours at night to make sure Peanut does not pee in her bed. So yes, i'll leave that till I give birth. So we had to psycho Peanut and tell her that she needs to wear a diaper when she goes out and when she sleeps at night, and after a few drama episodes on that, she finally relented.

As for myself, i'm now 24 weeks pregnant, and it's not been easy. Well, definitely not easier compared to the first time, as i feel more sickly this time round. First trimester was difficult because I felt quite nauseous all the time and could hardly keep any food down. I can't swallow plain water either so it's been horrible because i need to drink water but I can't. So i usually drink ribena or honeyed-water but sometimes i still gagged from it. And instead of getting morning sickness, i get night sickness. I will puke my dinner out if i ate too full so my appetite wasn't really that good in the first three months. And yes, i've got constipation in the first trimester..what lah. People get severe constipation in the 3rd trimester, I GOT it instead in the first few weeks.

there's one episode which will forever be etched in my mind. You can skip this part because it's gonna be quite gross. That time, i had not been able to pass motion for 3 days. In the 4th day, I knew I had to go and i had the urge for it anyway. So i sat on the toilet for 15 minutes. Nothing came out though i felt "something" is on the way. So i got up walked around and returned to the toilet and sat down for another half hour. Still nothing came out even though i still felt something was stuck there. This went on for the next 3 hours. Nothing came out! By that time, i was feeling really stressed and uncomfortable because i knew the motion is on the way out, but it just couldn't come out. Can't describe the feeling but it's darn uncomfortable. I can't even sit down normally because i felt something down there, but when i go and sit on the toilet, nothing's happening. By 3am, i was really desperate and I woke up DH. And he asked me to try again..after another hour passed by i finally gave up and told DH to bring me to the emergency ward as i felt i need an enema. So we had to bring Peanut, my poor little darling, who was still in a deep sleep and drove to SDMC.

Grateful for the staff there, who gave me an enema. Worse part is, they gave me the enema, and I went to the toilet straightaway, and only water came out wtf. The shit is still stuck! I was on the verge of tears by then because i was so desperate for it to come out then i felt like digging the shit out. Damn gross i know but at that time, i was willing to do anything to end my misery.. Doctor suggested i get another enema, and this time he asked me to wait longer before going to the toilet. I agreed...and waited slightly longer. And this time i was successful! Phew omggggg i was so relieved. Instantly, i felt such a wave of relief that I could kiss the ground. I could see DH was relieved as well, as that means we could finally go home. By that time, Peanut was awake and nurses was giving her stickers to keep her busy.

We drove to to my in-laws after the hospital visit so that we could leave Peanut there and we could go home and take a rest, since none of us had enough sleep. You know, the moment we reached my in laws and I stood up from the car, I had to rush to the toilet again. Sigh..oh well, beggars can't be choosers. I rather have everything come out than it being plugged inside me. We still had time to go for a canai breakfast after that before going home for a deep sleep lol...Drama or what!! And since that episode, i have learned my lesson and have totally changed my diet. For the first few weeks after that i had loads of fruits and vegies everyday, supplemented by prune juice and lemon juice twice a day. I guess it works because up till today, i no longer have any constipation problem. *touch wood* I had severe constipation in first pregnancy which warranted an enema and a hospital visit too, and it happened again this time round. Scary shit. I'm officially traumatised.

More updates next time!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

H1N1 scare

Gosh it's been so long...Lots have been happening actually especially the beginning of the year. Hence I was not in the mood, or in the right frame of mind to blog.

Where do i begin..Somewhere in mid-January, DH went for this company trip, an overnight trip but as soon as he came back, he started feeling unwell..it started off with a sore throat, which turned into on and off coughing, which turned into a full-fledged fever by the third night. That third night, he woke up at around 3am complaining of a fever..thinking it was nothing, he just popped 2 panadols, and well, i thought it will go away within a day since that's how fevers are to me. At most it'll be gone after popping a couple of panadols.

The next day, he slept in, and luckily it was a public holiday because at least i was home. And it was also the day Pei Chyi came with Zachary and her maid to teach me some baking basics. I now know how a cake batter is supposed to look like. Suaku or not? :) hehe thanks PeiChyi!!! DH stayed in bed the entire day, with me sponging him every one hour, and feeding him more panadols. BUT the fever never came down. Instead it went higher and higher reaching 40c and he started shivering!! So that's when me and my SIL decided to send him to the emergency ward at the hospital that evening cos I was thinking if you take medicine but the fever is still not budging, means it's something more serious right?

So we took him to SDMC emergency ward. Lots of people there, but still orderly..and thank God no patients with broken bones or blood..no gory scenes. Don't think my heart could take it that night.. Waited for at least half an hour for our turn..though i hoped it could be faster because DH was still shivering non-stop. By this time, i was very worried. The nurse finally saw him, and got him to lie down in one of those hospital beds, and took his temperature. Not long after, the Dr came to see him. We explained everything to him, where he'd been, that perhaps it could be dengue because his company trip took place in some jungle *_*. Anyway, Dr got him to do a blood test and a swab test and told us that the results will only be out 2 hours later. Sigh.. more waiting.

And in the meantime, while waiting, as per Dr's instruction, we were to load DH up with lots of 100 plus to rehydrate him. And we cannot cover him with a blanket even though he was shivering as that will not make his temperature go down. Luckily there was a 100 plus vending machine just outside the emergency room. I guess they have it there for this kind of situations? By the way..the Doctors at this emergency wards are quite professional looking. Just saying. They were all well dressed, spoke professionally, look smart and know what they're talking about. So somehow it instilled some confidence for me in them. Quite different from the time i was admitted to another emergency ward (also in SDMC but a different section) and was attended by this houseman, whose shirt was not tucked in properly, the hair also not combed properly and he has dark smudges all over his doctor's coat...

Anyway..... 2 hours later. The report came. By a grim looking Dr wtf. Okay la, not that grim but he did give me that look. Anyway, he showed me the report and apparently DH has been tested positive for Influenza A. Damn. H1N1!!!! And just a minute ago, DH was coughing right into my face. When my mouth happened to be open too. Am I gonna get it too?? Dr gave DH two options. He can either stay at home and monitor his fever, or he can stay in the hospital. But Dr said he's okay to stay at home, he just need to quarantine himself. And he will be prescribed the tamiflu And me included, as a prevention. The only difference is that I take 1 pill a day and he takes 1, twice per day. And we must finish the dosage. But the thing is, I couldn't take the tamiflu for a reason. Drat.

Next thing to do after that was to make plans for Peanut, as we don't want her to get infected cos she's still a baby. Okay she's a toddler now but she's still my precious baby in my eyes. So we put her at my in-laws so that she won't get infected as I'm now officially the "nurse" for DH.. and I could only pray that i don't get it either :(

Once we reached home, DH took the pills immediately.. and by the next day around 3pm, the fever started to subside . it was a relief. Great relief. Guess the meds are effective. I read somewhere tamiflu is most effective within 2 days of symptoms so I guess it worked in his favor. And now we only hoped that Peanut didn't get it either..Things however, weren't meant to be. 2 days after DH got the fever, Peanut started coughing. and then came the dreaded fever too! and it's a high fever, reaching 40c. Sigh...was so so worried..brought her to the same emergency ward with my BIL and his wife and my MIL , and the nurses quickly undressed her and started sponging her, and put a suppository up her butt to bring down the fever. And we told the Dr what happened to her dad, so they did a swab test on her as well.

Up to the time they got swabbed, i never knew how a swab test worked.. I thought a swab test meant putting a spatula down your throat and scraping some cells off. But no....it meant taking a very long, thin, cotton bud look-a-like thing and putting it deep inside your nose. It looked scary and I didn't know how my Peanut could handle such a procedure. The nurses had to hold her head still, while the Dr dipped the long cotton bud thingy into her nose. I think the thing was at least 10cm long, or maybe longer than that. Dr assured me it won't hurt but it'll be ticklish instead. But still, Peanut burst into tears. Guess she was scared..if me I'll be scared too. And yes, we had to wait 2 hours for the swab test results, and during that time, the fever started coming down to around 37 because of the suppository. And what do you know, she got H1N1 too. Sigh..:( i was so, so distressed. Imagining the worst. Tears started falling down..

I was motionless when the nurse called me to collect her medicine. Can't move. My mind was whirring with lots of scenarios. All bad. I couldn't think properly, cannot think straight. All i could think of was to pray. To have both your loved ones down with H1N1 was a very scary feeling. I collected the medicine. She was also prescribed the tamiflu, but in liquid form. 2 doses a day. And because both of them now has H1N1, Peanut came back and stayed with us as i didn't want her to infect the rest of my in-laws, especially my FIL who was diagnosed with 4th stage cancer in December. So I became a nurse to both of them for 1 week where we all quarantined ourselves for a week at home. I didn't go to the office..And i also slept in a separate room for an entire week. I was so paranoid. Haih. Thankfully, Peanut's fever came down after 2 days where it hovered between 38c to 39c.

And what do you know, not long after that, my FIL also had fever. OMG. I almost cried at that stage. Is it that infectious that everyone will get it? In my heart i was so worried that i'll get it too because of my ongoing situation. FIL was quickly sent to the emergency ward as well, and I was worried about his condition as he's got cancer, and his immunity will be much lower. Doc did the swab test, but he didn't test positive for it. Phew...but still..gotta find out why he got that fever..turned out he has an infection somewhere in his body..

AND! my MIL got it too. Gosh...she started the same way as the rest..coughing..and soon came the fever. She didn't go to the hospital the first two days after she got the fever, thinking it'll go away. By the third day with the fever still not going away she finally went to the hospital, did a swab test, and yes, tested positive for H1N1 as well. Sigh... My mood really plunged when i heard she got H1N1 as well..it was a very bad week for us. And it was the week before CNY but I had no mood to think about CNY at all. We were due to go back to Kuching for CNY and I was so worried that we won't get to go back at all. And most of all, I was so worried i'll get it as well. Nothing was prepared at our home. We didn't buy any cny cookies, no drinks, no cny decor, and i didn't even finish any of our cny shopping, hence no new shoes for Peanut. We just didn't have the mood to do anything at all..

During that week, I really did all the necessary precautions. No sharing of utensils with Peanut and DH, I washed my hands almost every 15 minutes till my hands were raw, didn't hug and kiss Peanut (DH did all her bathing and feeding) I wore mask almost 24/7a day, ( i even fell asleep in it) , bought lots of hand sanitizer, stopped turning on the air conditioner but instead opened all the doors and windows to let the air circulate, and I drank lots and lots and lots of hot water.and fruits for vitamin c.

And I guess, everything went well because we get to go back to Kuching for CNY. You have no idea, how happy and relieved I was that we get to step on the airplane that morning. :)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Peanut: 22 months

Weight: 12 kg
Height: Not too sure, can't get her to stand long enough for me to measure her but she's kinda tall for her age, so not a concern at this point..
Hair: Growing, EXTREMELY slowly but yeah, it's growing. Phew.
Food: Started eating rice instead of porridge a few months ago, and very into soups especially ABC soup.




22 months and she has, plenty of patterns!! She can't sit or stand still and I run after her most of the time. And she runs like a chicken. I have no better word to describe it haha









Can berposing-posing already.. haha with one leg on top of the other and one hand on the side. Reminds me of some old photo shoots in the sixties.


omg i love her so much!! :)

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Goals for 2011

Tons have happened this one month. Sad stuff, thus have not been in a blogging mood for quite some time. But 2010 is coming to an end, and i want to write up a list of resolutions for 2011 so that i can have some goals for the new year and so here goes:

  1. Eat more healthily - No more junk. Frankly this is quite hard to do because i love food! I love fatty fried stuff, junk food, breads, fizzy drinks, ice creams, you name it, I should like it! As I'm getting older and older (dammit!!), it's time to watch what i put inside my body. I should take care of it. Though i don't think i can stop completely, but I will try to limit myself as often as possible. especially:
    • Fizzy drinks - Less coke, coffee and more fresh juice and water
    • Food filled with preservatives nonsense i.e. canned food, sausages, bacons, chips etc.
    • Meat - For health reasons, i shall eat less meat
  2. Send Peanut to a weekend playgroup / class where she'll get to socialise with other kids. When i was back in Kch, i went out with a couple of friends who had kids already and I could see Peanut was really enjoying herself. She was running around, screaming happily. It was really nice to see her having fun. And when my nephew was here recently, she had so much fun playing with him.......and his toy trains.
  3. Shopping - I am frankly, an impulse buyer. If I like it, and the price is within my budget, I'll buy it immediately, without any second thoughts. And if i feel guilty for buying something, i will usually tell myself that life is too short wtf. I need to pamper myself too! It comes with some perils though, buying on impulse means sometimes i tend to have similar stuff at home already. So for 2011, I will try not to be so impulsive and will only buy stuff only if i do not have something similar at home. Which means, for eg. I've gotta stop buying black / white/ grey clothes cos i have too many of those at home. And that goes the same for groceries too. I like to buy things way in advance even when the stuff at home is not finished yet. So yes, time to be a more careful shopper!
  4. Learn how to bake a cake successfully!
  5. Exercise more regularly - Bet this is on most people's 2011 resolutions too..Easy to say, but most difficult to do. For me anyway. I hate exercising. I can be huffing and puffing after doing a 30 minutes walk around the park, but i can walk for hours and hours in a shopping mall. Talk about priorities.. So here's to more hours walking in the park for 2011.
  6. Spend more time taking care of my skin. I do not have a routine for skincare. If i remember, I'll slap on some moisturizer and eye cream on before i sleep, but most of the time, I'll forget about it. Bad..very bad!! I will be very gung ho when i come home with new skincare products, and will religiously put it on for a week.. after that i'll get lazy..Hence i have loads of unfinished bottles of skincare at home.
  7. Go to church more regularly too.
  8. Do something exciting every month. Donno what yet, but i think it's time for us (as a family) to be more adventurous! I need to stop living life in a blur. My days are spend working and working except (for the weekends thank God), and very little on living "life" itself. Well, i still need to work for sure, but I will need to spend my off days more fruitfully.
I guess that's my "resolutions" or goals, whatever you'll like to call it, for 2011. There's something else I would like to add to this list but i'm a bit hesitant to put it on as i do not want to jinx it. I'll keep it in my heart for now. *wink*

xoxo Happy 2011!!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

20 months

Lost bunny. Age: 20 months.


Omg...4 more months before she turns 2.

At 20 months, she has lots of teeth. And it's mighty sharp. So beware, don't put your fingers in her mouth because you're gonna scream bloody murder. I'm not kidding.I'm not sure how many teeth she has. I stopped counting after I saw she has at least 8.

She can sing a couple of songs, with jumbled lyrics. One minute she can sing BINGO, and the next line will be London bridge is falling down. I think she is konfiused.


Forced smile

She likes to eat on her own, and she loves to drink soups, true chinese baby or what hehe but with disastrous results. Just imagine oily soups dripping down her chin. Ack. But sometimes you gotta let go, you know? She needs to learn. So i'll just her drink and eat..and i'll try to close one eye and clean up the mess later. At least it's just confined to her high chair.

I gotta watch what i say nowadays. The other day i overheard her say "So many flowers, man!!" Yikes, when did the 'man' pop out?? And she uses a lot of "nehhhh" when i ask her where's this and that. And i had to correct her and tell her that she has to say "over there", not neh. Yes, she has picked up some distinctive malaysian english. and she uses a lot of "mahs" at the end of her sentences..oops..... Must make a concerted effort to speak proper english.

Ok gotta admit. I've not been diligent enough in potty training. I keep delaying it. She does use the potty sometimes, when she sees it in front of her. If it's not there, then it's out of sight, out of mind. So since she's already 20 months old...i think it's time for me to get serious on this. Starting this month.

Told her i'm taking her pics and she quickly screamed "where's miao miao???" Miao miao is her bolster's name (that has a face of a cat at the end and a tail), which we christened for her. And that's why me and DH can never be in PR or Advertising. Lack of imagination.




Anyway, she AND miao miao must take the picture together. These two are inseparable. Well, i'm glad she has a best friend and not some "imaginary friend". That'll freak me out.

The love of my life :)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Solution for messy drinkers

Cleaning up after Peanut after each of her meals is no fun. She insists on eating her own food now, from her porridge to her biscuits...leaving a trail of crumbs, wet smudges and unidentified lumps in her wake. And i have to run after her with a wet hankie to wipe before everything hardens, or worse, i forgot about it.

To help me minimise the mess, I bought this packet drink cover in Daiso a few months ago. It fits small packets of drinks meant for toddlers i.e. Like the mini packs of milo. I usually give her one of these when I'm having the same thing, but regular size, of course hehe. This is also, by the way, one of my favorite drinks :) Love it when it's super cold.

Just pop it into the plastic container, and snap it close.

And she won't be able to accidentally ter-squeeze it when she gets too over excited with her drink. No spills. :)


Well, the downside is that it only fits those mini pack drinks. I probably need to find those regular sized ones soon..

New diaper bag

Found this diaper bag and a matching bottle bag in an obscure baby shop in Sg Wang. All for RM40.

:)