Wah! Look at the Ocean...

2010-04-04T18:51:00.004+08:00

Baby Haiwen is now 20 months old.

Still having little hair. Now hair clips are her best friends when she goes out.

She's into singing now. Her favourite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, while she sometimes sings the others like Baa Baa Black Sheep, Rain Rain Go Away, Barney's I Love You, Are You Sleeping and Itsy Bitsy Spider. Latest addition to her songlist is Elmo's Song.

She's also into role-playing with her favourite stuff toys (like big and small Pooh bear, Panda, Barney, etc)... making them sit around and read books with her.... feeding them food which she "cooked". She can self entertain now which made my life much easier without her seeking for my attention at all times. :)

Oh ya, LY gave birth today to her 2nd boy. Congrats to her. She's very brave as she had managed to carry her baby through although she was diagnosed with vagina wall breakdown in mid-Feb. I believe this is another blessing in disguise.

Something is brewing at work. Dunno what will happen in the next few months. I just hope that my decision made in Dec to work full-time was not a wrong move.

2010-02-14T18:41:00.002+08:00

Today is 1st day of Chinese New Year.

It's a "blessing in disguise" day for all of us.

We met with a car accident on our way to KL to visit our grandparents. The car bumped into the railings beside and rolled down the small slope. YH's brother had more cuts and was sent to hospital for stitches. The rest of us had some bruises and cuts.

The luckiest thing was that Baby Haiwen was totally unhurt. She was sleeping on my lap when the accident happened. Thus, she did not see what happened and I guess, she was woken by our screams.

We must really count our blessings for this ordeal.

2009-12-16T18:29:00.000+08:00

Mummy is back to work full time... after much contemplation on my own and persuasion from my ex-boss.

Although much stable income, it would also mean less time to spend with Baby Haiwen. It's getting used to a brand-new schedule altogether... for me, for YH, for Baby Haiwen and even for my parents/ sister who are helping me to take care of Baby Haiwen.

I hope it's a right decision... it seems like one... at least for now.

Trip to Perth

2009-12-01T18:02:00.002+08:00

23 Nov – 30 Nov

After much contemplation, we decided to leave Baby Haiwen behind and go on a trip to Perth. And my eldest sister had kindly (or maybe no choice?) decided to put Baby Haiwen up at her place during this period.

Baby Haiwen had behaved herself and managed to sleep well during the 1st night. However, in the 2nd night, she woke up in the middle of the night and cried for Mummy and Daddy. Phew! ….. at least we were missed by her.

We bought her a kangaroo soft toy as promised and 2 T-shirts.

Other than spending our money on food, we also contributed some money to the Australian government…. My friend was caught speeding while we were on our way to Margaret River. And the police also fined us for not fastening our seatbelts.

2009-09-09T20:21:00.002+08:00

YH’s colleagues invited us for dinner in JB, saying that place served good Beggar’s Chicken. Sounds good but what about our Baby HW? We had a tough time deciding what to do – YH to go alone and I stay to look after HW? Bring HW along but it will dispute her sleeping schedule (or even my meal)? Leave her at Grandma’s or Aunt’s place and pick her up after dinner?

After all the contemplation, we decided to leave her somewhere and just enjoy our dinner. My sis gladly offered to look after her cos she didn’t have to work the other day. Great! So we decided that if HW managed to fall asleep before we returned, she would continue to sleepover. If not, we would bring her home.

With the heavy traffic during peak hours, we only managed to reach the dinnerplace after 8pm. That place was actually a house converted into a restaurant. Need to make reservation one day in advance cos the Beggar’s Chicken needs about 6 hours to bake. The other dishes were quite good as well. I can say that this trip was worth the heavy traffic which we went through.

A new message received while we were still having our dinner…. “HW is asleep”…. At about 9.15pm. Good! It’s the first day which I can sleep well without HW disturbing me since her birth…. Hahaha.

My sis reported that she’d been a good girl at her place. She didn’t have difficulties in making her sleep. HW tossed around for a while on her mattress and fell asleep, while I usually have to spend an hour with her in the bedroom. Okie, which means that I can go on my holiday in November peacefully cos I know she’ll be a good girl when Mummy is not around…. Yipee!

2009-08-13T19:53:00.001+08:00

Was enjoying the after-lunch relaxing session while Baby Haiwen was busy flipping through her books, crawling her and there, and fidgeting with the fan on the ground (which she always do). But before I knew it, she had the 2-pin plug of the fan in her mouth. I told her to take it out of her mouth and to my horror, I saw that one of the pins was missing. Please, please tell Mummy that u didn’t swallow it. I put my finger into her mouth and tried to dig whatever-i-could-feel out from her mouth. Oh no, she coughed and vomited… with some blood strands in her puke…. Arrrggghhhhh!!! What to do?? Had she swallowed the pin and pin scratched her throat to cause the blood strands? Or was I too rough with her and scratched her throat? Calm down calm down…. I searched the floor and found nothing. I called Daddy to confirm whether the pin was there or was it gone long ago. Daddy said should be attached to the plug. OMG…. To the doctor was next on my mind.

The doctor at the Polyclinic could not offer much help and suggested we proceed straight to KKH A&E. Never ever had I thought that I would need to bring my girl to the A&E. She was crying badly for food but doctor said no food allowed cos it would cause the stomach to start digestion which would make things difficult for the doctor to remove the pin from the stomach if need be.

With the doctor’s reference letter, we were spared of the long waiting time at the KKH A&E. The doctor assured that it’s okay to swallow as long as baby doesn’t choke on it. "Swallow can still take it out." Thanks, that helped a lot. Getting baby to have the X-ray done was another feat. Had to hold her down strongly as she was struggling badly. The X-ray on the stomach showed nothing…. The doctor said he feared that it might have gone to the lungs. If that happened, Baby would have to be admitted to the hospital. He suggested another X-ray on the chest. Finally managed to get another X-ray after getting help from the nurse to hold down my struggling girl at her legs, while I held the arms. And the good news was that there’s no signs of the pin in the lungs…. Last check in the nose by the doctor also confirmed that it’s not in the nose. Phew!! So now, where’s the loose pin? Search for it later…. Had to feed my hungry baby who did not have any food for the past 5 hrs.

Daddy managed to find the loose pin stuck in the wall electrical socket…. That’s the place where I didn’t search before bringing baby to the doctor. Should have done that… :(

2009-07-26T22:13:00.004+08:00

5 more days to Haiwen's 1st birthday.

Our family celebrated her birthday today at Forrest @ Orchidville.

Surprisingly, she took her first 2 steps today too.... So excited!!

Looking forward to her walking on her own.

2009-07-21T11:10:00.002+08:00

Baby Haiwen likes to pull off her socks....

What to do if in future her teacher ask her to pull UP her socks?.... Sorry teacher, I don't wear socks.

2009-07-07T16:10:00.002+08:00

Good table manners or go on empty stomach…. This is the value I’d been told to instill in my baby. No playing with toys, no reading of books and no snacking during mealtimes.

It’s easier said than done. I wonder which kid is so obedient to be sitting in the high chair just waiting to be fed, with no entertainment to keep them occupied. Baby Haiwen is a difficult baby when it comes to mealtimes. She can eat a few mouths and then start to point to her toys or books to beckon to you she wants that. If you refused to give it to her, she will refuse to open her mouth and will wail to want to get out of the high chair. So, should I give her that toy or should I just let her go on empty stomach? The elders will insist that I instill good manners in her. But if she goes on empty stomach, she will throw tantrums later…. This will be back to me to soothe her down.

So, I would rather that I coax her into eating by letting her play with toys, read a book or even eat some light snacks and fruits at the same time. I think it’s not a bad idea cos she can learn to use her fingers to pick up the snacks or fruits that she wants to eat. It may seems that I’m looking for excuses for myself, but letting kids play with toys shouldn’t be a bad thing as well. If it is, why are there companies selling expensive high chairs that comes with built-in toys? I strongly think that being able to keep my baby in her high chair during mealtimes is far better manners than going after her in a playground trying to feed her a few mouth of food.

No two babies are the same. We just have to accept this fact. So, please let me deal with her my way.

2009-07-02T12:50:00.001+08:00

Baby Hai Wen has not gotten used to Grandma’s place as yet.

She still:
- cries when I waved goodbye to her in the morning
- doesn’t take her usual naps. She usually has her morning nap at around 10am and afternoon nap at around 3pm. But at Grandma’s place, she combined both into one nap (from 12noon to 2pm).
- doesn’t finish her usual milk intake. She will only take half of her usual.
- doesn’t finish her lunch and dinner. She will wait for me to come back to feed her during dinnertime.

Due to not taking in enough solids in the day, she’s not sleeping well at night. She will wake up crying a FEW times at night. I’ll need to nurse her back to sleep or give her a small bottle of formula milk. Poor baby and of cos.... Mummy. I’m not getting enough rest due to her waking ups at night. My school has students who are infected with the latest H1N1 virus. I’m worried that my immunity will decrease due to not enough rest and may be easily infected. It’s ok for me to be infected but i’m more worried if I pass it on to Baby. So, I’ve been a Dettol fan these few days as one of my preventive measures. I just hope that this H1N1 flu thingy will be over soon. And Baby, pls learn to adapt to changing environment. No choice; Mummy needs to work.

2009-06-19T16:33:00.002+08:00

"Papa…Papa." Our girl is beginning to speak and she can recognize who is the Papa. Mummy is a little jealous as she always point to my wedding photo when I asked her where is Mummy. Why can’t she point to me instead?

But honestly, I’m proud of my little girl. She seems to be able to understand everything that we tried to tell her. As of today, she can:
- clap her hands when she managed to get her favourite snack into her mouth on her own or when she sees her favourite Barney show is about to start.
- respond by shaking her head or pushing the thing away with her hands if she doesn’t want something.
- point to things that she wants.
- crawl up the stairs unassisted (of cos with an adult following behind her).
- imitate us on the phone by grabbing our phones and trying to put it to her ear.
- wave goodbye and even give flying kisses.
- play peek-a-boo by covering her eyes with her hands or other things.
Oh, what are the other things? I can’t recall all the little little things that she did. I just know that those things really surprised us and brought a smile to our faces.

2009-06-16T16:13:00.000+08:00

My “national service” of pumping is over. I had finally kept my Medela PISA into the storeroom after contemplating for very long. It’s so difficult to let go but I just have no time to pump regularly as most of the time was spend looking after my girl. She simply wouldn’t allow me to use the machine when she’s awake. Now, I can only direct feed her before she goes to bed at night and at times when she has problem falling back to sleep in the middle of the night. Well, I’d convinced myself that a little bit of breast milk per day is better than none.

2009-06-08T09:42:00.006+08:00

“See… it’s Didi… say bye bye to Didi.” A mum said to her kid.
“No, no… it’s Meimei… Meimei got little hair… looks like a boy.” I replied.

This is a common conversation that I will have with strangers. My hair-less (noted that it’s hair-less, not hairless) baby Haiwen never fails to mislead strangers into thinking that she’s a baby boy…. Even when she’s in pink, worse still even when she’s wearing a dress. Oh my, can they see that she’s a belle? Remember, she’s Isabelle (Is-A-Belle).

Now, she’s in her 10th month and we are beginning to see more hair growing but still at a slow rate. This is definitely from her daddy’s genes…. as confirmed by her granny who said that daddy had little hair when he was young. We should have shave off her hair when she was one month old, and maybe her hair will grow faster and thicker. People had advised that we shave her hair now but I just can’t bear to do it now. If I had wanted to do it, I would have done it when she turned one month.

Looks like I will have lots of this kind of conversations with strangers until her hair grows long enough…. at least to put a hair clip?

2009-05-13T15:38:00.003+08:00

I was alighting from the taxi to get home from work, with my four “baggage”…. Baby in front, Medela PISA at the back, laptop on my left and the baby’s bag on my right. There was this Malay lady waiting patiently for me to balance myself with all the stuff. Before she board the taxi, she said to me “Wow, you are a Super-Mom.” I suddenly felt so proud of myself and gave her a smile. I even heard her telling that to the taxi-driver when she board the taxi and I saw the taxi-driver nodding his head and showed me his thumb-up.

Though I felt proud and happy that someone appreciated me, I pondered upon the fact whether I’m really a Super-Mom…..

I think I’m still far from it. Super-Moms to me are:
a. Charged with long-lasting Energizer batteries, always full of energy….. The one with the long-lasting Energizer battery is instead Baby Haiwen as she’s always so active. I’m like a half-dead fish after I managed to put her to bed around 8 plus in the evening. Just can’t wait to go for a hot shower and sleep.
b. Like an Octopus with eight arms who can multi-task….. I’m learning…. learning to keep Baby Haiwen entertained with toys and her favourite Barney shows while I do some household chores like Magic-cleaning the floor, preparing her lunch and dinner, folding clothes. But that’s all I can do. There’re still lots of other household chores to be done. With the fact that my Energizer battery is a rather long-time one (ie. It loses energy real fast), we had to seek the help of a part-time domestic helper who comes to clean the house.

So, no doubt it sounds nice when I hear the praise of Super-Mom, I think I still don’t make the meet.

2009-05-06T16:55:00.003+08:00

I’ve persevered on breastfeeding for full 8 months. Yes, PERSEVERANCE is the word.

I still remember how tough it was and it still is, having to be disciplined to express breastmilk on a regular basis (like every 4 hours). Moreover, if I’m feeding Haiwen directly, she can’t finish 2 full breasts of milk and thus, additional effort and time is needed to express out to maintain the milk flow. Breastfeeding mothers out there can empathise with me and would agree with both hands high up in the sky that we are so noble. All for the benefit of our kid.

Now, she’s into her 9th month and with my decreasing flow, I’ve started to give her formula milk for 1-2 feeds per day. I’m so glad that I got the Medela Pump In Advance Style, which helped me to store up quite a bit in those months when the flow was at its optimal.

I’ve started working for 3 days a week. For days when Haiwen goes to the babysitter next door, it’s much easier for me. Just bring her and some stuff over, and that’s it. However, every Wednesday when the babysitter is not able to assist to look after her, I have to bring her to my sister’s place. Try imagining a 1.53m tall lady, carrying her baby in front, her Medela PISA at the back, her laptop on her left shoulder and the baby’s bag on her right. What a funny sight for you people watching me, but it’s a tough job for me. All these made me wonder how much longer can I persever in breastfeeding. Imagine if I’d stopped expressing, I would have one less stuff to carry, and I will have more rest time during lunch break, and I can sleep earlier at night and dun have to wake up ealier in the morning to do all the pumping.

I do hope that I can persevere on till Haiwen turns ONE…. I really hope I can.

2009-04-07T22:55:00.001+08:00

There are still so many things to write down about my little ocean as I watched her grow day by day.

Let me jot down TODAY before I go and backdate the other events.

Today she went to her babysitter’s place (i.e. our next door neighbour) to get herself used to it cos Mummy is going to work on a part-time basis soon in 2 weeks’ time. I can hear her crying extremely loudly and sadly. She had this cute cry “Mumm… mumm… mumm” when she’s looking for me. And I heard that from 8.45am to about 9.30am. She’s looking for Mummy…. She’s feeling insecure…. Where’s Mummy? I tried to control myself from going over to my neighbour’s place to check on her and kept telling myself that she’ll be alright soon…. Maybe after a few days? While I was keeping myself busy with the mopping of floor, my neighbour came and informed me that she had fell asleep after crying for quite some time and she did not finish her milk…. So poor thing… will she lose weight over being insecure? Instead of the agreed full day babysitting, we decided to shorten it to half a day to slowly let her get used. When I fetched her back after lunch, she simply clanged on to me for the rest of the day.

Dear Hai Wen, you have to learn to be more independent cos Daddy and Mummy can’t be with you for the rest of your life. You got to learn to adapt to changes and be strong when you are in any difficult situation. Mummy is sure that you are able to do it cos you are a brave girl to me.

2009-04-05T22:54:00.002+08:00

8 months and 5 days…. Yes, Baby Hai Wen is 8 months and 5 days old now. And that means it took me so long to really start on this journal.

Her dad, being a lover of the ocean, wanted a 海 in the baby’s name if it’s a girl and a 洋 if it’s a boy….and that’s how our baby girl got her name 海雯.... Why a 雯? Most of the other combinations of names thought by us were not recommended by the fortune-teller… this turns out to be the best…. And the Daddy was the happiest of all cos this had been the name which he wanted all along.... I've no objections though.

We have got some many cute English names for our baby.
1. Isabelle…. Cos she Is-A-Belle to us.
2. Blurp blurp…. Cos she always blurp when she's an infant and thus, we always say “blurp blurp” to her. Wonder if she will thought that’s her name.
3. Brunei…. In chinese=文莱.... Cos we always call her “雯, 来!”
4. Melody…. Cos that’s the name of the Mermaid’s daughter who is brave and kind in the cartoon that she used to watch. And she also likes to play with a figurine of Melody (is that a rabbit of something?).... And the Daddy says maybe next time she will be the boss of a bakery; go and "Mai-Roti".

The Day When I Do My First Flip

2008-10-27T09:58:00.003+08:00

And to reward me.... I got my first trip to the Zoo on that day.

I love being a Supergirl.....