Update for November

I will pledge to skip the usual excuse for not updating this blog for the xth time and straight away blog before this ipad is hijacked again by the prince and princess of the kingdom.

As you can see in the picture above, my kids are practically teenagers before I could even blink. I have not even succeded in getting rid of this baby fat and my bones are starting to crackle here and there. I blame facebook for all of this mess.

What have I achieved this year? Apart from having a baby girl and enjoyong fresh baby breath everytime she screams, I have succeded in exclusively breastfeeding Sofia and will keep it up until she is 2.5 years old, just like Emmet. I have also successfully cloth diapered Sofia and just starting to toilet train her. Very slow at that and taking my time. She still wears disposable at night and during long outings and travelling, but hey I saved a lot in diaper costs and trash. Though I didn't enjoy running water through her poo on her nappy with my head hovering the toilet bowl. Sorry, that was rather graphic, eh?

Emmet learned how to write his own name, Sofia, Mommy, Daddy. He is quite talented in drawing, he loves to draw. My sister brought home mountains of recycled paper from her office for him. Apart from drawing he likes making paper planes and such. He is very helpful around chores, with a few encouragement of course. He is very interested in the kitchen. He begs me to help making breads and kuihs and will always be beside my mixer when I am making cakes to meet orders.

As for myself, well I admitted I neglected myself for the past few years to make way for my husband and kids. But I will try to improve next since I get the feeling it would be some time before I get pregnant again, if ever. Losing some weight is the top of my list of course. I have also finally got to decluttering my flat and rearranging furnitures. And some decoration. Now I feel more calm and organized and will continue beautifying this flat until I'm satisfied. Kitchen is next!

Allergic or not?

This delicious treats found its way into Emmet's goody bag at a recent birthday party of Nadeen who just tuned 4. I was so excited about this packaging. Why won't I? Just look at the captions all over it!

Practically free from everything! At last.... something that Emmet can actually eat... at a party!

Emmet was excited too. 'Wow! Ape tu? Crocodile?!'
I gave him one koala-shaped cookie and he munched happily. I gave him another one, fish-shaped cookie. He took one bite. Then gave me a funny face. He sadly returned the other half to me and said, 'Mommy, allergic la...'


Guess what is he allergic to?

Pea flour!

Sorry ORGRAN! Better luck next time! Maybe you should recruit Emmet into your test team if you are serious about making allergy-free food.

Back to Oreo I guess. Sigh!

Happy 1st birthday, Sofia!

Feeding
Exclusively breastfeeding from day 1. Started her solids from 6 months. Loves rice, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, chicken, beef, oranges, pears, sweet potatoes, potatoes, plain water, fish crackers, dry rolled oat. Dislikes banana, papaya, fruit juice, bread. Allergic to eggs. I try to make most of her meals into rice porridge but she is just more interested in what the grown-ups eat. Now I have my meals standing up, otherwise she would climb onto me and beg at my plate. We try not to give in because she just had her first episode of bad constipation for about a week. She’s fine now but I’m trying to get her diet to improve.

On beastfeeding, she is feeding almost non-stop towards approaching her 1 year mark. It is exhausting for me. She has been having breastfeeding problems from day 1. Her mouth was too small, her latching was not so good, mastitis, blocked duct, and now…she is just one impatient baby. She would start latching on one breast, barely even working on getting the let-down and when the let-down was finally arriving, she decided she had waited too long and unlatched. And there goes my milk spraying all over the place. Even if she did manage to drink some milk, it would be just a few good gulps before moving on the the other side. She would go back and forth until she falls asleep or decided she has had enough.

She is very animated while breastfeeding. She just can’t be still. Her leg would push my legs and her other leg would be high up her head and her arm pulling on my hair or something. Or when I sit on the sofa, she would stand on the floor whilst latching on me and I had to bend down a bit. Sitting on my lap, tummy facing down, her butt sticking up on top, every possible position you can imagine, she is one creative baby when it comes to breastfeeding positions.


Playing & Interest
She loves Mickey Mouse! And soft toys. I downloaded the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series into my handphone. I put her in the cot together with some toys and let her watch the MM Clubhouse whenever I want to do my chores, or a nap once in a blue moon. From then on she woud recognize Mickey Mouse whenever she sees one outside and goes “Aaahhh!” in her high-pitched tone.

She just loves playing and attention generally. Any silly game would make her beam in delight, especially if it involves Emmet and running. Emmet is her ultimate playmate. She enjoys me singing to her and loves the Wonderpets song. She likes watching shampoo commercials. Recently likes watching kids and babies on TV and in magazines. Also likes playing with cloths and fabrics. Shows interest in cooking but now she screams whenever I go into the kitchen. I think she knows she’s unlikely to get any attention once I go inside.


Physical
She was born 3.52kg. She was a tall baby. She maintains her slim figure throughout her first year. I lost hope of ever wanting to see her become a chubby baby like Emmet was. She is today 74cm high.

My first thought when I looked at her face after she was cleaned by the nurse was, she looked like Emmet! My family thought Sofia took after me. Rizal’s family thought she took after him. But now eveyone thinks she has my features more. She has become fairer from her 2 months age. I doubt she’ll be as fair as Emmet though. But she has a prominent nose and clearly-defined brows.


Motor skills
She sit up at 5 months. Can roll-over at 2 months. Started crawling at 7 months. Skipped the commando crawl. Started walking towards the end of 9months. Still walks like a drunken sailor, as my neighbour put it.

She can pick up small objects and put in her mouth. She can chew it for a long time and not swallow it. She just showed interest in holding a spoon to feed herself. She can wave at anybody’s command. She does hi-five with people she knows. She claps when she’s happy or wants me to sing. She hits when she’s crossed, toys or people, but in a very gentle way that is. She goes down from a sofa differently from Emmet. Like a lady if I may say so myself.


Hygene
Because of her eczema, she bathes once a day. I bathe her with either just warm water or with emollient cream like aquoes cream. I also clean her bottom with aquoes cream whenever she soils. I apply either QV cream, aquoes cream again after every bath on the whole body. Sometimes I apply La-Roche Posay Lipikar Baume on her face. She regularly needs to be on hydrocortisone as well for her frequent flare-ups. I stopped using Bepenthem, Drapolene or any other nappy rash cream since I find they didn’t help in improving anything for that matters. What’s more interesting is that, she very seldom gets nappy rash eversince I stopped using nappy rash cream.

She started on wearing muslin squares with nappy liners from less than 1month of age. She is only on disposable diapers at night and during long outings. Her skin cannot tolerate the disposable diapers too much though. They gave her rashes around the waist area. I clean her six teeth using clean and damp muslin squares.

Speech
She can say ‘CAR’ at 11 months! Once upon a time she was chilling at her favourite spot, the balcony and looking at the parked cars below the flat and said ‘Car!’. Other than that she babbles but not as much as Emmet was before. Sometimes she sings along with me in a song.

Sleep
She sleeps late. She would wake up around 8am. Naps at 12pm for about 2 hours. Naps again at 4.30pm if I’m lucky. If she naps at 4.30pm, she would sleep around 8pm or 9pm and woke up close to midnight, just about my bedtime. She might skip the afternoon nap alltogether.

She sleeps with me from day 1, so breastfeeding is easier at night. It is a good thing that we decided to get a king size bed before I delivered Sofia. I can sleep without touching the walls, finally!

Misc.
She is very attached to me. It is very hard for me to get anything done. When I do get a thing done, that just means that there are things that are not. I do laundry carrying her around, I dry clothes carrying her, I even had lunch carrying her. I do my baking carrying her around. These days, Mickey Mouse no longer does the trick. But there are days when she just wants to hang around at the balcony looking down on the stuff happening at the parking lot.

She smiles generously when played with and cuddles with me as much as she possibly can. She even has this ‘mengada-ngada’ look where she opens her mouth wide and shuts her eyes and run towards me with arms wide open.

All of us adore her, the princess of the family. She does wear a lot of pink, but most days she is just clad in Emmet’s baby clothes. She hates hats or anything put on her head.

I’m expecting more hardwork in the future but I will try my best in raising Emmet and Sofia since I don’t have any great ambition. My payers are they would give their utmost cooperation and listen to what Mommy says, always!

Happy birthday sweet Sofia!

Hydrocele

Farrah wanted details about Emmet’s experience with hydrocele, and for my reference too.

I first noticed Emmet’s scrotums were beginning to become less symmetrical when he was just over 1 year old. I didn’t take much notice of them since he wasn’t in any pain or having any other alarming symptoms. He was not even bothered by the condition.

Months went by and his right side scrotum were becoming larger until it stopped growing at a point. It was so significant I had to do something about it. You know internet could be a scary place to seek such information. I googled and the word HERNIA keeps popping up and hernia is scary. I almost panicked.

After a few days of research and asking medical student friends over to have a look (Thank you Kojek and Shira), I calmed down, but still took Emmet to the Temple Street Children’s Hospital A&E for further assesment. One look under the pen lights, the Doctor immediately diagnosed it as hydrocele. Which was good news for me since it was not hernia. Hydrocele is just clear fluid that find way into the scrotum through an opening which is supposed to close before a baby reach his first year. But when bits from the bowel find way into the sac as well, infection is most likely to happen which will lead to swelling, fever, redness and other symptoms. That is hernia. Information about hernia you can find here. I guess the Malays call it air pasang. I’m not so sure. But I heard it can be cured without surgery by traditional practitioners. I think it involves massage.

They booked Emmet for an appointment with the surgical team for surgery before sending us home, relieved. The surgical team saw us and set a date for a surgery. On the day of the surgery, I brought Emmet to the day ward. Saw the surgeon who interviewed me more, a nurse did another interview, and the anesthetist came for another interview, all asking more or less the same questions. I found out later that the same thing happens in hospitals in Malaysia. It is so annoying being asked the same question when everything was actually accessible through Emmet’s medical record. I guess annoying patient’s mom is a lot easier than studying a patient’s medical history..

That was why I was so upset when the surgical team sent us home because they are afraid to operate on Emmet due to his long list of food allergies. I was thinking the anesthetist looked unhappy when I asked him will he know what to do if Emmet happens to have a reaction during the surgery. I asked him a lot of question actually. I wanted to know the risk. So they asked me to complete a blood test for allergies at Emmet’s GP, and it can’t be done at that hospital. Which is unbelievable since it was after all, a hospital. To make matters worse, when I went to the GP, she didn’t agree with the hospital despite not being able to read the surgeon’s hand-written letter (Microsoft Word hello??? Or even Notepad!). So the hospital said the GP does blood tests and the GP said the hospital usually does blood test. I even had to ask for a letter from the surgeon before going to the GP. How would I know what to say to the GP. Unbelievable.

The GP was kind enough to sort it out for me. She immediately called the hospital and demanded to speak directly with the surgeon. The surgeon decided…………let’s wait until the kid is 2 years old because hey who knows the hydrocele will be magically gone by then! The hospital will call you back to set the next appointment. Unbelievable!

I never heard from the surgeons again.

Until I got pregnant and came back to Malaysia and made a new appointment at the PPUM for this. I had to go through everything again. But the surgery got called off the second time due to Emmet having flu-like symptoms. One thing I learned about hospitals especially surgeons, was when they say they will call you back, they actually mean you should call back and keep calling back until you can get to them. I waited one year for them to call me back with countless attempts to get them over the phone, only to be greeted by noncholant nurses who make empty promises. I had to call and make a new appointment at the paeds clinic and go through the whole thing again for the 3rd time.

Despite my bebelan about this, I am thankful to all parties who contributed to the success of the surgery, even if it’s a minor. Emmet’s scrotum is back to normal, and he is even circumcised.

Emmet's 1st Saloon Haircut

There we were on the eve of Raya at a saloon in Kota Bharu. I needed to get a haircut so badly since three months ago. But this time Emmet joined in the fun!

He was so cooperative. He stood very still throughout the haircut. He even fell asleep sometime in the middle of it all. My husband requested the stylist to suggest a look for Emmet. She replied "Rambut dia sangat kerinting loorrr... buat macam mana pun takde guna".

Hahahaha!

Sorry baby, you hair is so cute to the max they couldn't be made any cuter...

Allergies

After having had Sofia, her milestones didn’t excite me that much. I remember my husband and I were delighted at every sign of intelligence that Emmet portrayed in his milestones. I guess I just knew what to expect this time around. Unless Sofia starts to read a dictionary tomorrow, I’ll just watch her grow at her own pace.

Getting used to Emmet’s allergies has taken its toll on me. I am paranoid over reading packaging labels especially when buying food for Emmet. Most of the time I prepare his meal. But when travelling, I need to get instant meal and I’ve gotten used to trying out numerous types and brands until I finally settled on pure instant baby rice (read ingredients: rice, thiamine), original nestum and instant oatmeal. He was a happy baby when stuffed those. But Sofia has a different palate.

Now it’s déjà vu all over again when travelling with Sofia. It’s not like she has as many food allergies as Emmet, I was just too afraid to buy anything that Emmet is allergic to. One of the reason is I’m afraid Emmet might get excited over Sofia’s uncommon looking food and touch them, and there will be another episode of clean-up before you know it, I’ll be caught in a middle of a drama.

Oh I will humour you with the whole scenario. Emmet will touch Sofia’s food, he’ll scratch here and there (because he’s always scratching) and he’ll touch his eyes and elbows and the back of his knees as well as neck. Those places will go red. His eyes will be red before they are swollen. He’ll cough and wheeze and on the verge of an asthma attack.

Emmet with swollen eyes and face

I will notice the rashes. Stop feeding hungry Sofia. Grab Emmet to wash all contaminated places with lot’s of water, keeping in mind to scrub my hands first because I might just touch a bit of Sofia’s food just now. A shower for Emmet if necessary. Sofia will be abandoned at last place to be seen, screaming and crying for me or probably tugging on my pants by now. But Emmet is priority at that moment. After washing up, he will get two puffs of ventoline for his wheezing. Wait for 20-30 seconds for him to breathe in the inhaler. Then only I can continue with Sofia’s meal.

If Sofia was in a messy meal, I need to clean her up well as well as the messy area very quickly before Emmet goes touching the contaminated places. Sofia’s hands might come in contact with her mouth too. I need to remember what else she touches afterwards and clean those up too. Emmet loves hugging and playing with her so Sofia being clean from allergens is very essential.

Another dillemma of buying instant food for Sofia is of course the long list of ingredients that local brands (read Nestle) offer. I can only find imported products with the list of ingredients that looks believable (but ouch! Makes a whole in your wallet). Reading Nestle ingredients was a horrific and traumatic experience for me. Too long a list and I don’t even know most of them.

Travelling to Kota Bharu for raya recently was a perfect example on the hardship we endured on this issue. Emmet ended up peeking at Sofia’s instant food every 5 seconds and constantly hovering me with annoying repeated questions about the new discovery. The food we bought were not even to her likings. They ended up in the hotel mini fridge and Sofia ended up with a pair of swollen eyes on the eve of raya. I ended up cooking two batches of Sofia’s meal for 4 days stock at my IL’s.

We didn’t actually know if Sofia is allergic to the instant food since there were too many new allergens she was exposed to. It could be the cat’s hair at my IL’s, or probably the dirty hotel carpet or the heavily bleached linen. But she was put on anti-histamine by the local GP until her eyes were back to normal. The doctor and I agreed we were more bothered by her swollen eyes than Sofia herself. She wasn’t cranky and slept well during the whole night. She even woke me up with her cheerful smile, plus the super sepet eyes.

The sepet Sofia on raya eve

Maybe I need to get a small ice box so I can store Sofia’s frozen food when travelling. But I doubt my husband would favour an extra luggage that’s going to be pretty heavy. Until then, I would continue trying some more instant baby food on Sofia that I find appropriate. Must keep trying...

Hydrocele and Herniotomy (and Circumcision)

Us right before going into the OT

Emmet has been having hydrocele since he was about 1 year old. The first attempt at surgery was when he was about 2 years old when we were still living in Dublin. We were already at the day ward when the surgical team sent us back for allergy blood test. The second attempt was in PPUM, that failed too because Emmet was having flu-like symptom.

Waiting for calls from the surgical team both in Dublin and PPUM was like menunggu bulan jatuh ke riba. I made numerous calls asking the surgeon to call me to set a new date only to be greeted by empty promises to call back. After a year of waiting, I decided to make a new appointment with the surgical clinic. I took the earliest date possible, 1 September 2010, despite it falling in the month of Ramadhan. I did not want to delay any further.

We checked in on the 30th August for assesment and blood test. Then checked in again the day after, awaiting for surgery the next morning. My mom came from Taiping to accompany Emmet at night. I had to be home to take care of Sofia.

Emmet was calm throughout the whole ordeal. He didn’t even cry during the blood extraction. He was as cheerful as ever. I accompanied him to the OT and came out right after he was put to sleep, which took him about 5 seconds and a big wide yawn.

My mom, my husband and myself waited outside the OT for about 2 hours before the surgeon called me in. Emmet was still sleepy so I let him sleep and called my husband in to stay with Emmet while I care for Sofia at the waiting area.

Emmet returned to the day ward a while later and had to have a dose of painkiller which was quite a struggle. But he was bubbly as himself again when Daddy awarded him with a NERF gun.

Oh and he was circumcised too! That was the one that hurt! But he never cried. We convinced him to pee in the evening so that he didn’t have to spend another night at the ward. He was afraid but once we put him on the toilet seat, he couldn’t hold it much longer and found out the pain wasn’t that bad.

Emmet after surgery at home

His Daddy carried him to the car all the way from the ward. When we reached home he was playing and running again. He only dreaded applying the antibiotic ointment everytime after going to the toilet.