"It's again another almost 6 months since I last updated!!! Today I finally find some time to update this blog...well, definitely will be able to update more this month onwards as my peak in the office is over...
Will start to get busy preparing for my two gals' birthday celebrations coming in Oct and Nov...though busy but excited to get ready all preparations! :)
Stay tune and I’ll always try to update as regularly as I can. And of coz, thanks to your interest and support in my gals’ blog. Do keep me posted if you do have your own blog, so that I can also add to my list. Happy reading!"
It's my 2nd gals, Kate's 1-month baby shower! Venue was at my home, invited relatives and a group of close friends and colleagues. It was a hi-tea session from 2-4pm; this time round, the no. of guests are slightly lesser than my elder one's as Vincent's relatives did not come. This is their family's practice as according to his mum, they only go to baby showers of the 1st grandchild and subsequent grandkids, they will give a miss (Why? - I also don't know.) That day, my eye was badly swollen and next day, it was so bad and painful that I had to go for a minor eye surgery to drain out the pas. Now my gal has grown so much that she looks different from when she was first born the few 2-3 months! Stay on to see more write-ups on her and Jie Jie's growth....:)
The delivery episode of my 2nd princess was really a drama one.
23 Nov 08:
My eldest precious was warded to KK hospital at the wee hour on 23 Nov 08, abt 6am+. She started to vomit at about 5am at home & within an hour, she vomited twice. Without waiting, we quickly brought her to KK Children A & E. Luckily the wait wasn’t long & within an hour, it was her turn. KK suggested that we monitored her condition & luckily we did. She just threw up whatever we gave her within the two hours at KK, so no choice, we had to ward her in.
Poor her, my heart was really in pain when they had to drip her. She was crying like mad & KK’s procedures were that we were not allowed to be in the treatment room when they put the drip at her feet. Coz of the drip, she was not allowed to eat nor drink for the whole & really poor her, she was crying furiously & going cranky by about 5pm+ as she had not had anything the whole day. Also, she used to sleep in ‘yaolan’, & being hungry and totally tired, she just cried non-stop for almost an hour+ till she fell asleep. Till about 6pm+, we finally negotiated with the doctor to give her some water, but still no food allowed. And that very night, she started to have fever.
As I was going to be due soon (in fact, I was already dilated 2cm even though I’m only abt 36weeks & 5 days), Vincent insisted that he’ll stay in the hospital while I’ll hv to go home & rest. So no choice, I went home that night but was not able to sleep well, kept worrying abt her.
24 Nov 08:
Today, her vomiting stopped & fever had also subsided. She was finally allowed to have something light & she was really happy. Seeing her gobbling down the bread really made me heartache. For a moment, I thought all this ordeal should be over soon but then came her diarrhea. Never did I think her diarrhea was so bad that it led her to being warded the 2nd time at GlenE (No more KK coz the experience was really no good!). KK told us that they have to monitor her another day, so we thought it should be ok by next day. And this day, I told Vincent that I would want to stay overnight to accompany her as even if I go home, I am not able to sleep. So I asked for an extra bed, preparing myself for the night stay.
However at about 6pm+, I started to feel nauseous & my chest was really tight – the kind of feeling that I will throw up anytime. I kept enduring but at abt 10pm, I could no longer hold it & threw up so much that it stained the whole toilet. No choice, Vincent quickly brought me to the KK’s 24-hour Women Clinic but as my tummy was big & it was obvious that I’m due anytime, they had to send me to the Delivery Suite to monitor my baby’s heartbeat & my contractions.
After lying at the delivery suite, a lady gynae finally came to check on me & to my surprise, I was already 4-cm dilated. I was instructed to either give birth at KK or I had to go to GlenE to prepare to give birth. I was really feeling terrible at that time & I started to feel those irregular contractions. Straight away, my father-in-law rushed me to GlenE while Vincent went back home to pick up my hospital bag, came down with my maid so that she can help out at KK with my mother-in-law. It was such a drama-mama man!
I called GlenE before I reached and when I reached GlenE, the wheelchair at A & E was waiting for me. Straight away, they wheeled me into the labour ward to prepare for delivery.
25 Nov 08:
By the time I was warded to GlenE’s delivery suite, it was about 1am. I was still worrying about my eldest precious at that time. When the anesthesian checked me, he said I was too dehydrated & had to put me on drip before giving me epidural. As I had bad reactions to epidural, I vomited twice again.
At abt 9am, my gynae then came in. He checked me but I was still only 5cm dilated. So he induced me & within 2 hours+, I was fully dilated. After pushing for abt 20mins, I finally delivered my 2nd precious, Kate at abt 1pm+ that day!
That very night, Gail was finally discharged but then, her diarrhea actually had not recovered & yet KK can indicate in the discharge summary that she has recovered from it & discharged her. Though the KK nurses were ok, the way they handle the whole incident really pissed me off, esp when they can discharge my gal without monitoring her condition and finding the cause of her virus.
29 Nov 08
I was discharged from hospital on 27 Nov 08 as mine was normal delivery. The moment I stepped into my house, I was in tears as I realized how bad my eldest gal’s condition was. She was so sick that she was totally in a bad shape, crying & yelling. Her private parts were so swollen coz of all the wiping from the diarrhea that the thought of it even now still makes me feel vy 'xin tong'.
Immediately I asked Vincent to bring her to the PD at the S’pore Baby & Child Clinic at GlenE but unfortunately, our original PD was on leave till 4 Dec 08. So no choice, we visited another older PD called Dr William Yip from the same clinic. He was really bad, with a like “it’s nothing serious” attitude & kept insisting that it’s normal to diarrhea for a few days & that the child’s immune system has to fight the virus herself.
So we monitored her another day but her diarrhea worsened. No matter what she consumed, she immediately ‘lao’ out & just within 3 days, she ‘lao’ for more than 30 times! On 28 Nov 08, we re-visited the PD again but then he still said the same old thing. And even asked us to wait till the following Mon & bring her back to see him if she still did not recover.
That very night, the condition became worse. For these 2-3 days, coz of the fact that her private parts were so swollen, she will cry like mad whenever we tried to clean each time she ‘lao’ out. That night, she just laid there emotionless & both Vincent & I were really in despair. I told Vincent to bring her to GlenE A & E even though I know she will have to put on that painful drip again, but I knew it’s a no-choice decision. That very night, I did not sleep & kept crying, very very worried if she would ever recover.
Thank goodness, the A & E managed to get hold of the PD from Mt. Alvernia (who is Dr Lim from Kinderclinic) who was a really good PD. I am so glad that the A & E did not manage to get that stupid old PD who treated my gal initially!!! It’s such a blessing in disguise! Dr Lim told us that she was seriously dehydrated at the time we warded her in & coz she had vaccinations for rota virus, he ruled out the possibility of her contracting the Rota Virus but he suspected that she caught the Noro Virus instead. Noro Virus is another kind of stomach flu/diarrhea virus that will commonly hit kids. For kids that ‘kena’ such viruses, it will take at least 7-12 days for them to recover, ie. they will ‘lao’ for 7-12 days before they will slowly recover! It’s such a terrible thing!
True enough, her stools report showed that she really ‘kena’ this noro virus. Her condition turned better over the next few days and on the following Mon, she was able to be discharged even though she was still having a bit of diarrhea but Dr Lim assured us that it will clear up within the next few days. All-in-all, she ‘lao’ for 10 days!!!! Really really really vy vy ‘xin teng’ her as she really gone down a lot during that period! But really thankful to having to meet the right doctor for her; if not, I cannot imagine what would had happened. I really hope no more of such ordeals for her!
Today is her actual birthday. As we did not want to only bring her to shopping or just jalan-jalan, we decided to bring her to Zoo for an experience. But the weather wasn’t good. The sky started to turn dark just before we headed for the Zoo, but we still went ahead with the original plan.
It has been such a long time since we last visited the zoo – maybe about 10yrs+ ago…haha! The entrance fee for one is really not cheap. It cost more than S$40 for two adults! It started to drizzle a little when we reached there. It, however, stopped for a while and of coz, we were happy and started our tour with our gal. 1st two stops were photo shoots taken by the Zoo photographers (they really know how to earn $$ - just a pix cost S$18 and two cost S$30, giving discount the more you buy! But of coz, we only bought two as you can see from the photo frame). We went on to bring her to see animals like leopard, hippo, elephant, lions, tigers, etc.
However it started to rain heavily after about an hour walk. We headed the kids’ park where there’s KFC and took shelter. The rain did not really stop and we decided to take a leisure ride back to the entrance via the boat ride which of coz cost $$ again…but it’s ok lah…coz once in a while. Our little Gail was already tired at that time as she was due for her 2nd nap! So she fell asleep just before we got on the boat - a nice and leisure ride that took about 20mins.
We then left about 4pm+. Though a short excursion, it’s still great to be able to spend the day with our precious!
The day finally arrived – My Gal’s 1st b’day party! Days of preparation – buying party deco & gifts for the kids, thinking of how to decorate the chalet, packing her barang-barang, preparing the food stuff for BBQ on Day 1, ordering buffet on Day 2, searching for cake shop for her 2 ‘Strawberry shortcake’ cakes & thinking of the design of the cake, and of coz, drawing + colouring + doing up the deco boards (those strawberry shortcake characters free-hand drawn by mummie which took at least 3-4 hrs to complete each board), painting the photo frame and doing up the photo collation & wrapping the gift packs - All just for a 2-day event!! Just a 3D2N chalet, we like shifting the whole house there!!! Vincent has to make two trips while my FIL has to make one trip to be able to bring all the barang-barang…So Vin said this will be the 1st & last time that he will do a chalet thingy! No more for 2nd one…2nd one will be a function room thingy…Haha ~
We actually wanted only a one-day celebration thingy, but then we will not able to book the Aloha Loyang double-storey chalet. Booking can only be done 3 months before the check-in date of the chalet, so I thought since we wanted 17-19 Oct 08, it’s ok to go online on 18 July 08, but oh man, when I went into the online system on 18 July 08morning around 9am+, all double-storeys were taken up!!! Then I was told that because of its popularity, people will starting booking on 18 July 08 at 12am as they will stand-by at their notebooks/PCs by 17 July 08 11.30pm!!! Oh mine, can u believe it??? So Vin was afraid that there will be too many people on 18 Oct 08, and hence split into two days – Day 1 for his colleagues & Day 2 mainly for NUS gang, family, my colleagues and some of my close friends.
Day 1 (17 Oct 08)
That morning was a busy one for us as well as my MIL. In the morning, I have to run another check to make sure all stuff are packed (can’t even recall hw many bags we have to ‘lug there’! Think 10-20 bags!!) while my MIL was busy preparing the food stuff for that night as we were to have BBQ that night. Thanks to my MIL for all her hardwork that made the BBQ a success as I know nuts abt preparing food. And thanks to my mum for taking care of my gal from noon till early evening before Vincent picked her up to the chalet coz need the noon time to do up the place at the chalet with my maid.
We were supposed to leave our house at abt 1pm but it started to pour just before we left. We waited for a while more but the rain continued, so no choice, we still left at about 1.15pm that afternoon as there were simply too many things to do before Vin’s colleagues came that evening.
1st stop to my mum’s place to drop our gal with my mum before Vin picked her up at about 5pm+. 2nd stop at Parkway Parade to pick up the three balloons that I have ordered from Party Joy…then finally to Aloha Loyang Chalet to check-in! We got the keys abt 3.15pm…as soon as we stepped inside the chalet, after checking all the nec stuff in the chalet were in order, my maid and I soon started to decorate the place. Thanks to my maid who has more strength, she pumped all the balloons (except for the three helium ones) and helped me in putting them up on the walls. It’s not an easy task as it really need strength to pump all those balloons – total 30+! Vin still have to head home for another round to pick up some of the stuff, and also to collect the 1-kg ‘Strawberry shortcake’ cake (a simple round cake with the ‘Strawberry shortcake’ design on the cake) from Prima Deli (well, although the design was nice but the cake was not gd…texture of the cake was rough and though we added mango as the fillings to the vanilla flavour, the taste wasn’t good), picked our gal before heading bk to chalet; my in-laws then came abt 4pm+ with the food stuff.
Vin finally returned at abt 6pm, and soon after, he went to start the fire to get the BBQ pit started. Most of Vin’s colleagues came abt 7.45-8pm – the earliest being Cavin, Jean & her gal, Gwen at abt 7.15pm! Vin’s eldest sister & her family also came about 8pm+ while Vin’s 2nd sister & her family reached about 9pm+. His family came on Fri, instead of Sat as his 2nd brother-in-law’s sister is getting married on Sat (which was the Day 2 of our gal’s party), so all of them came on Fri instead. That night was super tired for all of us, esp my gal has difficulty getting to sleep as this was the 1st time she spent the night outside, so it really took me some time to pacify & coax her to sleep! And there’s still Day 2 the next day… J
Friends who turned up on Day 1:
Cavin & Jean & their gal (Gwen), Hwee Ping & Kian Boon & their boy (Ziyang), Caiying & Daniel, Tian & Desmond, Siong Leng, Federick, Watson
Day 1's photos taken:
Day 2 (18 Oct 08)
My gal woke up at abt 7am that day, as always. Though very tired, no choice…still have to wake up to keep her company. My in-laws came around 8.30am, with the portable ‘yaolan’ – no choice as we really have a hard time to get her to bed the night before, esp she’s very used to sleeping in her ‘yaolan’ during the day! I really resisted the idea of having to bring it all the way to the chalet, but guessed no choice! As my gal loves swimming, we brought her for a short swim at the pool at around 9.30am…
Day 2 was more relaxed as most of the deco preparations were done the day before, so not much to do, except waiting for the caterer to set-up at 5pm & our friends to arrive around 5pm+ onwards…As there’s nothing much to eat at Aloha Loyang, we went to Downtown East’s MacD for our lunch, jalan-jalan there for a while and also took a train ride with our gal. She was so happy as this is her 1st time on a train ride!
Oh yes, the 3-kg ‘Strawberry shortcake’ cake was finally delivered to the chalet at abt 2.30pm…the 2–D design was requested by me as I gave E-Creative the design drafts to make the cake. This is my first time I ordered with them, as not many cake shops take orders for customised designs. It turned out to be quite nice and certainly, I am happy with it. Although the ideal size that I wanted was a 2-kg cake, E-creative told me it cannot be done with the design I wanted as it won’t turn out nice. So a min. 3-kg has to be ordered. Well, the texture of this cake, as compared to the Prima Deli’s one, was definitely much better. However it wasf too big, so cannot finish…a bit wasteful...
Most of our friends arrived between 5pm+ to about 8pm…my family came about 6pm+. We only cut the cake around 7.30pm coz we were waiting for my brother to fetch his girlfriend from work to arrive. As it was a Sat, the whole vicinity was packed…just around the Garden Terrace chalet, there were at least 3 birthday parties going on!
The whole party ended about 9pm+ as all of them have to go home to put their kids to bed, except for JacG as she’s waiting for Dan to finish his friend’s wedding dinner! J As there were more than 10 bags of pressies for our precious, Vin purposely made a trip back that night to bring back all the pressies and other stuff (as much as possible), so the next day, we have lesser stuff to bring back when we checked out.
The whole 2-D event was certainly tiring!! But of coz for our precious, still 累得开心!J However having said that, as said earlier, I think chalet thingy is really too tiring for a 1-year old b’day c’bation coz simply too many things to prepare and bring. So for our 2nd one, function room should be the next alternative…haha
Friends who turned up on Day 2:
JacG, Lishi & Alan & their kids (Ashley & Euan), Huiying & Charles & their gal (Valerie), Vivien & Sam & their boy (Ian), Michelle & Daryl & their boy (Zavier), Fiona & her boy (Jordan), Jamie & Eric, Jimmy & Lijuan & their gal (Chloe), Edmund, Susanna & her hubby, Evonne & her hubby & their two gals (Stephanie & Nikki), Jessica & her hubby & her boy (Ivan), Mike & his wife & his three kids, Peng Kiat & Cheryl
Day 2's photos taken:
Enjoy two of the videos below:
a) Train ride at Downtown East on Day 2:
a) Singing birthday song & cake-cutting time on Day 2:
Today is another birthday celebration. It’s my FIL’s birthday, ie. Ah Gong’s birthday lor…, celebrating a few days earlier before his actual b’day in the week. Before that, we are still wondering whether we can go coz the past few days, Gail was down with virus fever. However luckily, her fever was gone by Thursday but she still look much worn down after this sudden attack of virus. Of coz, we still go ahead with the dinner at Harbour City restaurant. Not much photos taken, except some pixs at home before we headed for the dinner, some taken at the restaurant…and of coz, you can see the pixs of Vin’s notti nephews…After the dinner, we headed home but just when we are about to head home from the carpark, there was a sudden downpour and super strong wind…dun noe where it came from…I think t’s because of that sudden gush of wind, the very next day, my gal was down with serious flu…sigh…
I was about to reach my doorstep at 8pm+ when my HP rang, and next, I saw the phone call made from my home. “Oh dear, what happened?” I thought as my mother-in-law seldom called me unless necessary. True enough, she told me my gal was sick, vomited and running a high fever! I quickly opened the door and saw my gal crying non-stop and her whole face was red, and when I carry her, she was so weak. My heart sank as this was the 1st time I saw my gal so weak. Vincent was still parking his car…my MIL and I quickly went down to the opposite clinic …but it was drizzling when we reached the ground floor. So my MIL went straight to the clinic to register, while I was still waiting for my maid to bring me an umbrella. She was totally weak and restless. At the clinic, she vomited again. Though the clinic nurse let us jump queue, we still waited about 10-15mins…she was feeling so uncomfortable and I can feel the heat from her whole body, face, etc. When it was finally her turn, and when the temperature was taken, oh mine, it was 39.2◦C! The doctor immediately gave her the bullet medicine to bring her temperature down + some fever & stomach flu medicine to be taken, and told us she suspected stomach flu when we asked what actually happened. The doctor, however, did not prescribe us the ‘bullet medicine’.
That night, we monitored her closely and though her temperature did go down all the way till morning, the fever came back again around 10am+ the next day. Before that, I actually called the PD and make appt, and luckily I did it. At 11am+, when she woke up from her nap, her fever suddenly shot to 39.7◦C and she was so lethargic! I was so scared and nearly wanted to cry…we quickly rushed to our PD at GlenE and within 10 minutes after we reached, it was her turn. But she was so uncomfortable that she kept crying…really poor her! The PD told us it’s virus fever and very normal for babies/kids to have it…and the fever usually last for a 3-4days and will go up during the night/morning. So we just have to monitor closely and give the ‘bullet medicine’ when necessary. After 3-4 days, it should go off.
True enough, it lasted about 2days+ and her fever went off…but then she was down with flu/cough subsequently…She’s already not a very chubby baby, so after falling sick, she looked even thinner…really 心痛. But guessed it’s part and parcel of a child growing up…J Luckily this time round, it only lasted about 2 days+…and she’s back to her active self again!
Today is my birthday, 25 Aug…1st birthday with my gal. We did not really go anywhere, except to bring my gal for a MacDonald breakfast. It was the first time she got a balloon and she was really happy. Just see her cheeky look at one of the pixs she was holding the balloon…That night, Vincent and I just went for an ‘er ren shi jie’ dinner…as usual, makan and makan…
"Specially created for our two little precious..hoping to capture every single special moment of them. At the same time, we would like to share our joy with you...N-Joy! :) "
About BB Gail
She was born in 2007...Oct, 22nd at Gleneagles Hospital after mummy went into labour pain for 11hours! She was only 2.78kg and 50 cm long at that time. Light, right? :)
About BB Kate
She was born in 2008...Nov, 25th, 3 weeks earlier than EDD of 16Dec08, at Gleneagles Hospital--just reach the 37th week full-term! Phew! She was only 2.72kg and 47 cm long at that time. Light & short, right? :)
