Fever and Conjunctivitis

First it was Oliver, then it was me, and then poor Heidi. The virus sreaded from Oliver to finally Heidi. This is the first time Heidi fell sick and had a temperature. I felt so sorry for her as I was the one who passed the virus to her. Her eyes were red from Conjunctivitis. She slept more than usual during the day, but woke up at nights crying and even screaming. Her scream was a short and sharp one, but usually in her sleep. Her crying and fidgeting would wake her up. I tried to feed but she would continue crying. She merely want comfort with me carrying her around. Once I put her down, she would open her eyes and demanded to be carried. Poor Heidi, I hope you recover fast.

Unlike Oliver, Heidi's legs are fatter than Oliver's at the 3-4 months old stage. Her right leg even looks a bit like a Michelin tyre mascot.

Like Oliver, she loves to kick those trinkets placed above her feet. She shrieks and squeals when she kicks too, and does a good impersonation of Bruce Lee.

Merry Christmas

Heidi sleeps through the night

How blessed I am with Heidi girl girl (that's how I call her) sleeps through the night. Every night at around 11 pm, she will doze off while drinking milk. Then she will sleep till the next morning and wakes up between 9.00 and 10.00 am. At night when she needs to drink, she just move around on her bed although still in dreamland. She would usually need milk feed at around 2.00 and 5.00 am.

Yet, Heidi still need to be trained in her bottle drinking skill. She has not taken a liking to bottle after training her to drink from bottle for one month since she was two months old. This trait is similar to Oliver. But Oliver is a lot more stubborn than Heidi. I can still remember those days when Oliver refused the bottle. He rather starved for hours than to drink from bottle. I would have had let him suckle if there was enough milk. Inadequate milk supply and his refusal to drink from bottle led to a vicious cycle of sleepless days and nights and endless round of hunger pangs. I once cruelly let Oliver cried for four hours in the hope that he would drink from bottle. Although he did for the moment, you simply could not change him. No means no. In the end, I had to resort to feeding him while he was sleeping. It worked quite well. Now I see it coming from Heidi. Feeding her while sleeping. Hope it will not get worst than that

Getting ready for school

It was a day of shopping for Heidi's stuff. Another one and a half month, Heidi will go to Del-Care infant care. For almost 3 months, we are almost inseparable. She goes wherever I go. I am sure that I am gonna miss her so much... her laughters, her screaming, her sweaty cold feets. It is lucky that I can spend more time with Heidi than Oliver due to the extra month of maternity leave. With Oliver, I had 3 months of maternity leave and took 1 month of own leave. Oliver fell sick immediately one week after going Del-Care. I hope this time round, Heidi will have stronger immunity when she goes Del-Care.

"Am I the fairest of them all?"

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search - Geneology

Heidi's First Book

After a few visits to Borders, I finally found a book, 'Your Personal Penguin' for Heidi. I want Heidi's first book to be a special one, one that carries special message from me to her. Sandra Boynton was the author and a song accompanied the book which was sung by Davy Joines of the Monkees. A free copy of the song can be downloaded at www.workman.com/boynton . I am learning to sing the song but quite out of tune (quite difficult leh). Nonetheless Heidi loves it.


The message in the book goes like this...

I like you a lot.

You're funny and kind

So let me explain

what I have in mind...

I want to be your personal penguin
I want to walk right by your side
I want to be your personal penguin
I want to travel with you far and wide
Wherever you go, I'll go there too.
Here and there and everywhere and always with you.
I want to be your personal penguin from now on



Now, lots of other penguins seem to do fine
in a universe of nothing but ice
But if I could be yours and you could be mine
Our cozy little world would be twice as nice

I want to be your personal penguin
I want to talk with you night and day
I want to listen to whatever you say.
Look at these wings
so perfect to hold you.
I'd like to say again what I have already told you.


Let me be your personal penguin
Imagine me, your personal penguin
I want to be your personal penguin from now on!

The Third Month

Heidi can do all these by now..

- laugh out loud

- on stomach, lift head up 90 degrees

- squeal in delight

- bring both hands together

- smile spontaneously

- watch and follow an object from one side to the other

Heidi loves to talk and sing

Heidi has a beautiful voice. It is very clear and loud. It will vary in tone and breath when she expresses what she wants. She will smile at you and even laugh out loud when you tickle her funny bone. It is sometime unbelievable that a human so small can have such a loud yet beautiful voice. Heidi, I look forward to the day when you sing to us.

Watch Heidi kicking the beach ball

We tried this game of ball kicking with Oliver and now, Heidi though younger, can kick the ball equally well too.

Chubby Heidi

Heidi the boy

We were on our way home one day and shared the lift with the security guard at our place. He shook Oliver's hand and said "good girl, too bad your brother don't know how to shake hands yet."

Monkey see monkey do

Oliver is at this stage of imitating the actions of adults, and even babies.

Hmm, Heidi reminds of a cartoon character in these pictures.. she looks like a mouse, doesn't she?

Another sunny smile for you

Potential Marathon Runner?

Look at those strong legs. Considering the strength of the legs when she kicks me, I think my Heidi girl can be a potential marathon runner.


Lately, I have been the subject of abuse by my two kids. Oliver has the habit of bringing his fat legs on my face while trying to sleep. I actually have to put my hands over my face to block those legs hitting on my already flat nose. It is sleeping with constant fear. And somehow, Heidi wasted no time in catching up with Oliver's strange habit. It will not be a surprise if you see me spotting bruises on my face or chest.

Heidi is 2 months old!

And she ..
.. can pose like a model
.. starting to look more like Boon Heng
.. still dislike to drink from bottle
.. already having blocked nose
.. poo once in two or three days
.. smiles like an angel
.. sporting hair lesser than Oliver
.. growing fast
.. likes to babble a lot
.. likes to look at people's eyes

Heidi girl girl is full of smiles

It is true to say that when your baby has her first smile, it will melt your heart. It happened to me. When Oliver had his first smile, I tear (must live up to my dramamama reputation and also mainly Oliver is such a difficult baby). With Heidi, her smile melt my heart. She is such a beauty in my eyes. Her sunny face and constant smiles with her dimbles are contagious. I sometimes wonder what I have done to deserve such beautiful smiles. It is almost magical. Perhap this is the joy of parenting. Go on smiling, you pretty girl girl.

Full month celebration

Dad and Dad's sister (my gugu)
My poly friend Margaret, Terence & Noah

Mei Choo, Kenneth, Gina, Edward & Eric

My lookalike cousin Yvonne and her daughters

It was two weeks later than what was planned that we celebrated Heidi's full month celebration. Oliver was infected with HFMD and the celebration got to postpone. Life has got its surprises and this is definitely unexpected and one of them. Lucky thing is that we celebrated it at StarDuS clubhouse and manage to change the date without much hassle. The caterer Fuzine was also very allocating to our change of date.

However, only one of my friends can turn up during the celebration. Everyone had prior commitments. Perhap this is good as instead of meeting at the celebration, they came to visit at my place and we could spend more time chit chatting.

Heidi is 4.44 kg and 55 cm at first month checkup

Heidi is 1 month, 1 week and 1 day old today

I cannot believe when Boon Heng tells me it is Friday today. I keep thinking today is Thursday or even Wednesday. I have totally lost track of time because my life now is so routine. Everyday, I will go through the same routine, well almost if Heidi's eating schedule is not so erratic.

Here's a typical day of my life...

7.30 am

Breakfast.

Heidi wakes up

8.00 am

Moo moo time

Bathing time for Heidi

9.00 am

Day dream time for Heidi

Housework

10.00 am

Heidi sleeps

Housework or clear office emails

12.oo nn

Lonely lunch time

12.30 pm

Moo Moo time for Heidi

Possibly rest time for me if Heidi continues to sleep

2.30 pm

Moo Moo time

5.30 pm

Moo Moo time

630 pm

Dinnertime

Housework

7.30 pm

Oliver comes home

8.30 pm

Moo Moo time

Family time

10.00 pm

Oliver sleeps

11.00 pm

Heidi sleeps

Suppertime for me

11.30pm

I rest

2.30 am, 4.30am, 6.30am

Heidi wakes up at these hours or sleeps through some while having more milk

Sharp nails no more

Heidi's nails have grown incredibly long and sharp in her first 30 days of life. Already one month, I took the pleasure to cut them off. Heidi does not have to wear mittens all day long. We can now see her moving her little fingers and she wasted no time to try them out by pulling my hair. At Great World City Foodcourt, we found her sleeping in the pram holding our shopping bag. Such a cute sight but my camera was not in sight. = (

Time with Heidi

Having two kids mean one parent has to spend more time with one kid and less with another. In our case, Boon Heng is the main caregiver of Oliver's. Only when Oliver is in school that we find opportunities like this, a picture of Boon Heng and Heidi.

Heidi is a little screamer

And guess she inherits the gene from who? Of course not me, please. Big mouth does not equate to Big Screamer.

More about Heidi

As much as I hate to compare Oliver and Heidi, but the only way to describe Heidi is probably to compare the differences between them...

Heidi can drink better and hence I got to sleep more = ) Yet Heidi likes to make little sounds when she is sleeping and even when she is contented. Her voice is sharp and she has higher pitch than Oliver (of course since Oliver is a boy and Heidi a girl). But Heidi can cry really loud and scream when her needs are not met. I think she will probably be the fierce one around the house.

How is Heidi?

This is the question most of my friends asked as some of them knew the "difficulties" I faced with Oliver when he was a baby. And I am really glad to say experiences with Oliver really help me in coping with the demands as a mother. But perhaps it is still too early to tell as for now, I still have the luxury of confinement lady to help me look after Heidi through the night, although I have to wake up to nurse Heidi. An extra pair of hands can make a lot of difference.

5 more days and Auntie Yong (my confinement lady) will leave for the comfort of her home. She is the same confinement lady I had for Oliver's too. She is happy-go-lucky, a TV addict, a regular buyer of 4D and toto, a caring wife, and has a special affinity with babies. The thought of me alone with Oliver for 3 months still scares me. Now, it will be Heidi and I for another 4 months.

Oliver calling Heidi

If there's one thing good about the name Heidi, it's that Oliver, by his standard, can pronounce it very accurately. He quite likes Heidi, and will look for her and sayang her. Sometimes late at night when he's about to sleep, which is quite irritating.

However, Oliver don't really allow Sophia to carry Heidi, and will want to cling to Sophia whenever he sees her doing so. The only way to pull him away is to ask him if he wants to go out for a walk.

Heidi & Oliver

Can you tell who is who?

Meet Heidi

Heidi weighs 2.705 kg and measures 48 cm in height

Heidi has arrived!

At 10:01 on 2 September 2008, Heidi said hi to this world.

Finally, Chinese Name of Heidi's ...

周家恩

Week 37 ( 25 to 31 Aug)

Already 2 1/2 cm dilated

After the scheduled check on Tuesday, Dr KT Tan said I was 2 1/2cm dilated. Gosh, what does it actually mean? Am I going to due the very day or the next or the week after. She took me by surprise when she asked me to choose a date for delivery. Why wasn't it supposed to let nature take it own course? Or rather what people call, a natural birth? You mean I have to be induced, I asked Dr. Yes was the answer. She said that I had GBS (Group B Strep) and baby can get infection, and so I had to be given antibiotics before delivery. All these took me by surprise. Why didn't the Dr Tan say all these earlier? I don't even know what is GBS. Then everything happened so fast before I knew what to ask, the nurse asked me to discuss the due date with my husband outside and let them know.

It was really quite tough not knowing how to base our decision on. Is there a need to induce? Is GBS that serious that requires me to undergo IV antibiotics. They raced through my mind but we had no answer. In the end, we just choose 2 Sep as it was the next scheduled appointment date, and since 1 Sep is teacher's day, it will be boring for Heidi to celebrate her birthday together with her teachers.. unless she becomes a teacher one day. haha. We were thinking that Heidi might come before 2 Sep because 2 1/2 cm dilation seems to us at that point of time a very big deal.

It is already the third day after checkup and Heidi is still happily wriggling in the womb. She is now 37 weeks old and considered a full-term baby. Oliver was delivered at 37 weeks. We shall see if Heidi is the more patient one.

I forgot to mention that in fact, I was the impatient one and wanted to have Heidi delivered on 29 August. Called the hospital for changes, but "no, you can't change it to 29 August" was the reply and 2 Sep shall be the D-day.

As eager as I hope to see Heidi, I cannot imagine having to go through the same ordeal of giving birth. One thing which I comfort myself with is that the second one is always faster.. according to all experienced mothers. Thanks for that..

Week 36

Heidi has an estimated weight of 2.7 kg at the check up today

& my cervix is 1 cm dilated

Not so early please...

Coming Soon...

7th Month Pregnant

Week 27

Heidi is now the size of cauliflower.

Heidi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi

Week 24 - Heidi is the size of a corn

Heidi Chew or Brigette Chew?

Shall this be it?

Heidi Chew

But many more people choose this ...

Brigette Chew

Cordlife vs. Stemcord

It is time again to decide whether we should store our baby's cord blood. Right now in Singapore, there are three organisations storing cord blood - Singapore Cordblood Bank, Cordlife and Stemcord.

For storing of cordblood in the Singapore Cordblood Bank is free, but the bank does not retain the cordblood for the owner. It can be used for any one who needs it. As for Cordlife and Stemcord, we can but have to pay for the storage fee besides the first time payment for the lab test and extraction. So to play safe, we decided to pay in case one of these days our kids really need it.

After thinking through, I still decided to choose Cordlife due to its accreditation to AABB. Health is something money cannot buy.

Will She look like this?

We are gonna have a little girl

Week 21 - An Exciting Week

I am getting really excited this week as I will get to know our baby is going to be a boy or girl. Tommorrow will be the detailed check up and the secret will be out after 4 months of waiting. For the last 3 weeks, I could feel my body getting very big in size. I ain't so conscious until I looked at the photograph taken at Fort Canning Hill. My thighs are unbelievably fat. Yucks! I only hope that I will be able to get back into shape after giving birth.

Sinus Congestion

I have been having sinus for the longest time. Even before I am expecting, those polytechnic days with congested nose and teary eyes has made a nasty comeback. The air is really bad in Singapore. And the sinus does not seem to get better when I got pregnant. I remember my health condition was in peak form when I was carrying Oliver. Not this time round. Perhaps I had not taken good care of myself during the confinement period, or perhaps, I am two years older now. Or, according to the book on pregnancy, it is due to the high levels of estrogen and progesterone circulating in the body that bring increased blood flow to the mucous membranes of my nose, causing them to soften and swell - just the same as the cervix does in preparation for childirth. And I am expecting this stuffiness to actually get worse before it gets better. And lucky for me, some will actually get a nosebleed. Hope not.

Guess the Sex of Little Baby Chew

" girl "

Boon Heng (Before his dream, otherwise it has always an affirmative boy)

Yuen Yuen

Karen Chiew

Laura

Siti

" boy "

Gina

Karen Ho

Week 17 Check Up

The Private Suite at KKH

The Waiting...

The Yawn

... not because of the waiting , but after we ate the delicious Bah Kut Teh

The Bulging Nose...

that sense my taking pictures of him only now

my weight ... 54.5 kg

I had my scheduled checkup this week. I was happy to have my checkup done at The Private Suite and not Clinic B. Clinic B is relatively cheaper, but definitely the wait was longer and the atmosphere less cosy.

The process goes like that...

I went to the Counter to register myself. Suffering from forgetfulness and double the dosage this time round, I had forgotten to bring my appointment book. This had never happened during my first prenancy. Next, the nurse asked me to go for my routine testing. The routine testing required me to pee on a paper stick with three indications of colours. Once again, I was being myself again, asking the nurse what colours I should look out for. I remembered that Green indicated high glucose level, but thought I just wanted to make sure. The nurse confirmed that my pea-sized brain still remember it correctly, but I was slightly irritated when she asked (quite nicely) if I was a first-timer. Gosh, is it just me or an erratic moodswing caused by the surge of hormone ?

I waited for about 20 minutes for my turn. The check lasted less than 10 minutes, as expected. Dr KT Tan usually asked how you were feeling. My answer would be good, and I would retreat to the corner of her room where the bed and scan machine were. Once again, I have to remind Dr Tan that I wanted a copy of the scan picture. I wonder why she could not just give to her patient automatically. Wouldn't most mothers ask for it?

I love looking at the scan picture. The baby legs were all cramped up here. Sorry, cannot give you the breaking news of the sex of the baby. But no harm for you to start thinking what you want to give me during the baby shower. haha.

Comparing the scan picture with Oliver, Little Baby Chew seems to have sharper chin and more prominent nose. Alright, you must be thinking I am ridiculous to even say that the nose is more prominent... that's maternal instinct, mind you... haha