One Month - from hairy to hair-less

Yes, finally the confinement is over. Life as a princess is over and tomorrow I will be back to being like a 'headless' fly. I wonder how am I going to cope with having to taking care of 3 boys (hubby included). Having the replacement for confinement lady also meant that I am less of being a princess. Like I said, she is not very good in time management. So I took less nap and woke up more at night to make sure baby is in good hand. Maybe it is me being paranoid. But it seems to be a warm up for the up-coming days of sleepless nights!!

Having said that, Lian Je did introduced the miracle 'Bao Ying Dan' for my baby. Having tried the colic drops and all, my baby still seems to be quite restless at night and sometimes even day time. He kept wanting people to carry him and make hell of a noise even when he suckles as if he suffers great pain. After taking the powdery medicine (to mix with water), he slept quite ok for 2 nights and then the grumpiness starts kicking in again.

Lian Je said it could probably be 'Ah-tap-chai', which means to say the internal body of the baby is very 'hot'. So she took some flour and mix with water and rub it on baby's shoulder, miraculously the mixture dried up and I could see something like mini 'stalagmites' on the skin. Lian Je asked if I want to 'eliminate' the heat. She said no harm done, just rubbing flour only. Well, just like baking cake, I thought, no harm done kua. I started calling MIL and SIL for 'consultation' and 'green light'. With the permissions, there we go-preparing some flour, warm water, a shaver. What? A shaver??!! YES, a SHAVER!! Once the 'stalagmite' got stiffen, it needs to be SHAVED off, not plugged off because it would be very painful for the baby ( I could imagine that). Weird.

So with a mat, she rubbed the flour and water to baby's whole body except the head and face. For Jung, the heat area seemed to be his hairy area - his back and limps. After the rubbing session, baby was put in a bathing tub with warm water. Lian Je then applied baby lotion on his body and started shaving his body. So instead of shaving his hair on his head (a traditional way of marking a one month old baby), we are shaving his body hair!! OMG! Well, did I mentioned that my baby is actually quite hairy when he was born?? Oh, so sayang to see his 'identity' being shaved off actually......:(

The thing is, I was expecting baby to cry and scream on top of his lung for this, but strangely, he seems to be enjoying the rubbing, the shaving and the bathing!!

He now sleeps better with occasional colic. I am so thankful for having Lian Je for this. But still, I wonder why baby is so colicky since he is breast-fed all the time. Maybe he is not burped properly la. Anyway, a lot of people said after a month, the baby should be ok and more easy to handle.

I CERTAINLY hope so.

They Click-ed

Well, remember my story about the new coming confinement lady?

She (Lian Je) is ok. Well, she is not as good as my first CL but better than the one I had with Jien and I know she is better of compared to a lot of CLs out there. The best is - she clicks with my maid. That is at least something that I needed now since my POOR lil maid needs a bit of CONSOLATION.

She is not as good in time management compared to my first CL and not quite good in handling my baby - maybe my baby is the problem since he is already few weeks old now - probably is growing to become more demanding!! :P But she is definitely a very friendly and very accommodating lady.

She is a Hainanese. Hence her cooking reminds me a lot of my mom - VERY Hainanese. She also cook Western food for me. I had fish fillet the other day with fries and my son loves the fries! Today she is going to cook curry chicken for us. I bet it will taste like my mom's cooking again! kekeke....

Well, for those who are still thinking of getting babies or already get it accidentally and want good confinement ladies, the contacts are here :

My first CL : Kei Je from Kepong, HP : 016 3088119 ......MY BEST CHOICE!
My second CL : Lian Je from Seremban HP : 016 2000868
My previous CL (for Jien confinement) : Aunt Yan Ping from Sekinchan HP : 012 6443561

Jaundice

-----Jung with Blue Lite home-phototherapy

Just like his brother, Jung has jaundice too. But since we are well prepared this time around, we are more calm and hence we don't have to go through the dramas at the hospital.

Now, for parents who are 'ignorant' or have no idea what jaundice is, let me share with you these:

• Other name for jaundice is 'yellow fever' (though no fever), 'sakit kuning'

• HOW it happens? Something to do with excess bilirubin in the red blood cell, baby's liver is slow at getting rid of them. Google for more details.

• HOW to gauge if my baby got jaundice? How to observe? SKIN. If you press lightly at the skin near baby's chest area, notice the GOLDEN yellow print which fades of very slowly. Also at the face area, especially around the eyes- yellowish instead of the cutie cute pink flush. Also, if your baby sleeps more, waking less to drink (normal new born - every 2 hourly), be alarmed. Jaundice babies are SLEEPY babies. ASIAN babies tend to have a higher statistics to have jaundice.
  

• HOW does baby get rid of it?

..Naturally : Depending on how fast his body(liver) get rid of the bilirubin - via poo poo and wee wee, jaundice normally peaks at the 8th-day and then trailing off slowly. So doctors will normally advice mothers to breast feed more as baby tends to poo poo more if breast fed.
..Having said that, if the reading is high (from blood test)and reduce at a very low pace, it could be best to put off breast feeding for a while (mothers-don't forget to express milk so that the milk supply continues..) and feed your baby formula. Formula has more sugar to absorb the 'yellow'.
..If not serious, start sun-bathing baby in the morning before 9am everyday starting day 3.
..If you consider it serious, have a blood test at the hospital to confirm at day 3 or day 4. DO NOT procrastinate.
..Exposing baby to Blue Light. You can rent the machine here at http://www.bluelite.com.my. Ask your doctor for advise. If the reading is too high, baby may need to be hospitalized for monitoring. (that is when as first time parents, you would have your heart wrenching moments seeing the baby being poked few times a day for blood test!! Ahhhh!!!!)

• If your MIL or mother says 'Aiya, no worries la, the yellow will go away eventually..!!' Don't listen to them. Yes, most babies will have some level of yellowness but if you don't feel easy, have a blood test. A high reading of bilirubin can cause deafness and cerebral palsy (brain damage)!! NO JOKE.
  

My Jien used to have jaundice too. The problem with him is he was still very ACTIVE and suckled very often!! But when we went earlier for check up, his reading was 400++ !

My advice for mothers : Try not to makan gingers and all the jamu, herbs whatever for the first 8 days after delivery. Just eat your normal food and observe your lil one closely. :)

When You Have More than 2 Women in 1 House...

It is not easy to keep 2 women happy in one house. Me and my maid, we are ok. But that being said, I am always the one to pass comment and so 'sir' in the house is always the better and nice person la...And so the saying of having a lady boss is always more 'complicated'.....

But when you have 2 'maids' in a house, that could be more chaotic. I am not having 2 maids to be clear, but I do have a confinement lady (CL) at home now. Being a more senior person, she has her comments and she wants certain things to be done her way, maybe (being the more relaxed me, I have shy away from the kitchen and work for quite some time). My maid pulak, having another person to cook and wash makes her a bit relaxed too; from observing and washing the dishes, she literally forget to help cook the rice and prepare Jien's dishes, hoping that autie CL's dishes will just be it (CL told me this). Poor Jien has to eat take in all the wine and gingery food, ahhaha!! I watched all these drama unfold but I zipped my lips to see what will happen next.

One fine day, lunch time. My maid was sitting in the living room (not helping out in the kitchen) when I woke up from my morning nap with baby. Auntie CL was preparing lunch and brought it to the dining table for me. She said the noodle was not enough for all, so she said asked your maid to maybe fry her own fried rice since there are left over rice last night. Fair enough I thought. Since CL is not supposed to cook for others except for mommy and baby. After lunch, I saw my maid weeping in the kitchen. Then, at the balcony. Ever so reluctant to 'bump' and have eye contact with anyone. She did not help out for dinner as expected but did clean and tidied up the kitchen before she went to bed.

I confronted her the next day when I found a chance to do so. I asked her if there is anything happened back home in the Phillipines. She kept silence. I asked her if it was auntie CL? She kept mum but I could see tears rolled down on her cheeks. She said nevermind. I pressed on for more details but she kept quite still. I then explained to her that aunt CL will only be here for a month, whatever it is, try to face it happily instead. Look at the bright side, aunt CL is so experienced, she should grab the chance to talk to her and learn from her. They were ok actually for the 1st week initially. Something must be wrong some where and I believe is trivial and just misunderstanding. If just the 'lunch' thingy, my maid is just too sensitive and should realise that she SHOULD actually be cooking for herself this whole month!!

Then, I could sensed that she is more relieved. At least, she is back in the kitchen to help and sort of 'back to the normal' herself. *smack-head*

Aunt CL did told me that we actually spoilt our maid too much. Maybe we did.

Anyway, this good aunt will leave me this Saturday and would be replaced with another aunt. Not that she is not good enough but she got a client who delivers a good 10 days earlier in Singapore and no one wants to replace her for 2 weeks there. So instead, she has to get somebody to replace her HERE. She told me this earlier on and she hoped that this client of her would not call earlier but she did!! Anyway, I thought this could be a solution to the 'women' problem in the house la, at least!! I trust aunt to give me a good replacement and I know she would still call me when she comes back and we could still enjoy her cooking one of these days!! :P

By the way, tonight I will have 2 confinement ladies, 1 maid plus myself - 4 women in the house!! I wonder what happen next? Hahahah!!

My elder sweetheart

Jien was behaving marvelously great during our stay in the hospital for delivery. On the day when baby was born, he was there to see his brother for the first time that very evening. We all thought that he would be shy and hiding himself. But hey, no! He was quite excited and he knew that THIS IS MY DIDI (younger brother)!

We prepared some presents (play dough) for Jien, telling him that they were from baby Jung. He was so happy and he is now playing with it every day. In fact, few times a day now. We also asked him to present a tiny teddy bear gift to his brother which he gladly did. Like most boys, he is a bit rough. Wanting to squeeze his brother hands and feet la, knocking himself on baby's head la....but all in all, he kisses and sayang his brother most of the time.

He watched his little brother suckling and even mimicking me saying 'Baby, open mouth big BIG!'

We also thought that co-sleeping in a room would be problematic. YES, we all have to squeeze into ONE SINGLE room. But quite miraculously, both the boys can accomodate each other. One try hard not to cry loud and the other try not to wake himself up (Jien is a very light sleeper). Even if he did wake up, he did not cry, he just ask for water and would go back to sleep.

Papa, I think we are SO BLESSED. :)

p/s : Jien does sometimes behaving oddly though, but still tolerable. Papa, just calm down and reason with him lor. :P

Life of a Princess

Confinement period indeed is a wonderful time to recuperate and rest (aka put on weight). How not to? My breakfasts / lunches / tea / dinner are put on the table ever ready to serve. After meals, I just have to leave the table, sit and rest. Sleep is always a MUST. I am not supposed to do any house chores, just rest and sleep!

One week had past and I really have no complaint of my confinement lady. Maybe this time around, I have a maid, a good maid who probably help clean up any mess done by CL (if any) or maybe this time around, I am more relaxed. (aka shut one eye).

Being second time around as a mother, I am more familiar with things that I need to do and want it done my way. So I told my CL beforehand. I also somehow can 'let go' of my baby and let CL takes care of him at night, only waking me up at time he needs feedings. That way, I can rest better and also spend time for Jien (sorry, hubby- lucky we went for a couple of pak toh sessions before this eh?? :P)

But having said that, she is a wonderful lady. She is very experienced. She had the experience as a nanny, a trainer for confinement lady and, for early born babies, she spent time in the hospital with them. So she can handle cup-feed well. I love all her yummy cooking. She hardly repeat any of the recipes and she makes sure the presentation goes well too! The food is normally colourful and she prepare deserts sometimes too. She does not give me that kind of sleepy look if I wake her up (if baby sleeps with me) to clean baby in the middle of the night. She is ever so patient and cheerful. My baby just sleep or snug quietly in her arms. That means I can take my own sweet time in the toilet or have my meals or like now - blogging.

She just prepared a surprise western lunch for me this afternoon after a week of Chinese confinement foody. See? I am just SO LUCKY :)

p/s: I quickly gobbled up some portion before I took the picture, not that she prepares it that way!! Jien was happy too this afternoon cause he could help himself with the fries!! :)