Yearly Archives

2012

not feeling so supermom

All bugged out

September 6, 2012

Kirsten came home with a nasty flu bug on Monday and she’s been spreading it around like the Ebola virus. The moment she started sniffling, I tried to keep Finn away from her but she’s fiercely possessive about her little brother.

I told her she wasn’t supposed to kiss him or touch him or breathe near him until she got better, which prompted a complete meltdown.

“I just…*sob* want to…*sob* kiss baby Finn…*more sobbing* because I love him so much,” as she melted into the floor.

“Ok, drama queen. I know you love baby Finn, which is why you can’t go near him because you’ll make him sick.”

“But I…need to sayang him…*sob* promise, just one time only.”

“You can blow him a flying kiss from across the room, sweetheart. Baby Finn misses you too.”

Despite our best efforts to keep him isolated, my 9-day-old has also caught the flu bug. Just as the husband and I came down with it as well. I think it would be an understatement to say that the madness around here has multiplied exponentially.

It’s heartbreaking when newborns fall ill because they’re so small and vulnerable. The poor boy’s nose is all clogged up and he can’t breathe so he spends whatever time he’s not crying making awful grunting and snorting noises. And because he can’t breathe, he struggles at every feed, gasping for air in between gulps of milk.

There isn’t much I can do to make him feel better, except carry him to keep him upright and offer my boobs for comfort. Well, at least the boobs seem to calm him down. He suckles for a few minutes, then falls asleep so I pat him on my shoulder to help him breathe.

Like Lionel Ritchie, all night long.

I feel like I’m going to pass out from exhaustion.

After his feed at like 3-ish last night, he had a particularly bad screaming fit. Every position I tried carrying him in didn’t seem comfortable. 20 minutes in, his face was all red and blotchy from all that yelling. He was grabbing my shirt with one of his tiny fists and he suddenly stopped and opened his eyes to look at me. Then he slowly closed them back and drifted off to sleep. After that, he slept for the next 4 hours. And so did I.

That’s 4 whole hours. 240 minutes. I haven’t slept for 4 hours straight since he was born.

Honestly, best. sleep. ever.

by
giveaways reviews ads, literally a crappy post

An overdose of poop

September 4, 2012

One of the remarkable things about newborns is the regularity and frequency with which they poop. Like about 8-10 times a day to be exact. Every time I check, there’s almost always a fresh batch baking in the oven.

Finn has set a new record because it’s just 7 days in and I’ve already had to catch poop with my hands twice. When there’s a stream of poop coming right at you midway through a diaper change, there’s no time to think about options. You reach out and block what you can to contain the damage. It was either that or letting it land all over my clothes. Obviously, I choose hands.

With this level of pooping frequency, it’s important to choose the right diaper. Finn has been wearing the new Drypers Soft diapers since he was born and it’s really quite an improvement from the previous version.

Here are some of the things I look for in a newborn diaper.

1. Softness. Everything about a newborn is so babysoft and the last thing you want is to have their bottom chafed by a diaper. Now the Drypers Soft range is exactly that – soft. And cushy. And a little fluffy.

2. Absorbency. It’s a no brainer, unless you want to be cleaning up leaks several times a day. The best part is, not only is it absorbent, there’s a specially designed Stool Lock System TM to draw and secure loose stool away from baby’s skin so just in case I forget a diaper change, most of the poop is stuck to the diaper and not his bottom. I don’t know how that works, but it works.

3. Multiple Fastening tape. Like the Drypers Wee Wee DRY range, the new version of Drypers Soft now come with a Flexi-Tape TM that allows multiple fastening. It’s easy to check his poop status and refasten if it’s all clear. More importantly, removing the tape is quick and quiet so he doesn’t get startled with each diaper change.

4. Design. Ok, this is completely frivolous but a nice design just makes it look extra pretty. Like this.

by
travel

Let’s go to Legoland!

September 3, 2012

After 2.5 years, the husband makes a return as a guest blogger. The official reason is because he was my editorial rep on a visit to Legoland with the kids (the 2 big ones). The unofficial reason has more to do with me phoning it in and making him do work while I lie down for a nap. 

So despite the wife’s attempts to secure a covert last minute exit to Malaysia a week after giving birth, we all decided it made sense for her not to travel. Being the dutiful husband, I was thus assigned volunteered to bring the kids down to the media preview of Legoland on Saturday.

For those of you thinking of driving down, a quick word – DO IT.  It’s just a 15min drive from the Tuas checkpoint, and with hardly any traffic along the way we made it there in slightly over an hour. Of course if you’re the sort that gets panicky with with road names like Jalan Persimuang Berhenti Muas 1/125, you might wanna plot the address into your GPS or something but either way getting there is pretty much a breeze.

When we arrived we were quickly ushered into a world where everything was literally put together, Lego brick by brick.

Now I don’t know your thoughts on Lego as a toy but wading through a darkened room littered with Lego bricks is akin to an ancient Chinese torture for belligerent parents. It was really nice to see them all properly set in their place in the form of Lego architecture and OH WOW THAT’S THE MERLION.

Apparently, over 50 million Lego bricks have been used to build the models, and it shows – the attention to detail is simply remarkable. More than once I had to stop the kids from attempting to yank the miniature figurines from the various recreated cities; heck, even I wanted to steal the Taj Majal below but settled for a picture instead.

On to the rides and attractions, and there were plenty. Legoland Malaysia boasts over 40 attractions and many of them suitable for the younger ones. With Kirsten, height limit was always going to be an issue but I’m happy to report that she made it for quite a few. Usually when I bring the kids out I do the  “Are you having fun?” check but I think it was quite evident from her whooping (“WOAH THAT WAS GREAT, DADDY! YIPPEE!”) and frantic waving after every single ride.

Oh, and a big shout out to the very encouraging instructors at the Junior Driving school who egged Kirsten on after a shaky start. She got so good at it after five rides she was waving at me as she drove past with one hand on the steering wheel.

Being the adrenaline junkie that he was, Truett was clamoring for roller-coasters after the umpteenth horse-ride (seen above) which he complained was ‘very, very very slow.’ The boy has seemingly, and rather unfortunately, picked up my penchant for exaggerating stuff. Anyhow,  we manage to find one at Lego Kingdoms and six loops later he was beaming with a satisfied grin and an Edwardian hairstyle to boot.

I have to make a special mention for the Lego Build & Test Centre. This is like a builder’s workshop of sorts; you’re handed a set of wheels at the entrance and there are working tables and benches with a variety of Lego bricks strewn all around. Pick a spot and you can just go on to build your own vehicles. There’re even tracks provided with automated launch mechanisms so you can race your prototype against others.

After the brief respite from the blazing heat in the airconditioned Build & Test Centre, we ventured out again and decided to take up the noble task of firefighting.

The station marshalers spiced things up a little by pitting us against three other families in a bit of a competition. There’s a sequence to it; first you’ve got to pump this hydraulic thingee in the vehicle to drive the fire engine towards the house. Once there you dash out of the fire engine, grab a hose, put out the ‘fire’ with sprayed water from aforementioned hose, head back into the fire engine, and pump hydraulic thingamajig to return fire engine to base. First one back to base wins bragging rights.

We did emerge fourth which I suppose wasn’t too bad, with two tots in tow. There were only four lanes, though.

Towards the end of the day we started to wrap up by slowing things down a little. We caught a couple of 4D shows – ‘Spellbinder’ is pretty good – and took our taking our time just exploring the sights and sounds. In between the various zones were carnival booths like this, and the kids had a great time doing a bit of fishing on a extra large version of a toy every child of the 80s should be familiar with.

We spent close to eight hours at the park and while doing a bit of research writing this post I realized we’d only covered about half the park or so! Some of the rides weren’t quite ready at the point of completion and the rest, we missed out just because of the sheer size of the park. Does that warrant a trip back up any time soon? Hell yeah, but the next time I’ll be bringing my sunglasses along and slapping on generous dollops of sunscreen- the kids and I are 50 shades darker from the expedition.

by
Finn, not feeling so supermom

Soldiering on

August 31, 2012

Day 5 postpartum.

I’m in the twilight zone – my days and nights have fused into one giant ball of sleeplessness.

I’ve forgotten how exhausting it is to take care of a newborn. I keep hearing infant-crying noises in my head, and it turns out that 90% of them are real, which at this point is possibly worse than hearing imaginary crying sounds.

The postnatal blues is not helping either. It’s not nearly as bad as the first 2 kids and I was mentally prepared for it but it’s still tough to deal with sometimes.

Days like these, I get through each day by reminding myself to be thankful. And not just a perfunctory “ok, let’s be thankful” but to spend time focusing on all the things I’ve got to be grateful for.

1. Finn is healthy and growing well. Every time he cries, it’s a reminder that God gave him to us and he’s everything that we could have asked for.

2. Truett and Kirsten are amazing older siblings. They kiss him and pat him and cuddle him whenever he’s awake. It’s a real joy to watch.

3. The return of Superdad. He’s always been super but with the new baby, he seems to have leveled up his powers. He takes the 2 bigger kids off my hands, helps out with Finn, does the chores and spends whatever time he has left doing actual work. Then at the end of every day, he gives me a hug and tells me that everything is going to be ok.

4. My mom and my mom-in-law have been a tremendous help, taking care of the cooking, cleaning, and being around to watch the kids.

5. The benefit of experience. Knowing that the madness is temporary and things will get better in a couple of weeks.

by
Finn

We’re home!

August 29, 2012

We’re back home from the hospital, thanks for all the well-wishes and lovely emails!

Baby Finn is doing really well and the two bigger kids are having a lot of fun examining him like he’s a strange new specimen. It’s a little surreal now that we’ve got 3 kids and the reality of it is finally sinking in.

Exciting times ahead.

So the birth story. It’s pretty much the same story as millions of other births but I’ll tell it anyway.

On Sunday night, I started getting a little crampish right around dinner time. I wasn’t sure if it was another false alarm and since the contractions were still intermittent, I left it alone and went to watch the National Day Rally, waiting for a more definitive sign. It must have been a very powerful speech by our Prime Minister because by the time it ended, the contractions were down to 6 minutes apart and increasingly painful. A sign that it was time to head for the hospital.

Remember how I was planning for a medication-free birth? I had a whole list of pain management techniques that I’d been practicing, like hissing, deep breathing, yoga poses, exercise ball bounces and slow stretches.

Most of them required some mobility but because I had a previous c-section, the risk of uterine rupture meant that I had to be hooked up to a CTG monitor and put on a drip, ready for an emergency c-section if the baby started showing signs of distress. Which meant that I was confined to the bed throughout the entire labor process and all I could do was hiss and breathe. Ok, FYI, those are the 2 most useless techniques, trust me.

At 11pm, the pain was about a level 8 and after 2 hours of hissing, I was rolling around on the gurney, about to unleash every profanity in the English language, as well as some in Hokkien. In between contractions, the nurse looked at me kindly and asked if I wanted epidural.

“Not yet, I’m going to hold out for a little longer,” was my reply.

“It’s a Sunday night, so if you decide not to, we won’t get the anesthetist and you’ll have to go all the way without it.”

“Ok, just give me 5 minutes to think.”

*BAM, the next wave of contractions*

“NURSE!! GIVE ME THE EPIDURAL NOW!!!!”

“We’ll call the anesthetist, but it will take about 30 minutes for him to arrive. You just hang in there.”

30 MINUTES?? For a woman who is in labor, 30 minutes is a LONG TIME. That’s 10 rounds of contractions at 3 minutes apart. That’s how zombies get started, y’all. Ever wonder how patient zero happens? It’s probably a nurse who gets her face bitten off by a woman in labor told to wait 30 minutes for her epidural.

Thankfully he managed to arrive in 20 and after I got my epidural, it was all good. I could even relax and watch a movie while waiting for the labor to progress.

I was a little bummed that I couldn’t go medication-free but my gynae looked at me with all his years of wisdom and said, “It’s not the way to prove your worth as a mom. You get to do that after your child is born.” That made me feel so much better.

Finally, at 3.25am, baby Finn was born, looking all wrinkly and squishy. But he was ours and he was perfect.

by
coolest kids ever, kids in motion

Serial planker

August 24, 2012

A big part of parenting is being able to identify your kids’ talents and develop them at a young age.

Sometimes, these talents are obvious, like an angelic voice or fancy footwork. Other times, they’re less apparent and it takes a bit of effort to discover them. In some cases, it may not even look like a real talent at all and that’s where some foresight is required.

Truett’s special ability: planking.

We’re not quite sure how this started because we’ve never introduced the concept of planking to him but one day, he just walked up to a ledge and started doing it. He planks in the car, at McDonald’s, at the pool, on sofas, on a plane…pretty much on every surface he can find. To date, he’s planked on at least 30 different surfaces in 3 countries.

And you may think that planking is so 2011, but synchronized swimming is so 1900 and people are still doing it for some bizarre reason.

To develop this unique talent, we’re on a mission to complete the Green Eggs and Ham checklist.

Could he do it on a boat?
Could he do it with a goat?
Could he do it in the rain?
Could he do it on a train?
Or in the dark? Or in a tree?
Or in a car? Or at the sea?
Could he do it in a box?
Could he do it with a fox?
Could he do it in a house?
Could he do it with a mouse?
Could he do it here or there?
Could he do it ANYWHERE?

Why yes, yes he can.

by