M.Sc in analysing poop

"Newborn babies don’t do much. They cry and sleep. They gaze around some. They eat and spit-up. They pee and poop."

- taken from http://www.pediascribe.com/20060705/baby-poop-what-new-parents-need-to-know/

How true! Our little astronaut did not poop for 3 days when he was brought back from the hospital, and Selene and I were wondering if everything was ok. Then 2 days ago, he pooped for the first time and everyone cheered! This morning, he pooped 3 times in a row within 2 hours (from 0530 to 0730), then pooped again at 1130. The consistency changed to much more watery compared to the previous days.

So off I go to search the internet and do my research for my M.Sc in poop and got a million answer. Bottom line? I think we will just monitor for a day or so. It may look a little like diarrhea to me, but then again, some websites says it's ok. Hmm...

Oh, and one more thing, his little umbilical cord stump seems dried up. This morning while cleaning him there was a little dried blood around the area. Hope that everything is ok...

The price of parenthood?

*NOTE: JUST TREAT THIS AS SOME NONSENSE BLABBERING BY A MOTHER WHO HAS NOT BEEN RESTING WELL, AND HENCE.. NOT THINKING WELL. READ THE BLOGS BY THE FATHER WHICH ARE PROBABLY HAPPIER BLOGS*


Finally managed to sneak some time out for myself today, and decided to come online. And guess what, looks like Daddy Gee has been blogging much more than me! Caught red handed!
The past 3 days (Actually this was where I managed to blog to 3 days after our little prince came into our life. And I was supposed to have blogged this entry together with some of the pictures that we took, but think Papa Gee got fed up with my procrastination..and decided to do it himself) So let me try to start this blog entry again.....

THE PAST 8 DAYS ;) seemed to have just wheezed by so quickly, despite the fact that we had so little sleep every night...or virtually no sleep every night... so theoretically, we did have much more "awake" hours. And I must say, it has really not been easy... trying to cope with the physical healing from the birth, and more challengingly, the responsibilities of parenthood...and in a way, I somewhat feel I have lost my entire self over this period, and all I do now is to focus on the baby.... BF, catering to his every single need.... sometimes I think I don't even remember how I was like before...what I liked to do for MYSELF..and maybe only the mothers reading this can truly understand what I am going through... And as I look and think ahead.. I really don't know whether I will be able to break out of this cycle.... and I am hoping that all these negative thoughts and feelings are occuring because of my lack of rest.. and maybe some other issues..

Ok, don't intend my first blog after birth to be so gloomy actually... but prob because I have no photos to post...so ended up just taking this as a de-stresser...

And I am counting down to 12 days after birth.. because theoretically.. I can BATHE after that... (ACtually I have been quite nottie and have already taken bathes..I mean the #@$#@$@ weather is so hot!) So for those who are visiting me... don't worry..I won't STINK! ;)

Sooooooo tired...

The little astronaut has turned from the little angel into the little devil. Can never seem to understand what's on his mind! He sleeps throughout the day and stays awake throughout the night. Both Selene and I are thoroughly shacked out over the last few days (which also explains why the blogs have not been updated for some time).

Now, his new "pattern" is that he will feed on the breast for 5 mins then fall asleep on the breast! When we try to move him to sleep, he will start crying again and will only stop when we put him back to the breast. This on/off war will usually leave 2-3 hours per feed. By the time he is done, we are exhausted already and he will start the next round of war within the next hour. Really dunno what to do with him.

Daddy and baby catching their well deserved sleep after a typical war...

In the last few days, he's also starting to peel like a crocodile. At first it started off with a little, now the whole baby is starting to peel and the whole floor, our clothes, etc. are all his dead skin! Baby lotion seems to make the problem worse so we have decided to let nature take its own course.

See, the little angel is so cute when he's just doing what he is supposed to do, i.e., sleep!

More pictures and updates

Since the baby is sleeping, took the opportunity to find time to update the blog.

Baby taking his dose of suntan-ing. Looks like he's enjoying himself on the balcony!

Beautiful double eyelids are starting to show!

Went to the PD today for his check up. He is having borderline jaundice and expecting to the yellow-ness is expected to climb further these few days and peak between day 7-10. We are supposed to monitor his skin colour and go back to the PD if it turns more yellowish.

He was crying non-stop at the clinic, so mummy fed him some milk. So nottie, see his pouty look after the feed.

Ah, the sleeping angel. He's so cute when he doesn't cry!

The little rascal

Day 2 now, his face is evolving as the time passes. He's developing double eyelids (surprising to us, since both Selene and I have hidden double eyelids that cannot be seen usually). The ears are started to "pop out" after being folded (probably due to the squeezing thru the birth canal).

These days he's crying more than usual, my mum and Selene kept saying that he's hungry and demanded to feed formula! Dunno if next time he will get used to the "comfort" of the bottle and stay off the breast, sigh.

Will try to take some pictures of his beautiful double eyelids sometime soon. ;-)

Pictures and updates!

Took some opportunities earlier in the day to take more pictures.

Me looking confident and suave with the baby!!
Daddy is such a bore...

Oh no! Daddy strangling me becoz I complain abt him being boring!!

Ah, so contented!

Finally got discharged and came home. Baby was crying becoz he was hungry, so we supplemented with some formula milk. Both our parents decided to take leave to see the baby so the house is really crowded and lively! Selene is taking some time off to sleep since she had hardly rested. For me, should be the same tempo as her loh, i.e., will need to wake with her when necessary. Instead of sleeping here I am blogging, aiyoh... ;-)

I'm getting into the fatherhood mood liao!

First day of parenthood

Finally got out of all of the excitement and getting down to having some time to ourselves and the baby. The day has been hectic for everyone and actually realised that both Selene and I hardly had any sleep since last night. It's tiring as hell and Selene is now catching precious sleep as she has to wake up every 3 hrs to feed the baby.

Realised that I can never get bored looking at our little bundle of joy. He's just so full of expressions and I can just literally look at him for hours! His face is also evolving over time. Just look at the difference of just 1 day!

Immediately after he is born: face looks bluish still and head is elongated. Bruised on the cheeks, probably due to all the squeezing through the birth canal.


Just 1 day old: face is much redder and bruises are gone. Elongation of the head is reduced and slightly more roundish. And also, the baby is a real sleepy head... ;-)

Now the challenge is to face the baby without the comfort of knowing that the nurses are around when we bring him home tmr. Need to start learning how to bathe, feed, change nappies, burp him, etc. And also learning the wonders of night life (literally).

Little Astronaut is born!

After a 14 hour struggle, our little astronaut has finally decided to face the great big world!!


I'm so happy and excited that I dunno if I can sleep... ;-)

Vital statistics:
Birthday: 9 Sep 08, 0027h
Weight: 3.38 kg
Zodiac: Virgo
生肖：鼠

More updates to follow tmr, it's time for some rest...

>12 hrs since admission...

After more than 12 hrs being in the delivery suite, feeling tired, hungry and a bad backache from sitting on the worst designed chair in the world. Just managed to shift to the comfy sofa chair since Selene has finally started to take a nap as the epidural set in to ease the pain. I'm sure she's feeling a lot worse than me what all the contractions that goes on with 1-3 mins interval.

Now really have a mixed bag of feelings. On one hand I'm tired and shack from all the waiting and prancing around practically doing nothing. On the other hand, there is the anticipation on the birth of the baby anytime now. Don't know if I should be sleeping or waiting...

Argh, child birth is so tough...

Aiyoh, so slow!

Came into the hospital with 2cm dilation at 1100h. The first examination at around 1330 showed the dilation to be 3cm. At 1700h, the dilation is only 4cm!! *faintz*

Looks like we will have to wait till almost midnight before the baby wants to come out. Just had a nasi lemak while doing my "realtime" reporting beside Selene. She is now watching her favourite (thrashy) Stairway to Heaven on Channel U, which TCS has shown on TV like for the milionth time.

Back to surfing the net I guess...

In the hospital, real-time blogging!!

Selene has been complaining of pains similar to diarrhoea for the whole night but was "non-productive" in the toilet. She also "showed" last night. The whole night she was kept awake with the pain and I had to rub her stomach everytime I woke up in the night.

This morning went to work, and before I started work, Selene called to say she felt the pains coming in frequency of 5 mins. I turned around and headed home again. Called Bishan Woman Specialist on my drive back and Sharon (the clinic nurse) mentioned that the pains similar to diarrhoea is actually contraction pains and told me to admit her to hospital direct instead of going to the clinic. I sped all the way home on CTE (and even sped past a TP!) to pick her up.

The excitment is really building up now that she's admitted and the anaestician had already adminstered the epidural at around 1100h. The nurse examined Selene and confirmed that cervix has already dilated 2cm. Took a few pictures of all the equipment around the delivery suite.

The CTG machine, showing both the fetal heart beat rate and the contraction pressure.

CTG scan shows that contractions are coming about 3 mins apart as of 1150h. Fetal heart beat varies between 120 to 160 bpm.

The top part of the machine controls the flow rate of the isotonic glucose solution. It is set at 20ml/h as shown in this picture. The "best invention" for mothers, the lower machine controls the rate which the epidural is administered, which is set at 8.0ml/h (hard to see reading from the picture).

I'm going to be a father soon by tonight, woohoo!!!

The countdown... 10 more days!!!

These last few weeks have been full of apprehension as we await the birth of our little astronaut. Many times symptoms such as contractions, back pains, movement by the baby, etc. as signalling the arrival of the little prince.

Today we had our CTG done, now being on the 38th week. Selene was kind of disappointed that there was absolutely no contractions, nada, zip, kosong, zero. I think she is kind of sick over the pregnancy and can't wait for the baby to be born! I would think that that's actually when the nightmare begins.... heheh...

Also, the prep for the baby now I think is more or less ok liao, here goes the checklist:

Baby cot - checked

Baby secure sleeper (for cosleeping) - checked

Baby pram - not checked, mass order for the MacClaren XLR failed

Car seat - checked, got a good deal at the recent baby fair in Taka

Steam steriliser - checked

Bottle warmer - not checked, beg/steal/borrow required

Breast pump - not checked, have a standby one ready (Medala Swing), to be further evaluated

Clothes - checked, checked, checked (I think this one will have many ticks due to Selene's obsession)

Baby name - not checked, aiyoh, this one argue till cows come home

Maid - checked, took a long time to decide, should be coming in a week's time

Hospital admissions - checked, paperwork ready

Pampers - checked, I think we went nuts and bought a carton, and more

Baby wipes - checked, hmm... this is really useful stuff, I'm already using it for various household chores like wiping the floor, cleaning oily hands, wiping bird shit off car, etc. I was just telling Selene that I have to use toilet roll to wipe my face and the baby can use the wipes to wipe his ass!!

Any more comments of what I have missed out? I think we are more or less there liao... ;-)

Oh, and Selene is officially on maternity leave liao, so shock! I think she's going to clear out the whole of crunchyroll, watch-movie, veoh, etc. this period...

Am I ok.. or maybe I am not.... ;(

The past few days would prob have been the most difficult period of my pregnancy.... and it's strange.. considering that I am about 2 weeks away from seeing my little one.. one would expect me to be filled with anticipation and happiness... and actually that is what I thought I will be too..

But unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be the case. And in fact, if I could coin a term, I would say I am suffering from Pre Natal Blues... and it doesn't help that my legs probably weight a ton now, my left hand seems almost paralysed from I dunno what reason, and I just feel ultimately lousy about myself.... from the aches all over...from the breakouts I am getting and just from the sheer fact that I seemed to have lost my brains! I seemed to have just gone bimbotic overnight... I can't analyse things as well, I cry over the slightest issues.. and I am just so lost about almost eveything... and no one seems to understand...and it's always extra hurting to know that even those closest to you don't seem to take your condition seriously. Must it always take something major to happen before one would be taken seriously?

This is probably going to be my most depressing post...and I pray that God will make things better for me...

It's tough...

It's tough to maintain a blog. I can't believe how freaking difficult it is to find time to blog! Now my computer kenna robbed by someone to do some upgrade so came in to skive...

It's tough to think of a name. I can't believe that 4 months just flew by since the last time Selene and I brought up the issue of a name, and till now, we have not sorted out the name. It so difficult to agree on a name that we both mutually like, or worse still, to even come up with the candidate names.

It's tough to manage work/life balance. The demands of work recently is killing me as work piles up, and at the same time, provide sufficient focus on family to ensure that things are all prep-ed and ready for the baby.

It's tough to prepare for the baby. Issues such as maid, confinement lady, who takes care of the baby after the maternity leave, infant care, etc. etc. are all swirling around in a limbo. Finding a maid is like buying the $8 mil TOTO, either u tio or don't tio. Even mundane things like buying a stroller can turn into big time stress.

Ah, it's tough.

Counting down to Hubby's return...and a Mother's love..

Yippie, 3 more days and Papa Gee will finally return to Singapore to be with us! Actually, time seems to pass quite slowly ever since I knew he was going to return this week... but I am definitely not complaining.. coz his trip has been shortened by almost a week, and I am so thankful that he can be back soon.

And I don't really know whether little KEBKT knows that his daddy is going to be home soon, because I have been having jabbing pains in my AXX, errr.. can I use this word... ASS... actually not really ass, but more the side of my butt that connects to my leg. Hee.. ok.. confusing?? Nevermind.. just know that it REALLY hurts when I try and take a step when I am walking, and when I am trying to turn from the left side to the right side at night when I am sleeping. The pain was kinda so bad that I cried last night because I just didn't know what to do.

Also, many things seemed to be happening around me, that sorta set me thinking a lot. First, one of my colleagues who is expecting round the same time as me, was admitted to hospital for bedrest probably till she gives birth, as she has low amniotic fluid and because her cervix was starting to dilate as her daughter's head was pressing down. And did I mention that just a few weeks ago, she was complaining of the same pain I was talking about...that jaring pain that made walking almost unbearable... can't help but feel a little paranoid at this moment... What I am trying to do now is to try and avoid carrying and bending to pick up stuffs (was doing lotsa that when I was trying to clean and pack the house), and just be good, so that the little one will be good too.

Second incident that affected me during this period was my colleague's son.. who was diagnosed with brain cancer, and has barely turned 1. Doctor has just performed a third operation for him in the past 3 months, and is getting him ready to go through chemotherapy. She just messaged me today to tell me that her son was crying so badly in the hospital that his brain was accumulating water, and that they could not perform the chemo on him. In the end, they had to discharge him, and get him to go back probably next week to try and perform the chemo on him. I can just imagine the amount of pain my colleague is going through at the moment, and the tremendous amount of pressure she must be facing. And I pray that God will give her strength during this period, and to bless them so that they will get through this...

Quite frankly, I was planning to be blogging something happier.... but dun really know how it ended with this. Anyway.. promise that my next blog will be one with photos and definitely something happier ok?

Emotionally challenged?

Been sometime since I updated the blog with my progress ;) So here I am back again, with my random blabber.

Wondering why I titled the blog this way? Just thought if there are words such as vertically challenged, horizontally challenged etc.. then surely there must be a term "emotionally challenged" (shall refer to it as EC for the rest of my entry). Moving into my final trimester, somehow I find myself having more cravings.. ironically.. not really cravings for food... and in fact, I don't seem to be able to eat as well as I did in my second trimester, not too sure whether it's because of the EC state... but rather.. I find myself craving for more attention. Hee.. hope this doesn't make me sound someone who is half sick in the head!

But seriously... I find myself riding the emotional rollercoaster every now and then... being really happy.. and crying uncontrollably at times. And I guess it really doesn't help that Gee is away at the moment.... but I am truly trying to be a stronger person now..so as not to add to his pressure, and of course not to stress my little one too with my "out of pitch sobs".

And oh..finally one confession... while Gee is not around..I have taken the liberty to use my 2 favourite names on my little one...sometimes calling him Kenji..and sometimes Ethan... ;) (dear, dun get mad at me!) And did they say silence means consent.. coz I sure dun hear the little one objecting!

Great Singapore Sale.... Third Trimester.. here we come!

After months and months of trying to decide on the stroller/travel system for our little one (Peg Perego, Quinny, and even the Stoke at one stage!), we finally settled today on getting the Graco travel system from Robinsons. Never knew shopping for something was so difficult!! (Hee, since I admit I am quite a shopping queen) ;) But decided to get this since we figured it was not really worth paying that much for something which we were not even sure whether the little one will like!
Just realised that time really passes quite fast.. and I am already approaching 6.5 months, which means we have slightly less than 3 months to get everything figured out! And there seems to be just so many things that have not been settled... and of course.. the biggest problem..which is WHO is going to look after our little astronaut. Somehow... I have this feeling that both our parents seem to be hoping (or hinting either subtlely or explicitly) for us to start a family, but now that we are finally on our way to welcoming another new member, nobody seems to have "volunteered" to retire or to take care of the baby for us. Gee and I are pretty sure we will be getting a maid to solve the problem, but after hearing horror stories from my colleagues and friends, I am really quite apprehensive about having a maid, and especially if I have to leave my precious one alone with her! This is actually top most on my mind now, and I somehow hope things will just work out....

Also, moving into the 3rd trimester, I am starting to feel really bulky and breathless at times! Hah, really hope I am not going to put on much more weight, coz I feel my legs can hardly support my body anymore! But somehow... the "greedy instinct" is still there...heh... so have to practice more self discipline!

Anyway, am able to have time to blog this, because my lovely husband has voluntarily cleaned the house, without me having to "remind" aka nag him about it. Actually, I find this is one of the perks of being pregnant! (Hope he doesn't read this portion) Anyway, thanks dear for making an effort to do all the house work during this period... dont think I want to promise that I will "pay you back", but will definitely make it up in other ways ok? ;)

Latest scan and (secret) Bangkok trip

Was on half day leave today as Selene had a gynae appointment. This time round gynae was commenting on the "beautiful" nose of the baby. Oh, and Selene said the baby seems to keep on munching on X, whatever X is.


Just somehow realised that gynaes must have the world's most boring jobs. Can you imagine that your job revolves either looking at black and white blobs and making sense out of the mess, or staring at the Great South? I clearly remember one of my frens telling me how he almost lost his libido while attached to gynaecology during his houseman many years back.

Managed to get back home a little earlier than usual today so managed to dig out the camera to download the pics of the (secret) Bangkok trip. I think both our parents will probably kill us if they knew that we flew over (and back) secretly!

Some random pics from the trip:

The new Bangkok airport (what's the name again??). My first time coming to Bangkok since the opening of the new airport. It has a very industrial look. You can see Selene peeping at me in the foreground.

Very new (and very nice!) hotel, Courtyard by Marriott. It was just opened in Jan 08, so the whole place is very new. The room is very big and comfortable. Just don't stay with 2 guys coz the toilet walls are glass and (strangely), the curtains are from the outside so the guy bathing inside cannot control the guy with peeping instinct outside.


This is taken at one of the dinners that we had at Bella Napoli Pizzeria at Sukhumvit Soi 31 (recommended by one of my frens). They serve good (and special) pasta and the pizza is big! We had more than enough with just 1 pasta and pizza. I was wondering while eating how the other table across us finished their dinner with 1 more calamari order than us...

Bangkok has changed so much since our last visit (a few years back). Now all of the BTS are connected via elevated walkways just below the BTS lines. They have many modern shopping centres as well. The newest one that we saw was the Siam@Paragon (shown above, just outside of it).

We had our last day dinner at Fuji, one of the most popular (and cheap) Jap restaurant chains in Bangkok which can be found in many places. We had our dinner at the MBK branch. The last time when we were here with Alvin and Serena, we ordered so much (becoz Alvin kept saying "cheep cheep cheep!!") that all the orders filled the entire table (and more, and they had to wait for us to finish some food before they could serve the rest). The quality of the food is ok (as long as you don't expect top-notch for the price).

Last photo of the day: Selene caught red-handed stealing my money.

Ok, seriously, I have no idea what she was doing (and what I was doing actually) when this photo is taken. Just take it as a random photo blog.

2 kg in 3 days!

Strangely enough, seems like Papa Gee and Mummy Selene suddenly found the energy to update our little one's blog again! Have been telling myself that I should be updating it since it's coming to a month since I last wrote something, but somehow have been putting it off. And coincidentally, when I decided to log in tonight, realise that Papa Gee has beaten me to it. ;)

In fact, we have just returned from our short trip to Bangkok. Had a 4 days 3 night trip to BKK last weekend. This trip was a little different from our previous trips, in that we didn't really have a specific plan of what we wanted to do. And in fact, before we left, I was kinda worried that it would fall short of Papa Gee's expectations, since shopping is really not his cup of tea.

But surprisingly, I think we kinda enjoyed the whole holiday. Basically it was just relaxing taking our time walking around, eating, watching movie, eating, shopping, and did I mention EATING again? ;) Hah... and this probably explains why the blog is titled this way... yes.. I actually put on 2 kg in that short holiday! Amazing. Was actually hoping that it was all water retention...but no matter how hard I pee -ed... heee.. the weight just wouldn't come off. So looks like it is here to stay. Now just keeping my fingers crossed that my gynae won't scold me when I go for my check up next Monday!

And oh.. about my "loot"... am guilty to say that I got myself 5 pieces of clothings, but none for the little one.. somehow couldn't seem to find many for newborns, and was stopped by Papa Gee when I tried to be overly ambitious and buy the super big ones... but then again...baby's clothes are so cute...HOW TO RESIST. ;)

Ultrasound pics and random blabber

It's been a long time since Selene and I have been talking abt scanning in the ultrasound pics and archiving them. Just managed to dig out the scans just now. Aiyoh, found out that the pics actually have no dates one! So terok, so don't really know the rest of the stack which dates they really are. Also, realised that when you are doing the scan at the gynae, everything looked logical and clear. But now looking back at those pics, can't make head and tail out of the mass of black and white blobs.

Since I can only make something intelligible out the latest scan (28 Apr 08 for the FA scan, not to mention that I probably have no idea when the rest are done), I picked out only 2 of them to scan them into the computer.

This is the scan of the whole baby, measuring 94.9mm (as you can see in the lower left of the picture). The gynae told us that by the time the baby is X weeks old (I can't remember what X is), the length of the fetus is immaterial and the only important thing is the head diameter. Make sense, since the baby seems to be doing somersaults most of the time in Selene's stomach and in all sorts of positions. For example, doing the FA scan, he was actually scratching his ass with one of his hands, and the gynae had to gyrate the baby to loosen his grip to count the number of fingers of each hand. So yeah, length doesn't matter.

The other thing I realised abt our gynae is his obsession with my little one's willy. Here's a pic of him measuring the length of my little one's member. Yup, it's a puny little 4.4mm. But length doesn't matter right?? (or so they say, at least for now). I probably got another million of ultrasound pics with different willy's length captured during all the different scans. My gynae is rather proud that he could determine the sex of the baby when he was week 13. By week 16, he was "90% sure". During the FA scan (week 20.7, as stated in the report), he was "200% sure". And yes, I have all the pics to prove too (courtesy of my gynae).

Well, another thing that has been bugging me is the name of our little astronaut. Yes, the boy-with-no-name-for-now has inherited various names such as Kenji, Ethan, 黄黎, 黄色,黄瓜，黄金 and any other 黄X that you can think of. Sigh, realised that it's so difficult to think of a good name!

And poor Selene also has so much water retention these days that her leg is turning into "pig's leg". She can't stand for long and the legs are overly swollen and very "meaty". We have tried massaging and drinking lots of fluid (as recommended by different websites) but the problem keeps coming back. She also has all the lower back pains with the growing stomach. Hopefully things will get better in the days to come.