5 Months: Clothes for Baptism

Andre's baptism is scheduled on 4th April 2010, Easter Sunday. Aunty Elsie and Uncle William will be his Godpa and Godma.

This is the set of white clothing we prepared for Andre. White symbolising purity and innocence. Well, nothing fanciful for a boy, the options are so limited. But this set is still pretty decent yah... =) Praise God.

5 Months: Somerset 313

Andre likes to tug at his pants and feet nowadays. The flexibility of a child. You should see the times he chomp on his feet. I really need to get a picture of that one of these days.

After the swim and a nap, we headed to 313 somerset. Mummy has yet to check out this new shopping center in town. Andre transformed from cranky to curious mood upon seeing the neon lights along the street. We had dinner at this Thai restaurant and the food was good. Daddy's tom yum bee hoon was so fiery that he had to order another bowl of rice to numb the spice.

We went for some window shopping and Andre was flashing his megawatt smile at every passerby. When we decided to adjourned home, Andre was so reluctant that he started whining again. Sometimes on such occasions, i really wonder if he truly understands the situation, or simply fussing because he's tired.

Anyway, its a good trip, cos it has been so long since daddy and mummy last had dinner outside together.

5 months: Swimming

The weather's been so insanely hot nowadays. Singapore is currently going through a dry season, hmm, did someone mention the driest recorded in 140 years? Well, temperatures are at a high too, 35 degrees nowadays and i thought i saw 37 degrees displayed in my car's dashboard..

We decided to bring Andre for a dip in the big pool. I got him a nice zoo swim diaper (in case he pee pee or poo poo, the pool will not be contaminated). Andre didn't like it as much as i thought he would (He's normally quite cheery during his bath). Seems a little afraid i guess, probably need a few more times before he gets used to it. After about 15 mins, we wrapped him up and round up today's session.

21 Weeks 1 Day: Attempting to sit

Andre's back not very strong yet and he'll slump fwd when sitted cross legged. Maybe in a couple of weeks more. No haste.

21 Weeks 1 day: Prune Juice

This is one food i did not have problems initiating. Andre will just gloop gloop gloop whatever's given to him. He takes about a bottle of prune juice every 2 days... so how come he has not pooed for the past 5 days?

(This is mummy's latest iphone purchase "Baby photo" photo editing)

21 Weeks 1 Day:The usual morning bath

Andre's enjoying his daily morning bath. Nowadays he'll just lay his hands behind and relax as if he's in a spa bath. Chuckles everytime water is dribbled or pat on him.

21 Weeks 2 Days: Andre fell from the bed today

Nowadays, we can't leave him alone. He'll turn and flip, move fwd, go-stan... fairly unpredictable. And thus he fell from the bed today when we were not watching.

Surprisingly, he didn't wail. Probably too shocked. But our hearts were so painful.

20 Weeks 5 Days: Greatest joke of recent times

Ever since, we got suaned by Dr Ong for our heroism, i have been extra attentive to Andre's health. Perhaps a little too attentive to the point of being paranoid.

1st thing in the morning, i felt Andre's forehead. Cold. Something's not right. 35.5 degrees. Hey, this is wayyyyyyy too low (by my standards). Searched the internet, everywhere mentioned what you should do during a fever, but nothing abt being too cold. Looked at Andre, he's pretty active. Okie, i'll observed....

Throughout the day, Andre's feeding not too well. So weird, but the boy seems happy and playful.

The ultimum came at 11.30pm when i woke him up for his medicine. 34.6 degrees. Oh dear, is he really suffering from hyperthermia? That can cause brain damage you know... Paniced and called KKH helpline. The nurse advised us to bring baby immediately down to the A&E to be checked out. Upong hearing, i immediately woke gong gong up to accompany me (dad's not back yet). My hands were trembling while i gathered my stuff and the baby.

At Mount Alvenia, they scanned his forehead... 36.6! (deow! duh!). Used the armpit temp, 35.8 degrees. Dr took a look and said its within normal range. I mentioned the risk of hyperthermia and he gave me this weird look and said "Hello, this is Singapore! You'll only get hyperthermia if you stay in Iceland".. I was so embarressed and silly that i almost sank into the ground. He made me feel like a total nut case, like someone seeking heat stroke treatment in the Artic. After paying $46 for this lil advice, we reached home at 1 am. Now i need to prepare myself for more suaning, from my family ...

Post event analysis: I suspect the cold reading came about this way. You know when you have a fever, your pores close and heat is trapped in your body. When you recover, your pores open to release the heat and regulates temperature. As the pores open, Andre started to sweat buckets. When they evaporate, they create a cooling effect on the skin.

Though silly as it seems, i was still glad in a way i went to the Dr. At least i slept well that night.

20 Weeks 4 Days:

Daddy had to go for a biz trip on Sat and Sun and so mummy moved back to po po's place for the weekend. Wasn't too sure if i can cope with a sick child alone. Andre's fever has not entirely gone down. It'll rise everytime the paracetamol effects wears off. The nurse did warn that it'll be 48 hours before the antibiotics will work its magic.

Came evening, Andre's xiao yi bought some tiger balm cooling pad. Andre didn't protest too much over it. Thanks to the extra pair of hands (to look after baby when mummy is pumping milk, to hold baby's flailing arms during medicine time etc etc), mummy managed to survived the weekend without daddy. No joke looking after a sick child alone yah.

On a side note, Andre really loved Xiao Yi's Spongbob soft toy. To me, anything that can catch his attention beyond 3 mins can be classified as love.

20 Weeks 3 Days: Andre's sick again

It was pure madness.

Andre woke up at 2.30 am for a feed. 37.3 degrees C. Not too bad and fell asleep back fairly quickly.

6.00 am: Andre woke up crying. Thought he's hungry again, but he was so hot to the touch. Directly gave him milk, he refused and was whimpering away. Took temp, 38.6 degrees C. Oh no .. quickly woke the daddy up, and gave the wailing baby some panadol. Then decide to give a suppository cos he hadn't had a major poop job for many days. Within 5 minutes, he's bowels were cleared. While all these were happening, i'm having a bad leak from engorgement. Dripping, dripping, dripping...

6.30 am: Daddy gave Andre a wipe down per Dr Ong's little cheat sheet. Mummy start pumping out the milk. When done, fed Andre 100ml through the bottle. (It's really more efficient to direct feed, but nowadays Andre takes more using the bottle). When we were almost done, Andre started puking milk like a spring. Wiped the bed and since Andre soaked his clothes, gave the 2nd bath. Poor baby was so angry with all these multi activities in the morning.

7.00 am: Cradled Andre in my arms till he slept. Didn't put him down, cos i'm afraid he'll wake up and i want him to sleep as long as possible. Daddy cleared up the war zone.

7.15 am: Daddy, mummy and Andre all KO.

8.15 am: Andre woke up while mummy went to pump out the remaining milk. Fever's almost all gone. Daddy fed the remaining 80 ml left over from the morning feed.

9.00 am: Send Andre to po po's house. 36.9 degrees C.

It's only 10.26 am now. Feels like a full day has passed. I'm exhausted.