The Babies First Christmas

Joshua made it back to Christmas in the family and thats the biggest consolation for all of us. Felin and I was ill after contracting Joshua's virus and were physically very tired and wasn't quite in the mood to celebrate anything. We just wanted to rest actually.

However, we were really happy to receive gifts from the neighbours which became their first Christmas gift because we don't have time to prepare anything for them.

 The drinking cup from neighbour that can teach the kids to drink using straw.

They also have their first proper haircut today. My mum's neighbour came over to help them cut hair.

Our cell group leader Angeline also came and bring over their big present. We missed the Cell Group Christmas lunch on 24th Dec.

To end the festive season, we also had a family dinner at Sister's place on boxing day where mum cooked all the good nice food. Joshua remained at home with Josiah entertaining all of us.

Don't have really nice photo but this is probably the best I can find in poor lighting condition.

Ann told us that Josiah was quiet when Joshua was not around and when Joshua came back from hospital, he was really happy and became very chatty. The brother have never been seperated for so long and no wonder they are not used to be alone.

A joyous weekend turned into an Emergency

We went to Malaysia over the weekend to celebrate Christmas with Felin's family. It is our yearly affair where we will prepare nice food, games and writing our Christmas wishing card for everyone. It was a joyous occasion and its Josiah and Joshua first time celebrating Christmas. We dressed them up nicely into Santa's red and white attire and they are certainly adorable on it. The party was held in our place over the past 6 years and this year was in Felin's sister new house in Mount Austin.

During the weekend, we realised that both boys were able to climb stairs very well and could coordinate their walking movement when we hold them to walk. In Singapore, they don't have chance to climb stairs.

Joshua came back to in-law's house with a fever of 39.2 Degree and we initially though its probably due to teething issue and did not pay too much attention on it as he was still very active. MIL insisted that Joshua go to see the doctor and the doctor's diagnosis is throat infection and was given paracetamol and antibiotics. The next day, we still go ahead with going back Singapore as his fever seems to subside in the morning.

While crossing the causeway, my helper who was sitting behind kept telling me that Joshua was cold and hence I told her to cover him with more clothings and I lowered my car's air-con. It was a sunny afternoon and I was wondering why he was feeling cold. Out of a sudden, Joshua went into an uncontrolled shiver and Ann was shouting at us from behind asking us what to do. She kept shouting "Joshua Joshua..." and it was panic in the car as it seems like a "Live and Death" situation. I wasn't too sure what to do as my car was still moving in a slow causeway traffic. Felin immediately went down the car and ran up to the customs to ask if we can have priority clearance. I was monitoring Joshua by asking Ann lots of questions. She told me that Joshua eyes remains opened and can still react to her and I was relieved to hear that. A few custom officers rushed down after 10 minutes and asked if we need an ambulance. We rejected the Ambulance and asked them to clear the way for us and they tried to do so for us. Thank God that the causeway traffic wasn't too bad on a Monday afternoon.

After the custom's clearance, we immediately rushed to NUH. I thought that NUH is nearer than KK and KTPH is probably not too good for Children A&E. I was kan Chiong and forgotten my way to NUH and made a wrong turn which resulted in a longer journey. Felin kept telling me to drive faster as Joshua seems very sick and Josiah, seems to know that situation and was crying behind non stop.

Joshua was eventually warded and I sent Ann and Josiah back and activated my parent's help. I was later told that he was diagnosed to have Herpangina and was transferred to the Isolation Ward.

 

He was warded because doctors suspected that he had a seizure while in the car and they were considering to do further test on him. Luckily we need not go through all those Neuro tests. We spent a good 5 days in hospitals with first 2 nights sponging him for high fever which peaked at 40.5 on day 1 and 40.0 on Day 2.  There was quite a bit of vomitting over that 2 days and the vomit was really "HOT". He was shacked out over that 2 days already and he was getting bored in the hospital isolated ward.

The fever came down on Day 3 and we were given a choice to discharge him but I decided that we stayed another day to observe. The decision turned out well because the virus attacked his gastro intestinal on day 3 and he started to poo watery stool every 20 to 30 minutes. He vomitted everything he ate and drank and rejected all food  and medication subsequently. He was observed and see whether IV drip was necessary. Due to the number of poo he made, his rectum started to turn raw and skin around became red. He was in pain whenever we washed him and we decided not to let him wear diaper and let natural air heal him. This was tough as we had to put a sheet over the bed and occasionally the urine or stool seep through to the bed and bedsheet had to be changed. We also can't remember how many set of clothes we had to change due to his vomit. He kept curling and turning on the bed over that 2 days and was standing on the tip of his toes whenever we washed his buttock. We never see him in such pain before and it certainly pains our heart.

Glad that he got better on evening of Day 4 and we were determined for him to be discharged for Christmas. We were really very tired and sad that our Christmas were spent in such a fashion.
Felin and I also had a bad night of vomitting on the 4th night as we were infected by Joshua. Felin recovered fast but I was down until 27th December where I vomitted, felt lethargic, no appetite for 2+ days.

On our last day when our mood were better, we did not forget to have some fun and took lots of wefies in the isolation ward. Hope we will not be back again and Josiah stay healthy with no similar virus on him...

Finally know how it sounds from the stethoscope

 

Like Father Like Son

 

We are discharged today... Yeah!!!

Christmas Wonderland

Its our precious weekend again and we really valued every bit of it. I am guilty that I spent little time with the babies during the weekdays and somehow unhappy about it. Thats the reason we value weekend so much.

This Sunday morning, we went Pasir Ris Beach for a walk thinking that the horse stable is still there which had already moved. We enjoyed the beach and greenery before coming back for their late morning nap, feed porridge and lots of playtime in the afternoon. We had a very hard time feeding Josiah. Feeding time can stretch to 45 minutes to an hour because of him or else we can finish feeding Joshua's portion in maybe just 20 minutes.

Then finally to Garden By The Bay at about 4:30pm. There is this Christmas by the Bay where the garden are all lighted up with fun fair, ice skating rink, concert, plenty of food and souvenirs stalls, etc... The babies were really good that they allowed us to have half an hour of Texas Fried Chicken dinner with minimum trouble. Joshua was sitting on the baby chair while Josiah in the stroller as not enough baby chair around. Luckily Josiah is more relaxed and laid back that he don't mind sitting in the stroller while we eat and stroll the park. As for Joshua, he made lots of noise and tried to stand up once we put him in stroller. He just want to play while Josiah just want to relax and watch people walking by in his stoller.

We really had lots of fun together as a family as we danced with the music and kept singing Christmas songs to them. Its getting difficult to take wefie with them as their attention span is quite short. Joshua kept shouting nowaday whenever he is excited and Josiah will just shout back together. Its pretty funny at times. Haiz, I will really miss their cuteness when they grow up someday down the road...

Joshua Standing with minimum support

I noticed that Joshua is able to stand with minimum support last weekend on 6th December 2015. He held on my legs to stand. He then released his hand briefly and stood skakingly for about 2 to 3 seconds before sitting down again. That short 2 to 3 seconds of standing is without support and hence I will considered him as ability to stand.

Another interesting thing to mention is the recent playtime between Joshua and Josiah. Both of them were eyeing the Giraffe toy and tried to grab from each other. Joshua lost the grabbing game and he became unhappy and went aside to do other things. Josiah sensed that Joshua wasn't happy and went near him to pass the Giraffe to Joshua but Joshua wasn't happy and pushed the toy away from Josiah as if trying to say, "Don't disturb me!" seemingly angry with Josiah. The scene was described by Felin and I find it pretty cute and I somehow think Josiah is so sweet to give in to his younger brother. He set a good example as an elder.

We are still facing problem with Josiah's feeding and he refuses to eat most of the time. I posted on facebook to rant about it and tons of feedback came in to help. All from experienced mothers. Really appreciates their advices and support.

Updates for the week before December arrives

I have been really very busy lately that I always been undecisive whether to write my post or to do my work. I had struggled with this question for 1 whole week and I must write something today or I really forgot what I want to say.

Joshua grown 2 more teeth on top which makes him 6 teeth baby. 4 on top and 2 below now.
He learnt to clap his hand with ease and on request finally. If we asked him to clap, he knows our request and occasionally will just do it. He is getting funnier as well. He learns funny antics like semi-blinking his eyes and nodding his head in funny ways, etc... Both babies are also getting more demanding which means when they are unable to get what they want, they start to cry and shout for it.

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I got my Good Service Medal from the Army last week and I will like to show to my kids to tell them that Daddy served the Army dutifully over the years and I want them to be the same in future when they serve National Service. Be positive and learn whatever you can during the 2 years. Don't be affected by people around you who keep telling you that Army is a waste of time and just do the minimum to get by...

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As for the weekend, we really enjoyed ourselves. We went Satay by the Bay and walked to Marina Barrage. Well. I had decided to keep my post short so that I can start doing my work. Hence a few pictures to show that we enjoyed the weekend and be ready to face the super busy week ahead. Babies as usual don't smile when they know Daddy taking a Wefie. I reality, they laughed so much and they slept well while on way back home.

Now 1am and I got to start doing some work...

Our usual weekend

6:30am - Babies usually wake up
Whoever is on my bed will start slapping or kicking us. We will get up to make some milk. We will then try to pacify them back to sleep and if lucky they continue for another hour. If not successful, we may have to entertain them on the bed playing peek-a-boo or blanket parties regardless how sleepy we are in the morning. Dreadful for me at times because I really hope to sleep for a while more.

7:30am - Time for Cereals
We purchased 2 Ikea baby high chair for $25 each few days ago and happy with it. Simple, neat and most importantly, they are willing to sit on it. Josiah don't really enjoy sitting on high chair because he knows that its time to eat and he don't seem to like food.

But why are they smiling so happily early in the morning?

Its because Uncle Tee, our dear neighbour is making funny faces again. Tee and Jess dote on our babies a lot and always purchase toys and sometimes bring the boys over to their place to play on their piano or simply to crawl around. Sometimes it gives us a bit of much needed break.

But Josiah is not eating? What can I do? I always bring them near to me at the dining table while having breakfast and show them all the expression that I'm enjoying food. Either Felin or Ann will be feeding them at the same time. Occasionally it works and Josiah eat a few more mouthful of porridge or cereal. His feeding on solids is really a headache. He refuses to open his mouth, kept turning his head away and start rubbing his face and eyes to tell us that he doesn't want to eat. Worse will be he will vomit all the food which I suspect that he probably did not swallow fully.

8am - Playtime again and try to feed Josiah the 2nd time for a few more mouthful of cereals

8:30am - Going down for a walk

9:15am - Shower, playtime and milk before napping

10:30am - Late morning nap
While they are napping, we will be busy preparing our own lunch and also their lunch.

12noon - Another sleepy part of the day for me
After 12noon, it will be playtime for about 30 minutes before their porridge lunch is ready. After lunch at about 1pm, it will be playtime again. During playtime, they will be crawling all over the house and we have to "entertain" them or rather to make sure they do not fall or knock their heads. Its fun but its also the part of the day where I usually feel sleepy. They like to crawl to places like under the table or corners with sharp edges, etc... We put safety plugs all round the house but they simply love pulling them out one by one until the double sided tapes are no longer sticky. (Notice the sharp edge at the TV console?) Don't ask me where the safety plug is now. They just pull it out whenever we put it.

They always have new toys to play with and the doll below was given by another or our neighbour. My Dad also never stop buying toys for them too until we have a large bin of toys already. Some without batteries because we got new toys anyway so lazy to load old toys with batteries. Lol...

Today, we tried taking a family selfie but all pictures are blur or they are not looking or they already sitting up, etc... Its so difficult. Below picture are not too well taken but its the best after nearly 30-40 shots... They simply don't want to smile whenever they knew that we are taking photos.

3:45pm - Babies afternoon nap
This is the time we take a break or to do the things we need to do like checking emails, etc... For me, I will sleep for an hour.

5pm - Going out or just a walk downstairs again.
We sometimes bring them down for a walk after their afternoon nap and we may get ready to go nearby like Ikea, Tampines, Whitesand for dinner. Today, we had Sushi Express at Whitesands and the aunties there love them. We tried feed Josiah leftover afternoon porridge in the restaurant and "Wow", he ate more than his usual servings there. After dinner, we walked around and stopped by to have ice-cream where we took the chance to feed them milk.

8:30pm - Ready for bed
Once back home, its shower time and a brief playing or reading time before bed. The boys are not too attentive with my storybooks nowadays. They just want to flip or somersault on the bed or to stand at the end of the bed where there is a bed frame for them to hold.

The day will end with milk before sleep time. Usual sleeping time around 9:30pm to 10pm and usual waking up time around 6am. In between? Depends on luck. Sometimes both sleep through, sometimes both wake up 2 times each, sometimes only one wake up, etc...

I'm going to be dead tomorrow on Sunday because I spent 2 hours transferring photos from phone to laptop and to write this blog post. Its 2:20am already and they will be waking up in a few hours... haha...

Back from a wonderful European Trip

Felin and I had a good rest over the last 14 days all thanks to Mother and Mother in Law to help take care of the babies while we relaxed in Europe. Felin joined me on the 5th day and we both visited Munich and Prague over that 9 days. We didn't really planned this trip well but we still managed to go most of the main attractions and enjoy the cooling weather over there.

We really treasured our time together over that 9 days but we talked a lot about the babies and MIL kept sending us pictures of the babies to us. We also recorded videos almost everyday to talk to the babies whenever we reach somewhere beautiful. They were always in our mind and by the time we were about to go back, we were already missing them so much.

The moment we reached home, they seems stunned for a while but gradually show their smile and warmth to us. The feeling of carrying them high up in my arms again give me so much joy. Josiah now has 8 teeths and Joshua 4 now. Joshua's motor abilities are better than Josiah as he grabs things faster and crawl with better coordination. Josiah is more smiley and Joshua's smile is somehow cheeky and I think he is really intelligent. Josiah still have issues with solids as he hardly ate the porridge that we made for them. Their face also seem to change over that short 14 days frame.

I had a lot of reflection over that 2 weeks as I vowed to manage my time better and do things that will help in my health, spiritual life, personal development and career instead of wasting time on too many useless things. I hope I will be more energised when I get back to office on Monday.

We spent the weekend together with the babies and last night when Josiah was sleeping on my bed, I can't stop looking at his face and thinking how happy he must be if he sees me the first thing in the morning. I think such joy can only be deeply felt by parents and we know that such love may not be reciprocated. Just seeing them smile and be happy is enough to help me forget all my trouble and stress ahead.

The Pre Trip to Europe

I had the last night feed for the season as I prepare myself to Munich and Prague today. Joshua generally is easier to feed as he is able to focus better but his drinking seems a bit slower and take slightly longer than Josiah. As for Josiah, he seems to drink faster but has a habit of shaking his head and turning his body while drinking and make feeding difficult for us. He needs to hold on to something or to have something interesting to look in order to have a more stable feeding.

Their solids feeding are still not progressing very well. Josiah will just eat a few mouthful of Cereal lately and refuses to open his mouth and the porridge they ate are really very little still. Maybe total about 3-4 Tablespoon in term of quantity for a porridge feed for Joshua and 1-2 for Josiah. The consolation is that they are still able to drink well on their milk. They are taking in about 1 litre of milk +- now. They are still quite small size between the 10th to 25th percentile in term of height and weight,  I will wish to feed them more.

As I get ready for my Europe Trip later, its probably the most unprepared trip that I have so far with no idea where to go, how to go and what to do, etc. I was so busy with work and kids that I practically have little time to plan. My flight is tonight and I'm still going to work and only to start my packing in the evening. I just pray hard that things will just go fine and both Felin and myself can relax and enjoy properly with ease and safety.

I somehow start to miss the babies already. I keep thinking that I couldn't see them for the next 2 weeks. They are so adorable that I can't miss stop looking at them everyday. Hope they will still be excited to see us after the 2 weeks trip.

Poor Joshua was bitten by mosquito early in the morning with 4 patches on his face. He seems to be more prone mosquitoes bites like Felin.

This Europe Trip will be the first without the babies for 24 hours for both me and Felin together. We are also less adventurous this time and will confine ourselves to just the city area. We are mindful that 2 babies are waiting for us to go back safely and soundly. Hence we must be extra careful with our well being and safety.

Babies 9th month polyclinic checkup

The babies were schedule for their 9th month regular check-up today. Josiah's height and weight are constant in the 25th Percentile line for both height and weight whereas for Joshua, his height is about 20th Percentile and weight about 30th Percentile. No wonder I felt that they looks quite small when compared to other babies I see. Went back Malaysia last weekend and saw babies bigger than them and yet younger than them by about 2-3 months. Must try harder to feed them so that they can grow taller and heavier...

As for the hearing test, both babies do not seem to be responsive to the sound of the machine and they kept looking to the front when the machine are sounding behind them. Joshua are slightly more responsive but I actually don't know whether its because he knows someone was behind him and he just wanted to look back or its because he really heard the sound. As for Josiah, he nearly failed the test because he simply are not bothered by the sound and just look to his front the whole time. We nearly have to arrange another appointment to see Specialist already until he suddenly seems to respond slightly to the sound and he passed. Lucky lor. But hope they are okay and they just are not responding to the sound as there are so many other sound in the Polyclinic... The checkup are all free anyway. Quite good ya...

As for other updates... Joshua have been sleeping on my bed lately and I have to sleep on the floor. Now I value my time sleeping with Felin as its so difficult that both of us have quiet time together. I am still feeding them at about 12:30am to 1am daily so that they can last till about 6am. They are drinking about 180ml during the day each feed and my midnight feed generally is about 130ml to 140ml. On daily basis, they are drinking about 900ml to 1litre now. They ate cereal in the morning and a serving of porridge and fruit in the afternoon and evening respectively now.

Okay. Update till here and let see another of their adorable picture... Taken in Malsysia while we have breakfast with Mother In Law before coming back Singapore on Monday...

Evelyn's wedding over the weekend

We went back Malaysia on a Thursday night and traffic was exceptionally good. I suggested to Felin that we can probably do that in future but the con will be a day of leave that need to be applied on Friday. Its Evelyn's wedding on Saturday, 17th October.

I sometimes really like the time spent in Malaysia because I will have almost 100% of the time with the children and I will normally put work aside for that few days. Its normally refreshing and relaxing to be in Malaysia and yet able to spend quality time with the family.

There was a buffet dinner at Felin's mum place on Friday and we realised that the kids refuses to be carried by strangers already. They don't even allow Mother and Father in law to carry initially. This new trait is making us quite tired because we need to carry them almost all the time. The weekend is also the time whereby the babies get to meet most of Felin's relatives. Evelyn's wedding also helped me recall our wedding 9 years ago when Jia Xiang and Jia Xing was so young and cute as well when they kept taking pictures with us. How time really flies.

Joshua and Josiah also have a role to play in this wedding which is to roll on Evelyn and Jimmy's bed and grab some oranges on their bed. They will also be part of the video which they will play during the wedding dinner. Maybe its also a Chinese tradition to help boost their chance of conceiving boys.

The wedding dinner was held on Saturday and we spent the Sunday relaxing at MIW's house. We went back on Monday late morning and the traffic was exceptionally good as well.

The boys recent development include the half ability to wave their hands to say "Good Bye" and Josiah's ability to crawl faster than a week ago. They kept mumbling "Pa Pa" and simply refuses to say "Ma Ma" though I heard Joshua mumbling "Ma Ma" once or twice. They are so adorable that I really miss them when I go to work nowadays.

We are just less than 10 days before heading off for Munich/Prague and I wonder how much I will miss my babies.