Babies getting fussy

I have been returning home around 10pm daily due to work and I always wonder if the babies will miss me. Felin normally reached home around 7:30pm after expressing in office. Mum and Dad will stay in my place from 8:30am until Felin reaches home. Its pretty tiring for them and I am very appreciative of what they did for us. Mum gave up her job in the hawker centre which she enjoyed to care for the babies. Without them, we will not be able to work with peace in office.

2 days ago, Felin's engorgement problem came again and she spent nearly 3 hours trying to get the milk out. She was contemplating giving up the breast feeding again due to the frustration. Her problem was eventually solved, all thanks for Joshua who fortunately still managed to be latched and sucked out all the stucked milk. She always wonder why she always gets engorgement while many mothers probably don't often get it.

The babies are getting fussy and want to be huddled at night before sleep. When they drink milk, their hands keep sweeping all around. When we put them in cot or sarong, they will call out for attention and want us to play with them. Its really not easy indeed. My friend told me that the peak will be at 1 years old when they start walking around and yet not knowing any instruction nor dangers.

My babies flipped on 4m8d

Just an update that my babies learnt to flip last week. I first saw Joshua succeed and then Josiah. We knew that many babies are already flipping like nobody business and our babies are a bit slow. We always blame on their insufficient tummy time which my parents don't believe it.

Josiah seems to enjoy turning around whereas Joshua prefer to just stay at his position. Josiah is always curious and try to stretch to see what is happening around him. They were 4m8d when it happened. Now our next worry will be on whether the things in their cot can suffocate them especially if they can't flip back. We almost emptied the cot but what if its the mattress that suffocate them? Well. Don't think so much. Just pray...

During the medical check-up on 20th May, Josiah weighs 6.5kg and Joshua 6.4kg. Their weight are considerably low below the 25th percentile. Felin say must feed them more. Its the first time Josiah exceeded Joshua on weight.

Their fever went up and down after the 5-in-1 vaccination and we gave them some medication when their fever went up over 37.8degree. They kept us busy for that day and Felin took leave to take care of them.

Wonderful weekend

I just spent a very happy weekend with the kids. I did not have any appointment over this weekend and I really spent quality time with them.

On Saturday morning, we went for a Baby Massage Session under the Pre-natal package that we signed up last year. The massage class is the last lesson of that course and its the most enjoyable one I supposed. There was about 8-9 babies for this session and all of us enjoyed it very much. It started with a short lecture before the practical but as the whole session stretches about 1.5hours, almost all the babies became restless after the 3/4 point of the massage class.

Joshua and Josiah certainly enjoyed it very much. Joshua kept laughing and Josiah kept making a lot of noises like Ahh... Woo..., etc until the trainer joked with us. Felin and I certainly learnt something new today and we will practice it on them daily.

We went for the Salad Buffet Restaurant in NUH for lunch after the session and we ate really long there because the babies just kept us busy and only 1 of us can eat in peace at any time. We took turns to walk around the shopping area and to change diapers or feed them, etc... I think this is the norm for meals with children now. We hope one of the baby will sleep but it just din happen...

On Sunday, we brought Joshua to Church to try him out in the worship centre where the music is a bit louder. He seems to enjoy the music and stay quiet throughout the worship. But towards the end of the service, he seems to be hungry and we went out to feed him. But overall, he did well. Think we will try out Josiah next week. Not sure if he enjoyed music just like Joshua. Today's services happened to be by Jason Wong, the guys who started the "Dads for Life" movement. He gave some good pointers on how important the role of fathers are.

We spent the rest of the day playing and I'm really happy to see the kids happy. I'm actually very tired and sleepy at one point but the kids are still looking at me, waiting for me to continue the peek-a-boo game. Initially wanted to go Botanical Garden to watch a piano concert with the kids but Felin is too tired and we stayed home. I cooked dinner for 3 today and after dinner, I still managed to find time for a swim. Happy to swam 8 laps today and I now have time to write my blog.

Thank God for this wonderful weekend. I'm expected to have another packed week ahead and I look forward towards another nice weekend.

Busy week - Usual routine

Its been a week I last updated my blog. Am really busy at work lately. Really thankful that Mum, Dad and my domestic helper been helping me and Felin taking care of the babies while we are at work. Felin had went back to office for nearly 3 weeks already. Her routine is as follows:

Felin's daily routine
12:00am - Sleep
(in between might be woke up by babies)
5:30am - Milk Express
7:00am - Get ready to work and breakfast
7:30am - Off to work
8:45am - Work start in office
11:30am - Milk Express
12:30pm - Lunch
12:45pm - Work
5:30pm - Milk Express
6:30pm - Depart office
7:45pm - Reach home, shower and dinner
8:15pm - Play with kids
9:15pm - Pacify baby to sleep and do simple household chores
10:15pm - Milk Express
11:15pm - Hand Express to clear block ducts
11:45pm - Get ready to sleep
12:00am - Sleep

My routine is like this
12:00am - Reading my emails and pacify baby if necessary
1:00am - Feed one baby and pacify him to sleep
2:00am - Feed next baby and pacify him to sleep
3:00am - Sleep
(If any babies woke up after 4:30am, DH will be up to take charge, else we will take charge of whichever baby is in whosever room. One baby is with DH, one baby with us)
8:30am - Breakfast and read newspaper
9:00am - Play with kids or bring them for a walk
10:00am - Sometimes feed one baby
10:30am - To work
9:30pm - Back from work and shower
10:00pm - Sit and talk to Felin to discuss anything under the sky
11:30pm - Do simple household chores
12:00am - On standby again and do some work

* Mum and Dad will come to my place around 8:30am and leave around 7:30pm when Felin reaches home.

I think our routine are not that bad considering that we need not do much of the housework except washing/Sterilizing bottles and ensuring tidiness of items around. We were lucky to have parents and a good domestic helper and able to have 5 hours of sleep daily. There are also at least some time for each of us to spend time with the babies.

Really hope all will remain well so that we can concentrate at our work.

Our Anniversary together

14th May is an anniversary which we celebrated for the longest time. Its the day Felin said "Yes" to be my girlfriend. I was so thrilled back then because I never thought I will ever have a girlfriend and not even to dream to have such a pretty one. I always thought I'm short, ugly, stupid, poor and someone with no future and when I look at girls, I only dare to look at those who are not so pretty.

It was fate that she we worked in the same company and she was the accounts assistant who are in charge of the ships I managed. It can be any other person but its probably God who planted her to be the one. It was by chance again that she also lived in Pasir Ris and we had opportunities to go home on the same MRT together. If she is to live anywhere else in Singapore, I will probably never have this chance to spend those MRT times together.

I decided to send some flowers to her office for this special day this year despite she always telling me not to waste money.

I wrote this in her facebook the following message...

"You are instrumental in making me a better son, husband and now a father. You refused to believe me when I told you I'm stupid, useless and incapable in giving you a secure future.
Instead, you pulled me out from the pit with yr selfless love, trust and encouragement.
Without you, I probably be still lost in the wilderness.
Thank you believing in me and agreeing to be my companion back then. I'll continue to learn about you and from you..."

Love you always, my dear Felin. Parenthood is a long journey. We shall learn to walk this journey together... We will put forth our selfless love for our babies together.

Felin's breastfeeding journey nearly ended

I slept at 3:30am that night as Joshua refuses to sleep and by 5am, its Felin turn to wake up to express her breastmilk. It was Monday, 11th May. One day short to our babies 4th month.

Felin had a bad engorgement again and this time on her right breast which is very uncommon. She tried expressing from 5am till 7am before she woke me up and told me about her problem. But this time is painful and Felin need to take half day leave just to have more time to continue the expressing. She used the hot pad, took 3 hot showers and still can't get the milk out.

At that point, she told me that she is determined to stop the breastfeeding journey. It is too painful and disruptive to her work. I know deep inside her that she will be very disappointed is she is to stop but she is frustrated and can't understand why its so difficult for her to get the milk out for her body. We firmly believe the benefit of breast milk for the babies and really hope this journey can last for at least their 6 months.

Felin tried till 10am which is 5 hours of effort to get the engorged milk out before we proceed to NUH to see the lactation specialist. She spent nearly 3 hours there before the specialist managed to get the engorgement problem resolved. During the session, Felin learnt a new skill in hand expressing and suspected that she have been eating too much oily fish. The engorged milk are those that are high in fats content.

Felin claimed again that if such engorgement comes, it will be the end of her breastfeeding journey. She is really very tired and work is already piling up in her office.

I'm still praying for our 12th July target for the babies to enjoy the breastmilk and hope God will answer our prayer.

Its our babies 4 months old today and its only 2 months away from our target... Felin managed to take some nice pictures of the babies this morning... They are getting really playful nowadays and Joshua voice is really sharp and loud whenever he gets too excited and shout.

Its always trouble when Mummy is ill

Felin was down with high Fever on Thursday night on her 4th day back in office. I asked her to do her usual expressing and just go and sleep immediately. I will just make sure the babies will not disturb her sleep. Her fever ran as high as 39.3C and I gave her 2 panadols for relief and to sleep.

I stayed up as usual for my shift that night. I fed Joshua at 12:30am and Josiah and 2am. Josiah took a while to sleep because I changed his diapers and he eventually went into sleep at 2:40am. Just as I'm about to get to bed, Joshua started kicking his bed at 3am. I thought its not supposed to be his feed and tried to change his diapers and pacify him to sleep. First on the cot and then on the Sarong. When I switched on the light to search for his pacifier, he straight away gave me a radiant smile, telling me "Play with me, Daddy..." OMG!! Its already 3:30am. Please don't give me that smile. He even started shouting as if I'm playing with him. To my horror, I quickly switched off all the lights and stay quiet. But he kept kicking the sarong, complaining to me that I do not want to sleep.

Joshua at 3:30am. Difficult to take him smiling because he stop smiling whenever I took the hp

After a while, I decided to make 100ml of milk and feed him to try my luck and it was fortunate that this trick works. I slept at nearly 4:30am that night and woke up at 8:30am to start my day again. I was really sleepy in office and after my last appointment at Jurong West at 10:30am, I fell flat and sleep. Felin woke me up to ask me feed Joshua at 1:40am and I can't even remember that I woke up to feed him at that hour.

They are coming to 4 months old and its really not easy handling them nowadays but they are really getting adorable...

Long weekend with the kids

It was a long weekend before Felin's maternity leave end. 16 weeks finally came to an end and Felin enjoyed all the beautiful time with the kids over these period. We had taken this period to hone our care-giving skills and to understand our kids. Time seems to pass fast but many things seemed to have happened over this short 16 weeks. It don't seems very long ago that we were still in NUH swaddling the babies.

Felin parents came over to our place during the May Day holiday and they enjoyed their time with the babies. MIL enjoyed talking to them and Joshua always seems to react well to her voice. We went Changi City Point for lunch with Josiah and Joshua staying back at home. Its easier to bring just one baby out.

As for Saturday and Sunday, I spent most of the time at home with the kids. I think its the best time to bond with the babies during the day when they are wide awake. I was caring for them mostly at night when they are sleeping. But its pretty tiring as well for when I wanted to sleep, I couldn't because they still wanted to play. Felin and I went for our favourite Sushi Express at Tampines after Church Service on Sunday with Mum and Dad helping out temporarily.

I haven't got chance to take much picture with them but they are certainly changing so fast. They are more responsive nowadays and they also are more aware of what is happening around them. Its more difficult to feed them and its quite frustrating that they can drink 60ml and start sticking out their tongue to push the bottle tit. When we try again, they will cry and start coughing the milk out.

In order not to waste the breast milk, we will need another hour of effort to coax the baby to drink the remaining 70ml. When 2 babies are doing the same to us, we can simply spend the whole day just feeding them.

The babies getting easily excited, especially Joshua. He will start shouting with an unknown excitement when we talk to him and its difficult to wind him down when he gets excited. When he couldn't be winded down, he will gets tired and start crying excessively. I am quite careful to ensure he don't get too excited nowadays.

As for Josiah, we were worried about his bowel. He did not poo for more than 3 days and we kept waiting for that 4th day before sending him to see doctor. We were worried if its the new formula milk that we feed him.

And as I'm writing this, Joshua is having a fever to as high as 37.9C. So much challenges and hard work just for the 2 of them.