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Going Going Green…

September 3, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 17 comments

Check out what I got for Ethan last Merdeka weekend:

Yep, those cute adorably colorful thingies you see there are Ethan’s new Bumwear Cloth Diapers, which I got from Sin Dee. Don’t they look gorgeous?

I had known all about Bumwear Cloth Diapers for a long time now, yes, even before I gave birth to Ethan, but I only started revisiting the idea about two weeks ago.  The prospect of going *cloth* has been really enticing and I had been tinkering about getting them for Ethan. Our boy has all along been on disposable diapers. I did use the traditional cloth nappies for him when he was a newborn, but since he was a fully breastfed baby then, his poo was really runny, and well…let’s just say there were quite a number of unwanted *accidents*. That, plus the toll of having to wash the nappies day in and day out made me switch to disposables. It was very convenient and hassle-free.  Although not very friendly on the wallet, disposable diapers were very easy to use and throw.

However, I recently took a step back and decided to make a change. For the better.

I learnt about disposable diapers causing an increase on scrotal temperature in boy babies, which could potentially lead to infertility.  There has not been enough proven evidence that this is entirely true, but the facts were enough to raise a concern (at least with me).  And this is one of the main reasons why I decided to make that switch.  Don’t get me wrong, I am also switching because of the increasing landfill problem caused by disposables and also because of the toxic chemicals used in disposables, but while the change I make now would only make a small difference in the landfill problem, it would make a significant change to Ethan’s comfort 🙂  And that’s mighty important to me!

Switching to cloth diapers would not make a whole lot of a difference cost-wise too, because Ethan is already 19 months old.  Those who have been using cloth diapers since baby was born would see a huge savings in the long run.  Besides, we will still need to launder the cloth diapers which would also take up some time and effort on our part.  I have not decided to make a full switch or not yet, because I want to try these new Bumwear diapers first before I consider introducing them to Mrs Tan.  However, the extra effort I put in will be well worth the effort.

For one, these BumWear diapers are nothing like the conventional nappies.  These are so cool and adorable looking, plus they come with diaper inserts which allow fluid to be absorbed with tremendous ease.  Also, using these BumWear diapers would mean I do not need to apply barrier cream like Drapolene anymore!  One of my concerns was that with these cloth diapers, they would not be able to last through the night.  However, I discovered that by using 2 inserts, the absorption is doubled and I can then use these throughout the night, just like any ordinary disposable diaper.

Tonight is the very first time Ethan went to bed garbed in his Bumwear diapers.  Doesn’t he look adorable?  Check out that look he is giving…looking very much like a model eh? *wink*

In the face of Adversity…

August 29, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 2 comments


Scrap template from Lindsay Jane Designs,
papers from Lindsay Jane Designs & Anita Designs

We adults can certainly learn a thing or two from kids.  Forgiveness, tolerance and most importantly, just be happy!

Yes,… Ethan taught me to smile… even after he had accidentally slipped and bruised the upper corner of his right eye while climbing in and out of his bath tub which he doesn’t use anymore.  Just SMILE and the pain will all go away…. see how easy it is?

Procrastination Pays

August 16, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 6 comments

… but only in the case of this breastfeeding mommy, I guess.

If you hadn’t already known, I am in the process of weaning Ethan from my breast.  However, although we have succeeded at a certain level (he is down to only one feed of EBM while I am at work), the fact that I have procrastinated and dilly-dallied on the weaning resulted in Ethan still being breastfed when I am with him.

And you know, as I watch him recovering from his recent illness, I am so grateful that I am still breastfeeding him.

After he regained his appetite after his spell of vomiting, he only wanted breastmilk and that is really the best kind of food he should take.  Now that he is recovering from his diarrhoea, breastmilk is the best because even if he doesn’t take too keenly to water, breastmilk contains about 90% water.  Even Dr Jessica says it is the perfect solution to help him get well sooner.  Besides providing him with all the antibodies to help him get better, it helps to soothes and calms him down too.

Yesterday evening, Pete was out for his weekly futsal match, and I was left to attend to Ethan by myself.  Boy was he a handful!  He definitely looks better now and he was back to his mischievous ways and was up till almost 11p.m.!  I’m still praying he’ll be 100% well as soon as possible.


Scrap Elements by Lindsay Jane Designs

Today we took him to GMC for his checkup with Dr Jessica, after the 3-day antibiotic (Rocephin) course jabs he took.  Unfortunately, I was not aware that Dr Jessica was on half day leave today, so we had to see Dr Rama instead.  Upon inspecting both Ethan’s ears, Dr Rama reassured us that the infection has definitely gone down in both ears.   🙂  However, he prescribed another 5-day course of antibiotics (Cedax) just to be on the safe side, ensuring that the bacterial infection would be totally eliminated.  Dr Rama reassured us that Cedax tasted slightly sweet and we only needed to administer 2.2ml once a day for 5 days.  We were to see Dr Jessica again after the 5 days for a final checkup.

SIGH… guess we’ll have to see if Ethan will be okay with taking this final round of medicine then…

Salt, Cream and Water

August 15, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 6 comments

Poor Ethan. 🙁 As a side effect of the course of antibiotics, he has diarrhoea. Last night I noticed that he also had nappy rash. It must have been because of the diarrhoea. Because of his nappy rash, Ethan would cry when I gave him a shower. I applied Egozite last night and this morning the rash had subsided somewhat, thank goodness.

But when we picked Ethan up just now for his third and final dose of the antibiotic jab, Mrs Tan reported that Ethan had had diarrhoea thrice all morning. She also mentioned his nappy rash. 🙁

You know, throughout these few days when he was sick, Ethan doesn’t feel like drinking much water. Truth be told, Ethan NEVER had a problem with water, and loves to drink water ever since I started giving it to him when he started on solids. This was because he was on a 100% breastmilk diet from birth till 6.5 months, i.e. no water at all during this time. But now that he is sick, and he needs the water, especially since he has diarrhoea, it is disheartening and rather worrying that he doesn’t want to drink much. Yesterday I figured that he preferred to drink from the cup rather than from a straw, and that was how I got him to drink a substantial amount of water last night. Yay me! And that’s how Mrs Tan got him to drink water too, today. 🙂

Dr Jessica prescribed a special nappy rash cream for Ethan and also oral rehydration salts to prevent dehydration after the diarrhoea. He had a slight incident of diarrhoea at the pediatric ward again just now, while we were waiting for his jab to be administered. And for the 2nd time in 3 days, we had to change him in the hospital (we’re getting to be pros at this, aren’t we now?). Although he still complained of some pain because of the nappy rash, I was relieved to note that it was not as inflamed as last night.

So, the final jab has been given and the worst is over… we will go and see Dr Jessica tomorrow for a final checkup. I’m praying with all my heart that all the infection has disappeared and he can stop all medication then ….

Jabbin’ It…

August 14, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 6 comments

From the moment I saw Pete measure out 5ml of the Zinnat antibiotic into the syringe, ready for feeding Ethan with, I knew something was not right.  The mere smell of the medicine was revolting enough, and the consistency of it was that of a emulsified solution, whitish, thick and gooey, as if it was made from crushed tablets dissolved in some liquid.  This morning was supposed to be the first of 10 antibiotic doses we were to feed Ethan over a period of 5 days, after the first course of antibiotics didn’t do the trick.

So anyway, we tried feeding it to Ethan… here’s the procedure we employed.  I would sit Ethan down and gently tell him that Mommy was going to take him for his antibiotic feed now.  I would reassure him that it was for his own good and wellbeing, and that it would make him feel better.  But the moment he saw Daddy with the syringe in hand, he started struggling and screaming.  Nevertheless, we managed to pump the entire 5ml into his throat….. but…. no sooner had we done that, Ethan threw up the entire contents of it on the floor.   Well, so much for trying then.  We had to turn to the other alternative.
I called Dr Jessica when I was at work today, and told her that we had decided to take Ethan for the antibiotic jab instead, since he didn’t take at all kindly to the oral method.  The jab would be 3 doses in total, and Ethan had already had the first dose yesterday.  Pete and I had a quick lunch and fetched Ethan from Mrs Tan’s.  We reached GMC slightly past 12:30p.m. and I took Ethan straight up to Dr Jessica’s clinic.  It was a good thing she was still there and she managed to check on Ethan real quick.  She said the infection in the right ear had gone down (yippee!!) but the left ear was still slightly red.  She told me to bring Ethan in on Thursday, a day after the 3-day antibiotic course would have been completed.

We then went up to the pediatric ward with the prescription and after a short wait, Ethan had his second jab.  Even though he cried out loud, I am very proud of him for being such a brave boy. The jab was all over in a matter of seconds…. Two-thirds of the way through now … 🙂

Ethan fell asleep on the way back to the baby sitter’s.  I just called Mrs Tan and she told me that Ethan’s appetite was returning as he was eating more of the mee suah now.  And that is a good sign, yes?

A Nightmarish Weekend

August 13, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Parenting | 11 comments

All I can say is that we made the right decision to postpone our trip to KL last weekend.  SIGH.

Last Thursday night, Ethan developed a fever, so we gave him a dose of the Paracetamol suppository.  He was also coughing with traces of phlegm.  The next morning, he still had a fever, so I gave him another dose.  His body was slightly warm when we left him at the baby sitter’s though.  We told Mrs Tan that we would come by to see how he was doing during lunch.

When we got there, I took his temperature and it read 37.8°C!  So we told Mrs Tan to give him the suppository and that we would come and take him home at around 4:00-ish.  When we arrived at 4:30p.m., Ethan’s body felt really hot, and although I was already panicking on the inside, I tried not to let it show.

5:30p.m. I took his temperature and it was a horrifying 39.4°C!  Since we had already run out of the PCM suppository, we had to force a dose of the oral PCM down his throat.  I breastfed him and could only pray that the fever would subside soon.  Dr Jessica’s night clinic would only be open at 7:00p.m. so we had to wait till then.

At GMC, Ethan’s temperature had subsided somewhat, although when the nurse took his temperature, it still read a relatively high 38.9°C.  Despite nursing a fever however, Ethan was still very interested in the escalators at the hospital.

The diagnosis?  Ethan has an infection in his throat and left ear, Dr Jessica said.  When she inspected, his left ear and throat were red, but thank goodness there were no white spots in the throat yet (white spots meant trouble, I had read somewhere).  The initial throat infection probably had spread to the ear.  Besides the infection, he was also suffering from a runny nose and of course, was coughing too.  He was prescribed Paracetamol (for fever), Rhinathiol (for cough), Polaramine (for flu), Azithromycin (antibiotics) and Iliadin (nasal drops).  All familiar names to me by now, because Ethan had been on the same range before.

We went to Old Town for dinner where I was very thankful that Ethan took a bit of the koay-teow.  We took him back home, and practically had to force the medicine down.  His fever was also monitored closely.  That night proved to be a highly trying night for us.  I had to give him the PCM suppository every 4 hours because throughout the night, his body temperature hovered around the 39.2°C mark.  It was a sleepless night for all three of us.  Ethan decided he wanted to wake up in the middle of the night to watch Baby Einstein and walk around the house, I had to wake up with him, and Pete, being a light sleeper, could not get any sleep as well.  Ethan finally went to sleep but was still rather feverish in the morning.

Saturday morning, I reported to Dr Jessica that his fever was still on the high side, and she assured me that it would take about a day or two for the antibiotics to react.  Thankfully, Ethan’s fever subsided throughout the day.  Pete and I also decided that we should see our doctor to get some medicine ourselves since we were both also sick, with somewhat similar symptoms.  We then had Japanese food for lunch.  Japanese food is always our *comfort* food whenever any one of us is sick.  And since all three of us were feeling under the weather, the choice was obvious.

Sakae Sushi provided us with a booster chair instead of a high chair, and that was really good because then, the chair would not block the pathway.  Ethan enjoyed his chawan mushi and rice, as usual.  And we were glad that he was eating, at least.

After lunch, Ethan fell asleep and when he woke up, he seemed very listless and rather pale.  He rejected my breast and would not even drink any water, instead preferring to walk around aimlessly.  When we offered him his favorite Yakult yogurt drink and his Calci-yum yogurt, he angrily rejected them too!  I even tried mixing a feed of formula for him, but this was met with just plain disgust.  I offered my breast again and again, but again and again he made a face and pushed me away.  This was very unlike him and very odd indeed, as he has NEVER EVER rejected my breast before.  “Could this be the start of him being weaned from my breast?” I thought to myself.

Come dinner time, he didn’t even want a single strand of the spinach noodles I had prepared for him.  We managed to get him to drink a few sips of water and he did nibble on a few grains of Rice Crispies and raisins, but that was all. 

Then it was time for his medicine.  Pete would usually give him the antibiotics first, followed by Rhinathiol and then Polaramine.  This time, after his force-feeding of the Rhinathiol, as I was carrying him away, he suddenly threw up on the floor!  There was very little vomit only though, because our boy had hardly eaten anything since 3p.m.  And that was the first time he threw up ever 🙁   We finally managed to feed him the medicine and gave him a shower after that, although he was very upset.  Our boy was very sleepy by then, and he also looked very tired and weak, because he had not eaten or drunk anything much.  After his shower, he fell asleep immediately.  No comfort suckling at the breast, I just put him in his cot and he was out like a light.

Then at about 3:30a.m. Ethan woke me up.  I took him to the kitchen to get some water because I could tell he was thirsty, and he vomited again!  I cleaned up the kitchen floor, and gave him a few sips of water (he was still not interested in breast-milk at that time).  He fell asleep after that, but woke up about half an hour later and threw up again on our bed and on me…..   🙁  It was extremely worrying as I knew he was probably dehydrated, but there was nothing we could do… we could only let him sleep.

The next morning (Sunday), when he woke up before 8:00a.m., I tried to breastfeed him again, and I was so overjoyed that he FINALLY drank the milk.  I could tell that he was VERY hungry then and was craving for it so badly.  My heart ached to see him suffering the night before when he rejected the breast.  It was as if he knew he had to refrain from drinking breast milk because  *knew* that if he did, he was going to throw up. 

He fell asleep again after his feed and only woke up after 10a.m.  His appetite seemed to have returned somewhat, although he would only take breast-milk for breakfast and lunch, and throughout the day.  But at dinnertime, he took some koay-teow too!

After dinner, and after his medicine was administered, he again rejected the breast.  And he again fell asleep without being breastfed.  Even more worrying, his temperature shot up again to 38.5ºC!  I gave him the PCM suppository and monitored his temperature through the night, as usual.

Pete and I took the day off today to take Ethan to see Dr Jessica again.  His temperature was going up and down like a yoyo and that was not something we were comfortable with.  Dr Jessica checked his throat and said the infection had cleared up.  However, both his ears were infected now.  So she prescribed another round of antibiotics (a different one, this time: Zinnat), which we were to administer 5ml twice a day for 5 days! I almost fainted… We decided to have Ethan take the antibiotics jab first in GMC, so we could start the *torture session* only tomorrow.  His fever had returned too, so we had to give him a PCM suppository in the hospital as well.  We were instructed to bring Ethan in for a follow-up check after the 5-day-antibiotics-dosage had been completed.

After the Zinnat jab and PCM suppository, we were told to wait for an hour to see if there were any adverse reactions before we were allowed to leave the hospital.  Good thing there was a playroom at the pediatric ward with a Little Tikes house to keep Ethan busy… of course, to add to the drama, our boy chose to poop then and there too, so we had to clean him up.

So….we’re back home now, and Ethan is finally asleep.  This whole experience has reinforced in us that it’s really tough being a parent.  It comes with its ups and downs, I guess.  I pray that God will bless Ethan and grant him the strength to fight against his illness and that he will recover soon.  Get well my darling boy.  I can’t wait to see you back to your cheerful, cheeky self again!

Adventure Underwater (Singapore Day 4)

August 8, 2007 in Ethan, Milestones, Parenting, Vacation | 11 comments

A vacation to Singapore would not be complete without a visit to Sentosa Island, now would it? I can barely remember my last visit to Sentosa Island, but my Mom tells me I was really young then. I vaguely recall taking the cable car all the way to the island and back though. In fact, my parents had their honeymoon in Sentosa Island. The island must have changed a whole lot since then. For one, we had heard a lot about the Underwater World, and were eager to show Ethan all the underwater life which we knew he would so love.

After our breakfast, we took the MRT from Little India to Harbourfront, which was about 6 stations away. This time, there was no need to change to a different MRT line and it only took us slightly more than 15 minutes to get to our destination. The Harbourfront MRT station is directly connected to VivoCity, the newest, biggest, trendiest shopping mall in Singapore. We’ll get to the shopping later, I thought to myself. 😀

Initially we wanted to take the cable car because we wanted to have a good view from above. We then learnt that a cable car ride would cost SGD11, and comparing that to the monorail, which costs only SGD3, we opted for the latter. The monorail ticket was a return ticket, and it was inclusive of all the bus rides we would need to take on Sentosa Island itself. As it turned out, taking the monorail was a great decision on our part, because not only did we get to take in a spectacular view of our surroundings, the entire journey via the Sentosa Express took only a mere 10 minutes (which is a bonus for Ethan who is prone to getting restless)! From the monorail, we could see the cable cars moving towards Sentosa Island, and comparatively, they were taking forever! Upon reaching Sentosa Island (Beach Station), we took a bus all the way to the Underwater World.

Ethan of course enjoyed free admission, but we adults had no reason to complain either, because we got a 10% discount when we paid with the Citibank credit card 🙂

The first stop we made was to touch and feel the stingrays. They felt leathery and slithery! I did not allow Ethan to touch them though and he didn’t complain either because he was more fascinated with the many aquariums on display. He could see the fishes up close and it was apparent he was having a field time doing so.

To keep Ethan occupied and not-so-restless, I had brought along a small box of cornflakes. Learning from the zoo adventure, it was a no-no to allow him to get hungry, so I kept him busy eating and munching on cornflakes 🙂 Good parenting tip, eh? *wink* So amid the exhibits of crabs, fish, jellyfish seadragons and seahorses, Ethan was happy with his snack and Daddy was happy with his snapping… photos, that is.

I personally felt the highlight of the Underwater World was The Tunnel. Here, we just had to stand on a moving walkalator that took us through a tunnel where we were surrounded by all kinds of underwater life swimming all around us. Fish, sharks, manatees, you name it…. there were many moments that prompted us to go “Ooooooh….” and “Waaaahhh……”, if you know what I mean.

All in all, we really enjoyed ourselves at the Underwater World. After taking lunch, we realized it was drizzling outside when we were about to leave. Since we still had time, we decided to go to the Dolphin Lagoon after that. The entrance to the Dolphin Lagoon had already been included in the admission fee for the Underwater World anyway. So we took a bus there.

Ethan was already hungry for milk by that time, and I was again deeply disappointed that there were NO breastfeeding facilities at the Underwater World OR at the Dolphin Lagoon. So upon reaching the Dolphin Lagoon, we walked a few hundred meters to the nearest restroom. Realizing it could be a challenge to breastfeed in the restroom, not to mention the issue of hygiene, I prayed so hard that there would be a conducive place for me to breastfeed him, and God again provided 🙂 The restroom was one that had an open area where there were four benches shaped to form a square with a roofed shelter. All I had to do was sit there and breastfeed him. And he fell asleep promptly. Poor lil guy – must have been tired out after looking at all the fishies…..

I then carried Ethan out to meet Pete, who was waiting for us on Palawan Beach. Palawan Beach is situated just beside the Dolphin Lagoon. We still had about half an hour before the Meet the Dolphins show was to start, so Pete and I decided to take a stroll to the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia. This is where I am a little confused…. so Singapore is considered part of the CONTINENT of Asia, even though it is an island? Eh? Anyway, benefit of the doubt…..

Well anyway, with Ethan still asleep, we carried him across a slightly rickety bridge to this southernmost point. The view was just amazing, and the swaying trees and windy breeze kinda reminded me a little about what Maldives was like. Ethan, unfortunately, missed all of this because he slept through it all.

Then, from our vantage point, we suddenly noticed that people were beginning to take their seats for the Dolphin show, so we made our way back to the Dolphin Lagoon. Our boy suddenly woke up as we were making our way back across the bridge… so he was wide awake and chomping happily on his cornflakes as we waited for the show to start.

Unfortunately, not much can be said about the Dolphin Show. Apart from the unique looking pink dolphins, the show was rather disappointing. Well, maybe I had my hopes way up too high, but in spite of that, Ethan sure enjoyed the show, as he was clapping away right on cue 🙂

After the show, we took the bus back to Beach Station where we boarded the monorail back to VivoCity. The monorail actually stops at a couple of other stations on Sentosa Island too, but we chose not to get down….although we almost got down when it stopped at the Merlion. Pete however managed to capture an awesome shot of the famous Singapore icon, all from inside the monorail. Nice eh?

So we had about 2 hours to kill before dinner – what to do? Shop, of course! The mall was VERY spacious and Ethan was VERY happy, not only because he got to run all over but also because yup…there were escalators everywhere! Mommy was very happy too, because she spotted Forever 21, which was WAY bigger than the branch at Wisma Atria. And as for Daddy? Well, I’m sure he had a lot of fun chasing Ethan around… heh.

In accordance with our plan, we had our dinner at Marché.

The baby chairs at Marché were a little different than the ones Ethan is accustomed to, but he adjusted well to it, thankfully. So while I went to order the food, Pete entertained Ethan while waiting for the food. During our Singapore trip, we noticed that Ethan has learnt how to cross his fingers, …check it out in the pictures below….. see it?

Marché’s food is freshly made upon ordering, and because Jazzmint had recommended some stuff which she had tried before, I decided to order some of those. We tried the mushroom soup, rosti, seafood paélla, crépè with Movenpick ice cream and the root beer. And let me tell you, the root beer was simply fantastic! We’ve never tasted root beer that good before…. Oh, and Pete also *discovered* the Swiss cross buns, which looked like the regular potato buns, but taste really soft and fresh. They went oh-so-well with the mushroom soup. And what did Ethan have? Why, a little of everything of course! Except the root beer la. His favorite was the mushroom soup, the paélla and the Swiss cross buns. Yeah, he’s a carbs kinda guy.

A dinner that was a fitting end to a spectacular day.

18th Month Visit to the Doc

August 6, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones, Parenting | 5 comments

Ethan turned 18 months (1.5 years old) last Tuesday (July 31st). And just how did we commemorate this occasion?

We took him for a visit to Dr Jessica’s.

Ethan was due for his JE jab and we had planned to share the dosage with Charlotte because the jab will only need half a vial of the vaccine. Unfortunately, even though both Ethan and Charlotte were there at the hospital, Charlotte was not feeling well, so Dr Jessica advised her against taking the jab. At first we wanted to go ahead with the JE for Ethan, but then Dr Jessica said we could take the Hib, Polio and DTaP jab instead, which was exactly what we did. This was the first booster dose. Ethan had his Polio vaccine via OPV, i.e. orally, which contains a live weakened strain of the virus and is supposedly more effective compared to the IPV method which contains the dead or inactive strain of the virus. As usual, as a precautionary measure, Ethan was given a dose of PCM, which he angrily protested to. When Dr Jessica finished giving him his jab, Ethan looked really angry, and didn’t even want to wave goodbye to the good doctor. When he came into her room, he was delighted with the array of wooden blocks and toys he could play with, but immediately after the jab, when we tried to pacify him with a wooden block, he angrily threw the block on the floor! What a temper our boy had!

Dr Jessica did comment that he was not gaining enough weight though. He now weighs in at 9.8kg, and gained only 300g from the previous visit when he was 14 months old. The doctor said he should have gained double that amount by this time. She attributes this to probably Ethan being a lot more active than normal, and she gave us the green light to feed him more.

Another concern was that he is still not able to communicate in actual words with us. According to Dr Jessica, Ethan ought to have known about 30-50 words by now, and although he is able to motion to us when he wants to go out (holds our hand, motions to us, runs to the door and puts his hand on the door), tell us what he wants (points to the raisin boxes when he wants to eat them), and say a few simple words like “Mommy” and “Deh-deh” and babble the rest of it, the reason he has a slight “language problem” could be because he is watching too much TV. TV is considered one-way communication, and the doc advised us to speak to him more (maybe each one speaks in one language only). Actually we are communicating with him, and I am trying to limit his TV intake to shows with two-way communication, like Baby Einstein DVDs, Little Einstein and The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Well, let’s pray his blabbering will result in actual words soon 🙂

We have another appointment in a month’s time. Let’s see what his progress is then.

Of course, the next day after the doc’s appointment, we went shopping at Queensbay Mall again 🙂 Here’s a look at our precious Ethan Boy: all of 1.5 years!

It’s Heart Wrenching to be a Mommy

July 23, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 5 comments

…or rather it is heart wrenching to be a working mommy.

When we made the decision to go for a week long vacation with Ethan, we knew deep in our hearts that it would be difficult to leave him with Mrs Tan the babysitter after the long hiatus (by the way, Mrs Tan herself left for a vacation of her own too during that week). We touched down in Penang on Friday evening and I had planned on really REALLY starting bottle-feeding with formula milk last weekend itself. But on Saturday morning, Ethan woke up with a slight fever, so I decided to breastfeed him to make for speedier recovery. He would not take paracetamol orally voluntarily but we managed to *trick* him into taking *maybe* 1.5ml. His fever subsided in the afternoon, he had a good afternoon nap but his body was still slightly warm throughout the night. The next morning, he still had a slight fever and was sneezing a little too. I decided to try the same paracetamol *trick* but this time, he outsmarted me and would not even take a single sip!

So push came to shove and we took him for escalator therapy in Queensbay Mall in the afternoon. By evening after dinner, he was all right and raring to go! He slept soundly too, like an angel 🙂

This morning when Ethan woke up, he seemed especially more clingy than usual. When I asked him to go and greet his Daddy who was having breakfast, he refused and instead preferred to hug my legs. It was as if he *knew* Daddy and Mommy were going back to work and we were getting ready to send him to Mrs Tan’s place. It was as if he knew his vacation had ended, at least for now. Normally when we tell him “kai kai“, he would run happily to grab onto Pete’s legs, waiting to be carried. But today, none of that happened. He was crying and struggling, protesting that we were trying to take him out of the house. He sobbed all the way to Mrs Tan’s place, seemingly *knowing* what lay ahead. I myself could not stop my tears from trickling just watching him behave that way. If I had the power and means to eliminate his pain and anguish, I would do so in a heartbeat. Really I would.

When we reached Mrs Tan’s place, he wailed again, not as loudly as when we left our house, but still it broke my heart. Pete says it is normal ….

I called the sitter just now during lunch, and she said Ethan cried for a while but he was okay now. He took half a feed of his EBM and was now sleeping.

I’m missing him immensely now and I can’t wait to see my Mr Bulat again this evening.

Late Sunday Night

July 10, 2007 in Ethan, Parenting, Sleep | 1 comment

Sunday night was another record-breaking night.  Ethan simply didn’t want to go to bed.  When we took him into the living room to play, he looked like he was sleepy, so we took him into the room.  But when he was in the room, he held either Daddy or Mommy’s finger, and motioned for us to take him out by running over to the closed door.  In the end, the three of us went to bed together, at the same time, and we *made* Ethan sleep by relying on the age-trusted method of breastfeeding.  It was close to midnight then.

It was as though Ethan did not want to sleep because he knew the weekend would be over as soon as he fell asleep.  Yeah, don’t we all wish the weekend would go on forever?

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