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The shower stall that Ethan takes his shower in has a sliding door. Lately, he has started to slide the door close whenever I take him into the shower stall. I do not know if it is because he just likes the sliding action or if in fact, he is requesting for some privacy.
When we have visitors, they like to watch Ethan take his shower (for some apparent reason)….well, sorry, this is not available anymore, because he now showers behind closed doors.
Ethan’s appetite has increased in leaps and bounds since his recent bout of illness. That’s a really good sign, although it is all really in the scales and we shall know for sure if he has gained a significant amount of weight tomorrow when we take him for a visit to Dr Jessica for his (long-delayed) JE jab.
While I am at work, Ethan takes a total of 3 solid meals now, not including his milk feeds. I’m guessing he takes lunch, tea and early dinner. If you take into account the oatmeal he has for breakfast, then it will be 4 solid meals. Mrs Tan cooks porridge for him still, but at home and during weekends, he takes whatever we eat. Sometimes Ethan joins us for dinner after we pick him up from the sitter…we normally do this on Fridays…and guess what, our boy will be eagerly requesting for food too! Boy, has he got an expandable tummy!
For the past three days, I have also included supper in his diet. After his nightly shower, I make him a bowl of cereal, sometimes Kellogg’s Frosties and sometimes Rice Krispies (I’m thinking of trying Cocoa Pops tonight). I mix the cereal with Pediasure, which I heard is more *fragrant*, as it tastes just like vanilla milkshake. Of course,the introduction of supper is really a means of paving the way towards complete weaning from breastmilk too. And I am pleased to note that for the past three nights, Ethan has cheerfully and happily finished each serving (2-3 oz of Pediasure with cereal).
Well, he still wants to be nursed before he sleeps now, but with supper, he *seems* to be waking up at 3:00ish a.m. instead of the regular 12:00ish. So that’s a good sign. 🙂
We must have gone through almost all types of infant cough medication, all in the fervent hopes of making Ethan recover completely from his cough. It breaks my heart so to hear him coughing, because his cough is of the forceful kind, and he sounds like he is suffering whenever he coughs.
First, we gave him Rhinatiol from Dr Jessica. After a few days when there was no improvement, we switched to MucoFlux, which was also prescribed by Dr Jessica. Two days into the medication and there was still no sign of recovery. Pete and I then decided to try the Vicks method. No, no, it is not the application of Baby Vicks to his chest and back (we already do that every day anyway). The Vicks method is one that has been circulating the internet, suggesting that to cure a cough, all we need to do is to rub some Vicks liberally on the soles of his feet and put on a pair of socks. All this we did when he was in dreamland. Although it reduced the cough slightly, Ethan was still coughing. We did it for 2-3 days. Well, perhaps it was because we used Vicks Baby Rub instead of (adult) Vicks. (The regular adult Vicks was to be administered on kids aged 2 and above only).
The next thing we tried was aromatherapy. I quickly bought a bottle of Magnolia essential oil, rubbed 2 drops vigorously in my palm and applied it to Ethan’s front and back, and also his throat area. There was some level of improvement in his recovery rate, and his cough appeared to faze off, but we were not satisfied, because he was not completely healed yet.
So when push came to shove, we decided to turn to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Charlotte‘s mom had told me that she gave Charlotte Pak Poh when she was coughing, and it cured her cough within 2 days. On top of that, Charlotte did not need to be forced to take the medicine. It was worth a shot. Such is the desperation of a parent. So we got a box consisting of 6 powder vials of Pak Poh from Eu Yan Sang. I used just one teaspoon of warm water to make the Pak Poh mixture for Ethan, tried giving it to him, but he rejected it immediately. I then tried mixing it with his favorite yogurt, but although he took a little bit, he was not very happy when his taste-buds told him that the bitter-tasting Pak Poh marred the taste of his yogurt. We had no choice but to shoot the mixture straight down his throat using the syringe.
And now after SIX torturous sessions, Ethan is finally medicine-free, and has been so for about a week now. He still coughs slightly, but is getting better every day. I’m praying and praying and praying…. We’ll leave it to his antibodies to do the work then.
This settles it once and for all! When I read about the Look-alike Meter at Charlotte‘s blog, I just couldn’t resist trying it out for myself too…so many people have said Ethan looks like me, especially the eyes, it seems…. but yet, a lot of people have commented he looks like his Daddy too. I don’t blame them, especially since the striking resemblance is hard to ignore.
Well, 3% is still a wee bit slight advantage 🙂 Heh heh…. but the small percentage could also mean another thing:
Pete and I look alike too!
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*
A visit to Queensbay Mall is always therapeutic, not just for Mommy but for Ethan as well. Just the mere sight of the mall from his car seat is enough to transform our boy from this:
to this:
Ingredients
Method
Put all of the above together and wait to see what happens.
Caveat: Expect some cleaning up afterwards.
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?
When it rains, it really pours… SIGH
Just as Ethan was on the road to full recovery from his recent illness, we noticed that his eyes seemed puffy and red just a couple of days ago. When he woke up in the morning, he had some yellowish discharge, which I initially dismissed as tiredness. But then he began rubbing his eyes frequently, resulting in his eyes getting swollen. Even when I applied breastmilk on his eye area, it only helped reduce the swelling temporarily. At night, our fears were confirmed when the yellowish discharge returned in both eyes. As a gungho mommy, I promptly referred to my Dr Miriam Stoppard childcare book, which told me Ethan could have blepharitis, a common eye infection amongst babies and toddlers. To clean and soothe his eye area, I wet a cotton pad with warm boiled water and wiped once from inner corner of the eye to the outer corner.
On Tuesday, we were due to visit Dr Jessica for Ethan’s 19th-month checkup and JE vaccination. On that morning, I called Dr Jessica and told her Ethan probably had an eye infection and on top of that, he was also nursing a slight cough. She told us to bring him in anyway for the checkup and she would then determine if he was fit for the jab.
I had already made an appointment with Charlotte‘s mommy to bring Charlotte in on the same day too, so that Ethan and Charlotte could share the dosage of the JE vaccine. Unfortunately when we brought Ethan to the clinic in the evening, he also had a slight fever of 37.6°C, so the doctor advised us to postpone the JE jab. 🙁
Doctor Jessica diagnosed Ethan’s eye infection as an early stage of conjunctivitis. Thankfully though, the whites of his eyes were not red yet. She prescribed Fucithalmic, a antibiotic fucidic acid eye ointment to be dropped into Ethan’s eyes twice a day. He also had a dry cough, so she prescribed cough mixture too, this time, a sweeter one compared to Rhinatiol, named MucoFlux.
SIGH… back to grind of medicine-feeding again. 🙁
This morning, after 2 applications of the eye ointment, the condition of his eyes has improved…. I’m praying Ethan will be completely healed as soon as possible. I can’t wait to see the sparkle and glow back in his eyes!
On the bright side though, I forgot to mention that as of yesterday’s visit to the doctor, Ethan’s weight has reached the 10-kilo mark! WOoHOoOoOooooo!!!!
Scrap papers & elements from Lindsay Jane Designs