Bible Verse of the Day

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

May 22, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Food & Feeding | 4 comments

Yesterday evening when we picked Ethan up from Mrs Tan’s place, she proudly announced that Ethan willingly gobbled up every last bit of the rusk cereal mixed with Isomil!  However, when she tried feeding him the Isomil from the bottle, he only took a mouthful and then rejected it.  But she noticed that there was slight improvement, and he appeared to begin accepting the Isomil little by little.

I am now providing 1.5 feeds of EBM to Ethan while I am away at work (previously it was 2 feeds), in the hope that the remainder of the 0.5 feed can be covered by the Isomil in due course.  I am also slowly training myself to express milk at work just once.  It is an arduous process, but one which I knew I would have to undertake sooner or later.

This morning, Mrs Tan asked if she could give him 2 pieces of rusks for his breakfast instead of one.  Of course, I said!  Our boy is a healthy eater 🙂  Why not?

Kiss Me Honey Honey Kiss Me

May 22, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | 2 comments

Ethan used to show affection by biting on my chin.  But now, I am proud to proclaim that I have managed to train him to give me a kiss on the cheek  🙂  When I say, “Ethan, come give Mommy a kiss!”, he will walk over to me, hold my head in his hands and give me a kiss.  He doesn’t do it to anyone else except Pete and me.  Everyone else gets the “head-bang” treatment as a sign of affection.  Hahaha…

The Saga Continues

May 21, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 4 comments

 

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I forked out my hard-earned money for a tin of formula.  Just for a small tin of Isomil, it cost me RM24.90.  And according to the instructions on the tin, once the tin is opened, the contents will expire 3 weeks from then.  SIGH.  The only thing I could think of when I bought it was how much money I had saved by breastfeeding Ethan for so long. 🙂

Last Friday when we picked Ethan up from Mrs Tan’s place, as expected, she told us that he totally rejected the Nestle NAN H.A. formula, not even wanting to take it as a mixture with his oats.  I had already expected this reaction and had braced myself for it because I know that the NAN formula tasted horribly bitter and since Ethan had already tasted other delicious food like siew mai, chicken rice and of course Mommy’s milk, why on earth would he want to take NAN?  Mrs Tan had also already packed up the tin of NAN ready for me to take home.  Haha…

So it was time now to try the third brand of formula: lactose-free Isomil.  My Mom told me that when I was a baby, I too was allergic to regular formula and was on Isomil, so it only made sense that perhaps Ethan is just like Mommy.  On Saturday morning, I mixed some Isomil with oats for Ethan but unfortunately he didn’t want to take it.  Strange…. I tasted a little bit of the Isomil and it tasted fine to me.  Not as sweet as Enfapro but definitely miles better than NAN H.A.!  So I dipped a few pieces of wholemeal nine-grain bun into the milk and gave it to him.  He took just a little bit, but at least that was improvement.  The next morning, I made a thick creamy cereal for Ethan with Isomil and his Farley’s rusks (which contain DHA too).  I showed him how to hold the spoon and exaggerated feeding himself with it.  Heh Heh…Guess what, our boy fell for it and had a considerable amount of the cereal with Isomil in the end!  Since the Isomil samples I had at home were all in sachet form, we thought it would be easier to buy a small tin and leave it at Mrs Tan’s place.  And that’s how we ended up buying that tin of Isomil.  I can’t wait to find out what transpired at Mrs Tan’s place today.

Chopsticks for Me!

May 21, 2007 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Milestones | 3 comments

There’s something about chopsticks that fascinates Ethan so.  When I started giving him siew mai from our dim summeals, I gave it to him with chopsticks.  He would gobble each morsel of the food eagerly and ask for more.  But when I peel off a piece of char siew pau like what I normally do and offered it to him by hand, he pushed it away!  When I gave him porridge using a spoon, he rejected it.  But the funny thing is, if I use a pair of chopsticks and scoop up that same bit of the porridge, and feed it to him, he takes it without any complaints!  Isn’t that odd?

Same thing happened when we went to the New World Park hawker center late last Saturday afternoon.  I am very pleased to note that the hawker center now has baby chairs available!  And they are the kind that Ethan is VERY used to: the IKEA baby high chair, and furthermore it comes with a tray 🙂  So no more sitting in the stroller during our meals at New World now!  Anyway, we ordered wan ton mee, and when our orders arrived, Ethan of course excitedly demanded for food.  You know, with the wan ton mee looking as delicious asthis, I’m not in the least bit surprised.

I fed him the wan ton mee with chopsticks, sometimes twirling it around the chopsticks so it would be easier for him to eat it.  Then I put some of the mee on a spoon, but strangely enough, he pushed it away!  I tried this several times, but it was always the same…don’t know what it is with chopsticks that is so interesting to him.  Oh yeah, we noticed that Ethan has also mastered the skill of slurping a strand of noodle too, and he does it with such finesse, it’s such a delight to watch!  And after meal time, it was time to wash it all down with some water!  Look at how Ethan is quenching his thirst!

Morning at the Botanical Gardens

May 21, 2007 in Ethan, Exercise, Growing Up, Parenting | 3 comments

 After many moons of procrastination and laziness, we finally dragged our weary selves out of bed this morning and headed over to the Botanical Gardens for a morning family exercise session.  It was already a little past 9 in the morning when we arrived, and although it was considerably hot, walking amongst the greenery kind of made it a little bit cooler.  We brought Ethan’s stroller along, so we could push him some parts of the way and only took him out where it was safe to toddle around, i.e. not many joggers and runners blocking the path. 

At first, Ethan was slightly confused with the new experience, as the last time he was there was so long ago.  But I’m not surprised that it only took him a while to warm up and soon he was making himself at home with nature.  He was intrigued by the trees, the leaves, the flowers, the road…just about everything in sight, blabbering and screaming loudly in delight!

We had such a good time that we are already planning and looking forward to this coming Saturday morning when (hopefully) we would be able to go again.

Picture Worth a Thousand Words

May 18, 2007 in Ethan, Miscellanous | 5 comments

We have a new photo adorning our wall shelf in our living room now.  Yep, we finally put it up – an 8R framed photo of Ethan!  And it has certainly brightened up the house!

This photo was part of the studio photography package we signed up for.  The album is still not ready as some photos need to be redone.  Meanwhile, we have this picture to gush over.  Good thing though that the frame is silver in color and goes so well with our decor. 🙂

Papular Urticaria

May 17, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Parenting | 2 comments

Huh, what? That’s a scary term to deal with.  And it is the scientific name for what is commonly known as hives.  That’s what Ethan has been diagnosed with…here’s the story:

When we picked Ethan up from Mrs Tan’s place yesterday evening, there were some small red rashes on his left cheek.  I applied some Sebamed Baby Cream as soon as we got back and breastfed him.  He fell asleep soon after and was still asleep even when Pete came back from his futsal game.  Ethan woke up at about 8:30p.m. and played for a while before we bathed him.  During his bath, we noticed that there were also small tiny rashes of a similar kind on his legs and a couple on his back.  I applied some baby cream and Egozite on those rashes and some calamine cream on his legs too.  Then early this morning, we felt his body was slightly warmer than usual and I promptly took his temperature.  We had bought a digital ear thermometer a couple of months back, so it was significantly easier to register a temperature compared to our conventional armpit thermometer.  The reading was 36.3 degrees, i.e. no fever.  Phew!

But still, I was paranoid and decided to take him to see Dr Jessica, for fear of it being HFMD.  After about an hour’s wait at GMC, we were ushered in and Dr Jessica examined Ethan.  She remarked that it could be due to the Enfapro formula which Ethan had been taking for the previous 2 days, albeit mixed with his oats.  Thankfully he had no ulcers and his fever had subsided.  Dr Jessica just asked us to apply the Egocort cream on Ethan’s rashes and monitor his condition, in case there is a fever.  We were to stop giving him Enfapro and instead, if we wanted, we could introduce the hypo-allergenic Nestle NAN H.A. formula. (I told Dr Jessica that I had a taste of NAN H.A. last night and it was HORRIBLE!  So much more bitter than Enfapro and made me almost throw up!)  In addition, Dr Jessica also gave us some sachets of Isomil, which was lactose-free, and she added that adults could also take it since it tastes like soya bean milk 🙂

We had lunch at Fatty Loh’s Chicken Rice at Tanjung Tokong where Ethan really enjoyed his chicken rice (and even demanded for more when we were done), and then we went home to pack up for half-day work.  I packed one feed of EBM for Ethan to bring to Mrs Tan’s place and brought along that tin of NAN H.A..  I gave her specific instructions to STOP Enfapro for the time being and try NAN H.A. instead.  Let’s pray that Ethan will be cured of his Papular Urticaria soon.  I’m ever so thankful that I have been breastfeeding him for so long 🙂

Formulating a Success – The Hunt Begins

May 16, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | 7 comments

So… it has been 15.5 months…*gives myself several pats on my back for a job well done*

Yes, all of 15.5 months that Ethan has been fed exclusively on Mommy’s breast milk.  Well, other than the introduction of solids when he was 6.5 months old, whatever milk he has taken is solely breast milk. 

And now it’s finally time to introduce formula milk.  My frozen EBM stock in the freezer has dramatically dwindled from an impressive 30-40 feeds to a mere 5-6 feeds now.  I am producing just enough for Ethan these days, sometimes less, and that’s when I rely on my freezer stock.   My friends were teasing me that I would not be able to go through with the introduction last weekend, because I had postponed it indefinitely for a couple of weeks now.  But I braced myself for it, and kept to my word.  So late last Saturday afternoon, I decided to take that gigantic leap and opened that tin of Enfapro A+, one of the samples I had obtained from the pediatrician. 

The pediatrician recommended that we try introducing formula to Ethan in a cup.  And since Ethan is now very used to drinking from a cup, be it a cup with a spout or a regular adult cup, I made just 2oz of the formula and put it into his Nuby sippy cup.  Before pouring it into the cup, I tasted a little of the formula milk out of curiosity to see what it tastes like… I had heard horror stories from some moms that it tasted horrible!  Surprisingly though, it tasted like any normal powdered milk would taste like, so I was reassured.   Ethan would be fine with it, or so I thought…

So back to the cup…the spout on Ethan’s Nuby cup is really soft and so I thought the transition from nipple to spout would not be so drastic.  Ethan was all excited when he saw the cup, but just as the spout touched his lips he pushed the cup away immediately.  He had not even drank the milk, let alone sip it!  So wokay….I poured the milk into my ceramic mug.  He loves to drink water from my mug and I reckoned he would not be bothered by it.  Oh, I was SO WRONG!  He held the mug eagerly at first and attempted to drink the milk that was in it.  But just one sniff from that cute little nose of his and he pushed the mug away in disgust.  So much for my first attempt. 😛

The next day, I tried using the Nuby cup again but AGAIN, Ethan pushed the cup away angrily!  This happened several times, and I ended up pouring the formula away… no love lost there! 😛 On my 3rd attempt of the weekend, I put the milk into a regular Avent milk bottle and tried feeding him with it.  Amid angry wails and protests, he totally rejected the bottle.  TOTALLY.  Hmmm…ok time for Plan B….I had also bought some boxes of UHT Full Cream milk, so I decided to give that to Ethan instead.  As usual, he was excited when he saw the box and grabbed it eagerly.  But he grabbed it way too hard and the milk splurted all over the couch and floor.  I guess I’ll try next time then.  SIGH….

So the next day, Monday, I brought the whole tin of Enfapro to the baby sitter’s place and gave her instructions on how to feed him.  I told her to try giving him some formula when the EBM had all been fed.  So after work on Monday when we went to pick Ethan up, I was anxious to find out how Mrs Tan had fared in her attempt.  She told me that she did not have a chance to give him the formula yet, because he had just had his meal of porridge when we arrived.  So she would try the next day instead.  Tuesday evening: Mrs Tan said that Ethan really REALLY didn’t want the formula AT ALL.  He pushed the bottle away as if it were a plague, and allow the formula milk to dribble from his mouth!  But she said that he was okay with oats mixed with formula milk, so that’s a consolation.

So what to do now?  My plan is to persist with trying to feed him one feed of formula every day, and if he is still rejecting it then we would probably try another brand.  Yesterday night, I gave him some Milo from the box and he drank a little using the straw.  But after that he again exhibited his enormous strength and spilled Milo all over himself and me…ah well…the sharing of chocolatey goodness huh?

Is it going to be cheese and yogurt for Ethan boy soon?  Is it going to be full cream milk?  Formula?  Which brand?  Milo?  The saga continues….stay tuned.

My 2nd Mother’s Day

May 13, 2007 in Ethan, Parenting | 2 comments

It’s Mother’s Day today.  A day for all mothers to kick back, relax and leave all the chores to Daddy and the kids.  And it’s the second time I actually qualify to celebrate it.  Ethan greeted me at 8:30a.m. today with an adorable smile.  A smile that melted my heart and made carrying him simply irresistable.

We had a quick breakfast at home and then got ready to go to church.  Surprisingly Ethan behaved himself rather well in church and although there were times he preferred NOT to sit still, he eventually fell asleep towards the end of the service.  The priest then requested all mothers to step forward to receive a blessing for Mother’s Day, so I had to pass the angelic-looking Ethan to Pete to carry.  He slept all the way till the end until we were about to load him into the car, then he awoke and started complaining.  After some reassurance (and car air-cond), he quietened down and we headed towards Queensbay Mall.  Yippeee….We were going to have lunch at Friday’s :), one of our favorite haunts.  As we were turning into Queensbay Mall, Ethan exclaimed excitedly, it was as if he *knew* where we were going (I think he was only thinking “escalators”…hehe).  Ethan was the picture of happiness when we arrived at Friday’s, and he smiled at every stranger that would so much as glance at him.  I managed to record his cheeky antics while waiting for our food… this is how Ethan handles impatience…

At the end of the day, it was a terrific Mother’s Day, spent with love and MORE love.  Happy Mommy’s Day to me! 🙂 I could not ask for more…

Communication is an Art Form

May 12, 2007 in Ethan, Funny Moments | 2 comments

About 15 months ago, I was suddenly hauled into a world where communication took on different forms other than mere speech.  Crying, gurgling and whimpering were the order of the day… but by and by, Ethan began to learn other forms of communication as well.  Although he is still unable to form words, he is really showing signs of doing so soon, as he is now blabbering non-stop and appears as though he is conversing with us all the time.   Now we pretend to have conversations with him and it’s so amusing to see him respond so enthusiastically.

Just yesterday evening, we had a nice dinner at Soba Yoshi and as usual, before we left the restaurant, we allowed him to roam around for a bit.  At the restaurant, Ethan was yakking away and making all the waitresses adore him more and more.  We decided to take the coastal route back home and as Pete was making a left onto the coastal highway, Ethan suddenly began squealing loudly in delight, albeit in *phrases* we could not comprehend.  As I was sitting in the co-driver seat in front, I turned round to see what the commotion was all about.  Guess what?  Our boy was looking excitedly to his right, where he had a clear view of Queensbay Mall!  He thought we were heading there and was getting all excited about it!  We had to calmly tell him that we weren’t going there just yet.  Hehe…talk about missing the mall!

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