Announcing the arrival of...

... my little niece, Guo Yue Ling 郭悦翎, on the 11 February 2007, born to her very very brave, strong and amazing mother after 6 days of labour.

I am so proud of you both!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for allowing me to share this groundshaking and lifechanging experience with your family, I will never be the same again, and my respect for you has gone up a few more notches.

Photos later, when I can get my digicam to work. Meantime I am still trying to catch up on my beauty sleep after spending so much time at the hospital, and also I have gone, very much under the weather, so to speak. Looks like there's to be no singing for the next few days again, and so soon after the last bout too! I was going to start bellowing all the parenting pop songs. Aiyah!

Labour for 28 hours

And still going strong! Not me lah.

I was pretty excited at first that we were finally entering labourland, but after more than 12 hours of stop-start-stop-start, I think everyone's just trying to get some rest now and waiting for things to progress to a point where we can move into action.

Baby YL, when are you going to come out? Your 二姨 is getting quite impatient leh! But your mommy is amazing... the way she copes with her contractions and getting rest inbetween. This is an eye-opener I'll never forget.

And now 二姨 is going to bed in case your mommy calls me at 3am to go to the hospital.

Math lesson

Ray said to me the other day, "Mom, I can count now!"

"Oh yeah? Great!" said I.

"So 2 + 2 is... 5!" went she.

I fainted.

Choc version of Buche

Added cocoa powder to the whip topping along the way to make choc cream frosting, that's all. But the cake itself is a little overbaked, because I was ambitious and baked a double batch. Oven was not well-controlled.

This half is for a neighbour.

Buche De Noel

My first try at this, really! Recipe from Allrecipes.com, as usual, at least I used the part for the cake itself. Frosting is this Red Man Whip Topping available from Phoon Huat. The lady assured me this was the same one used by all the cakeries around, and that the real "Heavy Whipping Cream" wouldn't work. But while you're whipping it, it smells like coconut milk with added sugar, eew.

Ray and I tried some of the roll itself before we frosted it, and it was of the melt-in-the-mouth variety. I didn't believe at first that you can make a cake without flour, but according to Allrecipes' Cook's Encyclopedia, a sponge cake is traditionally made entirely out of the "power of eggs", no flour. Well, all I can say is, you've gotta try it to believe it!

And how much does a Yule Log cost these days at the bakeries? $50? Gosh... I probably spent less than $10 for everything... 6 eggs though, go easy on the cholesterol, said HL when he heard.

Will be served up this Sunday evening at our family's Xmas gathering with the extended relations.

Have you seen the stars lately?

We've been having storms every other day or so, but after the heavy rains come clear skies.

About 2 weeks ago, I was putting the kids to bed (or trying to), when I happened to look out my bedroom window and see the stars shining so brightly in the night sky. There was no moon at the time, and the nearest streetlamp was kinda blocked by the corner of the wall, so there were no bright lights to mute the radiance of the stars.

Orion was the most obvious constellation (ok it is also the only one I can recognise), and I could even see the stars that make up the sword. No clouds, breathtakingly beautiful. I MAY have seen the arrow/crossbow stars, but I recall my Astronomy senior saying that those are usually difficult to see without a telescope, so I must have been imagining a little too much.

Got the kids to come look too (they love any excuse not to go to bed), so we stood at the window pointing and chatting for some minutes.

Since that first night, I've been trying to remember to do some star-gazing every night, except on a very few nights when it was slightly cloudy.

And we saw a halo in the sky under the full moon, from the garden, a few nights ago. It was almost magical, especially five minutes later when my mom, who was still standing in the garden feeding mosquitoes, pointed out that there were 2 thin trails of smoke crossing the halo, most likely from some rocket or something. She wondered whether it was a sign...

So I've been to the new IKEA Tampines

I went on Monday 4 Dec, thinking, shouldn't be so much of a crowd, since the opening sale was JUST over the day before. It was ok actually.

However, the disadvantage was that a lot of popular (and most of all CHEAP) items were sold out, or as IKEA states on their shelves, "Temporarily Oversold". I went with a list of items to buy, including a new swivel chair, some blue plastic tubs which I need more of, the children's stools, and a grill pan, and they were all gone. I was informed that these should be restocked about 2 weeks later.

Great. Oh well, I can get my ergonomic pillow then, U.P. $39, 18-22 Dec only $19. We've got one, and HL and I are often fighting over it. And we hate this other "support pillow" we bought from Mustafa some time back. Very slippery, slides from under your head and off the bed if you so much as lie down on it with a little more force than an ant's footstep. Plus the Tampines store is much nearer than the Alexandra store. Just go early, and clear out after lunch to avoid the queues.

Mom gets thrown off plane for breastfeeding her 22mo in Vermont, US

Online article here.

"...Gillette said she was seated in the second-to-last row, next to the window, when she began to breastfeed her daughter. Breastfeeding helps babies with the altitude changes through takeoff and landings, Gillette said. She said she was being discreet -- her husband was seated between her and the aisle -- and no part of her breast was showing.

Gillette said that's when a flight attendant approached her, trying to hand her a blanket and directing her to cover up. Gillette said she told the attendant she was exercising her legal right to breast-feed, declining the blanket. That's when Gillette alleges the attendant told her, "You are offending me," and told her to cover up her daughter's head with the blanket.

"I declined," Gillette said in her complaint.

Moments later, a Delta ticket agent approached the Gillettes and said that the flight attendant was having the family removed from the flight.

Gillette said she didn't raise her voice -- not wanting to make a scene in the current jumpy air travel atmosphere -- and complied with the ticket agent, crying as she exited the plane...."

There are laws to protect mothers' right to breastfeed in public, and they do not mention anything about being discreet. Basically if you want to breastfeed, as long as you have a right to be in that place, you CAN breastfeed.

Freedom Airlines' response in a separate post.

Food Poisoning...

HL started nausea and diarrhoea yesterday, I started this morning. We went to see our family doctor around noon, and were given Lacteol Fort and some medication for anti-spasms. Doc said Buscopan (a common anti-spasms med) should not be taken at this point because my intestines are trying to push the toxin out, which is why I get the spasms. So Buscopan will interfere with that and result is the toxin stays longer in my system.

I have been weak ever since I woke up (but still had to because had to get Ray ready for school) and thankfully my sister is on leave so she came over to entertain the kids (who, thankfully are fine) so we could both sleep. Thanks sis!

Argh... only fluids unless we were hungry and then plain porridge till we can keep things down. I couldn't help adding some pork floss to mine - else how to eat??

H20, here I come.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

It looked really good... and was moist, not dry at all, and best of all, took me barely half an hour to whip up before putting it in the oven. However, I got a horrible shock when I took my first bite - it was not sweet at all! Whatever happened??

Of course the first thing anyone does is to look at the recipe again and think over what he did. I did a double take when I re-read the recipe - 2 cups of white sugar! I only added 2 tbsps! Whatever possessed me to read it as 2 tbsps instead of 2 cups!

And I'd wanted to give HL a nice chocolate cake as a wedding anniversary gift, after the lovely surprise present he got me last night. After dinner, the guy asked Ray to come alonga him to buy some lozenges, leaving the boy and me at home. They were gone rather long, so I figured they must have gone to Loyang Point to buy snacks or whatever. When they finally got back, Ray came in with a VERY secretive smile and something she was trying to hide (unsuccessfully) behind her back. When asked whether she had something for me, she nodded, grinned very widely, whipped out a plastic bag, handed it to me and said, "Happy Anniversary, Mommy".

Well, I'll be blowed! I'd totally forgotten the date! Heehee. It was a pair of handphone danglies (I dunno watcha call 'em), with a long strap so you can hang it round ya neck, Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise. Yeah, I'm nuts about NBC. One had a little Jack, the other was Sally. One each. And the whole long strap has glow-in-the-dark bats and skullheads on it, with an oblongish metal plaque with the official logo of NBC near the end. Need you ask? I ADORE it. Even more because it was such a pleasant surprise. I'm trying my best to describe it because I don't have any AA batteries to use with my camera now. Photo will be up asap.

So there goes my "pressie" - chocolate cake which does not taste the slightest bit sweet. Mom suggested drizzling honey, HL chocolate sauce, but I just want to CHUCK IT OUT, because I cannot bear anyone to remember this bitter choc cake I made and remember me for it (the way somebody remembers me for cheesecake, you know whom you are). I've spread some extra cream cheese frosting leftover from the carrot cake on it, but it only seems to make the cake taste more bitter.

YARRGH!

To Harvest Or Not To Harvest

from life@riang:

"I REFER to the article, 'Parents pin hopes on cord blood banks' (ST, Oct 12), on the rising number of parents who harvest their babies' cord blood.

As a mother and a childbirth educator, I feel that it is important that parents weigh carefully the risks and benefits of harvesting their baby's cord blood.

Cord blood should not be considered as 'waste', something to be thrown away if not harvested for storage in a cord-blood bank..."

Read more here.

Carrot Cake - 2nd try

It looks better after fridging - the cream cheese frosting didn't look so melty. Turned out great - except perhaps a little too moist or underbaked. I feel I could have drained the carrot, pineapple and raisins a little more so they weren't so... wet. But I dread to imagine what would have happened if I hadn't read the reviews and learnt that I have to drain the carrots. Recipe is Best Carrot Cake Ever from Allrecipes.com, with cream cheese frosting from somewhere on the same site.

My horrid first try at carrot cake was Awesome Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting which turned out so yucky that nobody could eat another bite after the first try and we threw the lot away. And we made a double batch! Moral of the story: always read the reviews first and try a single batch. Only attempt a bigger batch if you succeed at the first try.

Medical Knowledge Chapter 1

The first doc we saw at KKCH - Lydia Cheong, told us that children of women who have asthma will usually get it. If Dad has it but not Mom, then the likelihood is lower. So I, who still have asthma to this day, must not have any more children d:) (Ok this last part is my own, not the doctor's.)

I also learnt that:

1. Steroids eg. Prednisolone can help to suppress inflammation, but a side effect is that they also suppress your immune system.

2. Salbutamol (aka Ventolin) MDI (metered dose inhaler) cannot be addictive, although a lot of people, especially old folks, seem to believe so, and also that, once you start using that, you're done for and will be totally reliant on it. Instead, it is the steroids which are addictive.

3. The Chamber is definitely better than the Nebuliser when it comes to children, simply because a dose of the Neb will take at least 10-15 min, whereas the Chamber will only need less than 5. And when you have a Hercules who refuses to have anything put to his face, it makes all the difference. We would still be in trouble if KKCH did not use the Chamber.

4. Promethazine, amongst its other uses, is most commonly used as a cough suppressant, but this can only be given for dry cough. If the child has phlegm, suppressing the cough is a no-no.

5. Mucosol dissolves the phlegm and also works as an expectorant, so some people actually cough more after taking this.

6. Fluimucil dissolves the phlegm totally away, so it is more ideal for children (and perhaps adults too). We had to pay for this at the Emergency Pharmacy, so it is definitely outside the range of standard drugs. We didn't have to pay for the Salbutamol (MDI and syrup), Pred, Promethazine, or nose drops.

Yi - The Hospital Hours

On Monday, Ray was audibly wheezing and very breathless (lips pale), so we brought her to KKCH for emergency treatment. She was treated and fine from then on, except for the occasional cough and residual runny nose.

Then yesterday (Tuesday), Ruvie, who had been coughing and sniffling quite a bit the day before, suddenly seemed to be breathing very hard, so I fetched my stethoscope and, to my horror, heard wheezing in his lungs! After making a few calls to my family clinic and a family friend because HL was not reachable, I decided to pick the girls up early, send Faith home and head for CGH A&E. Thankfully, their teacher offered to send Faith home so I hauled Ray away. HL, who by this time had managed to get to his mobile, called and said he would try to get leave.

However, when we got to CGH, Ruvie simply refused to put on the nebuliser mask. But we managed, with a lot of fuss and crying as well as with the help of the orderly, to get him to take the prednisolone orally. Then the doctor decided she would pass our case to KKCH, so HL, who had arrived, drove us there.

It took a total of four adults to administer the Ventolin in the chamber. HL held his legs, I cradled him and held onto his arms, a nurse held his head firmly and another nurse held and administered the drug. He was so strong, and his face turned red from screaming and kicking. There was such a fuss that when we came back for the second cycle 20 min later, another group of nurses who were at the station knew that we would need reinforcements.

But it was worth going through the trauma (both Ruvie's and ours), because he was obviously very well after that. We were discharged with instructions to puff him and oral meds (more rounds to fight, not looking forward to it).

But later, shortly after the next puff at home, he was breathing very rapidly again, and after a bout of coughing, I detected wheezing, so we packed our bags, expecting to be admitted, and headed for KKCH AGAIN on this day. Now what was most UNexpected, was that Ruvie was totally fine by the time we got there. The senior doc decided we could go back, but gave us Prednisolone for the next few days, something which the earlier doc did not give, because she felt he didn't respond to the CGH dose, but instead was very receptive to Ventolin.

And since he fell asleep in the car on the way back, we decided not to wake him up and go through all the trauma of giving him the pred. He's been fine all night long.

So now it's time to wake him up and have round 5 or so of The Chamber.

Don't throw away your old books

I am currently re-reading this book I received as a child, which I vaguely recollect came as a book prize in one of my primary school years.

Each time I re-read a story book, I find a fresh perspective, a whole-new image in my mind depicting the scene and the progress of the story, in a way that was never that before. It does not matter how many times I've read it before as a child or as a teenager, or even that I already know the ending and most of the plot - the story always seems new. And most of the time I can empathise more with the characters than previously, because I have gone through more myself.

For this, I am very grateful to my mother, who has kept almost every single book from my childhood, in rather good condition too, from Ladybird Well-loved Tales to Enid Blyton's fairy tales and Malory Towers, to Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, to lots of abridged versions of classics such as Jules Vernes' Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. Truly, this is a wonderful collection worth keeping, I see now. Other than saving me LOADS of moolah on buying new books for my own kids, these books have also brought me renewed outlooks on life.

I am, of course, adding to the "Library", as we call the bookcases in my mom's house, although the shelves are nearly bursting with books. I can hardly refrain from spending money at 2nd hand book sales, and some rental bookstores (I always get the ones which have been lent out a few times so their sale price is lower, but still in great condition; in any case, I doubt brand new books will maintain their brandnew-ness for long in the hands of my children). Plus we didn't have any Dr Seuss' titles, nor any of the TV shows tie-ins (or is it tie-ups?) such as Postman Pat, The Wombles and El Nombre. And if it's 2nd hand, it's usually a good investment.

Most importantly, if I am purchasing a title or series that came out recently, such as the Artemis Fowl books, I always inform my sister so she doesn't go and buy the same thing.

The haze seems to be clearing...

...I hope. It was 40+ yesterday and currently (at about 2pm Singapore time) it's about 30+. And we are left with cool breezes and light showers, not bad at all. I totally dread the hot, hot sun which heats up my bedroom and the house, but on those days I am also thankful that my laundry gets some natural disinfectant. Ahh... to breathe the fresh, sweet-smelling air... in Singapore? Well, perhaps not SO fresh, but at least in Changi where I am, it's not as badly polluted.

What have I been doing? Watching the Korean drama Princess Hours on Youtube, then completing the Magicians of Love which I used to follow on E City. Yes, I am a fan of idol dramas, and proud of it. I LURVE eye candy. Wish I could fulfil my desire to act and sing. "Duh." I can hear you say.

I've been MIA for so long because...

... I've caught a cold bug (not so serious) and the reading bug (very serious). First I started reading up my old ballet series (Drina books, either you know or you don't). And that had eleven books, so although on average I finished one per day (skimming only), it still took quite some time. I'm of the type that cannot put down a book once I've started.

Along the way I was waylaid by my old Enid Blyton Mystery series, in which you find the Five Findouters and Dog. I started out with 2 books when I was a kid, but in the last few years I've bought more as I saw them, mainly at 2nd hand book sales. And last Friday at the MPH distributors sale at Downtown East, $50 went on 2 of these as well as other classics such as A Treasury of Narnia (left). I'd only just completed reading the Chronicles of Narnia a few months back and it has become one of my favourites. A Treasury of Narnia sheds light on the author, C. S. Lewis' background, besides other interesting stuff such as why he wrote the stories in a certain order, and how they reflect his own life. Well worth the $12 I paid, especially as it is a hardcover and is of great quality.

And I'm proud to say that we've now got the complete Winnie the Pooh collection - by A. A. Milne - a lovely box of 2 hardcover books. I foresee that I will have to read it out to the kids sometime in the future, as it is not what you would call a picture book. I was very tempted to get a very pictorial Winnie the Pooh book, but it had only a few stories in it.

And I do believe that the next series I'm going to start on is Lemony Snickets' A Series of Unfortunate Events. As far as I know there are thirteen books plus a few other extras. Ack! Each hardcover book cost $8 at the fair, so I think I'll wait till the complete omnibus comes out in paperback.

I'm now on the hunt for the last book in the Enid Blyton Mystery series to complete my collection - The Mystery of the Secret Room. Haven't seen it at any of the 2nd hand book stores, nor at MPH!

Homestyle Nabeyaki Udon

Before pouring the soup:

Soup's in, with mushrooms:Oishii, ne? How much would you pay for this?

Bedok Interchange Food Centre - Xue Hua Fei dessert stall

My family loves their watermelon bowl (Bing Dong Xi Gua). They've got 2 types of watermelon dessert I think, not sure what the difference is, but one's got corn the other hasn't. I like the one with corn. And also their chendul is (currently) the best I've tasted in Singapore, not that I've tasted that many of course.

The stall proprietor is very friendly (can't say the same for that of another dessert stall in the same food centre), very accommodating to all my "want this, don't want that". Only thing is they don't have hot desserts, at least I don't think so, but this is not a problem for me because I hardly eat hot ones from Bedok.

Thank God for the Sling

There are times when the breast just isn't what he wants, like when he's overtired and wakes shortly after falling asleep, or when he's ill (tonight, flu). Cries and cries and doesn't want to nurse, or cannot nurse, but just wants to be carried.

Out comes my trusty old sling (whichever of the 4 I have that is nearest to me), in goes the baby, I sing his fav lullabies (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Barney's I Love You), and within a minute he's fast asleep.

The closeness, the comfort, Mommy's smell, the rocking motion are all what he's used to ever since he was born (I started using my sling even at the hospital, never leave home without it, remember?). And there's hardly any build up of lactic acid in my arms, except perhaps from holding the camera far out till I get the best angle.

This was my very first sling from Moms In Mind, colour rather faded but I still love it best, because of the print on the rails. And I AM glad that he's not 13kg.

Want to buy a sling? Mummysmilk.com having 20% off on Maya Pouches this month! d:)