And some added notes (and photo) about Xi Yu's full month

Forgot to post a photo of Xi Yu on her full month on the 21st September 2009, so here it goes!



And to add that it was a real simple celebration, if we could call that a celebration :-) My mum cooked some dishes, plus the red egg and ginger, and we celebration between us, my sister and our dear friend, Batman Shushu :-)



No traditional procedure has been done. And no, we DIDN'T shave her hair bold! Hubby has made it very clear as soon as Xi Yu was born that no one can touch her hair, he wouldn't allow even a little trimming of her hair! Even last time when we shaved off Hao Re's hair to do the "胎毛笔" , hubby was heartpain for quite a while as it look quite a long time for his hair to grow, and now Xi Yu's nice hair, I can understand why he doesn't allow trimming/cutting of Xi Yu's hair :-)

In the Kam household

First, let me show you the very touching photos of the big brother "sayang-ing" his little sister :-)



Our dear Hao Re certainly adores his little sister. But for a merely 20 months old boy, I don't think he is able to express his love to his baby sister. Thank godness that his jealousy has improved a lot, that gives me a lot of breathing space. He would pat (with our supervision of course, since he could be very rough at times) his sister once in while and would climb at the edge of the cot to look at his Meimei. When Xi Yu is crying, he would stop whatever he is doing for a little while and said "妹妹哭" :-) I know for sure, he would make a good Gorgor!

More photos of our dear princess Xi Yu and prince Hao Re. Any chance they look alike?


For us as the proud parents, we certainly couldn't have loved them enough! I was once worried that how could I possibly divide my love for the 2 of them? A very capable mummy of two shared with me that love doesn't have to be divided, in fact it is MULTIPLIED!!! True enough, we would never run out of love for our children, it's forever self-multiplying :-)

I am so blessed to have a pair of great kids, and of course, not forgetting my dear hubby, my love to you is forever increasing :-) I have a just perfect family, nothing in the world beats this!

Xi Yu is ONE month old already :-)

Time really flies. My confinement month has ended. It's definitely NOT a "torturing" month for me like many other mummies under confinement since I don't follow any of the "confiment rules" - I bathed every day, I washed my hair twice a week, I don't wrap myself up with long sleeve shirt and long pant, I don't wear shocks, I used tap (cold) water to wash bottles, I moved around the house everyday to look after my 2 kids and not just lying on the bed, etc, etc. I was grateful that my mum is also supportive (and she doesn't nag) of my "modern confinement", and her cooking is the mild type, i.e., she didn't use lots of ginger and sesame oil and certainly my confinement is not too heaty type. In short, my confinemnet days were just like any other usual day at home (only different is without hubby's accompany). A lot of people, including families and friends, neighbours, and even those I am not very close to, kept "warning" me I shouldn't be like this, I should follow the "rules" strictly, else I would regret when I get old, they said only when I am old then all the illnesses would appear. Oh well, for me, I couldn't care much on what would happen when I get old 30-40 years later, like backache etc as I think these are bound to link to old age and not necessary a result of poor confinement. Plus, having an easy baby certainly helps. People told me girls are easier to handle than boys. For our kids, yes, this theory is true, Hao Re was more difficult to handle when he was this age.

But I know, and I have to admit, sometime I am a bit over the limit :-) I have gone out for shopping started on the second week - of course for baby's neccessities and groceries, not for my own shopping pleassure, and to bring Hao Re for a short walk/fresh air downstairs when he gets really bored being confined within the 4 walls. And went to have a nice cup of coffee with hubby a couple of times :-) Plus to go out for the must-do, i.e., for my gynae checkup and to bring baby for PD checkups, and to go to Malaysia High Commission of Singapore to apply for Xi Yu's Malaysian birth certificate and passport. Next week we still have to bring her out to ICA to apply for Singpaore PR. Not that naughty lah, or am I :-P

Xi Yu went fo PD checkup on Friday. She has gained weight nicely. Has put on exactly 1kg since the day of discharge, she weighs 3.9kg. And all those nutrients come from my milk factory - I have been total breastfeed for 1 full month already, kinda proud of myself :-) One downside is Xi Yu's jaundice will only subside at least 1 month later, according to Dr Keoy, so for now, we would still receive comment from people (and even passer-by) that baby is yellow :-( After the checkup, Dr Keoy informed us that Xi Yu still has high TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) level, and we have repeated the test 3x since birth, and so will need to get her on medication :-( Will go and consult Dr Keoy next week. As what I googled and learned, this high TSH level can be controlled using medication and will be outgrown when she reaches puberty.

(p/s: For you information, screening test of TSH is one of the compulsory screening tests for all newborns in Singapore. So if your PD never mention this to you = good news).

Other than this, everything is fine. She starts to smile to you and seems to respond to sound better. She can turns her head very well (according to Dr Keoy, girls develop faster than boys). Before the visit to Dr Keoy, she seemed to breath heavily at times. Even before I asked, Dr Keoy has detected that and helped to clear her nostril, used like 5-6 sticks of cotton buds to dig out a lot of stuff (see, I told you Dr Keoy is a GREAT PD!) Since the first week, she didn't wake up that much at nigh (lucky me!). Usually wakes up once during 2-4am, then another round in the early morning, 5-7am. And most nights, she falls back to sleep immediately after feed, while some nights will take longer. Although I am the only one on night duty, it doesn't seem to be a big job.

All in all, mummy and daughter are very well, happy and healthy! We are marching into the 2nd month and look forward to an equally good, or better month :-)

Still, first thing people would say when they meet Xi Yu for the first time would be - wah, so much hair!

CW Yiyi (on the right) and CL auntie (left) came to visit Hao Re and Xi Yu.
(p/s: update on Hao Re in previous post)

How does Hao Re pass his time at home?

Oh well, after 1 month staying at home, our dear boy has got sooooo bored, at times :-P Though he has me, grandma and grandpa (and hubby on weekends) to accompany him, still, sometimes we also run out of ideas on how to entertain him. We play with his many toys a few times a day, and we, kid and adult, all get so bored with the toys already.

Last week, my cousin CW Yiyi came to visit and stay with us for 3 days. Hao Re was so excited with a new person to play with, and that made him very happy that weekend. This weekend, my sister came to visit and is going to stay with us for 4 days, and again, he is delighted to have someone else to play with.

We didn't buy new toys for him. All his existing ones, which he used to love, building blocks and puzzles, do not attract so much of his attention anymore. Though he still play with it, it's only for a very short while. He doesn't love books that much now, probably because he gets more rough now with grandparents here, so cannot sit down for long and hence can't focus. I am aiming to buy a new toy for him - a train set, those type which they can build the train track, but I have yet to see one.

For now, just need to be creative with whatever we have at home. Bought 2 cheap-ish sticker books ($1 each) for him, and that have taken a few hours of his times, peeling off the sticker from the book, sticking on the drawing board, and then peeling it off the board and throw away. Quite a good entertainment. And he likes to help sweeping the floor, vacuuming, hang and collect laundry, etc. He would just do anything to keep himself entertained.

One bad(?) thing is he is now spending more time on TV, really unavoidable for now, especially when I am busy feeding baby. But I still manage to limit 1 session to 30min most of the time, and a few times stretch to 1 hour, but definitely not more than this.

Though I was not able to do most of the things I wanted to do with Hao Re since I spend a lot of time feeding my little baby, I still appreciate that I can simply spend more time with Hao Re. Definitely a special month for me :-) And hope we can still keep this little monster entertained for the next few weeks until he returns to childcare.

Trying out his boaster car seat before hubby brings it down. He seems to enjoy and like this new car seat :-)

He gets so bored that he starts to read newspaper, sends SMS his daddy, locks himself under the cot, and of course, his favourite pass-time activities - eat (fruits especially!)

Xi Yu is still a happy contentend little one (finger-crossed!)

It's weekend again, meaning that hubby is at home with us. So looked forward to the weekend. Though the week had passed smoothly without any major hiccups :-)

One major "incident" was on Thursday night. Hao Re went to bed as usual at 9pm. Xi Yu slept too much during the day and still stayed awake at 12 midnight. When she almsot fell asleep, Hao Re woke up looking for me (could be having a nightmare or something). Hubby had a bad day, he was dead-tired, and already in his deep sleep. Though he try to help to soothing Hao Re, Hao Re refused. He only wanted me (while for the past weeks, he already accepted daddy, don't know why?). Hubby had to take over Xi Yu while I soothed Hao Re. But it's the feeding time for Xi Yu coincidently, so she was crying for my breasts. Hubby didn't manage to soothe the hungry little girl, and Hao Re couldn't go back to sleep because of MeiMei crying. Eventually my mum woke up to help soothing Xi Yu. Finally Hao Re slept and I was just in time to take over Xi Yu as she was already out of control because of the hunger! When I went back to the room, Hao Re woke up again! I was like "OH NO!!!", I really didn't know how can I handle the two of them at the same time! Luckily, for don't know what reasons, Hao Re didn't insist on me carrying him, he just lied down by my side and fell asleep while I nursed Xi Yu. Phew, what a night!

Sleeping time is the only time that I scared of, especially night time. I am not suppose to wake up my mum as she needs a good night sleep for the challenges of the next day. I just hope this won't happen again (or don't happen so often). But well, this really is not something I can plan or control. So just go with it, just stay positive, positive, positive, I have to keep reminding myself, since I did think negatively at times and made myself depressed for a bit :-(

Coming back to Xi Yu. She is really an easy baby. If not because of that we keep Hao Re at home, this confinement will be such a breeze for me, think could even be too bored for me :-) Plus that my mum is so capable that she takes a big load off me, lucky me :-) I was chatting with my mum yesterday night and we joked that if I were to get a confinement lady to help me, she will be so lucky, as there is really nothing much for her to do.

I think we are really blessed! Hope our little girl will grow up healthily and happily (and quickly, so can keep Hao Re accompanied :-))

Meanwhile, enjoy some photos of Xi Yu......

Our sleeping beauty!

The happy, overly active and excited little monster!!!

Hao Re loves his grandparents, for their accompany and that they always give way to him. They allows him to do (almost) everything and anything he wants to do, making this already very rough boy becomes a little monster!

And that's when GongGong and PorPor are around. When only us and Hao Re at home, he would revert to become the normal self, and can focus more on what he is doing. For example, when playing with the puzzles with GongGong and PorPor (especially GongGong), he can never finish a puzzles, starts to throw the puzzles away, or gives up half way and do something else. But when he does puzzles with us, he can always finish at least one round, and more often can do a few times.

That's why a lot of mummies shared that if grandparents are the main carer, usually the kids will be spoilt in one way or another. For us, it's good (and bad) that grandparents don't live with us, they only get to see Hao Re once or twice a year, so just let Hao Re get pampared for the short period of time is actually a good thing, I hope. After all, who doesn't like to be showered with love?

So, let Hao Re enjoy the love from the grandparents as much as he possibly can.

Outing to the West Coast Park for the International Kite Festival


Outing to the Army Open House at one of the camp. A cool young boy and a cool old man :-)


Helping PorPor picking the vegetables. Is he more of a good little helper, PorPor?


This is more of the "quiet" Hao Re. The wooden bicycle is a gift from his little sister, cool right :-)

A happy and contented baby :-)

Yes, the fact that I have time to blog, means that life has not been too bad for me, as a mum of 2 :-)

Some update about my baby girl. I think we are lucky, as so far, Xi Yu has been a really easy to take care baby, thankfully. She is a sleeping beauty, she simply loves to sleep (sure she will change her sleeping pattern sooner or later, but meanwhile, I just enjoy this!). And she doesn't cry much, almost didn't cry for the whole day. Her typical day is sleep, wake up, drink milk, sleep, wake up, drink milk, and this cycle repeat for 7-8 times a day. Oh well, that's what a baby does, doens't she :-)

The good thing about Xi Yu is after she wakes up from sleep, she won't cry. She usually make a sound to notify us she is awake. As long as someone carries her and feeds her before she gets very hungry, she won't make noise. We don't use rocker or "yao lan" to put her to sleep. We let her sleeps in her cot. Sometimes she demands for us to carry her, after she falls asleep in our arm, we then transfer her in her cot. Sometimes we just put her in her cot while she is awake, she would just turn a bit, roll her eyes left, right, up, down, and then fall asleep on her own, amazing, isn't she :-)

Even night time is, still, a breeze. All 4 of us sleep in the same room, with Hao Re co-sleeps with us (sleep in between us) on our bed, and Xi Yu on her cot, by my side. Xi Yu has already adjusted her clock to our timing a few days ago, i.e., she sleeps longer at night, so far she can sleep for a stretch of 5 hours, if I am lucky, usually it's about 3-4 hours. Even if she needs to wake up for milk, it's only 2 times a night. Most of the time, she falls back to sleep immediately after feeding. But of course, with a young baby like her, some nights her eyes are wide open looking at me after the feed in the middle of the night. Thanks to the fact that I am a very light sleeper (while hubby is totally opposite), I would be woken up by Xi Yu even if she only makes a tiny bit of noise. Once she does that, I would bring her out of to the living room, and latch her on. That way, Hao Re and daddy won't be disturbed and can continue to sleep soundly :-) So far so good, except for the first 2 night, Hao Re has been sleeping through, thankfully!

Our little princess says hello to all! This little baby shows us many different face expression, just CUTE!


Such a contented baby lying on Baba's chest, and Baby enjoying the bonding with his little princess :-)


Some notes on the operation of my milk factory. So far so good. I am very glad that finally my breasts can be used for one of its primary funcations - produce milk to feed baby! I am still on total breastfeeding. I think I am on the right track now. Baby Xi Yu has gained 400g in 1 week, isn't it great? And she pees a lot also. We can monitor the frequency of her pee-pee since we are using cloth nappy, she wets the nappy >10 times a day! These 2 are very good signs that she is drinking well.

I have got a Ameda Dual Electric Breast Pump, which really helps me in expressing milk, especially shorten the time by half so that I can spend time with Hao Re and other things. I latch her on most of the time, and will bottle-feed her expressed breast milk 1 or 2x a day, when I need to rest or too lazy to get up from bed, and also 1x just before bedtime at night, and daddy will have to exclusive right to do last feeding of the day. Though it's easy to just latch her on (no need to do washing up etc, just lift up the shirt), it's on the other hand, a great thing for daddy to get involved, and my hubby is definitely enjoying that (for now, and when he is not too tired after back from work).

I shall continue to try my best making sure my milk factory in operation as long as possible. Not going to worry too much or think too much ahead of time.

Can't resist to say a bit about my dear boy. I am glad I am keeping him at home and not to send him to childcare. Though there are some tough times, when 2 of them need my attention at the same time, but my mum is here to help and hubby is also around at night and during weekends. So we are coping well. Honestly, I definitely can't do it without my mum, she is a WONDERFUL MUM!!! Having said that, I don't really have much time to do much with Hao Re, just accompanies him whenever I can to play. Just for the fact that I can see him for the whole day long, makes me feeling happy :-) He is a pretty good boy most of the times, only that

Till the next update, whenever I have time. Ta Ta for now!

A special month for Hao Re

Now my life is changing with 2 kids. I gonna blog whenever I find time to, and most likely not able to blog as often as I was :-P

It’s a different month for Hao Re because he has a little sister to play/bully/take care/dot on (don’t know which one applies, yet). For now, he knows for sure he has a MeiMei. Mummy always put that little MeiMei to her breasts, who occupies a lot of mummy’s time. Sometimes we show him MeiMei and let him pat and kiss MeiMei, as we don’t want him to feel being left out. He is happy to do that, but often quite roughly (can’t blame him, he himself is still a very young toddler), so we don’t show him that much, and have to watch him closely.

Also, he has 2 extra playmates this month – his GongGong and PorPor. It’s amazing that when he saw his grandparents on the first day, he took them immediately, and called them GongGong and PorPor (after we taught him once). From the second day my parents were here, Hao Re has become even more active and happier, and there are surely more laughter and screaming around the house. All 4 of us play with him in our own way and he certainly is happy with the differences he is exposed to – PorPor is forever patience and usually play with him the way he wants and how long he want to; GongGong is forever impatience and usually can only play with Hao Re for a short period of time (a few minutes) and in a very rough way and usually don’t want to follow Hao Re’s way of playing.



Also, this month, is his stay-at-home month. He is not attending childcare. I asked my mum, and she said we should be able to take care of both Hao Re and Xi Yu. So we decided to keep him at home. For sure we (or rather I, since daddy goes to work as usual) will have more time to bond with him, and also for him to spend some great time with GongGong and PorPor. I hope he enjoys he stay at home. Surely will take him sometime to readjust to schooling 2 months later, but well, let's not worry now.

The only problem we face, so far, is meal time. We have been letting him to self feed and join us at the dinning table at every meal. He has been eating pretty well, at least he eats sufficiently to fill his stomach. But recently, he didn’t eat well, he is more interested to play with his food. And worse, is that, he is not willing to let us feed him (especially me, yes, he is bullying me). That made me worry, and made my blood boiling! But I have learned to let it go. He has so much fat to be burnt off, so it’s okay if he doesn’t eat as much now, just let him pass this phase, and I am sure he will soon be the little monster again, swapping all food into his stomach! Meanwhile, I will stock up with all those nutritional tidbits to fill up his stomach out of the meal time, and give him lots of fruits also.

Despite the decrease in solid food intake, Hao Re is still so chubby. Just these couple of weeks, we suddenly realised his hands and legs have become so "muscular" and his big tummy is still there. It's certainly not easy to carry him now, and thanks godness he doesn't ask us to carry him that much anymore. Didn't weigh him this month, but I guess he must be over 13kg now.

The main development for this month is his speech. He has been talking so much and he can say almost everything now. He can count from 1 to 10 in both English and Mandarin (though can do better in English for now), recognize all 26 alphabets (can say almost all, but some not very precise yet), can say a lot of animals (in both English and Mandarin), can repeat and understanding what we say, sometime can tell us what he want verbally not just pointing. Basically he is talking now, though still needs more practice to perfect it. And he really likes singing, he can sing along with us many songs already. Should record down some of this soon, if we miss this, will miss it forever.

For the puzzle, he can do so well with the animal puzzles till the point that he can teach his GongGong and PorPor how to play :-) He has also learnt the ABC puzzles, able to slot in all 26 alphabets in minutes, and through this puzzles, he learns to say the 26 alphabets. Now he moves on to the much more advance 6 to 9 pieces puzzles. Amazingly after a few rounds, he can do it already! This little man can concentrate very well when he is really into something that he is interested in. I can also see that he is getting bored with the toys he has, gonna think of something new for him.

I have to think of more think for him to do, since he is staying home with me. I will try but I doubt I can do much since I still have to take care of Xi Yu. Let's see how it goes. But one thing for sure is time spent on tv will definitely increase as tv is the only thing that can make him sit and calm down. Never mind, just take it as treats for him since these 2 months will be his holiday :-)

Just 4 more months, and Hao Re will be 2 years old already. When Hao Re sits beside Xi Yu, I really can't believe my boy has grown from such a little one to his size now, amazing!

Ending this post with some photos of our little boy :-)