Just some notes to update baby Xi Yu is doing very well:

- Xi Yu settles very well at her nanny's place. We are so glad that Hao Re's teacher introduced this nanny to us. She is very good, extremely caring, organised, knowledgable, detail, shows her genuinely love to Xi Yu (as she always wanted a girl, but she has 2 boys and no girl of her own), and not those calculative type. I can have a peace of mind to leave Xi Yu under her care.

- Xi Yu drinks well and sleeps well. In fact, for the past 2 months, she has never made any noise during night time, after 11pm. Even if she wants milk, she only makes a very light "eh" sound, and that's it, never cries out. Amazing, right? And this is extremely important for us, because if she cries, Hao Re would be waken up by her crying, and none of us could sleep :-P

- Her neck is getting stronger and stronger. When she is being carried now, she would ask to be carried with the upright position, and her eyes roll non-stop to observe her surrounding.

- She is very responsive to sound and people. When we talk to her, she usually responds with a very sweet smile :-) She likes to play with us. My mum said it's amazing for baby this age to make loud sound to attract adults to play with her :-)

Well, we don't ask for anything else, but for Xi Yu to grow up happily and healthily, just like her big brother :-)

(p/s: to add on a quick note on Hao Re - today is the 4th day he goes to childcare, and guess what, he didn't fuss anymore when I sent him there in the morning, already got used to his "old" friends and teachers and the school environment. We are glad. And this little boy really dots on his little sister very much. We are super glad!!!)

Will upload some photos in the next post. Till then!

Change of the "Operation Mode"

I am so blessed that up till today, just 2 more days to 2 months, I am still able to total breastfeed my baby girl. Honestly I've never thought I would be able to do it for this long considering that I am not a hard working mum when comes to breastfeeding.

As of today, I have changed the "operation mode" from latch-on to pumping, as Xi Yu goes to nanny full day now. And when I am back to work next week, I will continue to pump, and can only latch baby girl at night and early morning. Maybe I would still latch her on dering weekends so to keep my supply stable.

I hope I will have the perserverance to continue (total) breastfeeding for at least the next 4 months, until Xi Yu is 6 months old, as sugested by WHO. Wish me luck!!!

So far, only have accumulated 5 bottles of expressed breast milk in the freezer, showing how lazy I am to pump and to do all the extras to keep my supply up :-)

Hao Re Gorgor said to Meimei:


"Yu-yu, can you please grow up faster so that you can play with me? We will be having lots and lots and lots of fun! Drink more milk and exercise more, okay!"

Slowly getting back to routine

It's 16th October 2009 today, mid month. And today it's the day we decided to send both of the kids to childcare/nanny.

First we sent Xi Yu to her nanny. We spent about 30min there as it's the first day so have to brief the nanny about her routine, what's dos and what's don'ts. I forgot to bring the expressed breast milk, so while we were chatting with nanny, hubby has to make a trip back home to pick up the milk :-P Nanny seems to be a very caring, detailed and organised person and we sincerely hope Xi Yu will be growing up healthily and happily under her care.

Next was Hao Re. After dropping off Xi Yu, Hao Re became very quiet in the car, and wanted Porpor to hug him tight, which he had never asked to. Kinda strange. We thought he might have guessed that he would be the next one to be dropped off.

When we reached his childcare, his little and big friends warmly greeted him. But he didn't accept the warmth. In return, he cried, really cried very hard, like going to cry his lung out :-( A few teachers offered to carry him, he let them carry but couldn't stop crying and eventually passed it back to me. At the end, we went in to the room where his classmates were, and they continued to soothe him with the program showing on the PC and gave him a sweet. Nothing soothed him. I have no choice but to leave him to his teachers and left the centre. We can still hear his crying after stepping out from the house.

We then fetched Hao Re at about 6pm. And guessed what - he refused to leave! Duh! Anyway we take it as positive sign, and hope that he would be settling down to his school next week.

Then we picked up Xi Yu. According to nanny, everything was fine. She drank well (it's the first time I let her drink thawed frozen EBM and she was okay with it) and slept well.

We look forward to a better week :-)

On Saturday, after Xi Yu got her jab, we went to Ion Orchard (on my dad's request) for a walk. Only have time to have a lunch there and walked around a little bit, as I was not feeling well. A bit feverish and feeling very tired. So I asked hubby to bring us home and left my dad there to explore the place on his own. I was still active and well when reached home, so the kids' routine was not disturbed. Luckily my fever was gone over the night without taking any medicine, just poured in tons of water.

Hao Re exploring the mall. He likes to use the escalator on his won.
He insisted of using the pair of chopstick, so cute :-)

On Sunday, we stayed at home for the whole day until Hao Re woke up from his nap at 5pm. We made a trip to the Chinese Garden at Jurong, to visit the Live Turtle and Tortoise Musuem. Amazingly Hao Re enjoyed a lot, and it made our trip all worthwhile! We spent a short 1.5 hour there. We didn't walk around the Chinese Garden, though I would wish to, but the day was getting dark. On our way back, we stopped by at our favourite "cher zar" stall to pack the salted egg crab home for dinner, yum yum!

The naughty Gonggong is teaching Hao Re how to make the turtle turn upside down :-P Hao Re was excited to see so many of them. He has a good time there.


- Daddy was busy taking photos for us that day. Xi Yu was, again, sleeping for the whole outing. Hao Re really enjoyed going out very much.
- See the last picture on the bottom right corner - Hao Re thinks daddy may be tired already, so he wants to carry daddy to the carpark :-)

We brought Xi Yu for her first 6-in-1 (jab) and rotavirus (oral administration) vaccination yesterday. The vaccination was supposed to be done when shereaches 2 month, while yesterday she was only 6 weeks and 5 days old. This was to coincide with my very last post-natal check at Dr Tan (everything is fine with me :-)). Dr Keoy said the jabs can be administered as early as 6 weeks, so the timing just right, and saved us 1 trip to Thomson.

(p/s: for information on the vaccination schedule, refer to previous post here)

And thanks godness that she didn't develop fever afterwards (that's why I only post this today as Dr Keoy said the fever may come om the next day). So now it's confirmed that she is well. Xi Yu is a very brave girl. When Dr Keoy poked her, she only let out 1 cry for a short few seconds, and that's it. And for the rotavirus vaccine, since it's already close to her feeding time, she happily drank all the vaccine without any fuss.

As of yesterday, 6 weeks 5 days, Xi Yu weighed 4.85kg and measured 55cm in length. Quite a big size baby. My mum and I feel that our hands get tired quickier now carrying her.

Some of her development captured:

Xi Yu starts to smile to people. She is a happy baby and it's easy to get a sweet smile from her (probably these photos can't show very clearly, will try to get more of her smiley photos)


She can grab things with her fingers. See how well she picks up the ball (for a few seconds). We don't let her wear mitten very often so that so can explore/sense her surrounding using her fingers. She can definitely grab our finger tightly.

How fortunate she is to have a loving big brother!!! Hao Re has fully adjusted himself to accommodate Xi Yu. And he does really love his little sister. We are very pround of him!


For other developments, wait till the next update :-)

A monthly update of our darling boy

(p/s: 3 days late to post this blog :-)

Main development, still, is on the language skill. Hao Re can pronounce almost every word and any word! For some of the words, he understands what it means and can relate to the object/person/action and able to use/say it correctly. For some other words, he is repeating it after us without knowing the meaning of it. We are now communucating with him verbally with less and less body language or baby language and he talks to us too, though at times, we still have to guess what he is saying. It's fun, for now, to have a talking toddler. We are hoping he would further improve this skill and thus able to communicate with us better.

He loves singing too! I really don't have a clue how could he remembers the lyrics of so many nursery rythms, he just can. Of course it's not the full lyrics, but to sing along with us filling in as many words as he can remember, and following the tone quite accurately. For examples, for the songs of "客人来" and "三轮车", it goes like this:

Those in blue are the words he can remember and sing along:

客人来 看爸爸 爸爸不在家 我请客人先坐下 再敬一杯茶

三轮车 跑得快 上面坐个老太太 要五毛 给一块 你说奇怪不奇怪

It's easier if I can record it down then to explain it, but once I put up the handphone for recording, he refuses to sing :-( He can sing probably 30 Chinese nursery rythms now but not more than 5 Englsih ones, since daddy and mummy grew up with Chinese nursery rythms and none of English ones.

Hao Re is very observant, learning fast and has good memory. My mum said (and we agreed) he is a very mature toddler, that his physical and mental development is already on par with those 2-3 years old toddlers. So at this stage, I think it's easier for me to note down what he still can't do rather than what he can do (he has acheived all the milestones listed on the healthbook).

Still NOT toilet trained yet - he shows signs of readiness, but we just haven't started him on this. I will try while I am still at home these few weeks.

Still NOT brushing his teeth everyday - ok, think this has to blame on us. He kind of knows how to brush already, but we don't insist that he has to brush his teeth everyday. The bedtime routine is such that he drinks milk, then sleeps. We have to be more hardworking to get him brushing before his milk time.

Still NOT sleeping on his own - even before his sister arrived, he has been co-sleeping with us. I think it's very difficult now to move him away from our bed. Probably have to wait a few months later before we try again.

Still NOT falling asleep on his own - to be honest, I have never sleep-trained him. And I don't think I would start to do so soon. Reason being that I love that very special time putting him to bed to bond with him. We sing, we talk, we hug, we kiss, we roll/play on the bed (this is not RA, okay, I am not talking about my hubby, but with my Hao Re :-)) Sometimes it makes me mad if he doesn't want to sleep after spending >30min in the bedroom. But that only happens once in a while. I selfishly want to keep this special bonding time with him and delaying the sleep-training as long as possible (or never).

We brought him to the CCK park to have some fresh air. Xi Yu went with us also, and for the first time, I breastfed in public (of course, covered with a piece of cloth).


And he has got a haircut - this is how my boy looks like now before and after the haircut, any difference? Daddy said after haircut not as handsome as before :-P

Daddy was amuzed the whole day

Let me tell you this funny story (well, at least we think it's funny) of Hao Re. And er, mind you, it's actually a bit gross, so stop reading if you are feeling uncomfortable :-P

As I mentioend before, Hao Re poos everyday since birth except 1 day a couple of months ago. So we crowned him as the "Poo King". This Poo King broke his record again last week for not pooing on Thursday, then pooed 3 times (very big ones!) on Friday. Then he didn't poo again on Satuday. Then came Sunday......

After shower, hubby noticed that Hao Re looked a bit funny and seemed to be focusing so much like wanting to poo. So hubby asked if he wanted to 大便. And he said yes. Hubby gave him the potty (but he hasn't been potty trained yet). He wanted to try but the poo couldn't come out, which annoyed him and he started to cry, which surprised us as this had never happened before. I was halfway feeding Xi Yu, so couldn't help. Asked my mum to help. We then realised that he could have been a little constipated, so probably a very hard solid piece of poo waiting to come out. Both hubby and mummy gave him "encouragement" to push. After a few miutes of crying and pushing, that evil piece of poo was finally out - it's hard, big and long (hubby was so regretted for not taking a photo of it), so hard and big that it made his anus bled!

And it did not end here. After that, hubby brought him down to the shopping mall for a walk to cheer him up. When they were looking at books at the bookstall, suddenly hubby saw a piece of poo on the floor, and he said to himself "OH NO!", thinking that it could be from Hao Re. His initial though was to quickly walk away from the bookstall. But a lady stopped him and said "你儿子的大便". Hubby asked how could you tell it's from my boy, and she said she saw that piece of poo came out from Hao Re :-) So no choice, hubby had to pick it up. When they reached home, hubby quickly cleaned him (before that, he told me what's happened and kept laughing, and again, regretted for not taking a photo of it), and realised that he was so lucky because only that drop-off piece was solid one, the rest was watery poo - imagine if he has to clean that in a shopping mall! What happened was that Hao Re pooed so much that his diaper just simply couldn't retain it all, even his pant was soiled! And he pooed, also a big one, another time in the evening.

Ok, ended this gross story. Don't you think Hao Re deserved to be crowned as the "Poo King" :-)

On a serious note, we couldn't figure out why Hao Re was constipated since he drinks a lot of water and have pretty good fruits/vegetables intake as usual. Hard to figure out. Just continue to give him more water and more fruits/vegatables, and hope this won't happen again, at least not at the shopping mall :-)

Orchid Garden @ Singapore Botanical Garden on 26th September

(p/s: this is a back-dated post)

I said this was an "official" outing, because 2 weeks ago, when Xi Yu still had 2 days to go before reaching 1 month old, we already brought her out to JB for quite a long day :-)

My mum loves orchids. Everytime she comes to Singapore, we bring her to the Orchid Garden at the Botanical Garden to admire the many different species of orchids. We brought Xi Yu along since botanical garden it's a nice place whereby she can have some fresh air and get tanned (though she already looks a lot tanner than her brother :-)



It's a nice trip. Funnily, Xi Yu slept all the way, from the minute we started the car till the minute we reached home, only woke up (half-waking up) to have 1 feed. So all the attention went to Hao Re. He was so happy and excited as this was the first time he went out to play with Gonggong and Porpor. Running here and there, jumping up and down, talking non-stop, giving instructions to the adults, he walked almost the entire time there, until he exhausted himself and demanded to sit in the stroller. We spent a good 2 hours there. Later when we were heading to have lunch, he already knocked off in his car seat within a couple of minutes :-)

Now, let's the photos do the talking instead :-)

Hao Re tires Gonggong and Porpor out, he really moves non-stop....... I think the grandparents enjoy very much too :-)

The great dad doing the feeding job (mummy has done her part by expressing the milk out :-)) Look at the photo at the right bottom, where Hao Re trying to do the "V" sign for photo-taking, unsuccessful attempt though :-)


Xi Yu, the sleeping beauty, she just sleeps, sleeps, sleeps, and continues to sleeps. While Hao Re, the super active kid, jus plays, plays, and continues to play!