My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

What is jaundice?  "It refers to a yellow discolouration of the skin and whites of the eyes.  This yellow colour will appear first on the face, then on the chest, stomach and lastly, on the legs.  It is common in babies during the first three weeks of life…  Jaundice is due to having too much of a yellow bile pigment in the blood known as bilirubin…".

It is due to jaundice that our little RACHEL had to stay in the hospital for a little longer than we wanted.  Her bilirubin level had dropped a little to be well enough to be discharged on Wednesday (24 May), on condition that she was to be checked for it again the next morning.  We brought her to SGH duly for the check and we found that she had to be re-admitted on 25 May.  Luckily, our little princess could be discharged again on 27 May 06, and she has been doing well since then.

I think the illness was what caused her to always seem lethargic in those first days of her life.  Now, she looks so much better - wide awake when she is hungry (though she still returns to being sleepyhead during and after feeding; but ain’t all babies like that?) and wakes up very little times in the middle of the night.  She is just so adorable when she is awake!  =)

Hopefully, the jaundice episode is over and we can channel our energies elsewhere for her…

We received a few red packets on her behalf during her hospital stay and we used that money to open a Standard Chartered e-saver account for little RACHEL.  We hope that the money will give our little baby a head start in life later!  =)

Before our departure from SGH, we were given a few dates for mother and child to see the doctors respectively.  The first date was the next day, to check the jaundice level again!  But I don’t mind that, now that we can bring our little RACHEL home.  Mum and EDDIE came along to help as I was hit by fever the last two days of their stay in hospital (in fact, it has only resided today), with the temperature hitting a high of 39.1 degree celsius.

RACHEL sat in Daddy and Mummy’s car the first time on 24 May 06.  But as most other times since her birth, RACHEL slept, unfazed by most things happening around her.  She hardly opened her eyes along the way.  Not that she opened her eyes a lot since she was born.  I was really worried as that must have meant something.  It was only later that I would understand that it was all due to jaundice she had…

The day passed quite uneventfully.  Sure, YEN and I were proud that we have brought RACHEL into this world.  We still are!  =)  But being wet behind the ears at parenting, there was quite a few discoveries along the way, and still a lot to learn.  The first night was quite bad - it was at midnight, and our little princess chose to wake up at that time.  YEN laid her down on her mattress where she had laid without problems earlier, but RACHEL cried soon after.  I took over to carry her.  That let her stop crying for a while, and as soon as I laid her onto the mattress again, she cried.  We tried to feed her - thinking that she was hungry - but she wouldn’t drink.  We checked her pampers thinking she soiled it, but there wasn’t a hint of any foreign body.  We thought that she was cold or uncomfortable and covered her up with another blanket plus changed her position time and again, but none of these seemed to help too.

I was helpless.  I wanted to let YEN catch her deserved rest (albeit my running a temperature) and carried our princess out of the room into the hall.  She carried on crying - and hearing that without being able to help broke my heart bad…  It is totally different from hearing others’ children cry - it was like her every wail brought a knife deeper and deeper into my heart.

Finally, help in the form of mum who heard her cries (I think many neighbours must have heard too…) came.  Mum took our baby into her room to sleep with her, urging us to take a rest as it was already past 2am.  And miraculously, RACHEL stopped crying as soon as she was brought into mum’s room.  She told me later that she didn’t do anything other than laying the baby beside her on the bed and that stopped her wails.  And the baby fell asleep soon after.

The next (or should I say the same??) morning started at 6am for us as we had to bring our baby to do her jaundice check.  Now I’ll leave that for the next blog entry…

Thus far, YEN and I hope that little RACHEL can take her time to grow up - I mean, she just so cute (especially when she’s awake)!  Please allow us room to improve in facilitating her everyday life while she is yet able to!

After the baby’s birth, YEN was sent to ward 53 first, while our baby was sent to another for observation.    We were all relieved that both mother and daughter were safe and started informing a lot of family, relatives and friends.  Our baby was born 49cm and 2.63kg.  The baby was observed overnight and sent to us on Saturday, 20 May 06.

The congratulatory messages didn’t seem to stop coming in for quite a well for both of us.  So many friends from recent stages of our lives - ZHENSHUN + girlfriend, JIANWEI, JIANHONG, JINGFANG, WENQIANG (ex-Rediffusion, now life-long buddies), WEIQIANG and girlfriend, CHRISTOPHER and girlfriend, NICHOLAS and partner, ANDRE, HADI, YUSMAN, FAIZAL, SHAWN + wife, MARIE, SATIISH, RACHEL, LYNN, EMILY, ROZALI + family and YEN’s friends + colleagues.  I sure hope I haven’t missed out anyone - I want to remember this!  Thank you all!

The many gifts they sent in (plus from some other nice people who couldn’t make it over the stay) was enough for us to set up a small gift shop, I think.  Our families were, as expected, especially excited, our baby being the first grandchild by the eldest children (is it still appropriate to use this word!?).  Especially EDDIE and HUIJUN, who were so jumpy about doing as much as they can for our baby.  And not forgetting my mother-in-law, who cannot stop wanting to carry the baby whenever she is here to visit.

YEN and I had agreed on the name of the baby even before she was born.  We had to chose between the names of RACHEL and SUZANNE for her, though, as both seem nice names.  In the end, we settled for RACHEL, meaning pure and innocent.  Her name in mandarin means a capable lady, cleaver and happy.  Which more or less spelt out most of our wishes for her.  =)

We took a while in waiting to get discharged form the hospital as the doctors took turns in "delaying" it.  First, YEN’s doctor wanted to observe her further for the high blood pressure taken before she gave birth to ensure that it has stabilised, next it was the Pediatrician wanting to monitor our little Rachel as she appeared jaundiced (loosely translated to be yellow-liver illness, I think).  Finally, we were given the green light to come home as a family on Wednesday, 24 May 06, four and three-quarter days into little Rachel’s life…  =)

YEN and our little princess - RACHEL - can finally be discharged from hospital yesterday afternoon, 24 May 06, and return home.  This ends their five-day stay in the hospital (almost six for YEN, who was admitted a day earlier).  YEN’s Expected Delivery Date (EDD) is on 9 Jun; so what happened?

YEN reported for work on 18 May 06 and her regular check-up in the evening (about 4pm).  I joined her for her check-up (which I think that this is the least every husband can do for his wife).  The doctor did an ultrasound and told us that our baby was almost engaged in position to meet us outside mummy’s stomach.  She would probably be born in two to three weeks, almost exactly spot-on the EDD.  Just before the check-up ended, he examined YEN’s statistics on tests done prior to entering his room.  He was alarmed at how high her blood pressure was in the last two visits, the swelling YEN has experienced (because of our baby), the higher than normal amount of protein present in her urine, among some other things.  The doctor asked YEN to go to the Labour Ward for a scan, adding that the baby would have to be induced if needed for mother and baby’s safety.

In the Labour Ward, YEN and I waited while pondering some questions - What if the baby had to be induced tonight?  Are we mentally ready for her arrival?  Can we come back a few days later for the baby’s birth so that we can get adjusted to the correct frame of mind??  In the end, we decided that if it had to be done for their health, it will have to be done - no two ways about it!  The doctor came up and changed his instructions - instead for a scan, he ordered for YEN to be monitored overnight in the ward.  I called to inform mum.  She was so excited that she wanted to make a trip to see YEN immediately, but I advised her against it as only the husband can be by the wife’s side in this area we were in of the ward.  YEN called her mum too.  We braced ourselves for what might happen in the next few hours…

It was in the morning of 19 May 06 that the doctor came by again.  He discussed with us quickly and we made a quick decision to that the baby had to be induced.  The doctor gave YEN a pill to do so while I quickly rushed home to get a few things YEN may need for her stay in the hospital.  We sent out a couple of SMSes in the mean time to our friends to inform them that YEN will be giving birth soon…  In the meantime, YEN had decided that she wanted epidural (anesthetics) done and requested for this particular doctor to do it for her as he was highly reccommended by friends.

YEN started having contractions at about two-plus.  We waited from then till 4.45pm for the doctor to start epidural on YEN as he was busy at another building at SGH.  To his credit, he did a good job in the half-an-hour he worked on YEN and he insisted on waiving off the fee he charged for his jobs.  From 5.15pm, I was with YEN again (I was not allowed around during the half-hour) and this time, she was all set to start pushing the baby out from her.  I wanted to capture the process down but was stopped by one of the midwives as "it is against the hospital’s policies".

Two midwives and the doctor helped YEN with the delivery.  Where to I stand??  I’ve seen movies where the husband was by the wife’s side, allowing her to clutch on to him when she felt pain.  So perhaps I’ll do the same?  No, I wasn’t allowed to!  She was holding her knees with both her legs bent instead.  So, what can I do??  I could only be by her side to encourage her to push verbally!

The midwives were very vocal in encouraging YEN to push and kept telling her to give long pushes, and that "the baby’s head can be seen already".  Curious and having never witnessed a natural birth (or any birth for that matter!), I moved quietly to see.  True enough, I could see a little bloodied mess of what seems to be the baby’s hair…  The midwives caught me away from my designated and immediately told me to return to YEN’s side.

The what seems to be tiring process took very much shorter than I expected (I was warned by the doctor it could take up to as long as 15 hours!).  At 5.51pm, our baby was born!  YEN at that moment seemed more relieved than anything, and rightly so. I, on one hand, thanked our lucky stars that both mother and baby are safe, while on the other, smiling and thinking how cute our baby is!  =)

It’s official!  YEN and I are proud parents of a baby girl born on 19 May 06, at 1751 hrs.

I’m in a rush now.  Will update more and post baby girl’s picture here later.

Watch this space!  =)

I went to NAN HUA PRIMARY SCHOOL where I’ll be teaching for 5 weeks from 26 Jun 06, along with FAIZAL and SUMIKO.  FAIZAL did his contract-teaching there while SUMIKO was, like me, a former student of the school.  The difference in our ages means that I was in the last year of school in NAN HUA, or had just left when SUMIKO joined – boy, am I old!

The visit to the school confirmed my earlier thoughts – that I may not know any of the current teachers at the school.  I learnt in my earlier visit that my Principal then had retired, same as my P5 / P6 form teacher, MDM HO.  MDM HO remains a great influence in my life till date (I picked up quite a bit from her when she was teaching me) and I’m glad to know that she has migrated to Australia to pass some carefree days there after years of stressful teaching.

Only three or four teachers looked familiar to me (think all did not teach me during my time in school, or did they??).  Interestingly, the school cleaner / attendant (who is really old now!) is still serving the school, along with the school administrative officer.  And the auntie selling noodles – she is still selling noodles there!  One of the teachers, who taught in the school when I studied there, MRS TAN, seemed extremely surprised that we are expecting a baby soon.  According to her, her daughter of the same age as I am, remains single to date…

YEN had wanted to travel and get away for a while for quite some time already.  But it came at a bad time as I was needing to hand up assignments and later having my examinations.  Now that I’m free, it is too close to the expected delivery (yeah!) of our baby.  So we took a weekend off to stay at MERITIUS MANDARIN and to get away from it all.  Luckily it worked our way that we did not receive any phone calls that could have spoiled our mood, and we ended up walking Orchard Road like we never walked before.  =)

I attended the customary dinner of a former colleague, VINCENT SOH, last Sunday.  I knew his wife through him too.  And I read somewhere that his wife, HUI YUH, was into volunteer work and politics. That’s why MR & MRS ABDULLAH TARMUGI and (I think it was) MR MATTIAS YAO attended their dinner at SHANGRI-LA hotel.  I was seated with friends of VINCENT’s family, where I had to start conversations with these two gentlemen who are retired.  And one of them is into Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), introducing me one of his products (SV Card).  I ended up going home with one of the cards.  I’m fine with knowing more things (due to my lack of time / effort nowadays to read), as long as they are not pushy into selling me their products…

The 4-day-3-night compulsory camp for all first-year trainee teachers of the Physical Education school in NIE has been brought to a close today.  It has been a much-dreaded camp as we are made to all work as facilitators for our sub-committees during some time in the camp.  I was involved in the Orienteering sub-committee headed by KAIXIN and JIANWEN.

The facilities at the campsite - Changi Coast Adventure Camp (CCAC), were minimal to start with.  There was a canteen operated by a vendor in-charge of cooking all meals.  There were two accommodation blocks with no beds, nor were there fans (not to mention air-conditioners!).  We had to bring sleeping bags and make do with sleeping on a wooden, elevated platform that could accommodate about twenty people on each side of the room.  There were facilities for high ropes (confidence-building type of courses) in the camp.  There was an extensive collection of kayaks and equipment facilitating kayaking.  Other than that, we were cut off from the comforts of the modern world and made to follow a rigid timetable just like other camps.  But hey – even Army camps had television sets and fans!

The objective of the camp was experiential learning, aimed at providing us maximum chance to act as facilitators for camping we may most probably need to help coordinate later in our teaching careers.  But the feedback by most of us at the end of the camp was that it could probably been shortened through minimising some of the activity-timeslots.

Back to our committee, I felt we had worked really hard to create a programme out of nothing.  We had numerous meetings (I feel we used the time we had meaningfully), not forgetting several trips we had to CHANGI VILLAGE – our area of activity. However, I still had a bad feeling about the running of the event before we started, as we had too many things we had to be concerned with that we had only the chance to touch-and-go.  In the end, we are glad that the participants’ feedback was they enjoyed our orienteering very much; so-much-so it was the highlight of the camp. Hearing that made up for all the time we had spent on it all worth our while!

The first night was most difficult to pass – lying on the hard ground of the bunk, I had to constantly battle the sweltering, stale air and active mosquitoes.  I think I laid there for more than an hour without falling asleep and I finally decided to follow-suit when ADRIAN went to join some others to sleep on the tables / benches in the canteen.  There was no much-hyped “sea-breeze” at all, before I finally fell asleep at about two in the morning. It was only a battle between feeling cooler on the benches (but being bitten by the mozies!) or wrapped up in the heat but safe from the pests…

And I’ve got to know some new friends through this camp - GERARD, KEN, SEOK KUAN, ISABELLE, SAU DEE - as well as understanding some of our Diploma cohort friends better - NICHOLAS, RACHEL, LYNN, JIANWEN, ERIC and some of us in the Orienteering committee.

It had been a difficult few days away from YEN and our unborn baby.  I am lucky that my mum is at home with her during the nights and I tried as much as possible to contact YEN when I had time to.  I was apprehensive of the camp too as I was worried about YEN, but think my worries were unfounded as all is well with her.  We just miss each other all lot!  *mushy mushy*

Went with YEN to her trip to the doctor’s for her regular scan.  The doctor said the baby is a few weeks away from turning into the head-down and ready position, barring any undesirable incidents.  Said the baby is approximately 2.8Kg in YEN’s tummy now.  Saw the scan of the baby’s head, body, etc. from the machine (what do you call that??), and it all looks pretty good now.  =)

YEN’s feet looks really "swollen" out of a sudden.  This happened just in the past week-or-so.  And I haven’t really realised that her tummy has grown quite big!  I only realised how big it is when she was lying on the bed in the doctor’s for the scan.  We should really take a picture of the tummy sometime, for remembrance sake.  This will be the last time in a while she will sport such a big stomach until the birth of our baby (I hope!), until we have number two…

We were at the hawker centre near the NTU-area, getting dinner one evening when we saw KIAT HOON and her friend.  We gave them a lift to KIAT HOON’s place, and they gave us an extra box (are you sure it was extra?) of durians they got themselves.  KIAT HOON commented that YEN is really beautiful; made me very very proud of having her by my side.

Have been taking an interest in the elections.  And about time too.  I am at an age that affairs of the country should interest me.  And it is because of this that I saw my former deputy-boss, LTC (NS) NG KAH KING on television!  I know he has retired form the Army and joined CISCO; but not with PAP as well.  He was walking with PAP’s MR GAN KIM YONG.  Only now I realise that he is into politics too.  Ha; perhaps I should join in sometime later too!  =P