Very attached

Since Phoebe was admitted for UTI and later HFM, she had been really attached to me. My friend did warn me and it really happened. And for the last 3 days, while my mom was away in a retreat, I was home with her all the time, that took it to the extreme.

She had been developed jealousy when I hugged her soft toy or when H was near to me. She will come and snatch away the toy or push away the person. Especially at night, when she is all ready for bed.

Yesterday itself, I think she called "Mummy" for more than 100 times. Wants to be carried all the time, refused to walk while with me, whine like a hyena, cries for attention etc.

While it is flattering on this attachment, I hope that this will be for a short time and she will learn how to be independent.

Hospital Episodes

10 days after I stopped breastfeeding, Phoebe was purging badly. >10 times in a day. Took her to see the pediatrician at Lam Wah Ee, took medicine but didn't see any improvement the next day. She was all lethargic when I returned home at lunch one day. Took her back to the clinic again. We decided to run some tests on her. Paed said it could be caused by different thing and the treatment would be different. We had been speculating that she took the wrong food at the Japanese restaurant and took too much fruits that day. She was warded that day itself.

Paed needed to draw blood through an IV line and maintain that line to inject antibiotics later. She cried her lungs out and kept screaming for "Mummy" and "Bao-bao". Heartbroken, but that was the right thing to do.

We were initially given a 4-beded because they ran out of single beded. Praise God that we were given single beded by evening that day. It would have been a nightmare for other patients if we were left at the 4-beded since Phoebe cried a whole lot that night due to a new place for her.

Blood & Urine report was out and it turned out to be non-food poisoning. She had Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). UTI in babies had diarrhoea as a symptom. That was why Phoebe didn't vomit. She could still eat normally and drink her milk at half strength. No drip needed, not dehydrated.

She was discharged at Day 4. We were home happily. Took her for her hair cut that afternoon since she was all well and active.

However, the next day (Sunday), she developed a fever at 10-ish in the morning. Called the doctor and he said feed paracetamol and monitor her temperature. He said it could not have caused by UTI again. It must be something new. We fed Paracetamol 2x over 8 hours, fever didn't subside.

Sent H to airport for his short business trip to Singapore in the afternoon. My mom came over and stayed with me.

Called the doctor again at 7PM, and he said he will meet me at the LWE A&E at 8.30PM.

At this point, I think I have to introduce you to this exceptional pediatrician we have had. He is Dr. Tan Eng Guan from Lam Wah Ee.

We were at LWE A&E at 8.30PM, her fever was 38.8. Dr Tan was there shortly. Looked at Phoebe, no ear infection, next thing he checked was the throat. He discovered 2 big ulcers on her throat. He said it was Hand Foot Mouth Disease. This was another form which was not obvious on the surface of the mouth, hand or foot. He prescribed a mouth wash, oral aid and a course of antibiotics. We went home.

Phoebe fell asleep on our way home and still with a fever. We had to keep on sponging her to cool her down. Changed her to a short sleeve t-shirt and have the air-con switched on. She was still running a fever. She refused her milk and medicine. When I checked her around 12midnight, her fever was 39.4. I didn't have suppository to insert into Phoebe to lower the fever. I called Dr Tan at 12.30AM. He didn't pick up the phone and my mom said, let's get changed and drive down to LWE again. And when we were there at around 1.30AM, we saw Dr Tan walking in. I asked him why was he there, he said he saw my call, tried calling back but I didn't pick up the phone, he figured I would be at the hospital and so he came.

He checked Phoebe's throat again, and it was definitely red. He inserted the suppository and we went home. Fever dropped for the next 6 hours to 36.x. Was good.

When morning came, suppository effect over, fever came back. It was around 38ish. She refused milk and water. I figured it would have been the pain on her throat. Fed her some yogurt, she refused ice cream, and no water intake for more than 6 hours. Fever cannot subside instead went up to 39.4. I called Dr Tan again and said that I will be going to see him at his clinic. I inserted one suppository and I drove down to LWE with my maid. I told Dr Tan I would prefer for Phoebe to go on drips because I am worried about dehydration and the high fever. And so Phoebe was admitted for the 2nd time in 5 days.

This time, she knew what she had gone through while Dr Tan inserted the IV line, she screamed and fought back once we brought her into the treatment room. It took 2 nurses to hold her down. She was traumatized. She won't leave my arms for that night. I put her down to sit on the bed, she sat there for 2 minutes, she started crying. From then onwards, she cried when she saw Dr Tan, she cried when she saw the nurses, and later she cried when the room door was opened. Poor girl.

Praise the Lord that she could start drinking milk and had some food the next day. Fever subsided and never came back. Her drips was only for 24 hours. And once the drip was off, Dr Tan discharged her. She recovered from HFM in 3 days. We continued with the mouth wash and oral aid at home.

It's going to be a week she was discharged and she is now all active and running about. This was definitely an experience for Phoebe and for us having to take care of a sick child the first time. We were very glad we met Dr Tan. He's been patient, responsive, responsible, humourous and kind. Thank you..

She could still be distracted by a video on the doctor's handphone. But the distraction wasn't for too long.

She started crying and calling for "mummy" when the needle went into her.

Hand all wrapped in bandage to secure the IV line.

2nd stay: eyes swollen after too much crying. This time her left hand was bandaged to fix the drip.

2nd stay: trying to find comfort in the Minnie Mouse Daddy bought from Singapore.

Stopped

At 15 months, I decided to stop breastfeeding Phoebe entirely. No more night comfort feeding for her. We realized that she needed to learn how to go to sleep on her own.

It wasn't easy for Phoebe. She kept searching for it. Rolling all over me and ask me to 'open'. Sometimes it took her 1.5 hours to get herself to sleep. We sang, rocked, pat.. Did everything we can. Hope it will get better soon.

Prayerfully, I will be able to feed for a longer time if God blessed me with another child.

15 months update

I haven't been updating Phoebe's progress by the month. Here's a consolidated one for 15 months.

Very picky on the food she eats. She wants tasty food and a variety. Didn't like porridge at all. Started taking rice at 10 months. Now she's taking also mee suah, bee hoon, tang hoon as staple food. I had ran out of idea on what to feed her daily. Loves Japanese food, especially Chawanmushi and Ramen.

She sleeps lesser now. She can go without her morning nap and only have her afternoon nap. She measures 78cm and 10kg.

She had definitely progressed a lot in terms of her speech. Talks proper words knowing the meaning. Only 2 syllable words at the moment. I had lost count on the words she knows.

• Bao-bao
• No (she had definitely overused this word)
• Ang pow
• Fan
• Car
• Yaya (papaya & mango [maybe they are the same color, either green or yellow, or they are put on the same table])
• Ai (want)
• Nen-nen (refering to milk and referring to bottles, tubes)
• Walk-walk
• Upstairs
• Up (wanting us to carry her onto our lap or let her see what's on the table, or let her climb up to the bed)
• Down (when she wants to get down when she says up)
• Bag
• Handbag (she loves to hold bags on her elbow like me and say kai-kai)
• Kai-kai
• Open (Can also mean un-zip, undo, take out, switch on etc)
• Close
• Nose
• Mouth
• Eyes
• Hair
• Eyebrow
• Ears
• Hand
• Book
• Sit down
• Air-con
• Phak-phak - beating
• Meh-meh - scolding
• Cry
• Hi..
  

People's names

• Ah Mah
• Ah Kong
• Papa
• Mummy
• Ah Erm
• Pek-pek
• Koko
• Cheh cheh
• Ku-ku
• Tneoh Kong
• Po-po
• A-tie (auntie)
• A-cle (Uncle)
  
• Kakak (maid)

Soft toys - all toys have a name

• Kitty
• Cathy
• Octo
• Wa-wa
• Na-na
• Wow-wow
• Bear
• Arm (lion)
• Bug - ladybird
• Bird
• Or-or (Eeyore)
• Pooh-pooh (Winnie the Pooh)
  

Interestingly, she can't pronounce "L"

• Yake - leg
• Yike - light
• Fry - butterfly

She can understand sentences
E.g. Where is mummy's hair? Daddy's hair
Bring this to kakak.
Hold with 2 hands.
Pick up the ball and give to mummy.

Interesting expressions or gestures

• She will blink her eyes when you ask her to show where her eyes are. We picked this up from a cartoon animation where the teddy bear blinked his eyes
• She will ask for our watches, the wear it until her elbow and say kai-kai
• She will run through the words she knows when she wakes up in the morning. She will go on like Ah Mah, papa, mummy, nose, Ah Kong, etc in no particular order.

She can respond to questions. Ai (in hokkien) = Yes. 90% accuracy on her Yes & No.

• Do you want mum-mum/nen-nen? Ai
  
• Do you want to walk? No

CNY 2010

Backdated Post

This is Phoebe's 2nd CNY. She was nearly 2 months when we celebrated CNY last year. Obviously this year she knows more than she did last year. still, she did not understand the meaning yet.

She knew how to say "Ang Pow", but gave back to the person after she had touched it. She was definitely amused by the lights and lantern put up at the neighborhood. She would exclaimed "Wow" when she sees those lights.

She got to wear her many new outfit during CNY. Everytime she's in one, she will say "Sui oh" (Very pretty).

With my mom, my god-mom and her grandson

With my god-mom's grandsons

Chilling out at Coffee Bean, Queensbay

Walk walk walk walk in the light

Backdated post to end February.

Phoebe walked unassisted 2 weeks short of 15 months. She had been walking with us holding on her 2 little hands. She was really stable but just refused to let go of her hands.

One fine day, she started walking around 8 steps before hugging someone. Shortly after that, she was walking around the whole house. Now, she can run.

"It's a great thing to know the Lord" is her favourite song. Whenever she says "Walk-walk" means she wants to listen to that song or she would mean she really wants to walk. :)