Starting all over again...

Two weeks ago, we had a business trip to S'pore. However, we were being suspected of having stomach flu, since I was vomitting badly, while Lewis and my maid was having diarrhea... But, after they recovered, I was still throwing out again and again... In fact, I was joking with Lewis that I might be pregnant, which we both think is impossible, since I am still breast feeding Pier and my period wasn't back to normal yet. A day after, I was being "ban" from taking solid food, other than porridge water.... but the condition din't seems to get any better... Out of fun, we went to Guardian and get a pack of pregnancy test kit.

and the result was....

BINGO! it was a positive! i looked at the result, couldn't believe my own eye... 1st, we were being told by many doctors that I may have difficulty to conceive since I am having PCOS. (at least 4 doctors said that. @_@) 2nd, I only have my period twice since Pier was born, one in June and another sometime in september...... both time was like blood flow for few days, then stop 2-3 days, then come again for another few days (then drag for weeks).... I thought that was just the staring of period......

Well, we both hoping of having a "piggy" and a "cow", since that is our nickname. We have a baby pig now, and next year is the year of cow... Hooray!

but.... arggg.... the severe nausea returned and I, sufferring the vomitting again and again... day and night. >.<

but, sorry to Pier, I got to stop breast feeding him from now on... he is now on formula. I am glad that he still enjoying his milk then.... (our original planning was BF him till his 1st birthday)... and WOW! Formula is SO EXPENSIVE!!!!!!

Pier's 1st close encounter with Cheezie...

Since we came back from S'pore, our little maltese Cheezie was having behavior issue. He felt insecure with the little new comer and started to marked his territory at home. Every cabinet's corner, furnitures legs, etc... was contaminated by his yellowish stinky urine. We wanted to neuter him few months back, but the vet requested us to introduce baby Pier to Cheezie before we take that action.

Since then, we tried our best to let the dog and the baby to know each other, but I did not let the dog go too near to Pier, in case the dog scratches or bites the baby...

Lately, we noticed that when Pier was crying, Cheezie started to response with "uh... uh... uh..." and keep looking at Pier with concerned (when Pier in his playpen or on his highchair)... And if we did not response to Pier's cry, Cheezie will start barking at us...

Yesterday, I decided to let Pier and Cheezie have fun with each other... that's how we start:

1st, start with Pier's leg.... I allowed Cheezie to sniff on Pier's leg for the first time.



Then, slowly allow Pier to touch Cheezie (sayang Cheezie's head), but Pier yet to PULLED Cheezie's hair... @_@




Once they get to know each other, they started to have baby - doggie-talk...



Finally, a GOOD NITE KISS from Cheezie.... @_@


last picture: Pier, "Cheezie... you got bad breath!!!!" (saw Pier's reaction? -.-")

Pier "COLD COLD"

We went to Genting two weeks ago, nice weather... cooling all day (sometime a little too cold).. Pier was enjoying himself by keep looking at the new environment... the one he enjoyed the most was looking at the indoor roller coaster... Each time when the roller coaster passed by, he will stared at it and turned his head following the movement (sometime until a 180o turned backward.... )




We had our 1st night's dinner at The Olive. They were having Australian food promotion. We ordered Australia Angus tenderloin. the food was great, so does the environment... The 2nd night's dinner was at Ming Ren which is famous for it's Lamb. A dinner which consumed LAMB only and nothing else... Wow! it was delicious! Roasted lamb, lamb soup, stir-fried lamb, deep fried lamb chop, etc...... yum yum.... (and the only bad thing was => Pier refused to drink "lamb-favored" milk the next day! he was then on formula for a day!)
(Pier & Lewis @ The Olive)

(Pier @ outside MingRen)


Our highly recommendation to all, if any of you going for a trip in Genting... Must watch their latest magic show "DREAMZ"... Close encounter with white tiger... During their show, they brought their white tiger down from the stage with a chock chain and walk right in front the 1st roll. (go get the 1st roll's seat if you are a dare devil....) The show was great... And we managed to get photograph with the chained white tiger and a caged white lion after the show... (of course got to pay $$$) but hey! that was the closest distance I had with a tiger in my life! Wow! what a beautiful creature....

The only setback for the whole trip was the 2 hours check-in at the 1st world hotel... Gosh... waited for TWO HOURS... 1st World Hotel's management should look into this situation... it was a weekday..... What if weekend?

Baby 1st food...

Pier seems to get hungry very fast. He was demanding 4-5Oz of milk every two hours for the past few days. That was very tiring for daddycow & mummypig to keep feeding him non-stop. So, we decided to move on to solid.


I went to shopping for his first rice cereal last night. Oh wow! so many choices on the rack. Then I remember bout Jason's blog on the "sweet" Nestle infant cereal. With that information, I read up the nutrition information one by one from the rack. Nestle mostly comes with "with added milk". At the end, I picked up Heinz Baby 1st Rice Cereal and pay at the check out.

The recommendation was, starting with one TEASPOON of solid on the first day. one teaspoon of rice cereal mixed with breast milk until it is very diluted (for the first two days). and then.. I approached the hungry baby with this semi-solid food. At first, he pushed out the food, then, he realized that it was something nice.... and.... he tried to licked back those remaining food around his mouth! @_@!?! so, I gave him another small amount of food. He loves it! He keep asking for more, and start fussing when I feed him a bit slower. He can't control his tongue movement well, so, his rice cereal was everywhere on his bibs... This was a good start. Hooray! My baby is slowly on to solid food!




Food! Yummy!





"mummy said that I am a "da4 hua1 mao1"! So..... "
-Pier-



"So.... I cleaned up the remaining on the bibs lor... "
- Pier-

"!?!"
-mummy-

Electronics di-goreng!!!!

Many ppl realized that mummy piggy has dissapear for sometime.. here's me again! I am back... (by kicking away daddy cow and take over his computer -.-")

Few weeks ago, when we were happily shopping at Ikano, it was raining heavily outside. By the time we reached home, thing had changed. My working battle station was in a mess.... My HP photo color printer was showing blue screen, with all the "???....??? .....???...." & all lights were blinking. My laser printer was totally dead. no light at all... then, daddy cow found out that my computer was dead too... no sense of life... only then, we asked my FIL who was at home all the time, "what happened? lightning?" and the answer was, "oh ya! very bad, whole house power tripped..."

We suddenly think of our family corner which has just been set up after we came back frm S'pore - Our 42inch Plasma TV & Home theater set & wii!!!! T_T... Joe's Wii was the scapegoat, as we were playing Mario Cart on his Wii, TV can be "on & off" but no input signal at all.... the only survivor was the home theater system.

So, this explained why mummy pig was MIA for more than a week.....

Injection Day...

Both Pier & Cheezie were due for injection. Early in the morning, Joe (my going-to-be brother-in-law) sent Cheezie for an injection and a nice grooming. Later, we brought Pier to visit Dr Lee for the 1st time (his last injection was done in S'pore, this was his first visit to Paediatrician in M'sia).

While Dr Lee was checking on Pier, Pier thought that Dr was having fun with him, and he keep smiling at Dr Lee. coos and smile... Dr Lee comment on Pier was, "oh wow, it must be easy to take care of him... he is such a happy baby!" heehee... thanks for the comment, wait till he cry then.... after the checking, Dr Lee asked me to carry Pier in order to give him the injection. & we were preparing for a loud cry out from Pier.

And to our amaze, Pier did not notice it! no cry, no screaming, nothing, not even his "charming" expression changed! oh wow, brave baby!

but..... after everything was done, and I was changing his diaper, suddenly, he notice he has been "poke" & start crying out loud. @_@!?! what a DELAYED reaction! the niddle went in about a minute ago, and only then he start crying.... hmm.... it must be the thick layer of fat, causing some trouble for the nerve to send the signal all the way up to the brain. hahaha.. (so bad... -.-") Before we left, Dr gave us some medicine in case of any fever.

Pier body temperature rosed in the late evening, to about 37.3 degreeC, and the next day, he got a fever at 37.9 degree C. We gave him the medicine and before Lewis was able to close his mouth, he split out the medicine. arggg... wasted! but we dare not gave him another dose (to avoid overdosage). so, just got to sponged him to lower his temp. and he seems to enjoy the cold towel on his forehead... @_@!? weird... -.-"

p/s: and my little white maltese became a white Miniature Schnauzers!?!

We are back!

Finally, we are back in Malaysia, our home country. (sounds like we are back from far huh?) Well, after the 1.5years in Singapore, we are now moved back to our lovely DJ home. With us, we brought back a total of 123 boxes of goods including furnitures, electrical appliances, dinning & silver wear, books, etc.... Since we had so many boxes, we spend two weeks just to unpack them, but till today, we still have some boxes untouched. T_T

The Place that we stay for 1.5years in S'pore ~ Hillington Green...
outlook of Hillington Green:


swimming pool


BBQ pits: we had a BBQ on Depavali holiday... I was 8months+ pregnant that time...

Our unit (Block 53D, #06-07):
Living & Dinning Room:


Wet & Dry Kitchen:


Master bed room & bathroom:


Guest room (tatami room) & bathroom:


Good bye Singapore, Good bye Hillington Green....

and....

Little Pier was sleeping all the way from S'pore to PJ... 5 hours journey.... ^.^

Pigeon food warmer... Argggg....

I had been searching for baby food warmer since CNY. But that time, both Pigeon and Avent were out of stock. Finally, I bought the Pigeon Food warmer from TAKA BB Fair last saturday. When I wanted to use, only then I found out:

Argggg.... How to use this plug!?! we don't even have the socket for this one! Gosh. This is the first time that I saw household electrical part with this plug..
I will bring this back to TAKA, and exchange it to the AVENT food warmer then... >.<

I wonder how he sleep...

Every morning when we are about to feed him, we always wonder, how he end up like this:
(in week 8):

week 11:

Somehow, he just get himself stuck in this position and doesn't turn further... else, he will be turning like a clock (clockwise lagi... -.-")

Taka BB Fair

Buying BB stuff from S'pore is cheaper than in M'sia!!! We were in KL during CNY, where I went to Isetan to look for Avent bottle nipple. The MSRP for one set of bottle nipples (2 in a set) is RM19.90, where as in S'pore, the MSRP is only $6.00 for the same thing. so expensive! Then, I went to check out the price for Pigeon food warmer since I was looking for one in S'pore, and I know the price. I was quite shocked when I look at the price tag. They are selling at RM2xx.00!!! and I can get it at only S$48 in S'pore sales(original price was $6x.00) Too bad, they were out of stock when I wanted to purchase. & for Pigeon Breast Pad, I got it for S$8.00 per box, but in KL, it was listed RM3x.00! @_@!?!

Taka is having BB Fair again, until 23rd March. So, I am stocking up for BB till his weaning stage... since there is a 20% off for most of the brand, including Avent, Pigeon, etc... & here's some of what i got for Pier:

别小看他, 他明白我们的...

BB 近来很爱发脾气, 动不动就大声哭.

昨天, 我喂他喝奶, 忽然间, 他又发脾气,不但不肯喝, 还拼命大哭大闹. 不管我怎样好言好语地安慰他, 他就是闹. 最后, 我生气了, 骂了一句, "喂! 够了啊!" 他吓了一跳, 盯着我... 不到两秒钟, 他闭起眼, 张开嘴巴, "哇!!!!" 一声, 哭得更大声... 而且还哭得很凄凉. "呜哇...呜哇..." 哭得像是被我们抛弃似的, 好可怜哦... 到后来, 没办法停止他, 就把他放在床上,而且很不客气地瞪着他. 他哭了一阵子后, 发现不对劲了... 因为平时我与牛牛肯定是在抱他, 哄他... 怎么今天没人睬他呢? 于是,他张开眼睛看看周围, 发现我那生气的眼神正在瞪着他. 他楚楚可怜"唲... 唲... 唲..."地叫我, 像是叫我疼他, 抱他. 乘这个机会, 我很严厉的对他说, "妈咪不喜欢你这样乱发脾气的. 不喜欢你如此乱乱哭, 乱乱喊. 你这样乱发脾气, 妈咪很不高兴!" 说完, 只见他泪汪汪, "噢.. 噢.." 了几声, 却不敢哭出来... (哈! 这招行得通!)

见他平静了点儿, 我摸摸他的头, "乖, 别哭了. 哭得妈咪好烦. 对妈咪笑笑, 妈咪立刻抱你, sayang你..." 语毕, 我对他笑了一笑... 结果, 他立刻展出他最甜的笑容... 我抱着他, 心都溶了...



BB was throwing tantrum these few days. "enjoy" crying for no reason...

Yesterday, while I was feeding him half way, he again fussed and crying and screaming. I was trying my best to calm him, but it doesn't work. & at the end, it reaches my limit and I scolded him in mandarin, "Hey! Enough!" He stun for a while, and..... CRY even louder! and the crying tone turned up to be very sad, sounds like being abandon by us (so pity....) Worst still, I can't stop him and I myself starting to lost control. So, at the end, I put him back to his cot and stare at him angrily.

He cried for a while and then realized something wasn't right. He stopped and looked around. He then saw me staring at him, and he was trying to catch my attention by calling me ,"uh... uh... uh..." and I replied him in a firm tone, "Mummy doesn't like BB misbehave like this. Mummy is not happy with BB throwing tantrum like this!" Tears rosed in his eye, but he did not cry out, keep saying "hmm... hmm..." (aha! it works! I learned this from the book "secret of baby whisperer")

He quiet for a while, and I soften my voice and continue, "Good boy, don't cry. Give mummy a smile and then, mummy will hug you and sayang you." & I smile at him... Guess what? He then show his sweetest SMILE at me!! Oh my dear Pier...

理发篇(二)

BB 的头发长得好快, 不到一个月, 又需要修剪了... 这回, 由猪妈咪动手...
可是, 剪来剪去, 都好像被狗咬似地... 最后, 还是牛爸爸出手...


这回, 可剪得真短... 没有"兵头洗粉"了.

Back to Normal Life...

Hooray! Finally.... We are both back to normal shift. No more night shift is needed at last!
*******************************************************************************************
After the confinement nanny had left during baby 4th week, I had a record of no sleeping for 36 hours. That was terrible. Then, Lewis wanted to help me for the night feeding and hence, he went into night shift as BB Pier need feeding every 1.5-2 hours. Pier eat extremely slow, one feeding of 2.5Oz can took up to 45 minutes... Lewis's sleeping hours was then changed to 2pm-10pm, and by 10pm, he woke up, took over baby care & I go to sleep till next morning. But this type of shift running wasn't practical because sometime BB can be fussy and need 100% attention. Both of us only had ONE complete meal a day, be it breakfast or lunch. then snack for the rest of the day. With that, I had been losing weight in a fast pace (I got back my pre-pregnancy weight by week 7! ^.^)

We desperately wanted to train Pier to sleep thru the night. I was sourcing information from the internet. & many of them recommended warm bath before sleep. We do notice that Pier sleep for longer interval in the afternoon after his bath. So, we decided to give it a try. At first, we bathe him at 6pm, & each time after bath, he will cry for food. we feed him and he slept. the interval was longer than other normal time (about 3-4 hrs). It works!

Again, I moved his bathing time to late evening, around 8.30pm (before the 9pm feeding). But at this time, the environment is cooler, so, water must be warm (but not HOT!) & Pier seems to enjoy the warm bath... After 9pm feed, he play & coos at himself for a while & slept.... The next feeding was around 1am....

A week later, he slept for longer hour. After 9pm feed, he wakes up at 2am, few days later, 3am..... Slowly, after 4 weeks, he now sleep thru the night... Last feeding at 9-10pm, and the next feeding at 6-7am in the morning.

Finally, we no longer need night shift. & the most important, we are back to our normal life (3 meals a day & with some nice snacks in between), and I managed to stop myself from loosing weight further. I was 48kg before pregnant, 63kg before labor and now, maintained at 46kg... I had lost about 15kg in 10weeks... which is a good news for me! ^.^

Bathing in Homemade Mustard

Pier started to enjoy his bathing time. I bathed him at night, before his last feeding at 9pm.

Last night, right before I put him into his bathtub, he gave me a great smile, & I melted... who knows... he smile & pulled his leg up... and here you go.... BLA!!!!!!! my hand, shirt, short, bathtub water are then filled with his homemade "yellow mustard". Arrrggg..... what a nice gift from Pier. -.-" Ok, what's now? I am in such a mess, Pier was covered by his own production too... Got to carry this nearly 7kg fellow with one hand, another hand to disposed the "mustard" water & washed his bathtub.... and at the end, felt like doing this:



Well, this is not the first time he did this to me, but the 3rd time... aii.... and throughout the whole bathing time, he gave me his most innocent smile....

Bottle Feeding but Exclusively Pumping

Many people have the same reaction when they saw baby Pier, "Wow! So CUTE! How old is he? Look at his chubby face..." and when they heard my answer, they were like, "huh!?! oh wow! he is huge! Do you breastfeed him?" My answer will be, "yes." but in real life... this is not the case... I bottlefeed him, but breastmilk. I am one of those "exclusively pumping" mother.

No doubt, breast milk is the best for baby. Everybody talk about breastfeeding, the benefit of BF, method of BF, bla bla bla.... but what if direct BF doesn't work out?

***********************************************************************************
Baby Pier was admitted into neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) right after he was born. It was because after the long labor, he was grunting non-stop instead of crying like a normal baby. In fact, during the last hour of labor, his heart rate was unstable. They admitted him into NICU for further test to ensure everything is fine for him. Since I was having Group B streptococcus (GBS) bacteria, he was on IV drip / antibiotics injection for 3 days while waiting for GBS culture result. I didn't have the chances to BF him until two days later. During that time, they were bottle feeding him. I tried to BF him on the 3rd day, but since I did not do any early expression to stimulate the milk production, Pier was fussed when there is nothing came out (totally nothing, not even the colostrum)... At the end, Pier was too hungry and the nurse in NICU came to me, asking my permission to give him formula in order to stop him from crying. Then, the nurse lend me the breast pump to stimulate the production. Pump every 3hours, 10 minutes on each side, but still, nothing came out. On the forth day, we were discharged from the hospital.

I was extremely upset. When I attended the parenting course on the 3rd day in the hospital, I feel so lonely & left out when I saw other mothers who went out in the middle of the class, to nurse their BB, and some of them were actually leaking milk during the course... At home, I cried badly after my mum told me that how much milk she had right after she gave birth to us.... and me? nothing came out. Lewis was the only one to comfort me, giving me support and asking not to give up. A week later, I managed to pump out 0.5Oz of yellowish bubbles (just bubbles)... and my confinement nanny was asking, "how come your 'milk' is only bubbles?" Tears burst out immediately, but I know it is a good progress so far... I continue to pump, even thought it's only bubbles. Day after day, I saw the improvement. Slowly, I managed to get an Oz of yellowish milk (with 3Oz of bubbles on top), I gave it to the confinement nanny and said, "feed him this! then top up the rest with formula..." This is the most important milk, baby 1st milk which contain all the antibodies for him. From then on, my milk production started to increased...

but.... Pier was used to bottle-feed. Every time when I tried to BF him, it end up like world war III. We were both soak in sweat and exhausted. He refused to latch on. He only take in bottle nipple but not mine. After 3 weeks of trying, I feel loss but gave up. With the support from Lewis, I go for exclusive pumping, but somehow, there are something missing in me. Every time when I sign in to the motherhood forum, I will skip those talk about BF. I know the benefit of BM, but I will avoid anything about BF experience. Somehow, it hurts. There are lot of support groups for BF mother, all talking about how their BF experiences, feeling, etc. but I seldom found someone talk about pumping milk other than from those who had to return to work after their confinement. Felt like I am a looser.

Until recently, a reader from the Mother&Baby magazine shared her experience in BF in the Feb '08 issue, after the magazine's Jan'08 special issue on "Breastfeeding Special". Her situation was like mine, and she mentioned that there are support groups for exclusive pumping mum like us (one example she mentioned was www.exclusivelypumping.com). I am glad that I am not alone. At least, I am still giving my BB the best milk and I promised myself, I will give him BM at least for a year, or maybe longer! ^.^

Teething process started!?!

BB 哭闹了两天, 越闹越凶, 还以为他肚子又疼了... 可是怎么看都不象绞肚子... 天啊! 到底他是怎么啦?

昨晚帮BB冲凉洗嘴巴时, 摸到牙龈上有个硬硬的东西, 原想看看是什么东西, 可BB却不肯开口... 直到刚才, BB又大哭大闹时, 才发现下面的牙龈上有两个白点... 小小的牙齿要出来了吗? 可BB才两个月, 太早了吧!?! BB的确有长牙的症状: 一直流口水, 想咬东西... 可是他还不会抓紧手中的东西, 怎样给他发牙的玩具呢? 最后, 只好给奶嘴而已... 奶嘴一掉, BB就浩滔大哭, 得赶紧把奶嘴给塞下去...

BB真的长牙吗? 猪猪迷糊了...




Baby Pier has been crying badly since yesterday morning. At first, we thought that it might be his tummy cramp again (he was having diarrhea for the past week), but somehow, it doesn't look like stomach upset...

When I was cleaning BB's mouth last night, I realized there was something on the lower gum. Wanted to find out what was that, but he refused to open his mouth. Even when he did, he sticked out his tongue to cover it... (naughty boy!) This evening, he wasn't feeling well and was crying again, where I accidentally saw two white little teeth sticking out of his gum. (I guess it's his tooth) he has been showing some teething syndrome these few days, where he was drooling badly & blowing bubbles, crying/screaming for pain, wanted to suck (or bite) something (where we offer him pacifier since he can't hold any teething toy yet)... but, it's too early for teething process to begin... He is only 9 weeks old!

I had been searching for more information online-> On average, the first tooth comes in during the 7th month, but it can be as early as 3 months, or as late as a year... so, maybe Pier is on the early side?

I then called my mum for baby teething information, and my dad was laughing & asked, "hey! is your baby running express?"

An evening off for mummypig...

Hooray! Piggy got an evening off to go shopping at Orchard... Daddycow worked overtime today (to take care of Baby Pier).

Reached Takashimaya @8pm, went for a fast dinner at Yoshinoya (coz wanted to save time for shopping)... Then to G2 for long pant (I am still wearing maternity pants as the old one were too tight)... yeah! Sales -> buy the second piece for 50% off...

Time to pamper myself with some expensive stuff.... was having extremely dry skin & it started to peel off badly since BB was born. So, went to the Taka department store for some deep hydrating creme gel. "Interviewed" several sales girls from CD, Estee Lauder, etc. and tried their product on my hand to see if there is any allergy.... at the end, got myself the HydraAction Deep Hydration Creme Gel from Dior...

Then, went to the children / baby accessories stores to find a suitable baby gym for BB, but not much choices... hang around at the BB area & suddenly, the bell rang & the operator was saying good night. Wow! Times up! Rushed to the cashier before they close the counter (my shopping cart was full of BB stuff....).

Oh NO... Lewis's dinner!!! I promised to da bao for him... Again, rushed to the restaurant and glad that they are still taking order (sometime their kitchen won't take in new order at this time...) and while waiting for the food, saw some cute BB shirts for sales (50%) next door... heehee. grabbed two & pay, get the food and head home... ^.^