I Can Carry Him!

3rd Month Injection

"Mum! Save me!"

There are so many decisions to be made when it comes to matters of children. Before birth, parents have to decide what pram brand to buy, at birth have to choose what formula to give and now after birth have to decide what type of immunisation to give and where. 5in1 or 6in1? GP, PD or polyclinic?

Rynae had 6in1 immunisation at a PD hence initially we decided to follow suit for Raynen too, until neighbours and friends advised that there is actually no need to spend that much. Indeed, after a comparision, 6in1 package costs only $326.10 at a Polyclinic while a PD charges $500. On top of that, PD also charges $45 consultation fee for each visit while Polyclinic charges a mere $4.80. With 2 children now and surviving on a single income, we thought we had better be more frugal in our spending thus we opted for Polyclinic. Afterall, their vaccines are all from GSK and there were already so many infants being vaccinated in Polyclinic!

We pre-booked an appointment at Polyclinic for Raynen's 3rd month vacination & assessment today. As Polyclinic does not provide vacination for Rotavirus, we hopped over thereafter, to Rynae's PD for first dose of the oral medication. Our little friend was force fed the vaccine by the PD and we prayed hard then that he keeps the medicine down. 'Cos it cost $105 ok!

Recently, Mr Mah Bow Tan announced a possibility to include Pneumococcal as part of the National Childhood Immunisation Programme. However, there were no details as yet on the implementation timeline. Rynae was immunised with just 1 jab at 2 yrs old and Raynen will definitely be given the jab too. According to the schedule, he would need 4 doses, which means more pain and also more money - $150 to $180 per jab! We have no intention to put him through the pain now hence we hope that by the time he turns 1, there would be news about the implementation details. Looking forward to a subsidised price!

Raynen's First Passport

Raynen's passport was ready for collection and we brought him down personally to claim it today. There were many others who were there for the same purpose hence in the end, we waited for over an hour. It would be commendable if they could open a counter to provide speedy passport collection service for infants and children below 2 years old. With this little red book, Cowboy can now travel cross borders! First destination should be Indonesia. Woohoo...

3 Months Old

In a bink of an eye, Cow Boy is 3 months old already. He doesn't cry like a newborn now but converses his needs by different whines, shouts and cries. Sometimes, he also gives cues with different facial expressions. At 3 months, he is able to hold his head upright (though at times a little wobbly), is learning to exercise control of his hands and can see further objects and people. This chap is becoming more curious about his environment hence he doesn't like to be carried lying down anymore (unless he needs to be pat to sleep). It is tiresome to carry him for long but I love to hold him because I know that in time to come, he'll be squirming out of my arms.

Turn Me On!

With a bigger body and more mature muscle, my boy's showing an inclination to learn flipping now. He likes to turn to his right when we place him down. I ordered a sleeping positioner from mmhugz.blogspot.com to prevent him from dropping to the floor from the sofa, like a ripe durian. I guess this will come in more handy when he actually knows how to flip 'cos I need to POSITION him when I change his diaper. I ain't an octupus who can change and dangle an object in his face to keep him still. But hmm... I just wondered how I managed to subdue Rynae then...

Development @ 2 Months

The signature superman pose

At 2 months, Cowboy is showing signs of responsiveness. He smiles, chuckles, coos and gurgles at me when I talk to him straight into the face. It is such an amusement too, to see his expression when he listens and watches my mouth movement and get fascinated by how it works. I love to sit him facing me, on my lap and talk non-sensibly.

He is also becoming more aware of his environment. He recognises my voice and will show his pleasure by smiling at the sound of my greetings. If something catches his attention, he'll stare and focus at it without blinking eyes.

This chap is also exploring, discovering and learning how to control his hands. Lay him down and you'll find him doing a 'superman' pose - lifting his right hand in the air (Yes, he only lifts his right hand). Sometimes, he'll stare at his right hand and fist, showing the expression of 'what the hell is this'?

2 Months Old

Rock-A-Bye-Baby

Using a sarong to carry a baby is not a novelty but in recent years, there's been a popularity in using sarong slings to carry a baby. It not only frees your hands but it looks kinda chic too! Riding on the craze, I bought one, 4 years ago, thinking of using it on Rynae BUT my little tyrant screamed (like I'm stuffing her into the rubbish chute) whenever I tried the sling on her. I gave up eventually and passed down the sling to my sister.

It was not until I saw my neighbour using it on her daughter that I decided to try it again, on Raynen this time. However, slings don't come cheap. One would need to fork out at least S$45 for a brand new one. I attempted ebay and sucessfully won a bid with S$22 on a second hand cotton sateen sarong sling. The owner claimed that she used it once only. The sling came with a sarong user guide CD. It sure is helpful. I played, repeated and rewinded it so many times I lost count. Seeing someone using it seems so easy until I tried it out myself. My poor little guinea pig got squashed, twisted and embarrasingly enough, stuck in my sling!

Now, I'm proud to announce that I've attained the beginners level in lying down (for newborn) position. I even slinged Raynen to the neighbourhood park with it! Well, practise makes perfect and I'm gonna keep using it until I master it!

Happy 44th Birthday Singapore!

Rise and shine. Bong siblings in their pajamas.

Didi hanging on for dear life.

For the past 4 years, patriotic Mummy has always dressed Rynae up in red and white on National Day. This year, without fail, I dressed up my 2 kiddos in the 2 symbolic colours.

I explained the meaning of National Day to Rynae, why wear red and white and told her how old Singapore is. I also taught her how to place her hand when we said the pledge together at 8.22pm. Yeap, I'm gonna teach her to love her country from young.

Personalised Pacifier Clips

I bought a personalised pacifier clip recently for Raynen from Buniquestore.com. They have personalised clothings, pillow cases and bibs too. Well, I thought it might be over the top to have Raynen's name printed on every belonging so I chose just a simple pacifier clip. Whadaya say? Nice?

Sharp Shooter

Look at the splat of poo on my wall! I got a rude surprise this morning when I unfastened baby Cow's diapers to change him. A squirt of poo shot out and landed on my wall. I was dumb-founded. There were poo on his buttock, on the mattress, on the crib, on the floor. Everywhere! It was such a mess I didn't know where to start cleaning up. I decided I had to begin with non other than the culprit - Mr Raynen Bong.

Crime scene

Celebrating Full Month

To celebrate my release and Raynen's full month, we held a small scale party at our love nest on 18th June with a warm company of family members, relatives, close friends and some neighbours. Mummy had planned for this day by ordering a set of clothings specially printed, from familymall08.multiply.com. It was a pity I didn't get to take a photo of them dressed in these. Sister ran off to play with cousins and neighbours as soon as she was bathed and brother cranked to be put to bed after milk. Getting their group photo is this hard!

To be more appropriate, wordings should actually be 'Daddy's little tyrant' and 'Mummy's little urchin'. kekeke..

The spread. Full month cake from Prima Deli, food from Neo Garden Catering and DIY red eggs from my kitchen!

The star of the day - Mr Botak!

Full Month Tradition

Today is baby Cow's full month and according to Chinese traditions, he had his nails cut and womb hair shaved. I collected his hair into an ang bao to be saved as keepsake.

After his haircut, he was bathed in water mixed with pomelo leaves to wash off any unwanted and evil vibes.

Daddy calls him botak head now.

Ending Confinement

I'm pushing the end of my 1 month confinement and I'm filled with mixed feelings of joy and worrisome. Joy for obvious reasons that I can lead back a normal life - able to bathe (without herbs), able to go out (I'm developing cabin fever!) and able to eat normal food! The first 2 weeks of confinement were the worst days in my life. My scalp was itchy, my skin felt sticky, my episiotomy wound was hurting and my breasts felt so sore with plugged milk ducts! I was literally counting the seconds hoping that time will rocket pass!

Then again, now that I'm soon seeing light at the end of the tunnel, I'm also struck with anxiety and fear about the ability and energy to handle 2 kids. At times when I was nursing baby Raynen, Rynae would snuggle up to me to request to spend personal time with me or to ask me to attend to her. Those were the times I had to decline her requests as I couldn't split myself into 2! Not wanting her to bear a grudge towards her brother or to feel jealous, I'll always ask her for grace period and will always get back to her after I'm done with baby. She was so used to having my undivided attention these 4+ years so now that I have another little chap to take care of, she'll have to do a bit of adjustment.

I'm finding my air thinner and my time more precious. I reckon I'll be getting much sleep too as I'll have to do the graveyard shift - giving night feeds. Oh... Back to those panda-eyed days again!

New Life With 2 Children

Honestly, I've not fully immersed myself with life as a mother with 2 children because of the presence of a confinement nanny who faithfully helps me take care of baby Raynen. My mother-in-law is also present to help me see to Rynae's needs and to take care of miscellaneous housework. With 2 able helpers, I took a back seat, relax and recuperate.

I do, however, have one important role - to supply potent breast milk to my little urchin. Because of this indispensable task, I'm kept busy either milking myself or nursing my little calf. I was a little regretful for not persisting to breast feed Rynae beyond a month thus I am determined to breast feed for as long as I could for this birth.

I'm happy that Rynae is taking the arrival of his new baby brother in a good stride. She shows her love by caressing his soft skin and stroking his tiny head when he's drinking milk - an affectionate sight that made me forget all the years of irritations, frustrations and sleepless nights that accompanies motherhood. No words can describe this euphoric feeling. You really have to be a mother to experience it...

Labour of Love

Raynen was a strong baby when he was inside me. Whenever he stretch, I felt as though he is going to punch a hole through my tummy and simply get out from there. Because of his incredible strength, I had this intuition that my first sign of labour will be breakage of water bag. But I was wrong. Here's my full labour story:

On 16 June after a check up at my gynae's, I was told that I was already 2cm dilated. Panic. How? I'm going to bomb! When I had Rynae, I gave birth the day I was told I was 3cm dilated! I had a discussion with Doctor and we decided to do it calmly since I've no contraction pain and there's sufficient amniotic fluid in my amnion. He suggested that I go back, rest, pack and settle all outstandings and check into Mount Alvernia on 18 June midnight. Ok, set.

However, on 17 June around 5am, I was woken up by 'cramps'. I tried to ignore it but it kept coming back in regular intervals of 5 mins. My instinct told me I was having contractions. I couldn't get back to sleep so I got up to visit the washroom. Gosh! I had show! That's it.. that's it.. I'm into labour! The contractions grew stronger and I woke Daddy up. I had a quick shower, grabbed my bag and rushed off to the hospital. The contractions grew more intense as the minute passed. I could hardly walk when we reached the delivery suit.

After an internal examination, nurse told me that I was 4cm dilated. I was asked to clear my bowel while she went off to inform my gynae. I was in pain but I tried not to think about it. Soon, I was straped with fetal heartbeat monitor onto the delivery bed. And not long after, my wrist was poked with a drip to induce my labour. Yikes! More intense pain! Help!!!! I tried not to go against the pain and to concentrate on my breathing. It worked. "It'll be over soon... It's not going to kill me... I'm going to have my baby in my arms soon..." I cheered myself on.

Doctor came around 7am. (He was on leave that day and that explains why he didn't suggest to me to give birth on the 17th!) He did a check, broke my water bag and reported, "Ok, Cassandra, you're 5cm dilated. Now, I need you to push." I did and gave it all I can. "Great. 9cm now. Nurses please get ready". They took me by the legs and I was positioned in an 'expose-all pose'. Urgh... in addition to the contraction pains, I felt an immediate urge to pop. It felt like the biggest poo I've ever had! After 2 gigantic pushes, I heard Raynen's thundering wail. My boy was out...

He was thrown onto my tummy and my first reaction was to check if he was ok. Thank god he was. I was happy, fulfilled and relieved. 9 months of pregnancy. 9 months of carrying him - all passed in a twinkle of an eye. My tummy suddenly felt empty and I'm beginning to miss his kicks in me.... My family is complete now and we're all looking forward to life with the addition of this new family member.

Dealing WIth Jaundice

After 3D2N's stay at Mount Alvernia Hospital, Mummy was discharged on Friday but poor baby Raynen had to be warded for jaundice treatment for 2 extra days. It was heart wrenching to see my boy striped, blind-folded and placed under phototherapy. It felt awful coming home without your new born.

Luckily, baby Raynen was discharged yesterday after his jaundice was sucessfully brought down to acceptable level. We were told to continue hydrating him and putting him under morning and evening sun. Well, we did this morning as told and here's our precious, sun bathing in his sister's passed-down pram.

He looks shiok huh?

Welcome Baby Raynen

Everybody meet Raynen Bong. He was welcomed into this world on 17th June at 7.20am, weighing 3540g. Mummy Cow will post my birth story as soon as I am able to..

Count Down 2 Weeks

Everyone has been telling me that 2nd borns usually will arrive earlier and faster than 1st borns. Rynae was born 3 days before my expected due date hence now that I am into my 38th week of gestation, I could be expecting Cowboy's arrival anytime! I felt like I am carrying a time bomb.

Pregnancy is getting uncomfortable during this third trimester. My feet are swollen because of water retention due to my uterus and baby's pressure on my veins. Occassionally, I experience sharp stabbing pain in my groin when I get up from a sitting position. And not forgetting to mention about my bulkiness, clumsiness and edginess. Inspite of all these common discomforts, I am enjoying every moment of my pregnancy - of having Cowboy rolling, poking and stretching inside me. Once he is out, the 'party' is over and I am so gonna miss his company within my body.

At 38th week, my gynae suggested doing a CTG (cardiotocography) scan for me to check fetal heartbeat and signs of contractions. It was a relieve that Cowboy's heart beat is normal. There were no contractions and neither had I dilated. So off I went to spend another few 'peaceful' days waiting at home...

Cord Blood Banking

I mentioned in one of my earlier entry that I would do a cord blood banking post once I've gathered enough information. Above is a packshot of Cowboy's cord blood collection kit and obviously, I've decided to bank it privately with Cord Life mainly because it is the only private cord blood bank in Southeast Asia to be AABB accredited (though I heard stemcord is in the process of getting accreditation) and it has friendly and professional sales consultant. Being AABB accredited means that the company has to meet some of the highest standards in the cord blood banking industry and this gives great assurance to me.

It took me and Daddy a few months to decide if we should fork out money to bank it privately, donate to Singapore Cord Blood Bank or to discard it and pray that no misfortune will befall, in view of our family tree's clean bill of health. We just couldn't make up our mind.

At one point, we were almost decided on donating it to SCBB because there were claims that a person's own cord blood might not be the best source of stem cells for the treatment of many genetic disorders like metabolic diseases and leukaemia. That means, on top of money spent (futilely) banking it privately, we need to spend another bomb buying suitable cells from SCBB for transplants. Now, that sounds silly and totally unwise. As SCBB is a national reserve, so once we've made a donation, my bb's stem cells will belong to SCBB and available for public access, which means it might not be available to us in times of need! Urgh! This is a caught between tough situation.

My gynae recommended that if we are financially able, we really should consider banking it privately as there could be wider uses of stem cells for treatment of more diseases in the future once there are breakthrough in researches.

We procastinated till an advertisement in ST by cordlife came out, offering a HP mini laptop (SP. S$599) upon sign up. Of course, there were strings attached so after much haggling with the sales consultant, we committed a 10-year plan for $3100 (excl GST) using CDA account. It was a $650 direct discount.

We felt relieved and a load off our mind after this decision is made. Like many others, there is always a doubtful side of us on the uncertainty of what could happen in the future hence, to keep our mind at ease, we felt we should embark on this biological assurance least we regret in the future.