My "Loud Speaker"

Sean cries very loud. To be exact, he is shouting, per his PD. :-(

So you can imagine when we take him out and if we are not fast enough to feed his milk, all the attention will be focus on him and me! It has been common to hear comments like "wow, he cries very loud huh! or "he is strong, can cry so loud".

Honestly, it can drive a person become frustrating if you are not patient enough.
Thank goodness Ern didn't wake up from her didi's shouting when I changed his diaper middle of the night.

Full Moon

We celebrated Sean's full on 14th March. No special meaning but just want to do it over the weekend so that it's easier to manage.

We decided not to give away the traditional nasi kunyit to relatives since we have 2 children to manage this time. So, we ordered just < 20 sets for both families, primary for prayer, own consumption and super closed family friends only.


Again, we had the hair cutting ceremony and prayer session at Poh Poh's house before we headed back home. Don't ask me need to cut the hair but I just followed. :-)

Sorry, no photos taken when we reached home as it was Sean's feeding time. He was crying (shouting to be exact) before we even started the prayer session. So, we were in a rush to get things done and feed him right after that.

After the feed, he fell asleep. So, Daddy, Ern and I had a good meal on our nasi kunyit and fruit cake.

On that evening, we went out for a KFC. Yes, for the first time we went out in 4.

We Are Now 4

We were 3...


We are 4 now...

When I See You Smile...

Sean smiles when he is fully fed, changed and cleaned. When he gives me this smile, all tiredness gone and it’s rewarding on the sacrifices made. There was once, he even giggled and I was like "OMG, at this age he can giggle already?"

Being a breastfeeding exclusive mother, sleep deprive is one of the reasons that caused a tiring mother. I am one of them too as I hardly can nap during day time unless I only slept like 2-3 hrs on the night before. For those of you who breastfeed, you would know this is also the best time to stock up the 'milk inventory' for later used. So you can imagine after each feed like 30 mins, I spent another 30 mins to clean and change him if he poo. Then, another good 30 mins to pump (to empty the breast), store and keep the expressed breast milk. Get up again <1hr time for the next feeding. At times, Sean gets up middle of the interval for cuddle. There goes my sleep.

What’s more with Ern around during weekdays, I can hardly sleep as she napped ~1 hour only. Once she gets up, we need to 'entertain' her. Else, she will always want to 'play' with her brother.

Demanding Kid

Sean is a DEMANDING baby. He SHOUTS his lung out when he cried, which according to his PD, it’s uncommon to see a new born to shout. So you can imagine when he cried, he can really tear the house down! If you are outsider, his cry is as if he is being tortured.

Owing to that, he has colic and even with direct feeding, he can throw up mouthful of milk after each feed. Too much wind in his tummy!

He is still operating in “US Time Zone”, stay awake easily during mid night. Nevertheless, his feeding interval is 3-3.5 hour, so not too bad for a 3 weekers! I mean, I have prepared for the worst like every 2 hours (before he was born). So anything come longer than 2hr, it’s already a blessing to me.

We are slowly adjusting him to our time zone so that when I get back to work in 2 months time, I can get enough sleep. Keep my finger cross but I have prepared to get up 2-3 times for midnight feed.

He likes to be dry and clean at all times. When he wet his diaper or poo, he will cry, asking for a change. He will stop crying right after change, be it his cloth or disposable diaper.

When he was in hospital, he liked to be wrapped but now, he doesn’t like that anymore. He prefers to get his hands out, no matter how tight we wrapped him. If he is stuck half way in getting his hand out, he will cry!

So far, he is coping well with bottle, pacifier and McB. I am thankful he doesn’t have nipple confusion even I nurse him most of the time. Hope this is a good start before I go back to work.

He has strong legs as compare with his Che Che, Ern. So, when he kicks, you can see the playpen is moving a bit! So when Poh Poh showed him, extra care in holding him is needed!

Boy is always a boy!

Breastmilk Jaundice

Sean is suspected to have breastmilk jaundice as his serum belibulum (SB) level has shoot up to 280 on Friday. He wasn’t asked to stay under phototherapy but in order to confirm that, PD advised us to feed him formula for 48hrs. If it is true, then his SB level should drop. While he is on formula, I need to express out the milk in order to keep the flow. His PD is a pro-breastfeeding doctor, so in very rare circumstances that she will ask a mother to stop breastfeeding completely.

If confirm breastmilk jaundice, then we can continue breastfeeding after 48hours as we know there is nothing wrong with Sean’s liver function. It’s just a matter of time for his liver to flush out the additional red blood cell.

Ern had the same problem but the reading wasn’t that high like Sean although it took her 8 weeks to recover. From my internet research, as long as the SB reading is not extremely high and Sean is gaining weight, it’s absolutely ok to continue breastfeeding.

If you are interested to read more about breastmilk jaundince, you get obtain the information here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonatal_jaundice
http://parenting.ivillage.com/baby/bbreastfeed/0,,7fzp,00.html

UPDATED ON 10TH MARCH:
IT IS CONFIRMED THAT SEAN HAD BREASTMILK JAUNDICE AS HIS SB READING HAD GONE DOWN FROM 280 TO 249. PHEW! SEAN IS BACK ON BREASTMILK NOW!

My 2 Care Takers

She is my Poh Poh, maternal grandma. She cooked for my mum, wash our laundry, bath me and took care of me



She is my Mummy, also my 24X7 “McB” :-)

Confinement No More!

I was very stressed out during the confinement month when I first had Ern. I followed some of the traditional Chinese confinement’s rules, like only shower on Day 12 with herbs, drink mostly ginger/herb tea, eat heaty food cooked with sesame oil/ginger/herb,etc. I was very emotional and I think to certain extend, I had mild post natal depression. I cried a lot back then, over small matters like the words spoken to me, worried over Ern’s pro-long breast milk jaundice, the so called “good advices and consequences’ from my relatives when they got to know I didn’t follow exactly the confinement rules and others.

Right after I recovered from the post natal depression, I told Hubby if we ever blessed with 2nd child, I wouldn’t want to follow these rules again for several reasons:

1) I don’t want to go through the same stress again
2) I need to take care 2 children, more so need to handle Ern, to go through the phase with her in accepting her sibling
3) Don’t want to burden my mum to cook different food for me since she has shoulder ache problem and age is catching up
4) To speed up the jaundice recovery for the baby by avoiding ginger/herbs
5) I dislike the smell and the process of Malay traditional urut.

You bet, I keep to my promise this time, and even gotten support from my mum! I guess she has seen how stressed out I was the last time. So, I am on normal diet since day 1 delivering Sean. Honestly, I feel good right now, no stress even I had sleep deprived (because of breast feeding) and Sean is going through jaundice now. Maybe it’s 2nd child delivery, I sort of know what to expect and how to handle them. I drove to hospital to feed Sean 3 times a day when he was put under light. Even indulged and pampered myself with a post natal + relaxing massage, facial and plan for a pedicure soon!

More so, I get to spend quality time with Ern on every evening (around 5-6pm) or whenever Sean is asleep. It’s not a lot of time with Ern but it’s better than letting her watching TV by herself.

Again, this is very much individual preference and choice, as to follow the confinement rules or not. To me, I just want a stress free post delivery.

Jaundice

Like her Che Che, Sean can't escape from jaundice although I didn't eat any of the confinement food like ginger, herbs, sesame oil, etc.

On Day 2 after he was born, I was 'warned' by PD that he will get jaundice because he looked very 'red', means the beribulum content is high in his body. True enough right after the Serum Beribulun (SB) test on Day 3, his reading stood at 180, means exceed the safe line of 150.

Hence, I stayed back together with him as a lodger since my milk flow has not established and I want to fully breastfeed him. Moreover, it's taxing for my family members to transport me and also having Ern around too.

Day 4, his SB reading dropped to 150 and we were allowed to discharge. Honestly, I didn't expect to discharge as Che Che Ern spent 5 days under light. However, we were told to sun bath him.

From Day 5 to Day 8, we can see Sean's body had turned yellow and we knew his jaundice level definitely shoot up. On Day 8, we took him for another SB test and to our surprise, it has shoot up to 318! Immediately, he was put under light again, 4 lights to be exact! If you look carefully at the picture, he wore the conventional sanitary pad (tie string over waist type) because PD wanted to expose him to the maximum. :-)

This time round, I didn't stay as lodger since I have built up my 'milk stock'. Everyday, I drove to hospital 3 times to nurse him to keep the stimulation, while also trasport the frozen EBM.

Day 9, his SB reading dropped to 180 and the next day, dropped to 118. Discharged but same thing - still need to sun bath twice per day.

Day 12, SB shoot up to 218 for Sean but since he is > 10 days old, he doesn't need to stay under light unless SB reading >250.

Day 14, SB stayed at 218 still! :-(

Next follow up on Day 18 (Friday, 6th March). Let's see how is he progressing.