Cars

Hubby and I visited several car showrooms yesterday afternoon at Leng Kee with Colin. We intend to get a family car, though not so soon. I kind of like the new Toyota Corolla Altis while hubby likes the Honda Jazz or Volkswagan Jetta. He is into technology

Honda Jazz is super fuel efficient but it's kind of tight at the back seat when we did the 3 men test. (The 3 men test is actually a test to determine how spacious the back seat is when 3 people are sitting behind). The Jetta is a 1.5L car with pretty good fuel efficient engine. The only catch is the price - it will set us back by 90 over grand!

Oh well, guess yesterday was just a day for market research. I intend to get back to work to see how my schedule goes and if I can really live without a car. With the ever increasing fuel price, it's only prudent to get a car on a need basis.

We ended our little adventure at the Benz showroom. It's a pretty cool place for a meal actually. It has a nice underground carpark, sales people were all dressed up in black suits and best-est yet - the cafe there comes with complimentary hot drinks. Hahahha. I'm such a sucker for cheapo stuff!

Easter Weekend

It was a busy Easter weekend of us. The Lee folks went to crematorium at Bright Hill in Bishan on Saturday afternoon to pray to the ancestors for Ching Ming. It is a custom (not too sure from where) that “clearing the graves” is to be carried out anytime 10 days before or after Ching Ming. However, Hubby wanted baby to pay her respect to the ancestors so we planned this visit much earlier to avoid the crowd and the smoke.

The trip there was quite pleasant with nice cloudy weather and occasional breeze. Yee Sinn was so comfortable in her sling that she slept throughout the day without much fuss. We ended the day with a cab ride to Ang Mo Kio Hub for dinner. The place was well equipped with nappy changing counters and breastfeeding rooms. I told Hubby that since the Hub is quite family friendly, we should bring Yee Sinn out more often. Hahaha. These are just excuses to go shopping with baby I guess.

Unfortunately, she was cranky the following day. She became a little too fussy and wanted to be carried most of the time. Perhaps she was overly stimulated with the noise and sights on her outing. Guess we’ll need to introduce her to the outside world slowly.

Yee Sinn is back onto bottles again. We bottle fed her entirely for 1 whole day. There were resistance initially but she succumbed to her hunger when she realized she had no choice but to drink from the bottle. Thank goodness. So today, I latched her on after she finished her supply of thawed frozen milk. We have decided that we will be bottle feeding her at least once a day to prevent such things from happening again. And when we bottle feed, it will either be Papa or Grandma so that she will get used to other people carrying her for her feed.

It was a fun day for Yee Sinn (I think). She smiled and coo-ed quite a bit. This was because her Papa spent quite a bit of time playing and talking to her. She was also able to entertain herself with her toys, spending almost 30mins looking around, touching and kicking her hand-me-down 9 years old play gym. As it was a fairly old set with not many features, we improvised and hanged several of her own toys for her to play with. Guess when we have a happy baby; we’ll have happy Papa and Mama.

Teat-ing issue

I think we’re in big trouble. Realised that Yee Sinn suddenly doesn’t want to drink from the bottle. I went out for a short while yesterday afternoon to run some errand and got Grandma Lee to help look after the baby. I prepared 1 frozen bottle of breastmilk in the warmer, together with bottle teats and all. When I got back, I found out that she didn’t had her milk for 3 hours and would rather sleep. I tried feeding her the milk but she simply refused.

So today, I expressed out 1 oz of milk and tried to feed her again, this time with a different teat. Unfortunately, she refused the bottle yet again. Was she hungry at all? Yes she was, 'cos she suckled furiously when I latched her on. I’ve just soaked 1 nuk and pigeon Y and M bottle teats in hot water, hoping it’ll be softer. Will try to feed her from the bottle again either later in the day or tomorrow.

Let’s hope things will work out fine because we’ll be in really big big trouble if she still refuses the bottle when I get back to work.

Two of my friends popped by today to say hello to Yee Sinn. Unfortunately, she was a bit grouchy because she just dozed off to sleep. However, she was all smiley again during the evening and I managed to catch her smile on camera.

Anniversary

It was our wedding anniversary yesterday. How time flies... Hubby and I have been married for 3 years. Are we still lovely dovey? Not so much these days but I would say that things only get better as we have learnt to grow together.

Because if our little princess, we had to keep our plan for the day simple. (seems like Yee Sinn has became our boss!) We went to the Asian Civilization Museum for the Nalanda exhibition. The exhibition highlighted some significant landmarks in Buddhist history and the spread of Buddhism at centres of higher learning such as Nalanda in eastern India, which was visited by many students in ancient time.

Must compliment the National Heritage Board for bringing them in. The layouts and the write-ups were quite impressive too. However, wished they had incorporated brighter lights at some parts of the exhibits cos they were a bit too dim for viewing. Guess they were just trying to protect the exhibits from too much light exposure.

We headed down to Orchard to check out the Isetan Private Sale soon after. We were not member but we managed to get in anyway. All we did was to join the queue and told the guards “We’re with them” while pointing to no one particular infront. Hee Hee. We didn’t purchase anything at all. Just looked around and check out the prices for some kids’ stuff before we had a simple dinner at Tonkichi.

Am looking forward to my 10th year wedding anniversary. No doubt about it!

Jaundice again.....

It was such a relief when Dr Heng’s clinic called yesterday evening to inform us that Yee Sinn’s Jaundice is due to breastmilk and not poor liver function. Breastmilk Jaundice is harmless and I was encouraged to continue nursing her as long as I can.

I became a Panda today due to the lack of sleep last night. Yee Sinn was down with fever because of her vaccination. We had to dunk her in a tub of tap water after we failed to bring her fever down by sponging. Haiz… she wailed herself crazy when we stripped her down. After getting used to the water temperature, she had gave those pitiful “eh eh eh” cry while in the tub. It almost brought tears to my eyes seeing baby suffering.

She is much better today though she slept quite a bit in the morning after her usual bath. Guess it must be the cool rainy weather. Mummy will be going to la-la land soon for a nap too. Zzzz....

Vaccination

Today is the beginning of the 1 week March vacation. Hubby didn’t have to go to school so we brought Yee Sinn for her 6 in 1 jab today. She was a brave girl because she not only took the 6 in 1 injection, she took the vaccination for Rotravirus and Pneumococcal as well. Dr Heng also notice that baby still has a yellow tinge on her face so she ordered some blood test to make sure her liver is functioning well. Results will only be out either this evening or tomorrow and we’re all hoping all will be fine.

She was poked so many times today and cried herself hoarse. Guess Dr Heng will be on her number one hate list.

Sleep

It is always a beautiful moment when a crying baby is pacified and sleeps in your arm as a result. It means that she trusts you and feels secured.

Yee Sinn has picked up a bad habit of needing to be carried while going to sleep. We wished she would be able to sleep on her own when we put her down. We have tried putting her down when she’s in a drowsy state or patting her while lying next to her in a mattress once she has her first yawn. Unfortunately, she still cries and wants to be carried to slumber-land. Sometimes her cries are soft whimpers, sometimes they are loud screams. Guess I’ll just have to be more patient with her while putting her to bed. After all, she is just a baby and crying is her only form of communication.

I enjoy the early mornings most….around 7am. Because it is when Yee Sinn and I will snuggle up together under the blanket for 1.5 hours before she gets up to poop at 8. Sometime she’ll have her tummyaches. When this happens, she’ll be lying on her tummy on my chest and the compression will make her feel better.

Trip to Grandma's House

Yee Sinn is already 5 weeks old and weighs about 4.6kg. After some considerations, hubby and I decided to take her to my mother’s place today for a short visit today. While going there, we put her in the Baby Rock Sling and she seemed to like it. Guess it kind of reminded her of her time in mummy’s womb – all squashed up but felt close and secured.

All at home were pretty excited with Yee Sinn’s going over. Her Ah Yi surprising woke up a little earlier to welcome her. She also took tons of pictures of her niece. Grandma and Grandpa Chang all had a fun time with her during her wakefulness as well.

Yee Sinn adapted quite well to the new environment. It was also because we timed our outing to her EASY schedule so it made traveling and having lunch together more pleasant. We planned the trip in such a way that she was sleeping while we traveled to Grandma Chang’s house. When we reached there, it was just in time for her next feed. After satisfying her hunger, she played with the folks. The adults can get quite silly doing stuffs to amuse the baby. It was soon after that she fell asleep on a mattress in the living room after her play so that mummy and daddy could have their lunch in peace.

We're all looking forward to the next trip out together.