He Is Here

Baby Theodore Wei made his entrance on 21 March 2010. I remember it was about 3:30am when I realised that the waterbag has burst, together with "show". At that time, Mr Gui just returned from his late night work and was showering. We couldn't quite believe it, as the EDD was supposed to be early April. He was laughing "This is it!", whereas I went "Goodness, I still want two more weeks of quiet time!"

Truth was we were not quite prepared. Mr Gui nagged me to finish packing the hospital bag, and I completed it only on the 20th - phew, just in time. Our nanny from Indonesia wasn't due to arrive till March 26th.

To-date, Theodore is eight days old. Yes, I am blogging, which means slowly I am getting back to a slightly more normal schedule now. The first day home with Theodore was crazy. Gui and I had no sleep. Theodore either wanted to drink milk or be cuddled, which was normal. The only time I managed to catch an hour was when he fell asleep on my stomach. Second night, we decided to engage a nurse to handle the night duty. She would wake me up at 3am and 6am for his milk feeding. Third night on, I started to pump milk into bottles so that the nurse could feed in the night. Thats how I managed to regain a little bit more of "me" time. Despite the challenges and serious lack of sleep and help, Gui and I are grateful as we learned a lot from the nurse before Sumini arrives.

It has been an amazing experience. I never knew I could feel so much love. Looking at Theodore when I feed him, I feel that I am the most fortunate lady in the world. Seeing how Mr Gui stepped up to organise the situations, and buy baby items and an electric pump last minute by himself made me felt even more L-O-V-E...

Let the love roll!...and I shall now head to the prayer room for my first prayer session since home, and thank Buddha for the easy and quick delivery (about 5hrs); and my lovely boy.

The Busy Buzz
Originally uploaded by sparkleneely

Countdown Checklist to Welcoming Baby G

Well, well, it has been busy weekends..been tired, been weak, been weary. The exhaustion was not solely from Baby G, it was also from the meet-up of friends from overseas (my pleasure!) and David's one year old party. The warm humid weather is not helping either.

At least we are at the stage of rounding up preparations. The happy thing is Baby G has been good. He is now well-positioned and engaged, and facing the back of my spine. Good boy (for a start)!

On Friday, I went to the Takashimaya Baby Fair, and bought diapers and David's one year old present. There are a lot of educational toys in the market. So far, David has only received entertaining toys with loud music and noise, so I thought, hmm its time for brain, eyes stiumulating toys for a one-year-old.

Yesterday evening, I went to the supermarket to purchase more diapers, and a small tin of milk powder. Whoa, a small tin of milk powder costs many times of that of a large tin of milo.

Today is Sunday, we are heading to Dome for a western meal with my in-laws. I know whats going to be when I return home. I need to manage the shopping bags that have been on the floor.

In addition to that, I need to look through the documents received during the pre-admission to Gleneagles, read up on the usage of the breast pump, read up on the usage of the baby laundry detergent and softener. Quite a shame, but all these would be so new to me.

With that said, I am sure Gui and I would be able to handle. Tomorrow we have to go the to airport with the In-Principal Approval document to pick Sumini up. Oh yes, I need to learn how to manage a nanny/ helper. Did someone say, the only constant is change?

Tools and Tips for Handling Helpers?














Having a helper solves certain tasks, but it can also create a load of other problems, from language miscommunication to trying to monitor if the best cut of squid, fish or beef went into their stomach. I know this might make me sound like a miser, but it wouldn't be that funny if you knew that your cod or salmon fish became your helper's meals.

Well luckily for our household, we don't really have that problem at the moment. Mother-in-law is very experienced with managing helpers. Yes, there was once where Dahlia ate one of the expensive fish to herself. MIL explained to her that this is costly, and I guess she wouldn't help herself so freely in future. We are soon going to have two helpers in the household, so having rules would help us manage the living costs better. Yes, the government is raising the foreign worker levy! Thanks for nothing!

Today, Gui and I sorted out the baby room. Took out the steriliser and bottle warmer equipment (okay need to learn how to operate this), sorted out all clothings and beddings that would need to be washed by the baby laundry detergent, placed the nappy liners, baby nail clippers appropriately, set up the playpen in our bedroom, set up the bathtub area etc. Sumini will be arriving in the middle of March to help wash and clean all the baby stuff. She is one lucky helper who is going to have a really cosy, well-decorated and air-conditioned room to work in. I think she deserves it though. She is intelligent, put others before herself, and more importantly she has experience taking care of babies. Apparently she has done such a great job that most children end up crying when Sumini has to leave...I don't really want that situation, but I will really need her help when I return to work. I will try as much as possible to take care of our baby myself.

I don't know what I have against Dahlia though. I always seem to think that she doesn't have the intelligence to help manage a household, I doubt her reasoning ability, I think she is lazy when it comes to cooking (but really she has improved since day one). As my MIL always say, if they are so intelligent, they wouldn't be your helper - which is true. Green Tara emphasizes on the attainment of six perfections of giving, ethics, patience, effort, meditative stabilisation and wisdom, and bright with her every compassionate care for all. Somehow I can't help but feel that Dahlia is somehow sent here to be in our household so that I would be tested and pushed to develop compassionate care for all...

Celebrations & Celebrations

January and February are two busy months of celebrating birthdays. First, it was my brother, then my father-in-law, and then Por Por, and then my Daddy. That concludes January. In February, apart from Lunar New Year and Valentine's, we also celebrated Mum-in-law's birthday last Friday at M's house. We had wagyu, foie gras, champagne and yu-sheng as well. Of course I was denied the champagne, but foie gras - there was no way I was going to watch all of them eat it in front of me, so I decided to have a yum yum yum piece...

To think that I have stayed away (apart from stealing a mouth or two from Gui) from sashimi, foie gras, caffeinated drinks and alcohol for eight months.. guess it will all resume pretty soon, although it felt like a small achievement to be able to have no attachment to the daily coffee I used to survive on!