At work and At home

All the posts about Ashlynn ain't about any complains from my heart, it's just another sharing moment. I love her more than words can say.. she's our greatest gift ever!

Well, being a mother is not as simple as you think. Playing with baby is really fun, but when it comes to handling baby, you really need to be patient. Especially handling a crying baby, sometimes you are just blank and do not know why they cry. At times I feel so helpless because I already try my best to pacify her, but she still cries which I do not know why and sometimes I felt lousy for not being able to provide her with all that she needs. People used to say, baby cry because of these few reasons : Wet diaper, hungry, tummy ache, wind... all these. But lately, I discovered that my baby cried when she's lack of attention. LOL. Example, when we leave her alone in the room and we are out at dining hall for dinner, after few minutes she will start to cry. The moment we step into the room, she stop crying. Haha... my cutie pie.

Juggling between work and bfeeding is not easy. It can be super tired at days but I still do not want to give up on bfeeding because I know that her body needs a lottttt of antibodies. It can be really heartbreaking when she falls sick, so to avoid all these, I hang on!

And here's my daily schedule. (Oh yeah, thank God that now I started to work early shift, which is 7am-4.30pm and I can pick A up earlier and spend more time with her!) *hugs*

12-1am
The last feed before A dozes off until the morning, 5/6/7am.. depending on how fast her stomach digests the milk. =D

5am
Wake up when A wakes up. If she didn't then I will not be awake until my alarm at 6am. Hehe.. More than thankful for such a sleeping beauty, at 2 mths old, she sleeps through the night. Am just amazed at her... thank you A!! If she's awake at 5, then I will feed her and pump out the remainder. She dozes off very quickly without finishing her usual 5oz. I know 5oz is a lot for a 2 mth old, but I was told by her PD to feed on demand.. =)

6am
Finished pumping and get ready for work. Wash all the equipments and sterilize. Prepare all the EBM and put in the cooler bag. Take out some frozen meat/fish to cook for dinner. Send A to babysitter and waved goodbye to her with a heavy heart. She will stare at me as I slowly walk towards the door as if she's telling me don't go. =( So sorry girl, mommy has to work.

7am
Arrived office. If I didnt pump earlier in the morning, I quickly settle some work and then off to the room to pump. Wash equipments, but no sterilizer in office so I just rinse with hot water.

11am
Another session of pumping, washing and rinsing.

3pm
Another session of pumping, washing and rinsing.

4.15pm
Started to prepare to go home, pack all the milk and complete my final work before I prepare to Logoff. =))

5pm
Arrived at babysitter's house and so happy to see A!!

5.30pm
Home sweet home and quickly bath. Ensure that A is on her playing time and then prepare dinner while Justin takes over the babysitting. Sterilize the pump and storage.

7.30pm
Finished cooking (very simple meal like soup only). Haha... start another pumping session.

8.30pm
Started to pacify her to take a short nap and when she dozes off, we have our dinner. Sometimes the pacifying can delay up to 9 something.

10pm
Usually she wakes up at this time and she have her playtime.

11pm
Her last feed of the day before she dozes off until morning. And my last pump before I doze off. Sometimes I'm too tired that I take a short nap, as short as 15 mins.. better than I doze off while pumping. I wish there's pump that also works when we lie down. Can sleep while pumping. ;p

Goodnight world!! =))

Here's the journal of my days.... basically my sleep cuts down from 8 hours a day to 4-5 hours. I wish for more hours in a day because the night time that I spend with A is too short. When A starts her school, I wonder where to get the time to teach her in her homeworks. Only weekends? =( Well, when you come to think of having a baby, am sure the one thing that you can think of is "sleepless night". But all I can say is the sleepless night is worth it! I wouldn't want to trade my baby with sleep, I would rather having my baby with me than having a nice 8 hours of sleep! =)

Ashlynn at Babysitter!

Maternity leaves ended extremely fast and with just a blink of eyes, I'm back to work again. How time flies.... Started my first day of work on 1 Dec, and I really really miss A when I was in office. Her daddy took care of her for the whole day and I told Justin to on his webcam. At least I still get to see her when in office to kill some of the miss feelings. Hehe.. Just couldn't concentrate on work and the whole day, what I did was check all my emails. Lots of updates here and there and looking at those updates, made me even more lazy. So, the first day of work ended with checking of mails. =D

We officially sent A to babysitter on 5 Dec. A is still new with the environment and not used to the new change, she came home crying non-stop and we tried so many methods to pacify her, but all in vain. We managed to calm her and try to put her to sleep, but the moment we started to let go our hands and put her on bed, she started screaming again... sigh. This carried on until about 11pm, when she was tired out of crying and we fed her some milk and then off she sleeps, until morning 5am. She woke up with a big smile and this smile made me feel bad, because few minutes later I will be sending her off to babysitter's house again. =(

On the 6 Dec, she came home crying again ... 7 Dec, came home crying again... and fall asleep after crying for hours and we were so drained out by carrying and pacifying her for the whole night. We actually had to wait for her to fall half asleep, then only feed her milk. Otherwise she will scream when we try to change the carrying position so that we can feed her milk. Until there was a time whereby Justin had to feed her while standing. LOL.... Ashlynn oh Ashlynn...... We felt so sorry for her because of the sudden change of environment and pray hard that she will get out of it quickly.

On 8 Dec, the situation got better and both A and the babysitter were able to understand each other well and thank God, A came home with a smile. Like her usual self, happy, active and lively. I really miss her Aak-aak-aak and her shadowless kicks for so many days and finally, she was back to herself again on Thursday night. Phewwww.... finally the babysitter understands her patterns and able to go along with her sleeping and drinking routines.

Finally on 9 Dec, Friday... she was a charm! As if she knows the next day is Saturday and she does not has to go to the babysitter's house... lol. She came home smiling and enjoyed her time playing with us... thank God for this!

On 11 Dec, Sunday night.. .somehow she knew that the next day is working day and she didn't want to sleep!! Usually she will doze off about 11pm-12am.. but yesterday night, she was tired but still wanted to stay awake and playing with us with her kicks, her smiles, her babytalk... finally at 1am, we decided to just put her on her cot, close the mosquitoes net and off the lights!! We spy her in the dark and noticed that she still carried on with her kicks and babytalk and aak-aak a few times.. we ignored it and after 5mins, silent! Finally, she was asleep!! Lol... such a cutie pie ..... She's smart, isn't she? She's tired but wanted to play with us as much as possible because the next day is Monday. Awwww, typing this makes me miss her even more! Our precious ...... Hopefully she's already used to the new routine and can't wait to see her big smile later!! =)))

How's motherhood treating me?

Whooopeee.. I've been away from blogging for a reallllll long time. And my last post was in Sept, the month that I was preparing for birth! Thank God everything went well, I have good and understanding boss which I started to work from home when I was 8 months pregnant. Baby decided to come out one day earlier from due date and she gave us a very hearty lung cry when she was out. Love her more than words can say.... our pretty sunshine!

So, how's motherhood has been treating me since 28 Sept? Life has really changed and I can say everything changed 360 degrees. From a totally all-time free wife to a super busy wife, from a couple that always do things together to a standalone-couple, from having meals together to having meals alone a.k.a taking turns to eat, from having more than 10 hours of sleep a day to only 4-5 hours of sleep... etc. many more changes but two words to describe all these, IT'S FUN! A new chapter in life.. a higher level in life after marriage. Everything is good and where would we be if it's not because of GRACE! We would want to ask for more EXTRAORDINARY GRACE!

Here's the story after birth, 28 Sept 2011. We checkout from SDMC on 29 Sept 11 and our confinement lady arrived on this day. We've not seen her personally, talk to her personally and really hope she will be a great blessing to us during confinement but things didn't go the way that we expected it to be. Her cooking was pretty good, very nice and appetizing food but some of the food I doubted if it was OK during confinement, like spicy curry. =.="" Talk about handling baby, at 2 days old, she started to feed my baby with water chestnut juice which is absolutely No-No to a newborn. Newborn should only consume MILK, milk only. Sigh...

Few days later, she almost injured my baby's legs because of hot water! She carried my baby and made milk at the same time. My baby screamed when she accidentally spill some drops of hot water on my baby's legs. I asked her whether she accidentally spill some hot water and she said no, only the hot bottle touched her legs. Sigh.. I saw it with my own eyes.

Then, we found out that the red dates that used to make drink for me had worm living in it!! Worrmmmmm......... Problem is how can a person keep a refrigerated food outside in room temperature for days?? She transferred the red dates from fridge and keep in room temperature until one day, I got a hunch that I should check the red dates. Voila, I found worms!! =(

And there was one night that Ashlynn cried non-stop, so she thought Ashlynn was having a bloated tummy. She suggested to stick a black pill (the pill that is used to remove air, eaten by mommy during confinement) on her belly button and she said that can help to remove the air from the stomach. I was like =.="" in my heart, I laughed.. but in front of her, I just "ohh, really can help ar?" Haha.. So funny.

Well, there were really a lot a lot a lot of stories when she took care of Ashlynn for the whole month... Sort of a nightmare for us and for the next baby, we would not want any confinement lady. We will settle everything on our own.. and hopefully my mom would be able to help. Hehe...

Let's talk about Ashlynn's development since day 1. She was quite yellow few days after discharged and on the 3rd day, her Bilirubin level was only 291. Few days later, she was so lethargic, slept most of the time and didn't want to get up for milk. We knew the jaundice was not getting better and we brought her to hospital and we got shocked when her jaundice level was above the border line which is 421!! We got her admitted for 2 nights and phototherapy in Gleneagles was super expensive which cost us RM2k, a huge bomb for us. Almost 3/4 of my delivery bill. Still a bit yellow when she was discharged.

Few days later after she was discharged, she had terrible phlegm and got very fussy and didn't want to drink milk. Confinement lady said she had difficulty in swallowing milk due to the phlegm and we were quite panic with this. Again, first time parents. There we were, rushed to the hospital again and at Gleneagles, the doc on call, not PD did not even care of her phlegm, but said that Ashlynn was jaundice. Very yellow she said. I couldn't agree more because the phototherapy few days ago didn't seem to be helpful. So, she decided to do blood test and get Ashlynn admitted. Taking blood test in Gleneagles was a NIGHTMARE! Ashlynn screamed + cried for 30 mins!!!!!!!!!!!!!! @#$~@!!

Here was the process how they take blood for baby!
1) 2 nurses + on call Dr in the room, parents are not allowed to go in and can only hear baby's scream from the outside.
2) Dr pricked on the hand, but couldn't find the vein, claimed that baby's vein very fine, cannot see... =.=""""""
3) So, pricked on the feet and slowly squeeze out the blood from baby's feet and collect it drop by drop in a tube!!!!
4) Conclusion, Ashlynn had a real nightmare that night and she cried and wet the whole diapers with poo!! Can you imagine how afraid she was until the whole diaper was poo............... At the end of everything, the nurse told me Ashlynn poo. In my heart, she poo not because she wanted to poo, but she was too terrified until she poo.
5) I checked with the Dr and she said that was how Gleneagles take blood from babies. I wish they could be like a leech, to suck out the blood instead of slowly squeeze drop by drop.
6) The next day, I checked with the PD and he said the same thing as well. And now I know why he didn't encourage to take blood test from babies because of the method they are using.
7) I told Justin I will never everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr go back to Gleneagles, if it's not emergency!! At least SDMC gave me a peace of mind, Ashlynn only cried 1min when blood was taken from her and they didn't squeeze her feet, but some stick to suck out the blood. Ain't this much more better... so, say NO-NO to Gleneagles!

Since then, I've never gone back to Gleneagles, even for the monthly checkup. I would rather travel all the way to Subang for Dr Sanjay which we are really satisfied with. He's such a good PD! Thumbs up!

Jaundice issue was finally settled after the 4th phototherapy at Gleneagles and that 2 nights of admission cost us another 2k. Total bill, 4k for jaundice treatment.. which is killing price! SDMC would be much cheaper... =.=

Later on, we went back to Swan and then brought baby back to KL again on 13 Nov. On the 21 Nov, we noticed that Ashlynn was coughing badly again with very bad phlegm... Drink milk- cough, sleep-cough, playtime-cough.. We were quite worried since cough was getting worst on Tues which caused her to vomit after milk. It was scary ! Wed morning, we brought her to PD Clinic at Genting Klang and it was another regret to brought her there. Asked the Dr a lot of questions, he answered but somehow we didn't feel satisfied at all with those answers, like not really answering our questions. He gave phlegm and cough medicine, we tried giving Ashlynn the cough med, but she didn't like the taste so she puked everything out. Sigh..... and the cough getting worst and worst that everyday, she vomited at least once. Until Thurs night (24 Sept), she vomited a lotttttttt on me, and screamed + struggled and after everything, suddenly she stopped struggling and became still and silent!! I thought she fainted and quickly checked on her heartbeat. Thank God she was still breathing and didn't turn blue. I got panicked and quickly call Justin to drive back asap, he was having dinner in TTDI and after receiving the call, he drove 160km/j and reached WM in 10 mins only!! Wowww..... I didn't know he will reach that fast, I called up some of my WM friends to help me fetch Ashlynn to hospital since I didn't have my car with me at that time... I was extremely terrified!

Finally, Justin arrived and we drove all the way to SDMC. Remember, I won't let my daughter suffer the blood taking process in Gleneagles. We would rather travel since Ashlynn is sleeping after all the incident.... The night itself, Ashlynn got admitted because of her chesty lungs and difficulty in breathing and kept coughing. This was the longest stay in hospital .. and no oral medication was provided because 2 mths old baby is too young to take medications. Suspected Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the treatment is Nebulizer every 4 hours to dissolve the phlegm, nose drops for the blocked nose and suction to suck out some of the stubborn waste in the nose and phlegm on the last 2 days, 2 times a day. The suction was the most traumatic treatment and I actually cried when she screamed. Sometimes I tried to delay the nurse not to perform the suction, saying that my baby was doing quite well, she has improved. My poor baby.... =((( She was discharged on 28 Sept, exactly her 2 mths birthday. Went back home still with the cough, but better... and looking at her cough non-stop, we decided to try on chinese medicine. Bought the hou zhao san and surprisingly, after 3 days on chinese medication, her cough+ phlegm totally stopped! Initially I didn't quite trust chinese medicine, didn't want to get involved in Chinese medication because we do not know what are the ingredients .. but this whole situation changed my perception. Some chinese medicines are still good and more effective.

Oh well, that was the whole 2 months ride!! Lots of ups and downs and a lot a lot a lot of things to learn as a new parents.... God, give us more of your wisdom and knowledge! =))) In everything, we truly thank God that in times when we feel so helpless, He's there to lift us up. We can put our trust and hope in Him and He will not disappoint us. Psalm 121 says, my help comes from the Lord! Surely mercy and goodness will follow me and my family all the days of our lives! God is good.... so blessed to have Ashlynn added in this family and so blessed and thankful that we can call ourselves daddy and mommy! Be blessed everyone and look forward to His extraordinary grace! =)

Pepper Lunch @ Pavilion KL

Everytime when we walked pass this restaurant, we always ask and wonder if this restaurant is good. Finally, got to try it when my bro was down in KL and this was a free meal for us since he got to claim from his company! Good... hehe.

One of my colleagues used to say, why pay for food that you have to cook on your own? Haha.. but steamboat is the same as well. A lot of effort needed.

Salmon Carbonara.

Spaghetti Bolognese with sausage.

Salmon and Chicken

Mashed potato - Tastes just like the one in the maggi cup at TGV. :P Worth or not worth?

If you would like to have a set of drink + mashed potato/ice cream, then top up RM4.80.

Well, the food here does not suit our taste buds and I still prefer the one cooked by Justin! =D

Pandan Butter Cake

I saw this recipe again from my favorite home-cooked blogger "Nasi Lemak Lover" and decided to make it a try at home. A very concentrated pandan butter cake. Here's the link to her website Pandan Butter Cake

Can't believe that the taste is just so awesome... and yes, this color is originally from the concentrated pandan juice, and no extra coloring added! It's pure!

Here's the recipe!

Pandan Butter Cake

250g butter
160g sugar
4 eggs
250g cake flour
2tsp of double action baking powder
6tbsp homemade pandan paste (concentrated pandan juice)

1. Sift cake flour and baking powder in a bowl, set aside
2. Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Add in egg one at a time, mixing well.
4. Fold in flour and pandan paste, combine well.
5. Pour cake mixture into cake tin.
7. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180C for 60mins or skewer came out clean.

To make concentrated pandan juice, blend as much pandan leaves as possible and refrigerate for few days until there's a layer of concentrated pandan juice at the bottom, which looks a lot like "algae". Hehe... And use that part for the very green look of your cake! =) Happy Baking!!

Chocolate Chips Pancake

It was raining heavily outside and thanks to my instinct that I applied half day leave today. Otherwise I could have stucked in a 2 hours horrible horrendous jam! I had a good afternoon nap and then, woke up to find that I'm hungry! Hehehe.... I don't have any biscuits/bread at home and wondering what will be the easiest to cook snack for tea time. Look around in my favorite food bloggers and I found this! Chocolate Chips pancake sounds interesting and it does not need much ingredients/preparations. I have all of the required ingredients in my fridge.. so voila!!

This pancake is just so delicious.... I would want to try pandan/strawberry pancake the next round!

Here's the perfect recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover! Check out her blog and you will be salivaling. Kekeke...

Pancake Ingredients:
150g Self raising flour
60g Sugar (I reduced to 30g, still tasty)
1/4 tsp salt
110ml Fresh milk
2 egg yolks (Large)
2 egg whites (Large), lightly whisk
1 and ½ tbsp Corn oil
70g chocolate chips

Pancake Method:1. Mix flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in egg yolks, milk and corn oil, use a hand whisk to stir well.
3. Add in egg white and stir to combine, then add in chocolate chips, lightly mix well.
4. Spoon batter onto a non-stick pan (without oil) to pan fry until golden brown on both sides

Delicious @ 1Utama

Since 1U is no longer 5 mins drive from our home, we only have the so-called-good-food once in a blue moon when we are out and about and so many food-wish-list in mind. So on that day of out and about, we decided to step in to Delicious for pasta! We both love western food because Mon-Fri are loaded with Asian food at home... so SAY NO to Asian food in the weekend. Hehe...

Carbonara Spaghettini with Wild Mushrooms, Beef Bacon, Oregano and Cream (RM23.90)
Thumbs up!!!

Napolicious a creamy tomato based spaghettini with beef bacon (RM18.90) Quite unique as well but I still prefer carbonara. =D

Checkout the dining at Delicious - Bangsar Village II