The Doctor is In...

It's a.....

2010-05-10T10:17:00.002+01:00

GIRL!!! :) found out last Thursday, the same day the whole of Britain went to vote... and we still don't know who's moving into No. 10... duh.

But onto more exciting news - yes, it's a girl... I knew it was a girl from the moment we found out we were pregnant (same as when we were preg with G I knew we were having a boy)... so it's great to know that at least my instincts are in tuned!

The radiographer was 98% sure - that's good enough for me!

Everything was perfectly formed - the 10 fingers (counted them), arms, legs, the heart, the cerebellum (it apparently looks like dumb-bells...hm), the spine, spacing between the eyes, the lip (no cleft lip - thankfully), the nose...

And this time round my cravings/diet's been quite different too - drinking more milk and eating more 'cream sauce' based foods; more asian-y food (cooked Mee Siam, Mee Rebus?!?!)... and not much into chocs and cakes!! this girl is putting me on a diet already!!

Pam x

What is an enrichment class?

2010-04-26T14:26:00.002+01:00

So, I was having a chat with a Singaporean girlfriend who's been in the UK as long as I've been and is actually heading back to Singapore for an initial 6 months whilst her British husband's working out there. She's had to frantically locate some nurseries/playschools for her 4 year old and her 2 year old.

She reports that it's really quite expensive (even though we complain enough over here in the UK that for fulltime nursery daycare, it costs us nearly £800/month), she's going to be paying something like S$1500/10 weeks (£600-700/10 weeks?) for 3 hours of care per week. That's ALOT of money, given that that's only for 3 hours of daycare!!! hm. And apparently, if she wanted 'enrichment' classes, she'll have to pay extra. Apparently enrichment = art/music/singing/dance classes.

My question: Why is it that such classes are deemed 'enrichment'? Why aren't they part and parcel of the early-years curriculum? We're talking about a 2 year old and a 4 year old for goodness sakes. We're not talking about having to deprieve a school going child of his math classes just so that he can do a bit of drummming, or a bit of painting!!! Shouldn't this be offered anyway? not necessarily every day, or even every week but surely they could do it??

At G's nursery, he comes home with a report sheet everyday. Apart from recording his poos and wees, his naps and what he's eaten, we also get a record of what he's done. They tend to include singing, painting (they were making some collages, painting the hungry caterpillar), 'investigative' work (they found a spider and looked at it under the magnifying class, outdoor play, dancing, home economics (he makes his own puddings of biscuits, banana-choco, fairy cakes - yes, he helps to measure out the ingredients).... and so on. It's exhaustive! and that's NORMAL curriculum.

hmm.

MoE boo boo

2010-04-26T14:17:00.003+01:00

I haven't decided if I should be gracious and accept that large organisations (even bureaucratic, 'well-run', 'cannot fail' types like the Ministry of Education in Singapore can make mistakes, or I should be cynical and suggest that the only reason they've apologised is because they've been 'caught out' (opps!). In this big bad world of the world wide web, one can no longer hide... for long!!!

The background: There's a conference for teachers happening in Sept 2010 organised in Singapore. They've invited one of the best teachers of the year from America and then within a week, retracted the invite coz she's 'deaf'. right, you read right. She's deaf. They've since said that the reason why the misunderstanding arose was because they thought she'd need interpreters (and well, Singaporean Deaf people can't act as interpreters???!! we don't have sign language experts??), and because they thought she only taught Primary School kids (and are primary school kids that unimportant that even if she did only teach such children, the fact that she's been nominated 'teacher of the year' is surely something to shout about and surely she's got tips and ideas to pass on and share?!?!?!).

In my opinion, what a load of Bull.
px

Dear Pamela

I refer to your email to Minister. Thank you for your feedback.

The withdrawal of our invitation to Ms Susan Elliot was a mistake on our part. It arose from our misunderstanding about the need for interpreters and her professional experience. The chairman of the Organising Committee has since contacted Ms Elliot and spoken to her personally to convey our sincere apologies. We should have clarified these matters before making the decision. Ms Elliot has accepted our apology and the Organising Committee is delighted that she will participate at the Teachers' Conference in September. We look forward to her contributions in making the Conference a success.

Ms Sucillia Sukiman
Secretary
Teachers' Conference 2010 Organising Committee
Ministry of Education • 51 Grange Road • Singapore 249564 • http://www.moe.gov.sg
Integrity the Foundation • People our Focus • Learning our Passion • Excellence our Pursuit

Dear Minister
I read with fascination and horror about the going ons of the Ministry of Education - and I must say, if any of this is even remotely true, then I am most disappointed in the decision that your ministry has chosen to take.

You may wish to have a look at this blog and perhaps correct me if this is completely misdirected and 'miscommunicated'.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_of_the_year/2010/04/singapores_city_upon_a_hill.html

I await your reply, with interest.

Best wishes

Pamela Yeow Ph.D

heartbeat...

2010-04-07T10:09:00.002+01:00

dum dum dum... I heard it for the first time yesterday (6th April 2010). I had my 16 week check at the midwife's at the doctor's surgery and I asked if we could try and locate a heart beat. And she found it almost immediately - which was reassuring to say the least!! :)

seeing that I've not really been paying much attention to the food intake (or rather, the type of food intake), I'm relieved that baby's still doing well in there (or I hope it is!).

onwards and upwards to the next scan, 6th May!
Pam x

BOB #2

2010-04-01T12:47:00.003+01:00

so... baby #2 is on board!! :)

it's now week 15 (or 16 depending on whether we're counting based on scans, or based on period dates) and ETA is 16 or 22nd September 2010 which puts it as a Virgo-ean Tiger.

We've had pretty amazing scans and the blood test results are:
Trisomy21 (down's syndrome) is 1:5242
Trisomy13+18 is 1:43421
which is quite a relief since this is 2.5 years on from the time we had G. The nuchal fold measurement was also 1mm, which is great (G was 1.2mm).

Haven't really had the time to pay any attention to what I should or shouldn't eat this time round - which isn't great but there just isn't enough time in a day to work full time, have a toddler son, do housework (cook, clean and everything), let alone rub moisturisers into my belly (well endeavour to do that though!), on top of weekend stuff like swim classes, birthday parties to attend, food shopping to get in, and etcetc.

Next midwife's app is next tuesday 6th April when we'll hopefully be able to hear the heartbeat. And my next scan is 6th May which will put us smack in the middle of the pregnancy.

Pam xx

It's NOT about you....

2010-03-23T17:21:00.002Z

it's the message damn it !
ahhh... just had this really stupid conversation with a secretary who seems to think that I was trying to get at her (was not). I rang her about an email that she had sent (to everyone). I thought it was a really silly message (not from her - she's the messenger) and I didn't think that it was a necessary problem. But...when I spoke to her, she kept reacting as if I was getting at her (Pam, if you're unhappy with the way I run these evaluation forms then please talk to X)... erm, no I'm not unhappy with the way you run these evaluation forms. I'm confused as to why there are new rules claiming to be standard rules which erm, we've not known about since I joined here 6 years ago!!!

And so I wrote her an 'apology' email saying that I really wasn't getting at her, and in the meantime, got an email from her line manager telling me why this was the rule (again, I didn't know there was such a rule).

what's wrong with these people...? It's not even a personal thing - she's bloody sensitive, overly I'd say!! these people really have nothing else to think about... grrrr, makes my blood boil.

Happy 2nd Birthday G!:)

2010-02-26T20:47:00.002Z

so I'm abit late with this post - it's just been so hectic!! But we reached another milestone in our lives and G turned two on 18th of February 2010. Happy Birthday my dear son!!! :)

Celebrations started on the actual day itself with the nursery having a birthday cake and he celebrated it with all his little friends at the nursery. This time round he was much more aware that it was his special day and he absolutely enjoyed it - he also celebrated it in his bigger toddler's room - Snowdrops. It's amazing that he's been through 3 rooms (out of 4) at the nursery... he has definitely grown (and time has flown past and mummy has aged considerably!).

I was in attendance and I may post some photos here if I have the time - they are still on my phone!

Then we went home and at 6pm, went out to the train station to pick up his Aunty J who'd come all the way from Manchester!! We went out for a birthday celebration at our neighbourhood pub restaurant with our close friends C and N and daddy joined us about an hour later.

We had a lovely meal and G had ice cream as part of his celebrations with a little candle!

On Saturday, we held his birthday party at Snappy's and his grandparents from up north came down - and together with 8 of his mates, had a big blast! He received many presents and it took him till the following Wednesday to finally open them all.

That evening we went out with the grandparents to dinner at the Whitstable Oyster Company where I had half a lobster and potato salad which was absolutely divine and everyone else (including G!) had fish and chips (which was yummys too!).

The next day the grandparents went home, and we went to see Thomas the tank engine at Tenterden - it was raining really heavily but G had an absolutely brilliant day out with Euan, and his parents (and his Aunty J of course) riding Thomas and all the trains that were in attendance. We came home frozen but it was great day out.

Monday - back to work.... hm.

Pam x

The twelve days of christmas...

2009-12-24T15:32:00.003Z

what really happened.... http://www.kraftmstr.com/christmas/humor/12days-h.html

it's really funny.

It's Christmas Eve! Time's flown past... we're waiting for my cousin Jill and Tom to arrive, and G's having his nap. It's quiet and peaceful. Dan's made the turkey gravy (yums!) courtesy of a Jamie Oliver recipe, and he's also just made the Jamie Oliver Killer Chocolate Mousse so it'll be a yummy christmas.

Just weighed G last night after a long time not weighing him because the weighing machine's battery died, and he's 12.7kg..which equates to him being somewhere between the 50-75 percentile - excellent stuff. Now we need to measure his height and I'll be happy. It sounds like he's putting on more weight now (he was always hovering around the 50%ile or just below), which is not surprising since he's been eating quite a lot recently (whether that's a growth spurt or whatever...I don't know).

He's taken to eating Olives whole (!?) and spicy food too. he's even had wasabi peas! I think we're pretty blessed to have a toddler who seems to like his food.

Happy Christmas!!

p x

working from home...

2009-11-19T10:40:00.002Z

today.

It's such a lovely thing to do - don't get me wrong; we still work up at the same time, George still went to nursery at the same time - but the joy of not having to go into work is unbelievably sweet. After dropping the little one off, I went off to the supermarket and did some food shopping, nappy shopping. got home, unpacked the stuff, went and did some washing, and then started to work.

Attacked the emails first, replied to those that I had to, sent out emails to those that needed some attention. Then sat down and decided to blog - ahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... no really.

I figured I've done alot of overtime lately. Was in London last thursday for an MBA gala evening which resulted in me coming home at 1am (and G not being too impressed given that he cried his face off, threw up and then cried himself to sleep - first time in a very long time). And also working every saturday in the last few weeks. So I think I can take 10 minutes off to blog.

Work's been quite hectic - as usual. Just finished a week of intensive MBA teaching which went really well - we'd revamped things, so it was more fun - but always intensive.

George's doing a danceathon in aid of Cystic Fibrosis Trust. If you wish to sponsor him for this activity next Thursday 26th Nov, please sponsor him at www.justgiving.com/Georgesdanceathon

ok - gotta get back to work now..!
xx

the name is Allen...

2009-10-22T10:08:00.003+01:00

George Allen! :)

This picture of G is most priceless. Looking quite debonaire don't you think? :)

G's all dressed up because we had a wedding to attend at the Ritz in London and well, we had to dress up. We ended up staying over at this serviced apartments (got a really good deal) and so we didn't really have to rush about. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and my speech on behalf of the groom went down well I think!

Sunday, we met up with Ange and had lovely dim sum at Lido - good service, good food, reasonable prices. What more do you want?! (didn't realise this but having just googled Lido, it turns out that alot of other people think the dimsum at Lido's lovely too!)

We went home pretty happy...!

Singapore...

2009-09-21T08:07:00.006+01:00

We've come back from Singapore 3 weeks now (which means I've been back at work 3 weeks now! boo hoo!)...

George had a whale of a time back home, with grandparents spoiling him to bits, meeting so many children and having so many to play with (the neighbours' kids, the kids from the neighbourhood, kids whilst we were on holiday and of course, his own cousins)..! It was amazing. He wasn't so much interested in kids younger than him (apart from his own cousin!) but he absolutely loved being with the older kids, following them around on his trike, going swimming and hanging out at the zoo!

We went to the zoo (with Dawn and her parents), and had a lovely time at the kidzworld water park (definitely recommend it!). We also went to Bintan (again!) and had a fantastic massage/facial and George absolutely loved the pool (and enjoyed socialising with the kids there). We celebrated dad's 70th birthday party with a huge party at Furama hotel (who were very professional) and as dad jokingly said to G, 'you stole gong-gong's limelight!!'...

Amongst the food G ate, he had chapatti and curry, chilli crab, chwee kway, macaroni chicken soup, coconut juice, lots of other juices, lots of fruit (watermelon, honeydew, apples, grapes - ate them whole, to my dad's dismay), chicken rice (loved that), udon, sushi and loads more. yums!

Some photos...

"George, where's your..."

2009-07-28T09:55:00.002+01:00

Metatarsal?"

And G will point to his foot. :) Cool huh?? lol. In case we're in any doubt where our metatarsus is, click on the word.

We went up north to visit his other grandparents over a long weekend, and fantastically, G got on really well with everyone. He even went to the shops with his grandad, without me or D coming along! Grandad was on his way to the shops when I suggested that G might want to go along, and G said 'shoe' (and we put them on him) and he went off with Grandad, hand in hand, without turning back! That was great. He also played really well with all his cousins and they absolutely loved him.

Think he cottoned on really quickly that these people were people he could trust, and so settled down really quickly. I hope he'll be the same with the Singapore family when we see them in 3 weeks!

G says...

2009-07-13T16:55:00.002+01:00

'bless you'! :) it's funny... we've always said 'bless you' when ever someone sneezes. And now, so does G. he shouts it across the room too, if he happens to hear a sneeze. It sounds suspiciously like ''sue' (tissue) which is about right too!

I celebrated my 36th birthday yesterday... OMG - how time flies.

The weekend started off well, with D and G going off to the supermarket to do the weekly shop whilst I stayed at home and hung about (read a few pages of my book, and basically did the laundry!)... Then we went to BlueWater shopping mall (big big place) and I managed to get some clothes (just as the shops were closing really) and had nice food - 'Leon's http://www.leonrestaurants.co.uk/ and spanish tapas in the evening http://www.latasca.co.uk/

Then on sunday, we went to church but were slightly late as D and G were busy baking a birthday cake for me! It's hilarious - will post some pics up here soon. Turned out ok though after alittle bit of a boo boo (daddy turning on the grill rather than the oven!). Hurried to church (G loves sticking his hand in the holy water and crossing himself - he sometimes drenches himself!), and then had lunch at Wagamama's where he finished quite a significant amount of my fried rice and some of Dan's curry!

Off to the park where he played in the labyrinth and the slides, and then back home where he crashed out (as did I) and Dan got on with decorating my cake. We then headed off to a surprise dinner where my friends gathered (Paola, Jesse, Victor, Chris, Nat, Chris, Lorraine and Euan) at a new chinese restaurant! It was yums and everyone agreed it was good food.

I received an acupuncture treatment from D and G, a lovely top and earrings (which I need to locate!) from PJV, and two pampering sets from CN and CLE. thank you everyone! :)

G's hair cut...

2009-07-02T20:30:00.000+01:00

official first hair cut, took place last friday, 26th June 2009. His fringe is no more!!! will post photos soon. He was very good though, sat quietly in his own seat (boosted) and let Jodi get on with cutting his hair. ... He looks like a little boy now, and not my baby!

Prata...

2009-06-29T15:30:00.003+01:00

G had 1 whole roti prata (well, except for maybe 2 bites?) for breakfast yesterday morning. Talk about big appetite! :) He also likes chicken rice, pasta with corguette and pancetta, tortellini, yoghurt, , shreddies/cheerios/rice crispies, juice (diluted with water!), ice cream, and chocolate. He also eats grapes by the punnet, blueberries (at one point he was finishing a whole punnet by himself), cherries and rice cakes. He loves fish (absolutely loves grilled salmon with oyster sauce and garlic), cod fish and chips (doesn't quite like the chips), mixed vege of carrots, brocolli, corn, peas. He's had onion bahji, toast.

Typical day:
Breakfast: Shreddies/cheerios/rice crispies/weetabix with milk. Sometimes with Toast.
Mid-morning snack: rice cakes, fruit, biscuits
Lunch: Pasta (tuna pasta bake, or pasta with corguette and pancetta, tortellini), fish and chips, chicken with rice and vege. + yoghurt, ice cream, cookie.
Mid-afternoon snack: rice cakes, fruit, biscuits.
Dinner: the same as lunch or anything else really.

Is that a diet for a 16 month old?!?! I think he'll have a bit of feast when we go back to Singapore for our summer hols!

More words...

2009-06-26T14:36:00.002+01:00

George is a rather chatty toddler - except when he's confronted by the phone (and that's when he gets stage fright and doesn't speak - but still waves and blows kisses). Some of his words include "what's that?" (wahh zat), "hiya", "no... nono", "yes", oh doh", "duck", "dog" (woof woof) and the cutest one..."WOW WOW!" (when he's shown/given something he desperately wants).

His favourite books are 'The Gruffalo', 'The Gruffalo's Child', 'Going on a Bear Hunt' and any other book he can get his hands on. He loves books. When asked to show us where the X is, he knows where they are. He points to the Gruffalo, the mouse, the bear, the dog.. the monkey, the giraffe...

I'm sure he says other words too, but I can't remember them. But we sure do understand him...!

this brought tears...

2009-06-26T14:34:00.001+01:00

to my eyes...

Sent to me by my old old friend since we were 4 years old.
She writes...
"What struck me was the mom knew about the Trisomy 18 diagnosis before baby was born and he attitude was:

"We knew from day to day that we had that day," Ginny says. "I would tell Matt a lot: 'I'll be sad later. I'm going to enjoy every second now.' So even though his diagnosis never changed, we just decided we were going to enjoy every second that we had."
http://www.oprah.com/media/20081001_tows_99balloons

Building Lego...

2009-06-23T15:04:00.003+01:00

apparently G loves building with his lego/duplo blocks. Which is great. We've got photos of G doing that in nursery. His nursery teacher Paula thinks it's fab. We think so too... Paula then said, "aren't you impressed?"... we said.."sure"... she said, "no, you should be very impressed... building towers of more than 3/5 (I can't remember) is something babies of 30-50 months old do!"...

cogs starting moving... "oh really??!".. and G, bless him, is only 16 months old! hehehe...

Dan thinks G builder-meister of construction now - and of course, G got them building genes from him!

OMG...

2009-06-23T14:41:00.003+01:00

this is such a sad story.... if you can help, do so... go to http://ourfeistyprincess.blogspot.com - I tried linking it on my sidebar, but I'm not good at such things so it may not appear. Go look... now.

G's nursery's been taken over...

2009-06-11T16:20:00.002+01:00

by a Singaporean company!! OMG...

we got a letter a few days back saying that Busy Bees (used to be owned by ABC learning centres - an Australian co?) has been bought out by Knowledge Universe which is a Singaporean company! wow - apparently the Australians were in some financial trouble and had to hive off Busy Bees and they finally found this company to buy them out. Curious to know who/what Knowledge Universe is, I googled them (what did we do before Google?! - a question asked by one of my MBA students) and found out that they also run Pat's Schoolhouse!

Now, I hold Pat's Schoolhouse in great esteem as I know at least one of my friend's children is enrolled there, so I'm quite pleased that it's the same company with hopefully similar high standards..

well well, Singapore isn't all that small after all! Or maybe Singapore is physically a small island, but hey, its reach is far greater! Let's hope they don't change things too much, or if they do, they'll be for the better! Maybe they'll introduce Mandarin as one of their languages... hehehe

The future Liverpool star....

2009-06-09T19:47:00.003+01:00

is born....! Ange and family got him a football lesson with Socatots as part of his Christmas present...we must thank them for supporting future Liverpool stars....:)

G's first parents evening...

2009-06-05T09:34:00.002+01:00

at the nursery! It was held on Wed 3rd June, and we were the first ones to meet Paula, his keyworker.

It went well, heard that G was a placid baby (I was horrified at first, then realised that she meant 'serenely free of interruption or disturbance' - from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, as opposed to 'complacent/'sian-ji-puah'!! ), who was quite happy to get on with things. That he enjoys listening to stories - that he actually sits and listens now as oppose to wandering off after a few minutes. That he loves to eat (oh, we know that!). That he was very happy getting his nappy changed (WHAT?! that's never been the case at home!). That he was quite happy going off to sleep by himself on the mat (again, WHAT?!?! That's never happened at home!).

Oh well... Good to hear that he's very happy and contented at nursery, and that he's progressing very well too. We got to see his folder that they keep all about him, and there were a couple of 'developments' that indicated that he was beyond his age group (my child, gifted?!! lol...). Nah, we're just happy that he's happy there.

Well done G on a very good parents evening report!

Flights to Singapore...

2009-06-02T19:51:00.002+01:00

have been booked! woo hoo...we're going back for nearly 3 weeks! :) I nearly gave up home the idea of going back to Singapore for a holiday in August (and also for Dad's birthday) as the flights were costing absolutely too much. I even thought to fly on BA (which isn't a problem per se, except for potential strikes and lost baggages...) but we're now booked on SQ, through ebookers.com (so if anyone wants to fly, perhpas they should consider going through ebookers first) and it's cheaper than booking through the SQ website (tsk tsk!).

we are flying 16th Aug-3Sept. Arriving just in time for dad's birthday. yay.

G's latest weigh in

2009-05-28T13:52:00.001+01:00

He's now 15 months and 10 days old, and he weighs in at 10.72kg and 83.5 cm. That puts him exactly on the 50th percentile for his weight, and 98th percentile for his height.... great stuff..! :) It's good to know that at least he's growing!

laundry...

2009-05-27T09:02:00.005+01:00

G taking the washing out...

G putting washing in the dryer...

chicken rice...

2009-05-26T16:44:00.003+01:00

yum!! :) I made chicken rice yesterday. Courtesy of Prima Deli's pack but hey, it was really authentic, and frankly, because it took 1 hour to make, hey, I think I deserve some 'well done' here! hahahhaha.... I thank God the day Prima Deli decided to export their stuff overseas, and I think their stuff's probably at the very top of authentic Singapore fare. We fed Chris and Nat the chicken rice (it was all motivated by an article in the Sunday Times about Singapore food) and they both agreed it was yums. Chris thought that it might be abit bland at first ('boiled chicken'?!!)... but he was converted.

G had some too and we'll have some left overs tonight. feeling abit stressed at the moment - Singapore Airlines decided to practically double their airfares over night (from something like 500 quid, to 971!!! )... I've now changed my dates, and hopefully at 700 pounds, it's a better compromise. Will check with D and then hopefully book them soon.

pam x

kiwi fruit...

2009-05-24T19:14:00.001+01:00

has been eaten! :) Was pleasantly surprised that G ate kiwi fruit! yum yum!

eating and sleeping...

2009-05-20T21:19:00.002+01:00

is happening again! yay! well, mostly good sleeping, and very good eating.

Tonight's dinner was fusilli pasta with salami, brocolli and cherry tomatoes (we all had it) and he loved it. Ate loads of it, and that was good. Plus blueberries and 2 pots of yoghurt/fromage frais. Let's hope he stays asleep till the morning. And some milk before he drifted off to bed - both boob and bottle.

He's had this chesty cough for the longest time which has been waking him up in the night, which isn't great news for any of us. I'm not sure whether to take him to the dr's - the last time we did this, dr looked at us as if we were mad coz apparently his chest was clear, therefore this cough is fine and there's nothing they can do for us. hmm. And acc to the dept of health, we can't give children under 2 years any cough mixtures. So we gotta battle it through. oh well.

I'm now 1/3rd through exam marking... bring it on!

p x

ps: G's 15 months old now, and just over 11 kg I think. Think I'll make an app with the health visitor next thursday for a weigh in. We've not been since his first birthday!

teething...

2009-05-16T18:54:00.002+01:00

again. This time, his molars are peeking through. He had a big of a high temperature and had been dribbling for some time (with red cheeks). We saw some white bits poking through his lower gums and figured they were his new teeth - he's got 8 at the moment (4 top and 4 bottom). He wasn't feeling too good on Tuesday so he didn't go into nursery and I had to stay home with him. He was also on hunger strike from Monday - till about Friday actually, which was rather worrying. But no fear, his appetite's back, and with a vengeance! He's in a much better mood, and has been eating loads since this (Saturday) lunch time.

For lunch, he had a pot of mush (we thought he might prefer mush if his teeth/gums were hurting - his fav Plum cheddar and lentil), and fish fingers, and a whole side order of peas. Plus a chocolate for 'dessert'.

He was in an incredibly good mood after that, and we spent about 40 minutes after that playing in the park with the swings and slides. He was also watching adults play footie!

We then went to B&Q to look at new kitchens and bathrooms (we have finally bought our house as of yesterday! but we're not sure when we get to move as those people have to move out). The kitchen and bathroom needs replacing pretty urgently, so we looked around B&Q and made an app with the designer person for 30th of May. That'll give us some time to get floor plans and measurements done.

G had a lovely time opening and closing the kitchen cupboards and going into the shower trays! I think B&Q might want to think about hiring G as their tester of doors - 'How robust are they?' you might ask. 'Well, they've been G-tested and approved!!'

Had a nap of about an hour and a bit when we got home and then wolfed down a whole bowl of pasta with chicken, peppers. Half a small punnet of grapes (really) and a pot of yoghurt. :) Long may this last...and hopefully this means he'll sleep better tonight!

*fingers tightly crossed* - mummy and daddy need a good night sleep G!!

Piglet flu...

2009-05-09T19:15:00.004+01:00

Saw this on a friend's blog and thought it was hilarious...

First day at Tulips...

2009-05-04T19:40:00.006+01:00

G's moved up rooms now, to the bigger babies room, Tulips (his first room was Buttercups) - 20th April 2009. Tulips has children from roughly 1 year to just over 2 years old. He loves it there, but had some teething problems (which lasted about a week - not bad at all)...!

First picture, on his way to nursery!!! Second picture, just outside nursery. His key worker's Paula, who's also the room leader (rumour has it that room leaders get to choose which children they want to take care of... yay, go George!! )..:)

With his god-brother...

2009-05-04T19:37:00.004+01:00

in similar outfits, bought by his godma..!

(the first pic, G was trying to 'borrow' V's toy car - don't think V was very keen to lend it..).

More photos...

2009-05-04T19:32:00.006+01:00

from Singapore Day 2009. Held last saturday 25th April, at Hampton Court Palace.

Who would have thought we'd be able to take a photo at the ERP gantry...!! hahahah....

and a picture with R - gorgeous little toddler, 3 weeks younger than George... also of the same mixed heritage! :)

Some photos..!

2009-05-04T19:27:00.002+01:00

Some belated photos from our Athens trip (Mar19-24, 2009) where I was teaching our MBA students and D and G came along for a holiday.

On leave...

2009-05-01T10:52:00.002+01:00

and enjoying it!! :)

Finally... after what seems like a hectic 6 months with work, illnesses, work, illnesses... you get the picture, I've finally found a week's slot to take some time off. Today's the first day of my leave and G's in the nursery for half a day. It's not 11 yet, and I've already put in a load of washing, took G to the nursery, had some breakfast, gone to the car wash, dropped the dry cleaning off, hung the clothes out to dry, packed away G's old clothes and cooked Rendang...:) ! I don't think that's too bad for half a morning's work.

Since the last post, G's recovered from his bout of sickness and diahrea over Easter break (which we spent up north with his other Grandparents) and I came down with the same when we returned - resulting in me taking some sick leave. Another round of German MBAs turned up this time for 10 days and it was a hectic 1.5 weeks. Feedback was again very positive, which is great.

In between that, we attended Singapore Day 09 at Hampton Court Palace (https://app.singaporeday.gov.sg/index.html) and it was very pleasant. The weather was great, catching up with Em and family and Adrian and Shien was fun and of course, the food was fab (even though we had to queue and queue!). The portions were small but adequate, given that we were queuing and re-queuing for different types of food. G had his first taste of 'chwee quay' - loved it, and we also had mee siam, katong laksa, chilli crab, chay tow kway and satay. There were other stalls with chicken rice, prata etc but we didn't get round to them in time.

Came away with lots of free goodies...! I've yet to go through them but I will, in this week off. Will update with more photos soon. Gotta go tend to my rendang!

2009-04-08T17:12:00.003+01:00

Haven't had the time to update the blog - sorry!! Lots of things have been happening.

I had a bunch of German MBA students here in the first week of March, followed by a visit from an American Professor whom I'm collaborating with on a research project who did a presentation. Followed by a week in Athens where I taught the MBA course, and D and G came along for a holiday...!

Returned on the 24th of March, and came down with what I thought was flu, but turned to be possibly Glandular fever - which isn't nice. I've just recovered from that, finished marking a stack of essays, and then G's down with a viral infection (his first of the year I think). He got sent home from nursery yesterday afternoon after vomiting. He then slept at my workplace for an hour (whilst I marked), and then proceeded to vomit 2x in the car!! Brought him home, had a bath, he felt better then brought him to the doctor, who diagnosed him with a viral infection and gave him some antibiotics. I've had to ibuprofen and paracetamol him too as he's got quite a high temperature.

Poor baby - I think it's all the new bugs he's catching from going to the Toddlers group in nursery! He's moving up next week (I think)... a whole new world out there G...!! :)

George and daddy lookalike

2009-02-22T19:19:00.002Z

Bought D a new jacket for valentine's... surprisingly (or not!) it was quite identical to G's....

Thank you for the angpows!

2009-02-22T19:15:00.003Z

Courtesy of his aunty Jill, George finally received his angpows!! Thank you everyone in Singapore! :)

More birthday photos...

2009-02-22T19:03:00.007Z

Birthday cake 1 and 2 - George attacking his cake...

George on his new trike (from Grandparents)

Birthday Party no 1

2009-02-16T16:58:00.005Z

G turns one on 18th Feb 2009. We decided to celebrate his birthday, and we ended up with 2 birthday parties on the Valentines weeekend of the 14th and 15th! Birthday one was mostly family and close friends; birthday 2 was mostly baby friends (we met during our NCT classes). fab...:)

First shoes...

2009-02-09T12:48:00.005Z

have been worn! We went into Clarkes yesterday to get G his first pair of proper shoes (well, cruising shoes, which are softer). They are so sweet! And he is a size 4F.

They were bought for his birthday... speaking of which, we're celebrating his birthday this weekend with 2 birthday parties, and on his actual day on the 18th, the nursery will be celebrating it! So, my son, at age 1, will have had 3 birthday celebrations!! wowow!

p x

2009-01-27T09:24:00.000Z

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

Trip to the hospital...

2009-01-25T21:21:00.002Z

on Chinese New Year's Eve.

So...G completed his last round of antibiotics on Friday (2days ago). Whilst on it, his ear infection cleared up, but he developed a cough... which subsequently got worse... and worse, and on Friday night he started to wheeze (or was it Thursday?). It tends to get worse at night, and so last night (sat night), he got worse and worse and had a rather bad night's sleep. I finally rang NHS direct, and spoke to a really nice nurse Pauline, who decided, after listening to G's rather laboured breathing over the phone, to get in touch with our out-of-hours doctor's practice at the Hospital. I spoke to her at about 5.30am, and by 6.30am, she's rung me back a couple of times and the doctor himself rang back too. And told us to get to the hospital. And so we did.

G ended up being diagnosed with something called Viral-induced Wheezing... which sounds quite lame (!?)... and got given some steriod tablets (For a couple of days) and salbutomol inhaler (which is exactly the same as the one I use for my asthma!). Together with a ventilator thing (2 big plastic cups that connect together, with a plastic mask over his face) we're supposed to use that whenever he's got difficulty breathing. After pumping in 10 puffs into the ventilator and with G screaming his face off (it must be really scary - poor baby!), he started to breathe really better... :)

Doctor said that he was otherwise fine as his cough didn't sound like it'd reached his chest, so we decided (after consulting with the dr!) to go do London for some Singaporean food.

G was very well behaved on the train, and fell asleep on the boob (Again). We had lunch at Rasa Sayang which is primarily a Malaysian outlet (and how did we know that? the numerous malaysian flags gave it away, perhaps?!) which produced rather authentic food...to my relief! I had char kway teow, D had nasi lemak, and G had roti canai!!(well, we didn't quite order it for him but he ended up stealing about 1 whole roti by himself!).

We also went to Hamley's to buy his birthday presents - got him a growth chart (really cool one) and some alpha blocks. We'll also be splashing out on 2 birthday cakes, and 2 birthday parties, so I think that'll do for now! We need to save a little money for the house move - whenever we get round to that!

Happy Niu Year!! :)

mum? ma-ma?

2009-01-23T21:04:00.003Z

did he say it?!?!

I'm not sure. Both of us thought we heard it... so perhaps he did.. if he did, the date was 22nd January 2009, Thursday, when he's 11 months 4 days old! :)

He's since not said it again. hmph.

Gong xi gong xi...

2009-01-21T20:19:00.002Z

it's the year of the ox on monday (26th Jan 09) and in preparation for that occasion, we dressed G up in his chinese outfit which grandpa bought for him when we were in Singapore...! We threw in some oranges for good measure - so gong xi gong xi, and Happy Chinese New Year!!

Washing up...

2009-01-21T20:16:00.002Z

George decided also, after tonight's dinner, that he'd help with the washing up. So strapped onto daddy, he took his sponge and went to work...hehe!

George's food diary

2009-01-21T20:12:00.003Z

So far, he's had a wide variety of food... He's had fruit scones, chocolate cake (he's abit of a choco addict if I allow him!!), and onion bahji - which we watched in trepedition when he snatched it off my fingers and promptly stuck it straight into his mouth. He loved it.

Here's a picture of him eating a prawn cracker, which we got given as we ordered a chinese take-away. I know, very unhealthy... but lovely picture! :)

Blueberries...

2009-01-19T21:07:00.003Z

make George's poo really black!! :) We were in town on the weekend and came across a market stall which was selling fruit - so we bought a punnet of blueberries. George had never had blueberries (not that we know anyway). So we thought we'd try him on some.

He had some on saturday, practically half the punnet on sunday and finished them all today (Monday). Today, he went to nursery, and this evening when we picked him up, his key worker Jade said (in panicked voice), 'I've kept a sample of his nappy to show you - it's black! He might have an iron deficiency!!'

We looked at her confused, then said 'ah... he had a whole load of blueberries!!' - her face relaxed....... considerably. It was funny.

Tonight when we changed him for his bath, his nappy was poo-ey again...and it was black. like tar! gross.

His fever (previous blog entry) turned out to be an ear infection. I took him to the dr's on friday who diagnosed an ear infection (red right ear, pink left ear) and promptly dispensed antibiotics, again. sigh. But he seems to have bounced back quite quickly. He's still on antibiotics - will keep him on it for a week, but he appears pretty normal now.

The dr who rang me back on friday was really nice. Usually over here, our surgery's quite good anyway, by giving us an appointment on the day itself (compared to other surgeries around the country which might give you an appointment within the week!). On friday though, after I'd described his symptoms of being very feverish and lethargic (very much not himself), she suggested I took him in to the surgery. However he was sleeping when she called, and so I didn't really want to commit to a time and miss the appointment. She then said, 'bring him in when he wakes up - hopefully before 12noon and we'll squeeze him in!'... and lo and behold, that's what I did, and that's what happened!

Most impressed....

p x

Weigh in at nearly 11 months...

2009-01-15T21:30:00.002Z

he's now 9.34kg (20 pounds 9 oz, 15th January 2009) and is 79cm (which puts him back in the 98th percentile). His weight puts him at just under 50th percentile again, which is great, since last month's weight put him down at 25th.

I think he's teething again... today he was really whingey, and clingy and has a rather high temperature too. There's nothing wrong with him (none that I can see anyway - no cold, slight cough but nothing that would cause a high fever), so I think it's to do with his teeth. Or perhaps to do with the rather bad weather. It's now 8degC, which is WARM compared to what we had last week, when it was -8, and we had to go to work (and nursery). hm.

A new word...

2009-01-01T17:43:00.002Z

G has a new word in his vocabulary - 'uh-oh'. He says it everytime he drops something. And recently he's taken to saying it BEFORE he drops something. hm.

Other than this word, he says 'dadada'. Nothing else. But he tells us when he wants something by pointing and shouting!! lol. Or when he's awake and wants us to wake up too, he'll say 'uh'... and 'uh' again. Untill we awake.

Am desperate for him to say 'mamama'...I guess it'll come in time!

p x

Georgie...

2009-01-01T17:26:00.003Z

the snowman!

We bought him a wooden Noah's Ark for christmas and I forgot that being rather OCD-esque, losing an animal (or either Mr or Mrs Noah) is quite a nightmare for me. So, every night (or rather, every time) he takes apart or overturns the ark, I end up lining the animals up and counting them (as you do, of course). A friend commented that perhaps these kits should come with spare animals - well, it might help, but if one of the spare animals got lost, I'd go mad too! oh well.

George walking...

2009-01-01T17:11:00.005Z

with his walker up and down the house!

We went to the post-christmas sales and bought this little walker for about 40% off! Great stuff. He loves it and has this look of determination everytime he's on it! Gotta make sure he 'drives straight' though!! lol.

Videos...

2009-01-01T16:53:00.003Z

George climbing the stairs at home! So, he's been climbing the stairs for a little while now (since about 9.5 months old)... but we only just got round to recording it - for posterity (and daddy only just got round to loading it up to the computer..!). Since the recording, D's also got round to putting up the stair gate downstairs because G's got very good at climbing up to the bend (3 steps up) in a stealth mode, very quietly and sneakily! Note to self: remember to shut the stair gate when we're downstairs!
I guess next thing on the to do list is to put up the stair gate upstairs!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2009!

2009-01-01T16:47:00.005Z

Had a quiet and lovely Chrismas with my cousin coming down to stay with us for a few days and cooking christmas dinner! (turkey, stuffing, veg and all!).

George had his first turkey dinner and his first brussel sprout (in his christmas pudding bib, of course). hmm - the jury's still out on that - he looked like he liked the sprout! He also has a new favourite food - corn. Was slightly apprehensive when we first gave it to him as I thought he might choke on it (small pieces and everything) but he took to it and loved it. So much so that when we went to Wagamama's on the weekend, we ordered him a child's meal of chicken noodle, and he ate all the corn! (and chicken and some noodles!). Very impressed.

This lovely photo was taken at his nursery by his teachers and formed part of his christmas present to us (how sweet). We also got paintings of a reindeer and an angel made with prints from his hands and feet - very cute, and a salt dough imprint of his hand. We need to find more walls to hang these things up!

Wish for 2009 - that we can sell our house at a reasonable price and find a larger house (for a reasonable price!) so that we can get on with family life!

p x

Back on the antibiotics...again

2008-12-17T21:53:00.002Z

So we're back on the antibiotics again - I don't remember when I last had this... 2 weeks ago maybe? Anyway, I finally went back to the dr today, after my coughing went from really bad to really really bad, and I started to wheeze, and cough violently (and sicking up - that sounds like the G-man). She listened to my chest, and immediately said I should go for a chest x-ray...and gave me a week's worth of antibiotics. G's on antibiotics too, for a cough too, but he started about 10 days ago now.

So, I trooped off to the hospital for a chest x-ray (I can't believe it, on the NHS, they are open till 8pm on Mon-Fri and open 9-5 on the weekends!!). I'll tell the dr that I went and did it, so she can ring in for the results - otherwise, with this being christmas and new year, I'll not hear about the results till 2009! Hopefully I can have another consult with dr on friday.

G's just sicked up his entire dinner, and we had a nice time (not) cleaning up his sick, which went all over daddy (mostly over daddy) and over himself, and on his horse. But he seems alot more comfortable, so maybe some phelgm came up with it. Let's hope so.

I'm so upset with this cough thing. I wish we'll have good health for christmas and new year - I need this break to get well!

Oh, and by the way, I've been losing weight too. Tonight, for the first time, I hit a low of 48.5kg (well, since my early 20s anyway!). Last night I was 49, and the night before I was 49.5kg. This is not good. 1kg in 2 days??? (and this was after dinner too).

Oh, and my blood test came up with quite a few abnormal readings...like a high score of 189 (normal is 10) for something called CSP (?) something protein something - which shows acute inflammation. Dr's hoping this is all related to this flu/cough/chest infection thing. I hope so too. Coz otherwise, we'll need to investigate more. And I don't want to find anything dodge!

Fingers crossed...xx

2008-12-08T12:40:00.001Z

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Dynasty - Free family websites

Winter...

2008-12-01T15:57:00.002Z

and the winter bugs...! what is it about winter and all the related illnesses?! It's almost bordering on madness at the moment. Since the last post, I still have a cough, which the dr has now prescribed super-strength co-codamol to suppress the cough, reduce the fever and the aches and pains that go along with nasty flu. I'm home today, without the G-master as he's gone to nursery and I'm home nursing my flu, which I hope will improve soon as I have the G-man tomorrow at home and because he's such an active baby, it's going to take tremendous strength just to follow him around.

Oh, the thought of that hurts my head......

A week of illness...

2008-11-23T20:48:00.002Z

we've been ill... I've been on antibiotics since last monday and have had a hacking cough, and a cold. G's had a high temperature of 39.6 degC (at one point!) which finally broke on saturday. As a result, he's only been to nursery 1 day last week (out of 2.5 days).

Monday, the first day of my hectic week (I'd been coasting the last 7 weeks in comparison!) I had to bring G to the dr (who was most useless - I'd never seen him before) who said that 'it's normal for babies to have a temperature'...(yeah, but at something higher than a 38?!). D took G to the dr in the afternoon again where I'd made another app with another dr (I had a 3 hr session with the MBA class, so couldn't go!). He prescribed some antibiotics for G and said that we could hang on to them and see if he got better. Turns out he had an ear infection!

So, baby G's been on antibiotics since Thursday night, and he's much better now. I now wish I started his antibiotics much earlier, but they do say if we give babies too much antibiotics they'll grow resistant to the bugs! So what is mummy supposed to do?! He'll have his last dose tomorrow (Mon) and hopefully everything will be fine. On top of that, he's also had calpol and ibuprofen! talk about OTT.

He's now almost back to his normal bouncy self - I hope he'll be fine soon.

Today, we also had our first sight of snow! We had about half an hour of snow which then turned into snow for half the day. It's really cold today, and tonight!

Wrap up everyone!
p x

Update...

2008-11-14T10:02:00.002Z

G's now nearly 9 months old and yesterday, (13th Nov), the community nurse came round to have a chat and weighed/measured G.

He's now 8.88kg (what an auspicious number!), about 19 pounds 8 oz; and 75cm (or 76 - depends on which measurement you believe). Which puts him on the 50th percentile for weight, and 91st/98th percentile for height.

He's still eating very well, but STILL waking up once a night (about 4am). The nurse said that he's not really waking up for food/drink but more out of comfort (this was after I told her how much he ate). I hope he outgrows this soon. When he goes back to bed after 20 minutes or so, he tends to sleep till at least 8am (so most days when we go to work we need to wake him up)...

He loves the Plum range of food and on Wednesday night at his godma's place, he had potatoes, fettucine with mince and tomato sauce, grapes, plus one pot of Sweet Potato with Lamb and Carrots.

ok - back to work now...

p and G ( 38 weeks) x

Chilling in Ikea..

2008-10-30T20:57:00.003Z

Mummy ... can we bring this back to England?

Er no, because we only have 20kg limit and besides, it'll be too cold at home to sit in this! (maybe Ikea Thurrock will have it?!?! yeah, right.)

.......

update on hospital...

2008-10-27T22:17:00.003Z

apparently the spots are not a viral rash afterall...but 'heat rash' (at the start of winter?!)... oh well. They've discharged us now, and G's been declared well and fine. I guess seeing that he's bouncing and smiling and shrieking (in a good way) - they think he's bril. we think so too!! ha!

on a separate issue - we watched 'Sicko' on the weekend (a film by Michael Moore). And it was really interesting. I'm sure Michael Moore's really controversial (there are anti-MM websites out there!) but if even what he says is a mere dramatisation of the facts, then it's really spine-chilling, that in America, people get turn away from medical help because they don't have health insurance.

What I don't get about health insurance is this: surely after one has declared a known illness/symptom, then insurance should cover whatever illness you get afterwards, no? Perhaps one pays more for certain illnesses (like say cancer, in my case), but surely they'd get treated? There was a case of a man who had to decide whether the hospital should sew back one of his two finger tips that he'd sawn off. The price difference was 12K v 60k. He went for the 12K one (which incidentally is the ring finger). He now walks around without a middle finger tip.

MM then went to check out the Canadian, British and even Cuban health services....which did not discriminate between rich/poor and the like. I guess we experienced it first hand during the journey of G's conception till now. Every visit to the midwife was free, as was when we had the early contractions and got admitted to the hospital at 30weeks (and the proposal that I stay in hospital for 10 weeks till I gave birth!?), as was the final delivery and now, the 8/12/16 week immunisations, BCG, and even this recent hospital visit with x-rays. I've had a endoscopy done on the NHS and another one's on the way, this time at the private wing, but paid for by the NHS (because the queue's too long!).

We're proud of the NHS...! :)

p x

ps: G was weighed as a result of today's hospital visit, and he's now 8.82kg (back on the 50th Percentile).

viral rash...

2008-10-26T20:52:00.001Z

we have a check up appointment at the hospital tomorrow - 2 weeks after the last appointment. which is great, because G appears to have a viral rash! We discovered it yesterday during bath time when having stripped him off, we saw spots, and spots and spots on his tummy and his back!

First thought was 'oh no, it's chickenpox'... (followed by: 'how many meetings do I have next week that I can cancel??'). So we rang NHS direct (who were very busy but still called us back after 3/4 hours, at about midnight!?) and then rang our surgery who had an emergency number and they rang us back after half an hour. They confirmed it wasn't meningitis (thank God), and they also didn't seem to think it was anything to worry about as typical G, he was still bouncing about, and being generally quite cheerful.

They told us to watch to make sure his rash didn't get worse. And it didn't (or hasn't).

So, I guess it's a viral rash. We'll confirm it tomorrow at the hospital.

p x

Please Sir...

2008-10-16T22:38:00.004+01:00

Can I have some more..?!

G in his llama vest top!

2008-10-16T22:35:00.002+01:00

Thank you Chien Ku-Poh for this lovely llama vest top!! I LOVE IT! :)

In the Bath!!

2008-10-16T21:02:00.001+01:00

Where's rubber duckie..?!

G vs the Sumo....

2008-10-16T20:54:00.001+01:00

who will win!!?

first steps...

2008-10-16T20:44:00.000+01:00

sort of!!!

Georgie the friendly ghost.....

2008-10-14T15:39:00.001+01:00

at coffee bean!

to the hospital...

2008-10-14T12:41:00.003+01:00

we go.

We were at K&C hospital yesterday because G's cough wasn't getting any better, and if anything, it was getting worse. It developed as a slight cough, into full blown phlegmy cough, and then it turned a few days ago into a hoarse, sharp and 'harsh' (quote from nurse at hospital) cough. He was coughing so badly, he was throwing up his food/milk :(.

I made an appointment at the Dr's surgery yesterday, and saw the same doctor we saw 3.5 weeks ago, and she remembered him. As usual, he was his bouncy smiley self, and so she said he was looking well (I guess when one is used to seeing listless babies, then a bouncing one tends to be viewed as a 'healthy' baby!). But she did think that because his cough was deteriorating, we should get him checked out at the hospital where they might do an x-ray!

It was great that we got to see the Paed at 2pm (our dr's appointment was 11am - go NHS!). She sent us for an x-ray, thought his ears were slightly red, and his throat was slightly red but nothing scary. The x-ray was clear-ish, meaning there was no bacterial infection, although there was white stringy bits in the x-ray (which she said might be due to the viral infection). hm.

So, the conclusion was, we got given some antibiotics which she said will hopefully clear up the atypical bug which she thinks he's caught. I guess it's all down to the fact that he's in nursery and mixing with a whole load of other babies and their infections!! :(

We go back to see her in 2 weeks time, and hopefully, he'll be much better then.

He was also weighed - and he's now 8.49 kg! (18pounds 11 oz). Which puts him between the 25-50th percentile. He's dropped slightly in weight but I guess it's due to his illness!

p x

Edited: to say that on his check on thursday with the HV, he was 8.52kg! yay! every little helps!

New addition to the family!

2008-10-14T12:39:00.001+01:00

My cousin's baby was born today - George has lost his USP as the youngest member of the family (that lasted all of 8 months!)!

Welcome to the beautiful world Caitlyn Kho!! (2.96kg)

p x

perfect posture...

2008-10-12T20:23:00.002+01:00

food...

2008-10-12T20:18:00.007+01:00

yummy!!

My son...

2008-10-05T22:29:00.006+01:00

the beng wanna-be..! (taken in Orchard Road, Singapore)

And a brilliant side profile, of G sitting upright! (outside Metro Paragon, Orchard Road, Singapore)

I am Baby-G...

2008-10-05T22:27:00.002+01:00

uh-huh....! :) (taken at Isetan Orchard, Singapore).

food...

2008-10-05T19:42:00.004+01:00

that G eats... include chicken with sweet potato and apple (his current favourite), chicken casserole (leek, carrot, potato, chicken), and lots of food at the nursery including cheese scones, fruit, yoghurt, petit filou and various vegetable combinations, and fish pie!

Didn't think I'd like making food for him, but it's great and it's my mission every week or every half a week to make up a batch of food for him which we freeze and take out every day for him. He's on 3 solid meals a day and his meals typically look like this:

Breakfast: breast fed, then cereal (or currently, super porridge with apple and apricot from Plum) http://www.plum-baby.co.uk/baby-food-range/#Four%20grain%20super%20porridge%20with%20apple%20and%20apricotTitle
We mix that sometimes with a fruit puree pot.

Off to nursery (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays) where he eats a mid-morning snack of fruit and yoghurt (I was told that they'll give him an extra pot of yoghurt because they think he's hungry and that's why he's upset! - hm).

Lunch: Currently, home made chicken with sweet potato and apple (or whatever the nursery feeds him, last friday being fish pie!) plus yoghurt or fruit puree.

then breast feed (depends on what time I get down to the nursery during my lunch break!)

Tea: mid-afternoon tea. At nursery he gets scones, or biscuits. At home, he gets biscuits, or fruit.

Dinner: home made chicken with sweet potato and apple (this week's menu!)... or Plum's Parsnip, carrot and cheddar mash http://www.plum-baby.co.uk/baby-food-range/#Parsnip,%20carrot%20and%20cheddar%20mashTitle or any other variation. Plus yoghurt or fruit puree.

Before sleep: breast feed.

Sounds like a lot, huh? I think it's alot - but seeing how much he moves, I'm sure he'll eat more if he could. At the moment, he's eating about 100/120g of food (size of a small jar) plus dessert. And tonight, he had home-made cheese onion bread. Which he completely enjoyed chomping on! yum yum!

ok, gotta go have my bath. Before baby needs his feed!

p x

ps: If we're feeding commercial food, we go for Ella's Kitchen http://www.ellaskitchen.co.uk/, Plum http://www.plum-baby.co.uk/, Hipp Organic http://www.hipp.co.uk/, Organix http://www.organix.com/ or the Boots Organic Range. We feel they're the best and so far, touch wood, he's taken to their tastes!

pps: and our home made recipes are courtesy of Annabel Karmel..! http://www.annabelkarmel.com/

surprise pressie!

2008-10-05T19:36:00.002+01:00

from Dan... :) we took this picture when we were in Bintan, Indonesia for a 2-day break when we were back in Asia. He surprised me by blowing this up into a canvas and printing it at the photo shop. We're running out of walls to stick this - I hope we get to move house soon so that we can put up all the photos/pictures/portraits we've done! At the rate we're going, G will be at university by the time we get round to printing and putting them up!

p x

A-crawling...part II

2008-10-02T20:47:00.006+01:00

Since the last post, he's been crawling all over the place and he's quite hilarious when he moves. He moves his arms rather deliberately, such that he looks like he's doing a march - a rather extreme march. (been informed it's referred to as 'goose-stepping'). Will try and get a video of him doing it. He's pretty fast too, so the gates have to go up ASAP.

One of his favourite toys at the moment is a remote control. Not any ordinary one that works with the TV/DVD players...rather one that makes lewd comments (rather like a Bart/Homer Simpson type). It's quite funny. Let's just hope his first word isn't from that repertoire!!! Edited: the remote control was NOT purchased by us...it was from my brother-in-law. yes... such warped sense of humour eh uncle stu-ey!

p x

George & Phoebe...

2008-09-23T21:41:00.004+01:00

Phoebe's the daughter of our friends Jen and Tim. She's 5 days older than G.

Here are some lovely pics of the two bubbas when we went to visit them at their new house in September!

p x

A-crawling...

2008-09-23T21:35:00.004+01:00

he goes! :)

He's started to crawling - officially we're putting the date down as 21st September (on the cusp of his 31st week, so 30weeks and 6 days, just over 7 months).

He was belly shuffling for a little while, started when we were in Singapore. But he went on to more extreme shuffling when we got home and started to lift himself off onto his toes and his arms, and jigging all about..! On Sunday, 21st, he made a move. fab! Will upload a video of him moving soon! Edited: ok, it's not really a video of him crawling... but it's still very cute! :)

p x

two teeth...

2008-09-23T21:33:00.002+01:00

and counting! :)

they have made an appearance (just barely there...but you can see the whites peeking through the gums!)...perhaps that's not helped his cold/cough situation either (teething's a really painful process for most babies).

Half of me is thinking oh...how exciting that he's got teeth now! The other half of me's thinking I'm not going to have gummy grins for long! sigh...my baby's growing up too fast! :)

p x

poor bubba...

2008-09-23T16:43:00.002+01:00

is ill! :(

So, the G man started nursery last week, 16th September 2008, 2 days short of his 7 month old birthday...! and he took to it very well. He took to Jade, his key worker (did I mention that already?!) and ate all his food, and played with the toys and other babies..!

He was already slightly poorly with a cold when we got back from Sg, but that got progressively worse as the week went by and by the weekend, he wasn't eating as much and was breathing rather laboriously. His little cold had developed into a bad cold, and a nasty hacking cough with phelgm! Poor little mite. Coincidentally, I was down with diahhrea and food poisoning on Saturday which has sort of just 'stopped' today (tuesday?!), so it didn't help with my milk supply at all!

Took him to the doctor's yesterday, who declared that it was a rota-virus (ie, something 90% of babies will get once they go to nursery) and that it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, at this age, they can't really get given anything other than paracetamol. His runny nose seems to have dried up but his cough's got worse.

We didn't go to nursery yesterday as I don't work mondays (for now! that's another long story), and today we didn't think we'd take him in but the nursery said it was ok to bring him in. So we did. Which was a bit of a disaster really, coz by 11.30am, they'd rung D and asked if he'd come and get G since he wasn't settling and being his usual cheery self. We got to the nursery. I fed him, he had a bit of a nap, and then tried to feed him some food. He wasn't eating much. We left the room for a little while to have a chat with the manager regarding possible change of days at the nursery and when we got back to his room, he was crying again. Poor bubba.

We took him home, he was much happier although whingey, and now he's sleeping. I hope he gets well soon. It's so sad to see baby suffering like this and not being able to express himself or tell us what's wrong! :(

p x

G is driving...

2008-09-12T13:33:00.001+01:00

a car in mothercare! love this pic...:)

Party pictures from Singapore...

2008-09-12T13:29:00.000+01:00

can be found here! http://puppy2006.multiply.com/photos/album/95/30_Aug_08-_Yeows_Family_Gathering

lovely pics of G!! :)

Settling in sessions...

2008-09-12T13:22:00.006+01:00

at the nursery!!

G had his first settle in session on 10th Sept (our 3rd wedding anniversary!) at the Busy Bees Nursery http://www.busybeeschildcare.co.uk/nurseries/canterbury/, and it went really well. They were really nice, and his key worker's a lady called Jade. At the first settle session, I get to stay in the nursery room with G and he's playing and getting to know Jade and the room. He did really well and didn't fuss!! :)

G had his 2nd settle in session today (12th Sept) and this time, I wasn't in the room for about an hour and again, he did really well. Perhaps it helped that he'd just had his nap before that. He even did a painting!! bless.

G's next settle in session will be on Monday 15th Sept and then it's full steam ahead on Tuesday 16th Sept, when I return to work for the whole day. Scary bunnies!! Thankfully, term doesn't start till the 29th of Sept, so if need be, I can go collect him early if he's not too happy. Fingers crossed he'll be fine. Jade seems a lovely girl and she used to take care of godbrother Vic too, so she's quite experienced.

I'm relieved that we've passed one milestone. Onwards to work!

p x

Latest weigh in at 29 weeks...

2008-09-11T21:37:00.003+01:00

and he's only put on a couple of hundred grams! He's now 7.92kg and is still 71cm. I've come to the conclusion that he was 68cm in Singapore (as measured by the paed), and he's definitely taller from Singapore.

George has also started eating abit of fish. I'm trying to mix with some sweet fruit and veg to make the transition easier... he seems to be ok.

Had a traumatic meeting at work today. Good news is I get the German programme back under my control. Not so good news - they've dumped 3 modules on me, even though I'm part time! Even though I have 2 PhD students currently under my supervision and 1 or 2 more coming on board once I'm back. Even though I'm also doing a significant administrative job. Did I mention I'm part time?! Can't see how I'll do all this in 2.5 days, which needs to include half a day of research, an office hour, prep time, admin time, PhD supervision time...... and the list goes on. Plus of course contact hours with students.

As a result, G didn't get his usual naps (not as long) and ended up falling asleep eating his dinner (poor baby!)... had a traumatising bath time, and calmed down after that, but has fallen asleep again. Let's hope he has a good night.

Am hoping to have a meeting with the relevant people next week to sort this whole mess out. In the meantime, in my first week back (part time), I've got a 2 hr meeting scheduled for Tues morning, and another 2 hr meeting for Wed afternoon. Which leaves me Tues afternoon, Wed morning and Friday morning to get my website up and going, and module guides and teaching team schedules out... ! argh.

p x

G - as featured in Dawn's blog...

2008-09-09T18:37:00.003+01:00

G had a date with Dawn, on Saturday 23rd Aug, at his local haunt, Parkway Parade...!
Dawn's dad kindly took loads of pictures and here they are
http://blogwithbaby.livejournal.com/

or here, for the actual blog entry: http://blogwithbaby.livejournal.com/73969.html

We'll blog about their next date at McDonald's soon! (very LC huh...?!) :)

p x

We are home...

2008-09-09T18:20:00.003+01:00

after a lovely 3 weeks (19 days) in Singapore...! Everyone loved G at home, and thought he was 'damn cute' and 'hen2 hao3 wan2' and 'hen3 hao4 wan2'!!

The journey started on 18th Aug, the day before we were due to fly - when we left our house, and went to Em's for the night (to break the journey up). Due to traffic jam, we only arrived at hers at about 9pm, and we were exhausted (not to mention G was grumpy). She very kindly made chicken pie and we could bath G and settled down for the night. The next morning we left 'late' but still got to airport in time to get brilliant seats on the A380 (upper deck is the way to go!). Even Heathrow was not the nightmare it usually is, with everyone being extra nice to us (it's the G factor I guess!). The plane was absolutely lovely, as were the stewardesses and G charmed his way round the entire plane. hehe - unfortunately, not enough to get us upgraded, but hey, we can work on that, can't we !!

G slept at the usual nap times, which was great, and when he finally settled down for the 'evening' he was woken up a couple of hours later, shocked to find out that it was actually 'day time'! (it was 7.45am in the morning). Thankfully he didn't have much of a jetlag, with only the first night, waking up at about 1am, and not sleeping till about 3am again.

We went to the paed, who declared he was perfectly normal (he was remeasured and found to be 68cm (he shrank?!), and 7.86kg) but also gave us some advice to massage the bit near his eye and nose to get his tear ducts moving and hey presto, he no longer has a gunky eye. I don't get why the GP here couldn't tell us that! hmph.

We also had play dates with Katelyn, and Dawn - we'll blog about them separately.

G had lots of 'solid' food when he was in Singapore - and now he's on 3 solid meals (plus milk feeds). I think he's doing ok. He had lots of sweet potato (prepared by aunty) and carrot. He didn't quite take to 'chook' (porridge) (haha - like mummy, and daddy too!). We see Katryn on Thurs for his monthly check in and we'll get an update on weight then. Since being back, G now has baby cereal in the morning for breakfast, and proper lunches and dinners. His poo has also solidified - which makes it easier to clean but woah - the smell!!!!!

ok - gotta go, will blog later.

p x

24 weeks weigh in

2008-08-11T18:41:00.002+01:00

So, we're now in our 25th week of existence, and he got weighed last thursday (7th Aug), and came in at 7.66kg (16pounds 14 oz) and measuring in at 71cm!! I'm not sure the health visitor got the length quite right, because if she did, he would have grown 5 cm in the last 4 weeks! hm. The weight again's coming in at the 50th percentile, and the height's back on the 98th percentile.

We're going to make an app with a friend's paediatrician to give G a one-time check over. This is the first-time paranoid mum speaking here, so take no notice, but I guess I just wanted a doctor who specialises in babies to have a lookover G and make sure he's all ok! Sounds a bit mad to deliberately make an appointment to see a doctor, but there you go...!

G's also had melon on thursday (loved it) and a cucumber on sunday and thought it was fine too. I know I should be more dilligent about his food intake - I'll try to be more on the ball when he's definitely 6 months! He doesn't seem to want food just yet, and if everyone says he should be breastfed till 6 months, then that's what we're going to do. It's only another week to go anyway.

Getting nervous about our longhaul flight next week - 12 hour flight and 7 hour time difference. Nice. I so want to pack the entire house and the kitchen sink but that's not possible... so we'll make do I guess!

p x

G's first solid food is...

2008-07-21T19:43:00.003+01:00

carrot!! :) OMG, we've started to wean. Very slowly, mind... but he's had his first taste of carrot (which was over-steamed I think so it broke into pieces... note to self: will steam for 10 min as opposed to 15/20 min!)... Not sure what he thought about it, but am very sure he was very happy when we gave him pear today! :) He had his carrot yesterday, 20th July 2008, when he was 21+6 weeks. Today, at 22 weeks, he had pear.

And he liked it.

A lot.

D had the pear in his hand, and the instructions were for him to eat the skin, and give G-man the pear whole and see if he'll take it. G man was watching him intently eating the pear, and when he was given the chance to hold the pear, took it in his hand and immediately (and I mean, immediately) started knawing at it!! Like a little hamster! It was too cute!! :)

And he wouldn't let go, getting upset when we removed the plate and so we gave it back to him... and he started back onto the pear.. When he took a break, he sucked on his fingers and made a complete mess of his t-shirt... but it was fine. hehe.

This, apparently, is called 'baby-led weaning' - where you let the baby hold his own food and stick it in his mouth (they recommend sticks of carrot, brocolli, apple, pear, sweet potato). Because babies get their most if not all of their nutrition from milk till at least 7 months or so, I'm not too worried that he's not getting enough using this method. I'm slightly concerned though when I see the other babies wolfing down purees of carrot, veg etc with baby rice, and G's only having sucks of pear! But we'll see. If he's super hungry (which he isn't), we'll start on purees. If he's losing weight or not putting weight on, we'll puree.

Reason why we started giving him tastes of food is because he seems very intent on chewing his fingers and toys, and I figured rather than eating plastic, he might as well have a chew on food.

Stay tuned!

p x

G-man goes swimming...

2008-07-16T22:06:00.004+01:00

in Emily's pool!! :) So, we got invited by Amanda to her house for a nice Wednesday afternoon hang-out. Turns out, she has a pool...and a humongous house (which we didn't get to see, because we were too busy hanging out at the pool and her loungers).

G's never been swimming before, and it was rather embarrassing seeing that it was a last minute thing that we turned up without any swimming equipment and only a towel. I had no real intentions of letting him go into the pool (I wanted him to have his first dip with D around) but got persuaded... G got given one of Emily's swim pants, and I didn't even bring my swimwear, and had to use one of Amanda's, together with a spare towel, and a bathrobe! Oh well, we made a good first impression then!

He absolutely loved it. I am so pleased that he's a natural water baby! Yay! We knew he enjoyed his bath times (as D calls it, 'splish splash'!!) and he's even learnt to go up to the end of the bath tub and push himself off it. But this time in a big person's pool it was different.

He had one of the baby floaters and so his bottom half of his body got wet but his top half was fine. I had to put his sun hat on just to protect his scalp from sun rays, and he was off. Didn't cry once (think he was in there for about half an hour or so!)... only time he cried was when I was trying to put on his clothes after the swim!!

He had a feed after that, fell asleep, had a poo (thank God not in the pool!!), and then we went home. He's now zonked out on the sofa having had a pretty good feed of 2 boobs and 180ml Aptamil. Success. We have to get him kitted out in swim clothes this weekend! Yay!!

P x

My Big Three-Five Birthday Weekend!!

2008-07-14T16:44:00.008+01:00

So, I turned 35 on Saturday... I can't blooming believe this. Friday, I was still in my early-thirties, and by Saturday night, I was in my mid-thirties. hmmm... but D (and the G-man, of course!!) did a really good job helping me celebrate it! :)

On Friday, there was a delivery of a bunch of beautiful flowers (roses, lilies, some other flowers I can't identify but think they are really beautiful anyway!) from the G-man, with a message "Dear Mummy, thank you for everyday!!"... Thank you George, and Thank you Daddy!

Friday night, my cousin arrived from Manchester, and we had a chinese take-away dinner...Yums!

Saturday morning, D arranged for a surprise manicure at my local salon, which was great, coz the last time I had a manicure done was in September last year, in Portugal whilst on holiday! It was all a very cloak-and-dagger operation as I had no clue what was going on.

The manicures were completed at about 1245 (D bought Jill one too) and I thought we were going straight home, but Jill rang D and was told to stall me till he rang us! Jill came up with a story about how the 'transportation' for the next part of the birthday surprise was not ready and I didn't know what was going on again! Didn't quite understand why we needed 'transportation' since we had a car! Anyways, the phone rings at about 1pm, and Jill reports that we need to go home coz G wasn't co-operating and needed his mummy. Whilst that was going on, my dad rang to wish me a happy birthday and I think was slightly disappointed that baby wasn't with me!

Anyway, we returned home,.....to a surprise birthday party!! Couldn't believe it. D had invited Lorraine, Chris and Euan, Chris and Nat, Rob, Jenny and Phoebe! There were others who were invited but couldn't make it for various reasons - I totally did not expect this (thank you D!)... It was fun - the last time I had a party was probably...my 21st..? (Jay, if you're reading this - you remember it, don't you?!). We even had a cake! (that looked like it was on fire....thanks alot!).

Following day on Sunday, Dan had organised a spa day for me at Rowhill Grange (http://www.rowhillgrange.co.uk/) - where I'd my hen weekend. It was lush! I had a back massage, and a facial. Totally relaxed.

Today, it's back to the grind with baby, but it's ok - I feel like I've been given a 2nd lease of life! Oh, forgot to mention that G must have realised it was my birthday coz he was very very good the whole day, and even laid quietly in his cot for 1.5 hours when he woke up on saturday (at 7am) ! Was very impressed.

Thank you hubs for a lovely lovely birthday. :) Mwah!!

xx

G's latest weigh in...

2008-07-14T16:36:00.005+01:00

At his 20 week visit to the Health Visitor's, he weighed in at 15.8 pounds (7.04kg) and somehow managed to 'shrink' to 66cm!!!?! OMG. The weight's still about the 50th percentile (slightly below) and he'd not gained as much weight as I expected him to (as compared to other weigh ins). Kathryn didn't seem too bothered about it, so I guess I shan't worry either. He's looking well, and is still turning onto his belly at every opportunity! We'd just come home from our First-time Parents group and all the mummies (and daddies) were really impressed with G's amazing feat!! haha... felt so proud! Apparently all the other babies (even those who are his age or slightly older) aren't going on their bellies yet... (the proud parent syndrome's creeping in!!!)...

he's still thankfully sleeping through the night too - well, waking up for a feed at about 4 or 5am's fine...!

Still haven't gotten my head round the whole weaning thing but we did buy some organic pears and carrots on the weekend. I might start to make some purees!! Egad! My baby's growing up! having said that, I'm very tempted by the notion of baby-led weaning (http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/) as there's no need for purees and mush! Have to think about it more. The Department of Health doesn't promote this, and it's seen as a faddish thing. I think it does make some sense!

p x

Our solo trip to Bluewater...

2008-07-08T20:06:00.003+01:00

G and I went to Bluewater last Friday to meet Em, puppy and ratty. It was such an achievement for me as Bluewater's about 40 miles away (takes about 45min-1hr to drive there) and I did it all by myself. I'm usually quite reluctant to drive distances by myself as I'm worried that I'll fall asleep. Factor in the G-man who's unpredictable at best, and you can understand why I was not keen to do this trip. About a month ago, the NCT girls wanted to go to Bluewater, and last minute, I copped out as G wasn't too good in the car (he'd cry everytime he got into the car), and I didn't want him crying all the way there and back!!

Fast forward, G at nearly 20 weeks and I decided that we could possibly risk it. He was very very good on the way there, slept all the way. We had sushi (which was a bit of a rip off!) and then spent a significant amount of time in the changing rooms, feeding and changing and feeding again! But it was good. G didn't do too well on our way back, crying for 30 minutes of the way. I had to steel my nerves and get home as by then it was rather late and I didn't want to sit by a layby feeding him!!

All in all, a good trip anyway, and hey I might do it again too!

P x

The car that crashed...

2008-07-08T19:56:00.004+01:00

into our car was driven by a 76 year old man who I think, fell asleep at the wheel. Our stationary car which was parked right outside our house, was crashed into 2 thursdays ago (26th June), the day before C&N got married. It happened at about 12.30pm, on a thursday. Most other thursdays, I am at M&S having tea and biscuits with the other mummies and their babies. But this particular thursday, I decided NOT to meet up with the other mummies as we had a long day ahead of us that day (we were supposed to go pick up N's dress from Jodie's house, and then go for a dinner at the Fordwich Arms as a pre-wedding meal with the family!) and G doesn't do very well if we have a very packed day (I have to admit, I don't either!).

So, I was in the living room, sitting on the sofa with G, when I saw and heard the car move and crash. It was surreal. I jumped up, and saw this black car's front end in the back of my Honda Civic. And an articulated ASDA truck opposite my car. Fantastic...

It was a good job we weren't in the car - I had just thought 5 minutes before to nip to the shops as I wanted to get some shopping done before the long weekend! I could have been loading G into the car when that car ploughed into ours!!

Anyway, to cut the long story short, after calling the police, ambulance and insurance company, getting a replacement car organised (which apparently D had not included into our policy!), the wedding dress was delivered to N by Jodie, and we drove to the Fordwich Arms in our Honda, which was deemed driveable on Thursday afternoon and then deemed un-roadworthy on Friday morning. We got given a VW Passat as a replacement car. Although my first impression of it was 'huge car, how will I park it?!', I've decided that I quite like it now. It's got a fabulously huge boot (the buggy fits really really well in it) and it drives beautifully on the motorway. Granted, I only did the motorway run on Friday when we went to Bluewater (just me and G! that's another blog entry), but that run was really brilliant. It's a diesel car which given the current price hike in petrol/diesel means that it's costing us £1.31 per litre, but it's great.

We'll apparently get our Honda back next week... oh well, it's good whilst it lasted.

love
34 years 361 day old p x

BCG...

2008-07-07T16:55:00.003+01:00

G was BCG-ed this morning at 9am, and it went well. Having said that, as usual, I was paranoid mummy, and daddy did really well by remembering to calpol baby (baby paracetomol) so that the pain may be lessened. Not sure if it does work but it does make us as parents feel better! G was ever so brave again, didn't cry. In fact, he cried alittle only because of the way he was being held (his left arm had to be still as the needle was going in).

There's a tiny little red mark where the needle went in and they say a scab should form and fall off over the course of a month or so. Let's hope he'll be fine by the time we fly!

The TB nurse was going on about how it was actually ok if we had his vaccinations in the same week as his BCG as all the other injections are inactive. I was thinking, sure that might be the case, but surely his little body won't take too kindly towards 5 major infections and 1 live one?!

oh well. Ok, G's turned himself again and is stuck.

Gotta go!

p x

The baby has flipped...

2008-06-26T10:27:00.004+01:00

at 18 weeks (and 1 day!)..!! hehe. another milestone.

G had been trying for ages now to turn onto his front - he'd try for what seems forever to flip onto his front but gets nowhere (about half way really - so onto his side). We'd been pushing him gently on his back and he'd then turn over, feel really pleased with himself, and then get tired quite easily.

Anyway, Tuesday morning (after G's big day with daddy!), I left him on his playgym on his back as usual, and when I came back literally 2 minutes later (to a strangely silent baby), I found him on his front, quite happily looking around and grabbing things! OMG. I was so pleased....had to ring daddy immediately to tell him!! hehe

And since Tuesday (it's Thursday now), everytime we put him on his back, he's turning and flipping onto his front! And he does it really fast now! Very impressed...

I think we might have to think about weaning him soon - perhaps not yet, but perhaps a good idea to get some baby rice and equipment ready. He's been eating alot more (draining his 120ml of Aptamil once a day) and I think it's time to increase his milk intake. He's still being breastfed and I have all intentions of still breastfeeding him till at least 6 months, but I guess since he's being more active, he'll need more food and calories. Maybe by the time we get to sg, he'll be able to have porridge!

Chris and Natty are getting married tomorrow - how exciting.. and baby G's got a bling outfit, including a diamante cravat!! hahaha. Will try and post some pics.

And G's going to have a 2nd cousin in October - a baby girl. yay!

P and G xx

3rd round of immunisations and latest weigh in!

2008-06-18T09:05:00.003+01:00

G is 17 weeks this week, but I'll be writing about what happened last week...

his immunisations was due last Wed and we went with some trepidation as this time, he was due to have 3 injections (the previous rounds were 2!!!). Baby G was soooo brave, as he was smiling and giggling when Daddy sat him on his knee and held him real tight. Nurse Wendy was really nice too (she's always nice) and did the injections real fast

But it was still very traumatising to watch him smile one second and his face turning into a grimace the next and tears starting to flood in the next!! :( My heart was breaking when that happened...but baby G was soo brave, and only whimpered and cried for literally 30 seconds. Again, we calpol-ed him (yay!) and I saved a boob for him to suckle on and he was fine after the 3 jabs (2 in one thigh!!). :) He literally forgot about it by the time we were out of the surgery, which is great. haha.

The next day, we went in for his monthly weigh in and measurement, and the results are.........*drum roll*...

Weight: 6.68kg (14 pounds 11 oz) - 50%ile
Length: 66.5 cm - nearly 98%ile (?!)
Head circumference: 42cm - 50%ile

So everything spot on and as per normal. Here, they're not too concerned where baby's plotting on the growth charts, as long as he's more or less following his projected percentile. So if G was always on the 50th percentile, then he should really be around there every time he's weighed, if that makes sense. I'm really happy that his weight's on the average as this chart's based on formula-fed babies, and he's mostly breast fed. Last night was the first night in days that he took a whole bottle of formula (120ml) and even that was less than what's 'recommended' for his age (210!), so it looks like he's growing and thriving on mostly breast milk.

Speaking of growing and thriving - saw this programme on tv the other night, "Britain's Biggest Babies"...OMG, it was most ridiculous to see these really obese babies, and many (if not all) of these mothers are obese themselves! There was one woman who claimed that she loved fish when she was pregnant - turned out that she was gorging on fish and chips!! I know it's fish, but no matter how good the quality of fish is, if you coat it with batter...and accompany it with chips, then surely the goodness is all wiped out!? There was another woman who claimed that her baby girl at 14 months "loved chips"...excuse me, but how does a baby learn to 'love chips'... surely she would have learned it through her parents providing that as a meal?! On tv, they were showing the toddler sat in her high chair, with a big plate of shop-bought chips (so, not even oven-baked chips at home). It was enough to make me sick.

Lastly there was a 3 year old boy who was so obese, he had to use an adult size swim ring in the pool - and his mother thought it was hilarious. And after the swim, she fed him rubbish food again.

I don't get these parents - surely it's one thing to feed yourself junk food, but to feed your child the same, especially when they are too young to make a decision for themselves? The occasional junk food is fine, I think (esp since if you forbid it, it becomes the desired forbidden food!), but to have it practically every day, that I think is tantamount to child abuse.

P

Daddy's home alone with G!

2008-06-10T16:39:00.004+01:00

Following on from the previous post, D was home alone with G, from about 8am, to about 9pm. And I think, he's finally realised/understood, how difficult it can be. Very 'fun' and great to be with the baby, but it's a full on job (having said that I'm typing this at 4.40pm, and G's having a nap.. - long may it continue..well, at least till I finish this!).

I rang a few times (10am, 1pm, 6pm, 7.30pm) and thankfully, he wasn't screaming except for the last time at about 9pm, which was when he was due a feed and D thought that I could feed him (and I would have liked to) but the train came in at 9.10pm, so I was too late (when G wants his food, he WANTS his food NOW!)... (people have wondered where he gets his impatience from... dum de dum de dum...haha).

They were very active during the day - they 'sunbathed' in the garden (great pic of G on the sunlounger, and on the picnic mat...!), they went for a walk (great video), lots of giggles (all on vid), and even to G's first football match (D runs his office's football team and they had a game that evening)! I would love to be that active with G but am nervous about lugging baby around every where I go. When I'm alone, we try to do one activity a day. Some days (like today) we just stay at home). We weren't supposed to be home today, but our date to Whitstable beach with Shelley and Sophia got postponed.

D will be home alone again on the 23rd of June with G... Let's hope it'll be just as fun! Ironically, because I'd expressed milk a few days before, G had a whole day of just breastmilk, which is great!

We have his 3rd round of immunisations tomorrow - wish us luck! Must remember to calpol him before we go. We then have our weigh-in on thursday. I can't wait to see how tall and how heavy he is. He's definitely put on weight. Tried weighing him by carrying him and then minusing my weight, and it looked like he's now about 6.5-7kg! which is great. We'll get the official reading on Thursday.

ok - will sign off now.

P x

Breast Mastitis

2008-06-02T12:52:00.004+01:00

Something else wrong with mummy?!?!

yup... last tuesday, I went to London to do some rather lucrative work with another institution...and left daddy with G (that's another post!). Anyway, left home at 8am, got back at 9pm and brought my expresser with me. As part of the meeting plans, I'd also asked for a 'private room'. Rather embarrassing since I didn't even know these people! But hey, they provided, and I expressed and transported back from London 2 bags full of milk hahah.

When I woke up that morning, my left breast felt rather tender - I didn't think anything of it. But by the time I got back that night, it was hurting like mad. Turns out it was mastitis. I had to have a bath about 2am, as it was just intolerably painful. Both boobs were also leaking and feeding G was a nightmare - but we continued to let him feed.

The next day, I trooped off to the doctors who gave me antibiotics and some ibuprofen (just as well, for my wrist too!). It's feeling alot better now, thank God!!

On a more positive note, G's still sleeping through the night, going down on average about 9pm (sometimes earlier, sometimes later), and waking up on average about 4/5am. Which is great! :) He feeds at 4/5am, and then goes back down till 7/8am. He hangs out with daddy for an hour or so and then gets handed over. It's alot more manageable... and we've got a routine where he has 2 naps a day (sometimes he goes for 3).

On weekends, it gets abit knocked out of sync because we do things like shopping, and have lunches/dinners (or like this past weekend, 2 BBQs and a dinner!). By about bath time, he's just about had enough activity and wants to come home. And amazingly enough, he does know what home is, as by the time we come through the door, he's smiling again! Makes me slightly worried about our flight to sg this aug - what if he's upset he's not at home for 2 whole weeks?!? OMG. Oh well, not going to think about it till closer the date. Hopefully by then he's used to being out and about, he'll be fine!!fingers crossed very very tightly.

We've got his 3rd round of immunisations next Wed... they come round real quick!! and this time, it won't be pleasant at all as he'll have 3 shots. Tune in next week!

This May/June's turning into a wet wipe out. It's been raining more or less continuously for the last week or so... I'm getting depressed. I think Summer's come and gone... remember, the 10 days or so in April!!? Think that was it!

p x

De Quervains syndrome

2008-05-22T20:00:00.002+01:00

WHAT?! what is that? and why are we even discussing this!?

I've been diagnosed with this syndrome this afternoon. After a few days of an aching wrist/tendon and a dodgy thumb, I went back to the doctors and got sent on to seek physiotherapy for my swollen wrist/thumb. I thought I'd slept on it awkwardly, at first, and so left it for a day, but it didn't get better. I went to to doctor and saw a dodgy one, who told me to take parecetomol and perhaps splint it. I decided to back to see Dr again today (2 days later) because it's getting worse and more painful. This time, Dr Molony gave me a list of physiotherapists whom he'd recommend (esp after I told him I had private health insurance!), and I rang one of them, and made an appointment for this afternoon (result!).

Anyway, so I went to St Lawrence Sports and Physiotherapy Clinic and saw Oli. And Oli told me that I have De Quervains syndrome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeQuervain's_syndrome. He's really spot on as it sounds like I really do have this syndrome, with a swollen tendon near my wrist and thumb. Several factors have contributed to this, including the fact that I've just been pregnant (we release Elastin during pregnancy and after that, whilst breastfeeding, which basically makes us more flexible), the fact that I'm doing alot more carrying (baby, car seat, lots more stuff!), and the fact that I'm double-jointed or hypermobile http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=563&sectionId=1

oh dear...it's all sounding more and more ominous. So, he used some ultrasound treatment on me for 3 minutes, and some light therapy for a minute or so. It did feel better, but hey, it could have been a placebo effect! My wrist is hurting again. :(

I gotta go back for another treatment next week, and hopefully the wrist guard will be ordered and waiting for me then. Wonder how long this will take to treat. He didn't say anything... According to some of those websites, it said it should take 1 year... a year?!?!

let's hope the pain subsides... *fingers crossed*

p x