Jiejie and Didi

We used to hear how the elder sibling will suddenly become a baby again when the younger one arrives. How true. This is the younger one crying.


And the older one imitating.


The younger one on the pacifier, which he doesnt like and still prefers mummy's n****e.


And again the older one wanting to try too.


So cute hor?

Mummy Lim

Daddy Lim and His Princess

Daddy Lim has been spending so much more time with the princess now that the little one spent so much time at my breasts. Daddy Lim also took over the role to entertain the princess during the weekends cos I am on confinement and had spent a fair bit of time in the hospital.

He is so confident of handling her now, having tucked her to bed countless times and he even brought her to bicycle shops, West Coast Park, Suntec, swimming, breakfast, window and grocery shopping, etc. And the princess enjoys his company so much. Haiz, I wish to join them in their fun soon.

This was taken during one of those trips. Envy.


I am so proud of Daddy Lim. He used to be pretty distance from Lil Shauna but has become so close to her now. Just yday, the princess threw a tantrum at bedtime and was crying in the baby's room as she insisted for Lil Isaac to sleep with her on the bed in our room. I refused. Not is it too dangerous, we also have enuff on our plate with a bouncy toddler, we dun need another crying baby. Eventually, she asked for Pappy to carry her back to our room wor. I lost favor liao. -.o" Hohoho. But all as well, there is only one me and 2 kids!

Mummy Lim

Paranoid

We were told to monitor the baby and of course to bring him back to kkh should his fever comes back. He already had 2 doses of the antibiotic orally since home. The antibiotic probably taste yucky cos he gave us funny faces and gag. -.o" he still has 4 doses to go.

Daddy Lim and I are paranoid and kept wondering if Lil Isaac is having a fever. We can't tell. He constantly feels warm to me. I duno if I can trust the thermometer. It didn't give us an accurate reading the last time. We tried using the normal oral thermometer under his armpit like what the hospital does but still doubt the reading. Haiz. He always feel so warm to me when I pick him up for his feed but I am not sure if it is bcos our place is too warm. He feels less warm after a whole, perhaps the fan cooled him down? I didn't dare to wrap him just in case it increases his body temperature.

We go crazy if he sleeps too much or when he falls asleep after sucking for only a short while at my breasts. Boohoohoo. Pls pray that the fever will not come back and if it does, we will have the discernment to bring him back to the hospital.

Mummy Lim

We Are Going Home!

Yeah, the doctor has cleared us and we are going to be discharged at 1pm. One antibiotic has been stopped and the other will be converted to oral form. We will complete the oral form after we are discharged. I am so happy, I want to do cartwheel.. Ooooooiiiiiiiiii....

Lil Isaac's fever has come down since yday's evening. He is sleeping and feeding well but I think I have more bm than what he needs now. My breasts are full now and he doesn't want to latch. I need to express soon or face bursting breasts. Hoho.

I am glad to go home. Hoho.

Mummy Lim

The Decision

I spoke to HX and she mentioned that infants below 3 months should not come down with fever. In the event that they do, it is likely to be a bacterial infection rather than a viral fever. Thus, she sees the consultant's point to be cautious and to continue the antibiotic.

Lil Isaac had one dose of the antibiotic orally and was supposed to be given another dose (the other type) via jab. He is such a poor thing to have to take something orally (other than milk) at this young age. The plan was then to decide after we saw the consultant this morning on whether to continue with the antibiotics. But after hearing what HX said, we wavered. At the end of the day, we wanted the best for Lil Isaac.

Daddy Lim and I decided to reset the plug and let Lil Isaac continues with the antibiotic adn make further decision when we see the consultant this morning. The evening doctor came and helped to set the plug smoothly, only 1 attempt and minimal crying. We are glad that we reset the plug cos a low grade fever came back in the night. Somehow, we felt more assured and less paranoid that the low grade fever has anything to do with us stopping the antibiotics.

This morning, the consultant saw Lil Isaac and decided that he will be given antibiotic for one more day. He will be discharged tomorrow evening. Hooray! We will continue with one type of antibiotic orally after he is discharged and the other one will be discontinued. I am just glad that Lil Isaac can go home soon.

My mum will be taking over the night shift tonight. I have seen so little of Lil Shauna recently and heard that she has been looking for me + giving Daddy Lim a hard time. We will be bringing Lil Shauna to visit didi this evening and I am glad that I can tuck her to bed tonight. Well, that is provided that I dont fall asleep before she does lah. Lil Isaac has been really cooperative last night and slept really well, so did mummy. Hoho. I guess night shift for my mum should be pretty easy tonight. We are really grateful for her help. She has either been helping to take the night shift or to take care of Lil Shauna. Without her, I think we die liao.

This is what mummies will do for their kids.. and grandkids too. Hohoho. To think that I treat my mummy so badly at times. *guilty*

Mummy Lim

To Continue or Not?

The good news - the reports came back negative. The bad news - the consultant wants to be cautious and to complete the antibiotics.

Lil Isaac is currently on 2 kind of antibiotics. Although the test results come back negative, the consultant suspects that there is probably a bacterial infection somewhere, just that it is not picked up. Thus, she is recommending for Lil Isaac to complete the course.

As the results come back negative, we as parents have the right to insist to stop the antibiotics. But it is a tough decision.

The plug on Lil Isaac's foot is no longer usable. We have asked the nurse to take it out. His foot is swollen and both feet are very red. The doctor cannot provide a reason for the redness. His skin is uber dry and he is perling badly. It could be the aircon or the antibiotic side effect. We think it is the latter.

To continue with the antibiotics, the plug has to be reset and it is uber tough to set plug on babies this young as they have really fine veins. He will probably be poked many times to get the plug set. Boohoo. And he still have 7 and 9 doses of antibiotics left. The 9 doses one can be converted to oral form and we can continue to administer after he is discharged. For the other one, it is either via injection or iv and taken 8 hrly apart! To complete the antibiotic, we will probably be here all the way till Sat or even Sun! My heart sank.

Other than side effects and greater immunity to bacterial, there is no adverse effect to put him on antibiotic should there is no infection. But if there is one and we chose to stop the antibiotic, the infection might come back and we will have to start antibiotic again and perhaps even stronger ones.

We are torn. I really want to go home and thought that we can go tomorrow. The stay here is draining all of us. Lil Shauna doesn't get to see much of me, Daddy Lim is shuffling between office, home and hospital, my mum has to help with Lil Shauna and night shift. Haiz. But we all want the best for Lil Isaac. Pls pray for wisdom.

Mummy Lim

No More Fever?

Lil Isaac's temperature has dropped! He last measured 36.9 degree. Hehehe. My mum took night shift yday and said that he was crying intermittently, asking for milk frequently and poo-ing and peeing so often. My mum didn't get to sleep and I think Lil Isaac slept badly too cos he slept so soundly this morning. I even managed to catch a nap. Either that or he has turned into a night owl. -.o" I think we will have to buy hamsters to play with him at night.

We are still waiting for the 48 hrs report and if it is negative, the doctor will probably keep him in for 1 more night for monitoring. The report should come in today. So, if his temperature remains normal, we will probably get to go home tomorrow. Hooray! I should be taking night shift tonight. Yawn, I feel tired already.

Mummy Lim

Busted

My mum always become a gan cheong spider whenever one of the kids come down with high fever. She's always worried that the fever will 'damage' their brain. So when Lil Isaac is down with high fever and is still so little, my mum was worried sick. It is worse when there's no medicine to bring down the fever.

When the doctor told us about the possibility of bacterial infection, our imagination run wild and Daddy Lim asked me the same question about fever damaging the brain too. I heard somewhere that there is no such thing about fever damaging brain but decided to ask the doctor.

I was right. Fever is a sign that the body is fighting the bacterial or virus. Fever does not lead to brain damage, it is merely a symptom. Brain damage will occur if there is a brain infection, leading to fever and not treated properly. So, myth busted.

Lil Isaac's fever seems to be subsiding. He last measured 37.2 degrees and is sleeping soundly now with no crying or whimpering while sleeping. I even managed to nap a little in the afternoon. Hehe. But he wants to be carried and I am worried that we are cultivating a bad habit. We will have no time to carry him when we go home.

The nurse told me that the 24 hours blood test result is out and it is negative. The concrete 48 hours result will only be out tomorrow. So, it looks like we have one or two more nights to go. I asked about the brain infection result and was confused. I think I will ask again later. Anyway, I am happy that Lil Isaac is feeling better. That makes me a happy mummy too. Hehe.

Mummy Lim

Updates on Lil Isaac

His fever is still burning. -.o" I stayed overnight the 1st day and it was bad. We opted for B1 room, which is a 4 bedded room. We wanted a one-bedded ward but Singaporeans must be uber rich cos all the one-bedded wards are taken up! We are in the waiting list and still are. Staying in a 4-bedded ward is like going for some symphony concert, the kids take turn to cry. Lil Isaac was really cranky and kept crying. He must be really feeling uncomfortable, he cried every few seconds and there was nothing I could do but to try to pacify him whenever he cries and try not to disturb the rest too much. But since it is a kids' ward, the other parents are understanding. I barely had any sleep on the 1st night.

His crying continued the whole day and night and was still crying yday. My mum offered to take over the 2nd night so that I can have some rest. I was grateful for the offer. I came back early this am to take over and heard from my mum that Lil Isaac was still crying non-stop the whole night. She never sleep at all and I pity my neighbors. The maid will be taking night shift tonight before the cycle starts again.

The doctors confirmed that it is not urine infection yday afternoon and had taken him off the corresponding antibiotic. The other 2 results should be out today. If all 3 results turned out negative, then it is a viral fever. But the bad thing is that he is too young for panadol and no medicine will be given for his viral fever. We will just have to wait for the fever to go away on its own and it could take up to 5 days! -.o" Today is day 3. And he can only go home when his fever goes away.

He is feeding better already but still not good enuff. I think he probably lost weight. He measured 3.4kg right before he was admitted. I will latch him on demand and tries to express if my breasts still feel full and he doesn't want to latch. The nurses will give him ebm via bottles if I am not on shift. He is starting to drink more regularly and suckle harder when I latch him, but definitely not as regular and long as before he was sick. I am trying to express when he is not with me but nothing works best like the baby. Coupled with the lack of rest, I am worried about dropping milk supply. Haiz. While in the hospital, I am also drinking less fluids and no chance to take my mummy's yummy soup. Hmmm, we can only hope that Lil Isaac recovers quickly and he and I will have to work doubly hard to build back the milk supply. Moooooo.

Prayers please!

Mummy Lim

Lil Isaac is Sick

P.s - this post was written on Sunday evening but completed only now.

Lil Isaac is admitted to kkh this afternoon for fever. He measured 38.6 degree upon admission and the protocol is to admit all infants below 3 months old with fever above 38.5 degrees for thorough checks. So here I am, spending the night in kkh with him.

I feel super lousy. I found him unusually drowsy 2 nights ago but dismissed it as he was awake and alert last night. I tucked him to bed at 9pm and went to bed at 11pm after tucking the princess to bed. He woke up at 12mn for his 1st night feed and at 2.45am for his 2nd night feed. Thereafter, he refused to be put down and would cry if we tried. This lasted until this afternoon. I didn't get much sleep and was so glad when my mum took over at 6am. He cried intermittently despite us carrying him constantly and the frequency and intensity of his cries increased. We were all at our wits end, not knowing what exactly is wrong with him.

At certain point, I thought he felt warm but I thought it was normal for infants. I tried taking his temperature using the ear thermometer and the reading was normal so I dismissed fever. I had wonder of the reading was accurate since his ear was so small but i did not entertain the thought for long. Then, we thought he was colicky or maybe tummyache but realized that some thing must be wrong when he still kept crying after almost 9 hrs and he refused to feed! He refused to latch after his last feed at 2.45am! He did latch here and there until he was admitted but nothing much than 5mins on one breast.

At kkh, I was shock to realize that Lil Isaac was running a high fever. And I was even more shock when the doctor told me that he has to be admitted. That was when I started crying too. I felt so uber lousy, didn't even realize that my son was running a high fever. I had thought that they would send him home after giving him a Jan or something.

At the ward, the doctor said that they have to take blood, urine and some spinal fluid thingy to test for blood, urine and brain infection respectively. Each of the procedure sounds so uber painful to me. Boohoo! They will also administer antibiotics just in case Lil Isaac had one of the mentioned bacterial infection. The preliminary result will be out in a few hours but the definite result would take 48hrs. They will stop the respective antibiotics if the result turns out to be negative. I am not sure if the antibiotic is harmful to Lil Isaac but the doctors are saying that the benefits will surpass the harm should any of the bacterial infection test turns up positive.

We were emotionally and physically drained and Lil Isaac wouldn't stop crying. In fact, he had cried himself hoarse. Heartache. We are so thankful to have really nice nurses at the ward. While waiting for a bed and doctor to explain what is to come, the nurses offered to take over and calm the crying very badly baby so that we could compose ourselves. The nurses are so friendly and warm and definitely helped to make us feel better.

Poor Lil Isaac. He was still very much cranky and would be alternating between sleeping and crying until now. I felt even more lousy for not able to make him feel better. I feel worse when i thought about Lil Shauna.

When we were home this morning in the room, she was fussy asking me to hug her but I could not oblige bcos I was carrying and latching Lil Isaac. She accidentally kicked Lil Isaac while I was latching him and was disciplined by Daddy Lim. She cried pitifully and was asking for mummy but I was too busy with Lil Isaac to go to her. Sob. And when we were bringing the baby to kkh, she pleaded to go along but we heartlessly left her behind. Double sob. She's such a poor thing since Lil Isaac comes along. I feel so lousy for having to treat her this way. Double sob. I hope she will grow up soon and understand that we love her just as much and we are not forsaking her.

Tonight is the 1st night and there should be a few more to come. Haiz. I hope all things turned out fine eventually. Pls pray for protection and speedy recovery for Lil Isaac.

Mummy Lim