Terrible 2 has arrived...

Karen might only be 17 month old but we are feeling the full effect of her Terrible 2. Gifted with a set of powerful lungs, the ability to scream in the highest pitch imaginable, the tantrums she can dish out are unbelievable. The first time she had a tantrum was approximately 2 month ago. She threw a fit because she didn’t want to go upstairs and kneel face down over on one of the floor mat, with her bums up high to cry. That first tantrum was seriously funny to see. She wasn’t trying very hard and would look up now and then to see if I’m paying attention. I continued to do my chores and ignored her. When she started to try harder, I decided to just leave her in the hall crying on the floor mat and go upstairs with my clean laundry.

Karen looked up only to find that no one was in the room with her, even the dogs had left her and followed me upstairs. She stopped crying to look around the house for us; I was observing from the stairs so I called out to her and told her we are all upstairs in the bedroom, she can join us when she’s ready. She crawled up the stairs and was caught by surprise to see me at the landing waiting for her, immediately she bended forward and buried her face on the stairs to continue her tantrum. That, was a priceless moment. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. I picked her up because the stairs is a dangerous place for tantrum throwing but once she was safe in the bedroom, I continued to ignore her until she gave up. That first tantrum didn’t last long but I couldn’t say the same for the tantrums she can throw now.

Karen still doesn’t or couldn’t express herself vocally but she could understand us perfectly. While I know that speech is something that every kid develops in their own time, being unable to express her needs or wants makes it more likely for her to be caught in frustration. We had a whole series of outburst during this Christmas season and it was made worst by her teething (I spotted 4 new teeth!!), persistent fever and allergy (cause by a new medication for the fever), all happening at the same time. The poor kiddo was spotted in red, with a swollen face from the allergy and swollen gums. Luckily she is probably too young to remember her 2nd Christmas and this will just be a small phase in her life to come.

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Forgotten my password to Multiply - Karen's blog

You know you haven't blog enough when you've forgotten your own password.... this is bad.

Since we started daycare for Karen officially (as in we actually started payment ), our lives have been one busy week after another. I guess when one is trying to adapt to a new schedule, and when a good friend is coming to visit soon, making a new change work (and cleaning and tidying the house for our visitors) becomes a challenge. We've learnt to cook with Karen running afoot, we've learn to feed her anything so that she can have her breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and a snack before dinner (if dinner is late), then dinner and milk for just-before-bed. Yes, she's an eating machine, will and can consume anything....

We've learnt that since chores are endless, we'll need to take time to slow down once in a while and simply enjoy what we have. With the fine summer weather and long daylight, we'll take a stroll around the neighbourhood after dinner to simply wind down. All our dependants (2 dogs n a toddler in a stroller) enjoy the slow walk. Every now and then we'll let Karen walk on her own with Kiki's old puppy leash so that she can walk her imaginary dog. Karen's usually pretty exhausted after day care and is happy to sit in the stroller during the walk and goes to bed around 8pm. She is enjoying her days there and I will blog soon about that (I hope) because I want to be able to remember all those silly stuffs she did in the day care centre.

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

High Fever in the night

Just when i thought i'm going to have a full night rest... :p

Karen had a bit of fever the day before and it became a really high fever at midnight on Wednesday. She was so hot to touch that when I measured her temperature it was 40 degree! What a shock! All I could think of is cooling her down. I opened the windows to get some cold air in, switched on the laptop and get her favorite Youtube playlist running to keep her entertained while I grab the gears. She hated the wet cloth on her face and head but was happy to undress and put on cooler wear, she was also willing to have a cool drink from her drinking bottle. And each time I coaxed, she would drink a little more. She was so lethargic that all she would do is to lie down and watched the programs. I gave her another dose medication and bless our good fortune, she was happy to take that too!

Andrew's working night shift so I tried calling him but he couldn't pick up his phone. I left him a sms hoping he would be able to come home soon. If I couldn't bring her temperature down, we might have to bring her to the doctor. Fortunately, her fever did came down to 38 and hover around that range. As soon as her fever was better and she felt better, I tried to get her to go back to bed. She was asleep in an instant. Poor kid. Daddy came home right after she had fallen asleep. He had to measure her temperature again and wake her up to be sure she's alright. lol... Karen was protesting because she wanna go back to bed.

We brought her to the doctor the next day because her fever keeps going right back up. She was given some antibiotics and that did the job. Although she won't eat anything for the day nor would she drink her milk, she would drink water from her little straw cup. That evening we gave her a bit of ice cream as a treat since she still hasn't eaten anything or wanted any food. lol... she must be feeling better by then because she was so pleased with the ice cream.

I'm just thankful that she was really cooperative during the "height" of the fever and that the dogs were very well behaved too. Both dogs kept to their bed corners and didn't bother me when i was running around the house looking for stuffs. They didn't even whine to go to the bathroom but stayed quiet throughout so that Karen can sleep. Sigh, I hope we won't have to go through that again. (wishful thinking! Yeah right!... )

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Karen's first haircut.... by me!

Took a couple of minutes to blog about Karen. She’s certainly growing up fast. It makes us realize how quickly time flies when you are occupied and kept busy caring for a little being. She’s crawling now and is constantly attempting to stand without help. I had to change her to a pull-up nappy because she won’t stay still long enough for us to change her. I asked Tony (age 64) at work, how did they do it back then? He said, once they are pricked by the nappy pin ONCE, they learnt to stay really still when we changed them. LOL… I think children now are so fortunate and pampered.

Last few days, I’ve been attempting to trim her hair. I allow it to grow because she looks so much like a little boy baby that I thought a bit of hair will make some difference. However, it’s getting long and messy (and she still looks like a boy). First try on her fringe and the straight line across makes her look really silly. So I did another trim last night. On the bright side, this 2^nd trim is a little better than the last, on the negative side, I’ll have to vacuum my room this weekend because I trim her hair while she’s playing on our bed. Sigh…

Before trimming her hair

After the first attempt....

The final result after having lots of hair on my bed.

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Karen on the trip back to Singapore

The 10 hours flight wasn’t as bad as we imagine it to be. The seats were separated into columns of 3. On the flight to Singapore, I was assigned a seat alone where the bassinet was, while Andrew and my parents took the 3 seats behind me. Another kiwi couple was seated next to us with their one year old toddler girl.

At 5 month plus, Karen wasn’t crawling yet and all she wanted was to be carried. I kept her close, pat her to sleep in my arms and the bassinet was mainly use to hold all her stuffs. I doubt she spent more than 2 hours in that bassinet. However, I won’t be able to do without it, it was really handy having her bibs, toys, and bottles within arm reach inside the bassinet.

It was also fortunate that Karen was distracted by the toddler next to us. She would spend her time in the plane just observing what the one year old was up to. The tod’s parent however wasn’t having an easy time. There was one time when their kid burst into tears refusing to nap even though she was exhausted. Her dad cuddled her in his arm in the seat next to me and Karen. While the toddler was waving her arms around screaming, Karen reaches out and touched her hand. The tod immediately stopped crying and tries to touch Karen’s hand. They keep fingering each other which were really sweet to see. All the fingering and hand touching calms the tod down and she eventually fell asleep. By then Karen starts fussing a little and I immediately walk her around the cabin which promptly sets her sleeping too.

About the toddler , her dad and mom are both New Zealander and she’s born oversea. They brought her back to NZ for a visit and were on the way back to England. On the other hand, Karen’s born in NZ and was on the way to visit Singapore. Talk about irony.

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Another Video update on Karen

Dear SG,

It's a new beginning and it's going to be a wonderful year ahead. We know it because we are making it so. Here's to share the latest video of Karen to our friends and families. :)

Baby speaking


Trying to speak and communicate. It's late at night and way past her bedtime but we just got back from the mall and she won't sleep. But she wanna talk.


First food


Karen taking her first food. Rice cereals.


Sit ups


Karen doing her sit ups.


Silly Antics


Karen loves to put something on her face then she would try to kick it off. The problem is, she looks like she is suffocating whenever she did that. Usually we'll remove the article on her face and she will smile when we did that. And then she will do it again....


Karen and her stuff toy cow


Karen playing with her stuff toy cow. She's teething now and since the only thing she could reach of the cow is its hoof, she tries to put that into her mouth. We thought it's time to teach her to be gentle with animals... :p

with love from NZ,
J

Interaction

You know how we adults would repeat an action if it makes the baby laugh, what if the baby could do the same for us?

2 days ago, I put Karen’s back to my front and sit her down to play on our bed. She would reach forward to grab her toy and put it in her mouth (as usual). She was able to sit up by herself now but would still lose her balance now and then so it’s important we watch her closely.

Since I just got back from work and was exhausted, I lay down across the pillow just to observe her from behind.

Then she decided to flip backward and her head hit me hard on my tummy as I was sheltering her from the back. In case she was frightened by the fall, I laugh to settle her down. She had this big grin when I laugh and decided to sit upright again. Then out of the blue, she flipped backward once more and immediately look up at me. I was puzzled so I did a little laugh again. Guess what, she grins and struggle upright, then fell backward, and look up at me AGAIN. And it dawn on me that she was playing with me, trying to make me laugh! Aww….

We did that repeatedly for 5 mins, by then she was laughing along with me. I shouted for Andrew to come look and of course, she stopped and was distracted. Wish I had it video captured but that’s the problem with a baby, they stopped as soon as the camera comes up. Any way, this will be one wonderful memory I will always have, Happy 2009 everyone.

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Sleeping through the night

Finally! Oh well, I better not be too optimistic. The good news is that she has finally slept through the night since last friday. Bad news is that she still cries and wails but she does go right back to sleep after a while. Even if we try to feed her when she cries, she would just drink around 10ml of milk and falls asleep. This just shows that she doesn't need the milk, just the comfort of sucking.

We nearly achieve that when she was around 3 months old, she had around 6 hours of sleep without waking up. Then her gum started hurting and she was back to waking up every 3 hourly no matter how much we tries to feed her during the day or get her back on track again.

I certainly hope this lasts. She certainly looks a lot happier waking up in the morning after a good night rest. Meanwhile I still wake up when she cries or stirs a little and as usual will take me a while to fall back to sleep again. So if you see me online at the wee hour of the morning, don't be offended if I say hi and suddenly disappear. I probably had fallen asleep with the laptop on again. ;)

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Recognising faces

Karen's beginning to recognise faces. My mom and dad went for a hair cut and while they are in the salon, Karen fell asleep. She woke up in the car sitting next to grandpa n grandma but instead of the usual happy sound, she started screaming and crying. She was pretty alright with grandpa because he only had a minor trim but grandma had a shorten her hair considerably and certainly looked a little different. We went out for lunch after the salon trip and we had to sit Karen away from Grandma so that she would stop crying. While we were all amused by her "outrage" my mom was really hurt and upset by it. Took Karen a couple of hours to get use to her ganny's pretty new look.

To think I was considering cutting my hair too. ;)

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Karen has her SG citizenship

Karen's SG citizenship has been approved and is now ready for collection from the SG High Comm here. Unfortunately we have forgotten to include a A4 size return courier bag in our application hence they holding her documents ransom while waiting for us to post the courier bag to them. It took around 2 months+ for this application to be approve partly because of her name.

NZ prefers the family name to be at the back hence her birth certificate says "Karen Kai Eng LAU"

SG wants it in a different way, either "Karen LAU Kai Eng" or "LAU Kai Eng Karen"

We choose to go with "Karen LAU Kai Eng" in her application. Karen Lau Kai Eng, when you are much older, you are going to love shopping in SG. ;)

Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Already???

Plunket Nurse came again 2 days ago for Karen's 3rd month check. She was describing certain symptoms to look out for at her stage...

1. Biting her bottle - checked (would chew and chew on the teats of the bottle)

2. Drooling heavily - checked (we started putting a bid around her all the time)

3. Sudden change in diet - checked (wouldn't drink as much)

4. Waking up at night but doesn't want her milk - checked (she started waking up couple of times extra and could be pacify by patting her back to sleep)

5. Fussy during meal time - checked (she usually finish her bottle but now she cries and wails after finishing half of her bottle)

6. Sudden change in her schedule - checked (Just when we had a nice happy routine... sigh)

Nurse says, "She had all those symptoms? Oh well, that means she's teething."

Joan, "WHAT??? Already? She's only 3 months old."

sob...

Updates on Karen

Videos of Karen at 2 months old.

Karen Sneezing



Animated Karen



The boys reading to Karen
8 years old Victor reading the story of Ugly Duckling to Karen.



Andrew and Karen fooling around
In case you are wondering what is Andrew saying, he's started off with Karen pretending to say sorry to mama, then he pose Karen to pray to the heavenly gods and the earth gods. *roll eyes*

Driving license

Dear SG,

Andrew had a driving test today because we finally need to convert our driving license from a SG driving license to a NZ one. SG driving license allows us to drive in NZ for one year upon entry but we manage to drag so long because we went back to SG last year for some family matters. I’m due to take mine this Friday afternoon so wish me luck.

Here’s some interesting comparison on NZ and SG driving test.
SG driving center is known as “SSDC – Singapore Safety Driving Center”
NZ driving center is known as “AA – NZAA Inc”

SSDC provides the following services; Driving lessons, driving test and Road safety education talk.
AA provides the following services; Car registration, plate registration, transfer of vehicle ownership, driving lessons, driving test, vehicle insurance, AA maps n guides, road services for breakdowns etc.

SSDC has a training circuit for motorist
AA has a membership scheme that provides insurances, help and any road services a driver could ask for. As with most membership scheme, they have rewards scheme too.

SG practical driving test cost SG$156.96 (including GST)
NZ practical driving test cost NZ$70.80 (including GST)

SG Theory test has a fixed test date where a big group of people will be taking the test together and monitored by a member of the staff.
NZ Theory test can be taken anytime during their office hours, taken alone in a cubical and is monitored by a security camera. (And if we fail that, we can retake it again immediately after)

In SG, upon passing the theory test, a person is only allowed to drive during driving lessons with their restricted license.
In NZ, upon passing the theory test, a restricted license allows them to drive on their own during certain hours in a day or with supervision after those hours. (yes, I mean on the main road, not in a training circuit)

In SG, driving lessons can only be given by professional trained instructors.
In NZ, anyone with a driving license can teach a new leaner how to drive.

In SG, the driving license card is valid for life (with no expiry date).
In NZ, the driving license card is only valid for 5 years and require renewal.

In SG, the minimum age to drive is 18 years old.
In NZ, the minimum age to drive is 15 years old! (Gasp!)

with love from NZ,
j

On becoming Babywise

Whenever I am faced with a problem, a challenge, a need to get some answers, I would always turn to 2 of my favorite source of information. The internet and books. Before the internet, I would borrowed heaps of books with topics that interests me or simply caught my eyes. Now with the world wide web at a click of a button plus over $80 of monthly broadband fees, I could have information at my finger tips.

I've been busy before Karen arrived hence I haven't been reading up as much as I could. With a baby that could only communicate by crying, I was desperate to get some help to set up a routine, and hopefully to get her to sleep longer at night (before I become a vampire). I turn to the library for help and requested for the book "Baby Whisperer" but I was put on a waiting list. While browsing, I came across this other book "On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving your infant the gift of Nighttime sleep" by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam.

I recommend this book to the parents who would like the possibility of getting a little more sleep at night. So far, it has bagged us at least 3 full hours of sleep each interval (I really mean sleep, which doesn't include feeding and changing) and once in a while, 4 hours of sleep!!! The book actually suggest a possibility of 6 to 7 hours by the time she's 8 weeks old. Karen's only 3 weeks plus and I am pretty happy with the result.

But warning, you will need to get half way through the book before you get to the main point that explain how to establish the routine.

Oh, another warning, we have the advantage of formula feeding which actually last longer in between feeds. :p


Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

3 weeks old today

Karen is 3 weeks old today. It's the reason why i set up this blog in Multiply for her. 3 weeks have passed so quickly and I'm still trying to figure her out. Seriously, I've beginning to enjoy having her around especially during bedtime because she's so warm and it's winter here. This means I get to cuddle her to bed with me. She's like my little hot water bottle. The only problem with this tiny "water bottle" is the leaking... she isn't leaking urine if that's what you are wondering, she sweats furiously if I cover her with my blanket. This means I have to keep her cool while she keeps me warm. It's not an easy task.

As a mother of 3 weeks, I've learnt the following:
1. She can smile.
2. She has very strong neck
3. It's possible for her to almost sleep through the night
4. It's possible for her to wake up every hour too.
5. By 2 weeks plus, she could grab our teeshirt if we tried to put her down
6. She snores... (takes after the dad)



Cross Post from Multiply "Karen's baby step"
http://joantohlau.multiply.com/

Baby's birth

Dear SG,

The baby has finally arrived. Instead of the pre-planned date which was later postponed to 24th of july, I had a contraction at 2:58am in the morning of 23 July. We timed the contraction for an hour before calling our OB and she advised us to get ourselves admitted. We arrived at the hospital at 5am but was found to be only 3cm to 4cm dilated. I had epidural at 7am and hormone injected to speed up the process.

Before 1pm, the hospital midwife Jill Perrson could sense that I had fully dilated. I could feel the baby really low in between and so we decided to try pushing. With the epidural, I couldn't really push correctly. We had it removed so that I could feel if I am using the correct muscle. But seriously, with the epidural gone, i was worried once it totally wear off, I will be in a lot of pain. So, I was determine to try very very VERY hard. :p (motivation found)

There was only Andrew and the midwife with me because my OB hasn't arrived yet. But Jill was our OB's most trusted midwife hence we were going to try and see if we could get the baby out before she arrives. My OB got lucky, once she arrived, we only need 2 more pushes and the baby was out. I remember Andrew shouting, "The head is out!" when I was just about to give up and wait for the next contraction.

So I give it all with all the strength i had left and delivered at 1411hr. The rest of the delivery was pretty hazy to me because I was so tired I kept falling asleep even when they put the baby on my chest. No wonder they called a delivery a "LABOR", it's really exhausting. We discharge from the hospital at 5pm and moved to Birthcare, a facility that provides care for mothers and babies just after deliveries.

I've upload pics and 2 videos that Andrew took. Check it out in my next blog.

with love from NZ,
Singapore Producer - Andrew
Singapore Manufacturer - Joan
New Zealand Made Product - Karen

What's to come?

Dear SG,

In another 12 hours, I will be admitted into the hospital to prepare for birth. Excited am I? Strangely not. There are heaps to do before this evening and we are expected to be busy for the next couple of days or weeks even (until a routine is established). I'm more concern about the preparations than about the actual event, probably because once we induce the whole process, it will be up to nature and the skill of our obstetrician to bring this baby out.

I don't believe in fretting about the things in life that's out of our control.... (Zen music please.) But if it's about the part of life where our destiny is in our hands, I am a control freak! lol....

To all the friends and families that has endure the wait with me, I will post pic of the little one as soon as I could. To my beloved Andrew, I have an errand list for you, they need to be completed before 5pm today. Thanks. hee.... ;)

with love from NZ,
J

(one of the items on my errand list....
....
4. Sneak the cup noodle I bought into my maternity bag. Make sure my mom didn't see that.
....)


update at 4pm: Hospital has called to postpone my admission, because they didn't have enough staffs today, we are postpone to thursday morning, tentative date for baby to be born will be friday morning.... haiz... back to the waiting game.

More family members

Dear SG,

No, the baby's not here yet. She's due but she's staying put n refusing to come out early. It's the 39th week now and I want her out! :p According to the doc, I have all the signs of pushing past 42 weeks if we were to wait for it to happen naturally. But my body's stress, hence we will bring her to this world next week.

Anyway this topic isn't about the kid but my parent who has just arrived from Singapore. We pick them up from the airport today and like a real winter day, it was cloudy. We did have a couple of days of sun but unfortunately, it's becoming cloudy again today. But at least it's much warmer today as compared to the previous week. Coming from a tropical island like Singapore, it's pretty cold for them.

Dad had lost a lot of weight and aged a lot since I last saw him. Not seeing your parent for a while makes you realise how much they can aged. I never did realise the image I had of them in my head are what they looked like when I was in my teens! I guess we'll always remember them when they are at their best.

All in all, today went rather well. They were really happy to see KiKi again and ZoZo was so excited by the new attention he slept like a baby tonight (not bothering me at all). There isn't much for them to do now especially with the wet spell we are having but next week onwards, the baby is going to entertain them and that will be her job. :D

with love from NZ,
J

baby bassinet or not?

Dear SG,

I'm wondering.... should we get this? Andrew's all ready to buy it. I'm still debating... and there's only 4 more weeks to go! Although I have to say that I won't be surprise if she's coming sooner. I'm suddenly carrying even lower than before and feeling easily exhausted. I just spent my weekends in bed because I was so exhausted! I think I slept for nearly 18 hours each day for the last 2 days!

Anyway, here's a picture of the baby bassinet I am pondering about.


Can you imagine us pushing one around? Gosh I felt I've really grown up! :p

with love from NZ,
J

Families and friends

Dear SG,

Since coming to NZ, I’ve promise myself that I would dedicate myself to my family. It’s a whole new experience for me to put family first rather than spending more time with my friends than with my immediate family. Being an only child, my friends have become my family, especially many of those that I regularly met up with.

But with Andrew’s siblings, I’ve great fondest and a great time getting to know them. It wasn’t hard to be involved as a family when the family itself is close knitted and their bond and love for each other is strong. But I’ve missed my friends… my surrogate family.

I’ve been with the company for over a year now but I haven’t gone out with any of my mates at work. The previous team consist of all married men (yes, I was the only female) and because we all had families of our own to return to at the end of the day, we didn’t really consider meeting up outside working hours.

However, since moving to this new position within the company, I’ve join a team where we are all around the same age group. The energy’s different and the environment is different. I’m actually based away from my own team because of the location where I lived. I would go over to the HQ every now and then, however, this means I couldn’t really get to know the folks that I worked closely with.

But that all changed in the last 5 weeks. We had an American consultant working with us and I moved my base over to the HQ to because I am heavily (pun intended) involved in the action. In these short weeks, I’ve learnt more about them and gotten closer. We are friends now, not just colleagues or comrades at work. When our favorite consultant goes back to the States next Wednesday, I will be returning to work in the other office. I am going to miss the vibe and the jokes we share.

I look forward to the next engagement which will bring our good friend back from the States and back to NZ in a warmer season.

From home to office in the hosptial, where I'm based

From home to the office in HQ North Shore. Congestion in the main CBD area and the harbour bridge but where the rest of my team are based

With love from NZ,
J