 |
| The cheeky look |
 |
| The dozing off look |
 |
| The why-are-you-taking-my-picture look |
 |
| The hamster look |
 |
| The drunken look |
 |
| The eyes-don't-want-to-open look |
 |
| The satisfied look |
Saturday, February 23, 2013
RR's Caught-in-Action
Close to 2 weeks...
Since I'm taking the night shift while on a low sleep mode (this means disaster if I start marking my five stacks of tests now), I might as well update on the lives of the two piggies.
Much had happened since then: RR had the "privilege" of returning to Thomson Medical for a deluxe sunbed stay as a result of her high bilirubin level of 14.1 mg/dL aka jaundice. My dear was deeply saddened by this as it was the first time that she was separated from our baby for so long. Fortunately for us, Ruo Ran's 3D2N vacation brought the bilirubin level down to 8.4 mg/dL, which coincides with the lowering of our cash level.
A few days later, much assisted by my mum's sudden faint, we visited Bedok polyclinic for a checkup, after giving up on the appointment system of Pasir Ris's outlet. It was then that we utilised the priority queue, courtesy of RR and we saw the doctors fairly quickly. The laboratory testing, however, was the bottleneck, with patients expected to wait up to 2.5 hrs. Fortunately, our wait was a fraction of that, but bad news was that the level was raised to about 10.8 mg/dL.
The weather wasn't exactly helpful as well, as clouds loomed in the skies daily, as if part of a sinister plot to slowly get us used to not seeing the sun and therefore easier to kidnap it later. Nonetheless, we brought her to the top level of the multi-storey car park and RR was stripped to her Huggies while the two parents appeared to be some comical psychos to our neighbours in the neighbouring blocks by holding a towel to block the sun's harmful rays from reaching RR's eyes and dancing around to stop the wind from touching RR's tender body.
Despite our actions, we could not stop the level from rising to 11.7 mg/dL a few days later. My dear, in her own words, was reprimanded by the pediatrician for not feeding RR sufficient milk as passing urine does help in lowering the bilirubin level. Not that we were born to torture our offsprings, but I guess we are still newbies in this new profession and it doesn't help either that RR somehow has a small capacity tank.
Two weeks on: one little one living in her own world with her own rules, haphazard sleeping and random eating habits; three exhausted adults, trying to understand RR and figure out a schedule to maximise the human resource to take care of her.
Much had happened since then: RR had the "privilege" of returning to Thomson Medical for a deluxe sunbed stay as a result of her high bilirubin level of 14.1 mg/dL aka jaundice. My dear was deeply saddened by this as it was the first time that she was separated from our baby for so long. Fortunately for us, Ruo Ran's 3D2N vacation brought the bilirubin level down to 8.4 mg/dL, which coincides with the lowering of our cash level.
A few days later, much assisted by my mum's sudden faint, we visited Bedok polyclinic for a checkup, after giving up on the appointment system of Pasir Ris's outlet. It was then that we utilised the priority queue, courtesy of RR and we saw the doctors fairly quickly. The laboratory testing, however, was the bottleneck, with patients expected to wait up to 2.5 hrs. Fortunately, our wait was a fraction of that, but bad news was that the level was raised to about 10.8 mg/dL.
The weather wasn't exactly helpful as well, as clouds loomed in the skies daily, as if part of a sinister plot to slowly get us used to not seeing the sun and therefore easier to kidnap it later. Nonetheless, we brought her to the top level of the multi-storey car park and RR was stripped to her Huggies while the two parents appeared to be some comical psychos to our neighbours in the neighbouring blocks by holding a towel to block the sun's harmful rays from reaching RR's eyes and dancing around to stop the wind from touching RR's tender body.
Despite our actions, we could not stop the level from rising to 11.7 mg/dL a few days later. My dear, in her own words, was reprimanded by the pediatrician for not feeding RR sufficient milk as passing urine does help in lowering the bilirubin level. Not that we were born to torture our offsprings, but I guess we are still newbies in this new profession and it doesn't help either that RR somehow has a small capacity tank.
Two weeks on: one little one living in her own world with her own rules, haphazard sleeping and random eating habits; three exhausted adults, trying to understand RR and figure out a schedule to maximise the human resource to take care of her.
 |
| Our little princess with her cheeky smile |
Monday, February 11, 2013
Xiao Xiao is Here!
My dear first felt regular contractions in intervals of 10 to 15 minutes early in the morning and we were thinking whether we should go to the hospital. In the end, we opted for the lunch at her place so that she can replenished some energy before proceeding to the hospital to get a confirmation. It turned out that it was sort of a false alarm as her dilation was less than 1 cm and the interval of a contraction every 5 minutes was too far apart to be admitted. The nurse also agreed that we could have our reunion dinner before coming back to the hospital again. And she was like saying that our baby could be the first "snake" of the year and that we could have a chance in appearing on live television. My dear was not very keen on that, though I was quite interested in knowing the goodies that the parents of the first baby be getting.
Our next trip to the hospital was instead on the next day, when my dear realised that there were fluid constantly coming out of her as she quite hesitant about returning to the hospital when her contractions were becoming less regular. The suspicion was that the water bag leaked and that suspicion turned out later to be true. She was soon put on a drip to increase the intensity of her contractions. My dear fought the early part of the battle strongly with only the laughing gas, but that really wore her out and her dilation was like increasing at a rate of less than 1 cm per hour. Towards the end, she opted for epidural so that she could have enough strength to push Xiao Xiao out.
Once the dilation got up to 8-9 cm, the process became rather smooth and my dear was starting to push Xiao Xiao out. The nurses were like shouting so enthusiastically to encourage my dear along. We waited a while for Wendy to come after Xiao Xiao's head was like partly visible and after that, with a few more pushes, Xiao Xiao burst into the world with a loud cry.
I still cannot fathom the stories about how fathers faint at the sight of the birth of their child when it was so miraculously wonderful. I still cannot believe I am a father of a child already. It was quite interesting and amazing to see Xiao Xiao looking at my dear's direction, even though her sight was not clear yet. Maybe that was the bond between a mum and her daughter. Anyway, her pretty face below:
Our next trip to the hospital was instead on the next day, when my dear realised that there were fluid constantly coming out of her as she quite hesitant about returning to the hospital when her contractions were becoming less regular. The suspicion was that the water bag leaked and that suspicion turned out later to be true. She was soon put on a drip to increase the intensity of her contractions. My dear fought the early part of the battle strongly with only the laughing gas, but that really wore her out and her dilation was like increasing at a rate of less than 1 cm per hour. Towards the end, she opted for epidural so that she could have enough strength to push Xiao Xiao out.
Once the dilation got up to 8-9 cm, the process became rather smooth and my dear was starting to push Xiao Xiao out. The nurses were like shouting so enthusiastically to encourage my dear along. We waited a while for Wendy to come after Xiao Xiao's head was like partly visible and after that, with a few more pushes, Xiao Xiao burst into the world with a loud cry.
I still cannot fathom the stories about how fathers faint at the sight of the birth of their child when it was so miraculously wonderful. I still cannot believe I am a father of a child already. It was quite interesting and amazing to see Xiao Xiao looking at my dear's direction, even though her sight was not clear yet. Maybe that was the bond between a mum and her daughter. Anyway, her pretty face below:
 |
| Her first cry |
 |
| Her first smile (sort of) |
 |
| The three female leads (the nurses are missing though) |
 |
| Welcoming the newest member of our family =) |
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
Probably this shall be the last movie date before Xiao Xiao is officially out in this world and in order to suit my timing, this was chosen over "From Boys to Men II".
The movie started off with a death of a villager of a water village and a priest catching and declaring a stingray to be the murderer. The protagonist stepped in to warn that the murderer was someone else, who later swam into the scene to kill off more people, which coincidentally happened to be the dead villager's wife and daughter. With his knowledge of physics, the protagonist got the villagers to jump onto one end of the see-saw to get the murderer (a fish demon) out of the water. He later then tried to subdue the demon by appealing to the inherent kindness of the demon but his attempt was halted by another demon hunter, the female lead. This incident caused the protagonist to question his master's beliefs and teachings as well as his own capabilities.
The show then progressed to another demon, this time the pig demon, and how he managed to kill off many people by luring them to his lair with finely roasted pork, ironically made with the flesh of the humans. The male and female lead then came to tear down his disguise, but the pig demon managed to get away and injured the female lead. The male lead helped her dressed her wounds and from there, the female lead fell in love with the male lead and tried to deceive him into copulating with her, but with no success.
There were also other demon-hunters trying to catch the pig demon as well, but they had no luck. The male lead then proceeded to find the monkey demon to seek his help in subduing the pig demon. In doing so, he accidentally set the monkey demon free and the other demon-hunters were exterminated. The female lead perished too and with that loss, the male lead attained enlightenment and managed to subdue the monkey demon. Together with the pig demon and fish demon subdued earlier on, all four of them proceeded with their quest of getting the scriptures from the west.
The show by Stephen Chow was a long wait and indeed there were elements of his style imbued in the story. Perhaps the only difference was that there were much gore this time round. Other than that, the show was very enjoyable and had its fair share of funny and sad moments.
The movie started off with a death of a villager of a water village and a priest catching and declaring a stingray to be the murderer. The protagonist stepped in to warn that the murderer was someone else, who later swam into the scene to kill off more people, which coincidentally happened to be the dead villager's wife and daughter. With his knowledge of physics, the protagonist got the villagers to jump onto one end of the see-saw to get the murderer (a fish demon) out of the water. He later then tried to subdue the demon by appealing to the inherent kindness of the demon but his attempt was halted by another demon hunter, the female lead. This incident caused the protagonist to question his master's beliefs and teachings as well as his own capabilities.
The show then progressed to another demon, this time the pig demon, and how he managed to kill off many people by luring them to his lair with finely roasted pork, ironically made with the flesh of the humans. The male and female lead then came to tear down his disguise, but the pig demon managed to get away and injured the female lead. The male lead helped her dressed her wounds and from there, the female lead fell in love with the male lead and tried to deceive him into copulating with her, but with no success.
There were also other demon-hunters trying to catch the pig demon as well, but they had no luck. The male lead then proceeded to find the monkey demon to seek his help in subduing the pig demon. In doing so, he accidentally set the monkey demon free and the other demon-hunters were exterminated. The female lead perished too and with that loss, the male lead attained enlightenment and managed to subdue the monkey demon. Together with the pig demon and fish demon subdued earlier on, all four of them proceeded with their quest of getting the scriptures from the west.
The show by Stephen Chow was a long wait and indeed there were elements of his style imbued in the story. Perhaps the only difference was that there were much gore this time round. Other than that, the show was very enjoyable and had its fair share of funny and sad moments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)