Shern's concert day 2009

Saturday the 14th was Shern's concert day. Boy, he started the day with a good smack on the butt because he refused to get up of bed and refused to brush and shower altogether. We were running late and he refused to listen and obey and leave me with no choice but with a good smacking. Nah, I was fuming mad and he chose to make me snap instead, normally I'm very nice :p. Traffic was quite bad, even on a Saturday. Thankfully, we arrive there in time, dropped him off at the hall and off we went for a quick bite, and arrived back at the hall just in time for the start of the concert.

There was a huge crowd, and all the good seats were taken. Obviously. The teachers first handed out awards for the students before their performance, so when it came to Shern's classroom turn to receive the awards, I took a good look at his few classmates on the stage and see NO Shern. Which meant he didn't get any award-lah. :( Then suddenly I heard his name called! OMG, I didn't even get a snap of him receiving his award. Best Improvement award! Since when I cannot recognise my own son? Oh, with the cap and make up the teacher put on him, he totally lost me! Nevertheless, Shern's daddy and I, were grinning from ear to ear. Our son did made us so so proud.

The concert lasted about 2 hours, thanks to the good coordination, no unneccesary speech whatnot. Here's some photos I took. Some blur, some shaky and some pretty ones. Love their costumes! OK, enough said. Photo time!

Shern, daddy and mommy we're so proud of you. You make us the happiest parents in the whole wide world!

A Bucketload of Gap Pajamas

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Hello aunties and uncles!

"It's me here, Shermaine. Mom said she has been very very busy lately and seriously hasn't got time to blog at all. She didn't say it, but I know it's all because of me. I need all the attention I can get. the more the better. Told you I'm a pwincess. Anyway, I'm growing well, see me in the above photo, I can lift my head so high up. Actually that's not new, I can already lift and turn my head even before I got discharge from the hospital. The nurses told my mom I'm so clever and strong. I know I am. ::wink::

Mommy loves to place me in the baby cot but life in there gets boring pretty fast. No, I mean very fast! She always said "one minute girl" but she always takes forever. Always. So you have no idea how much I love it when people come talk and play with me, all I need to do is to smile back at them to make sure they come back to me again and again, I'm so going to be a cheerleader when I grow up. My brother Shern kept telling mommy I can talk back to him. Oh, he actually meant to say that I coo." I coo a lot, and I think at this rate I'm going, I'll be Ms. Ji Za Po in no time, just like my brother! Only that he's Ji Za Gong.

Two months old now, I'm loving mommy's boobs more than ever to the point where I'm refusing bottle. Every time people try to bottle feed me, I'll push the teat away with my tongue, and if they insist that I must take it, I'll even try to puke as if they just give me the most disgusting piece of shit in the whole wide world. It works like magic, everytime. I'm a genius! Everyone thinks I should drink from the bottle too, as it will be easier for mommy sometimes, especially when she's away or busy. But still, I love my milk fresh and warm ok!

Oh, by the way, "whole wide world" is my brother's favorite line at the moment. Like he must end every sentence with a WWW. So exaggerating sometimes, don't you think? Erm, something like "I am the most good boy in the whole wide world, or.. if daddy is very rich then daddy can buys him all the candy in the whole wide world." Exaggerating but he sounds cute saying it though. He's such a darling brother, he loves me so much I can tell. Like he always say to me, "kor kor loves you most in the whole wide world". So now you know how much it means to him when I coo back to him.

I don't get it, why is my hair not growing at all? At this rate, rest assure that I'll still be bald for my Da Da ah yi's wedding. Sigh. Someone should really get me a nice cap or something. Or a pwetty flower headband fits for a pwincess ok.. No wigs please. Not even those that comes with the ribbon or bandana thingy. Those are fugly ok. Also, daddy should really stop asking mommy to shave me bald! We cannot have a bald pwincess at the wedding, now can we? Abso-freaking-lutely NO!

Anyway, mommy's so freaking out because she isn't losing weight fast enough. Her twin sister's wedding is just 3 weeks away, and she wants to at least look decent and normal-size standing next to her twin. You know when you're a twin, like it or not, people compare you all the time. People can be harsh and say things that are not so nice. Words like fatt fook, fat, fugly are those not very nice f words. Mommy still has another 5 kgs to her pre-pregnancy weight, and still her pre-pregnancy weight starts with a 6. From there, I reckon she needs to lose another 5 kgs to look every inch like a hot mama. In total, 10 kgs to go, mommy. Tough job.

And you know what my brother is already telling my mommy? He said that he loves baby girl so much he wants mommy to get pregnant again and again. He wants 3 baby sisters in total and he told mom "get pregnant another 2 times la". Mommy shudders just thinking about a 3rd baby now. She already got her hands full with the two of us. Well, at least my brother got the equation right.

I'm starting to sound like a Ms. Ji Za Po. I better stop now. Love you all."

- Shermaine

What's with the MIA?

It's not like I never said this before. All I'm saying is my house Internet connection sucks. I'm saying it again! Aww! How it sucks, badly. What's worse you know? Some day last week, my computer C drive totally crashed. I then got my cousin to reformat it for me, it only lasted two days before its completely crashed for good. Everything was wiped out clean. On the last count, 922 files were infected by virus. For real!

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that my D drive will not be wiped out, as I have not back up any of my files. Grrr! Hubs sent it to his cousin for repair on Sunday ( not that my cousin is not good enough), and he even asked for an upgrade to Windows 7 and 1 Terabytes of disk space to accommodate my endless need for downloading drama series and movies. How sweet of him to upgrade it for me when all he does on the computer is check his not-so hotmail once a day and play the boring old solitaire spider game.

BBG is now 6 weeks old, and I haven't even post the photos of her full moon party and also do an update on Shern. What a shame. All I'm trying to say is, I'm a super busy mom without a computer. Fine. That will be another story for another day.

She's getting it all

My newborn baby girl is indeed a very lucky girl, or shall I say blesses little princess. She, being the first girl born in her generation, has 10 cousin brothers! Everyone in the family address my newborn as the little princess, I think it's only normal that she gets all the attention now, not to mention all the pretty dresses and accessories that she's getting!

On the other hand, everyone also jokes about how my baby girl will grow up to be a tomboy, being surrounded by toy guns, remote control cars and all those Ben 10 aliens, transformers, Kung fu fighting acts from the boys.

In spite all those talks, I'm sure my baby girl will have the feminine side of her. I'm so looking forward to bring her shopping for her barbie dolls, adorn her with beautiful accessories. Not forgetting, she will get to inherit all my jeweleries and those american silver eagle gold coins. After so many years, we can now shop at the girl's aisle for dolls and all things princess-y. is, she is, afterall my very own cute little princess.

Shern and his role as a big brother

Shern has been a fairly good big brother, besides the fact that he sometimes intentionally do things we told him not to, like when we told him not to make noise when BBG is asleep, he will purposely talk louder, or when asked that he not jump on the bed when BBG is on the bed, he'll jump as if he's on a trampoline. Really ah! Seeking for attention for all the wrong reason.

We told him a thousand times that he cannot carry BBG when we're not around, or he must at least ask for permission to carry her. Then once when I told him to pat BBG's bum bum while I go grab something, in that short 1 minute, he left me speechless when I saw BBG sleeping comfortable on his lap, with him patting her bum bum of course. He even managed to turn BBG around as she was lying on her tummy at that time. Like a hero, he demonstrates with both his hands how he scoop her baby sister up like an excavator! I gave him a good lecture after that, repeatedly told him never ever should he attempt to do that again. That aside, big brother adores his BBG. Loves to cuddle and kiss her.

Remember when my sister told him if she can swap her baby boy with Shern's BBG, Shern said, "I don't like baby boy also". When my sister gave birth to her baby boy, Shern was at the hospital to see the baby. When he got home from the hospital, I asked him if the baby boy is cute, in which he replied "very very cute". I asked him again, "so you want to change baby with ah yi?" He thought for a second then said, "but I think her baby a bit smelly leh". So naughty.

My medela pump-in-style arrived in the post yesterday, and as I was trying it out for the first time, Shern came over and asked me, why I need another pump, as for the last one month I've been using a mini medela breast pump. Upon seeing the almost silent machine, he said "mommy, this pump is better. Not so noisy. The other one is lousy one, make so much noise, EEH OH EE OH EE OH. You better use this one, so when you pump milk milk in the room, cannot disturb baby when she's sleeping". How thoughtful of him.

Just yesterday as I was feeding BBG, I heard my sister's baby boy crying in the baby cot. So I told Shern to go pat pat baby, he said he didn't want to. Just to test whether he recognise his own baby sister, I told him again to pat pat mei mei, as mommy is feeding ah yi's baby boy, he went over to the cot and took a glance at the baby, walked back to me, took another glance at the baby I was carrying. Pointing at the baby cot, he said "that one is not my mei mei ok, my mei mei here got no hair one (pointing at top of the head)!" LOL. Never attempt to bluff him again, I know. See it for yourself.

Here's a photo of BBG and newborn boy cousin. Born on 29th September 2009.

The one month that feels like forever

So hooray, it's over. I'm free. I've been wanting to blog about BBG's fullmoon party but I really haven't got the time. For the first 3 weeks baby was born, she slept most of the time, and there I thought taking care of a newborn is so stress-free. Then she started to get more active, and demands for more attention. Once she gets up from her sleep, she wants to be carried around. Pffft! Bossy lady! Not to mention that each breastfeeding session takes like forever!

Anyway, we celebrated BBG's fullmoon on Saturday and I only managed to upload the photos to my PC only today. Hopefully I'll be able to find some time to blog about that soon. You'll sure get to see more photos, I promise. And you know what, I thought that after BBG's fullmoon, I'll easily chuck her and Shern in the car, and drive off to a shopping mall, but no, that didn't happen in reality. First, I realised that taking a newborn out in public is no easy task. And now with the swine flu thingy, hubs and my mom don't even allow me to bring baby out of our house gate.

So I can literally forget about my fantasy of getting free Disney World Tickets and dragging my kids to Disneyland in the very near future. At least for now. But I'm sure it'll be more fun to bring them when BBG is old enough to understand what Disneyland is all about. Only then, both of them will truly enjoy a Disneyland vacation.

My house arrest is almost over

I'm so glad that this house arrest is almost over, I mean the confinement. Actually, this confinement is such a breeze. Didn't I tell you my mom a.k.a my confinement lady treated me like a queen, I never lifted a finger to do a thing, meals served right on time in big big portion, no wonder I didn't lose an ounce during this whole month! Well, put aside the fact that my boobs hurts so much from all that suckling and pumping. Expressing milk is the one thing that I dread to do everyday, like at least 5 times a day. Imagine your nipple being pulled half an inch every second for 10 minutes on each boobs. Love that idea? Sorry but there's nothing kinky about that!

Anyway, what's confinement to you anyway? How seriously you take this tradition? No bathing for one month? Or restricted from getting out of the house and being confine to the four walls of your house? Chewing ginger and sipping sesame oil at each meal, or drinking so much DOM you are drunk half the time? Drinking red dates water for one month and no plain water allowed? Always drink sitting down and never drink standing up? Seriously, what's with all that anyway?

I secretly took my first shower 4 days after having my baby. Like I said, the confinement lady being my mom, I get to bend the confinement rules and in a way, wrapped mommy around my finger. I wasn't supposed to wash my hair at least for 2 weeks she said, but I kept telling her how nasty my hair feels, all that oil blocking my pores makes my hair fall and blah blah blah, she gave in and allowed me to have a piping hot warm gingery herbal bath, which wasn't all that pleasant smelling, but heck after 5 days of sweating it out like a pig, it was damn refreshing.

Then, I starting driving 5 days after the surgery. I drove Shern to school one morning, and the next day I drove my mom to the nearby supermarket. My mom was so against me driving, but since no one else is at home to drive her around, she let me drive her. Second week of the confinement, I secretly went out for tea with hubby, Marcus and Shern. So much fun for someone in confinement yeah. Maybe so. I'm sure I can get to go anywhere I want after baby's full moon, which is this Saturday, can't wait!

I know of some people who religiously follows every single 'do and don't' during the confinement, I'm sure not one of them. I'm not trying to say that I'm all that mighty and strong or so whatever, just trying to say that having my mom as my confinement lady is truly a blessing. But one month without washing your hair? That's absolutely rubbish, don't you think?

The Birth Story of BBG

BBG was born on 4th September 2009 via cesarean. I got admitted at about 8:30am so they could prep me for my scheduled c-section at 11.30am. I specifically asked for the catheter to be inserted only after my epidural, after I remembered how much it hurts the first time, and this time I don't even feel it. I'm glad I asked.

Shern's daddy wasn't in the operation room with me, he's totally a chicken! Bleh! Anyway, 10 minutes into the operation, the anesthesiologist told me that baby is coming out soon, and a while later I heard the most beautiful cry ever. When anesthesiologist said "she's here!", I was overwhelmed because he said "SHE". Crazy isn't it. You won't understand why. Throughout my pregnancy, I very often doubt if I'm really having a girl. Now you know why.

I didn't get to see my baby right away, the midwife took her away and get her cleaned before carrying her to me. And when she said, "This is your baby. You know your baby is a girl, right?" I said, "I want to see!" I mean the vagina. Crazy me. So yeah, it's a girl!

The operation took much longer than I expected. Like forever. I must have asked my OB GYN many many times "why is it taking so much longer this time around?" But without a care in the world, I knocked out, in exhaustion. Must be all that drugs they pumped into me. Whatever. When they're done, they wheeled me off into recovery room and there I stayed for another hour perhaps. Again, I was in that state where you can basically chucked me into the sea and I will just drown dying, helplessly.

At about 2pm, I was sent back to my ward where my family was waiting for me. Hubs, mom, sister, BIL, nephew and of course my darling Shern. Shern was kind of shocked when he see me in that condition and it took him a while to warm up and to get near me. And where's BBG? In the nursery as they need to monitor her blood sugar as she has hypoglycemia, I was told that the nurse had to feed her some formula milk to bring her sugar level up. Only after all that, the nurse brought her to me. It was like I waited forever.

The first few days, baby was suckling very well, and I had every ounce of confidence that I'm going to successfully breastfeed her this time, after I failed to BF Shern. As there were hardly any milk even at day three, we allowed the nurses to cup-feed her formula. By Sunday, I was allowed to go home, but as the staffs were preparing to discharge me, came the not-so-good news. Baby jaundice level was 208, which means she wasn't allowed home, she needs phototherapy treatment. I just melted. Poor baby. Her pediatrician said if her bilirubin level is less than 200, she'll be allowed to go home the next day. I got discharged, without my baby.

Early next morning, I called the hospital to see to check on baby's blood test result on her jaundice, and was told her bilirubin level is 210, and she needs to stay in the hospital another day for phototherapy. That two days was the longest day of my life, every visit to the hospital makes me so emotional, especially when I got to leave her behind at the hospital after every visit. "Mommy will see you tomorrow darling baby". That was very hard on me. Also on Shern's daddy. On Tuesday, her bilirubin level went down to 179 and baby was allowed home, we were overjoyed. The next few day she's home, she did sun-bathing every morning. Like this.

Back home, my milk supply was still low, so we had to bottle feed her. Maybe that was really a big mistake to begin with, because after that, she refused my nipple. That is absolutely not nipple confusion, definitely bottle preference. To keep the milk coming, I got to express my milk a dozen times a day, never mind my nipple got so sore it sometimes bleeds. Ouch! BF is tough!

Everyday, I'll try to breastfeed her, each time a little longer and viola, I'm proud to say that we're doing great, only 2 weeks later. She could suckle for 45 minutes or even up to an hour, but but but how come after that she's still hungry and cries for milk? I don't get it.

That aside, Shern adores his baby sister. He hates it when people asked if they can carry his baby girl back with them. He will shout a big NO!, roll his eyes or even smack them. When my elder sister, who is expecting a baby boy next week asked if he can swap her baby boy for Shern's baby sister, he said, "I also don't like baby boy!" LOL.

And BBG finally has a name, Shermaine that is.

Our Home Has Grown by Two Feet

We're still deciding on her name, so she's BBG for now. That's for baby girl.