Madison's 3rd round of vaccinations

The time has finally arrived for the dreaded "V": vaccination...

I have been dreading this all month really, and contemplating whether to give her the pneumococcal vaccine at this visit. It's an additional injection, but considering that we take her regularly to the swimming pool now, I felt it would be prudent to protect her against invasive pneumococcal disease. The Prevenar vaccine is a 7 valent vaccine covering almost 90% of the strains of Strep Pneumoniae that cause invasive pneumococcal disease.

I think Madison knew somehow that something not right was up... I suppose it started quite innocuously when I gave her the liquid paracetamol in the afternoon by surprise. Her mood changed from chirpy to moody. After her nap, Pa dropped Madison, Nancy and me at KKH. In the car she was already teary and crying! Which she almost never does anymore in the afternoons because she usually knows we're going out shopping!

At the Private Children's clinic, Chris met us there. I tried to distract Madison by walking around with her, then we sat in the waiting area while she twiddled with my handbag. Once we were in Dr Yong Yin Peng's clinic ( appt at 1500h) she became more nervous. She was still fine up till the point when she was prepared for the injections. She was made to straddle Chris and he held her down while Dr Yong and a staff nurse simultaneously gave her the 2 injections : 6 in 1 and the Prevenar in each thigh. The Prevenar went in the right thigh. Before the needle touched her she was already screaming in fear... and the cries crescendoed when they stabbed her. Madison nearly went purple crying in anger and pain!

We quickly took her out and Ma came around and carried her to distract her. I think once outside she calmed down quite quickly. After the visit, we went to the Kopitiam to have a drink. I bought Madison a bottle of mineral water and she suddenly became quite attached to her mineral water bottle! She would scream if I tried to take it away from her.. it was quite amusing.

At home she cheered up a little, but of course was quite unhappy about getting another dose of paracetamol. The night was uneventful, but come morning... the grouchiness started ...

Madison developed a fever of 38C and was super cranky the entire day, as well as being tired and irritable. We dosed her up with more paracetamol and gave her a cool bath, which seemed to help. Her appetite was decreased as well, refusing to take much milk or other liquids. She managed some lunch though, surprisingly.

The second night was hellish too. Madison was tired out in the early evening, crying easily, so we put her to bed by 8 PM. Things were fine until 2AM, she woke in a tangle of her swaddle ( goodness knows how she managed to struggle out of her swaddle!) After a feed she seemed to settle and go back to sleep, but then woke in tears at 4 AM, but Chris managed to rock her back to sleep at 0430h, then at 0540h she was awake again! I fed her again and she fell back asleep. I think Chris and I started the day EXHAUSTED.

Again her appetite seemed to be diminished... and she looked a tad skinnier???

A visit from Kayla

Kayla and Cheryl came to Singapore last week to visit her grandfather, who is recuperating from a recent stroke.

Kayla is 41/2 now, and is such a sweet tall girl! She and her mother live in Melbourne , Australia and her father is South African, and REALLY TALL... they are both doctors, Jake is an anaesthetist in training and Cheryl is a SAHM to Kayla.

I think Kayla is waiting for a baby sister from Cheryl too.. she seems to enjoy playing with Madison!

6 months old!

The 13th of September has come and gone..

I cannot believe time has flown past so quickly, although I must admit it has been the longest 6 months of my life.... so much has changed yet so much has stayed the same. Having Madison has been a bittersweet experience, filled with happiness, tears and angst... but like all parents say... I have no regrets... only sweet memories of my DINK lifestyle that are slowly fading away.

We celebrated her half year birthday at home with a barbeque style lunch. Pa and Ma specially went to the market and bought some chicken and meat. Nancy cooked an Indonesian style Mee goreng to complement the meal. Madison was really good too, eating her porridge which was made from fresh liver, pork and stewed with rice. She really loves her cooked meals... I think I should give up on the commercial rice cereals.

Chris had a long weekend so he spent most of the time at home with Madison too... it was nice having him home for a long period... otherwise work keeps him busy most of the day during the rest of the week.

Madison now sits well unsupported and can use her hands to reach for things,especially cups filled with liquids! She is able to stand supported by herself for a few seconds but is rather unstable with that. Rolling over isn't something she seems rather inclined to do, but she was suddenly able to roll back from her tummy over the weekend. She doesn't really succeed at crawling just yet, preferring to walk assisted!

Her favourite activity at the moment is banging away at the electronic keyboard, her Fisher Price toys and walking around in her walker. Of course, shopping is another all time high for her, and she is able to stay occupied once in a shopping mall or outside the house!

Another thing I noticed.. we take her to lunch outside and bring her food along, and she gets quite a good appetite eating outside! Either that or she is hungrier at lunch compared to breakfast. She is getting better at drinking from a cup, an adult mug at that too...

Madison is starting to indicate her wants but is not yet at the non specific "mama/dada" stage just yet... I am patiently waiting for the specific "mama" , although I suspect I may prefer her mumblings later on when she can scream and shout for things!

My poor ill baby

Madison fell ill!

This is not the first time she has been ill but definitely the worst!
It all started when Nancy became unwell.. and the silly girl didn't tell me that she was sick! She had been fasting and not sleeping well, going daily to a crowded mosque for Ramadan and then after one rainy day she suddenly started sneezing and I noticed she seemed rather 'off'. I asked her if she was sick and she replied 'no'. Then I said " are u feeling throat pain or have a runny nose?" AND the dreaded 'yes' came back....I could have fainted at that point!

The worst thing is that Nancy has this habit of wiping Madison's drooling face with her bare fingers despite being told to use tissue. Hence the transmission of the bug...

On the 9th Sept Madison was still her cheerful old self.. I didn't even suspect that she was brewing a bug. I even took her swimming that day! Horrors, in retrospect.. my poor baby...

That night, I put her to bed as usual and then woke at 3 AM to feed her. She seemed rather zonked out and when I picked her up she was burning hot! Her palms and soles were the first to strike me as being searing hot. I fed her, trying my very best not to panic as I reached for the thermometer. It read the dreaded 38 C. She fed and fell asleep immediately so I put her back in her cot without her swaddle.

I was absolutely shocked. And unable to go back to sleep. I tossed in bed until close to ? 4Am and by 540h she was awake and crying. I rushed to her room and picked her up, she felt so hot so I quickly fed her again in an effort to hydrate her. A repeat temperature read 37.9 C . Chris and I then fed her some paracetamol syrup. She stayed up after that for about 2 hours then I fed her again and she fell asleep at about 0700h.

The rest of the day she was grouchy and tired, and I think the highest her temperature got probably was close to 39 C. I fed her 2 hourly and regularly checked her diapers. She subsequently gagged at the paracetamol liquid and even threw up once. Her nose was running on the right side and later developed a runny sticky right eye too!

We rested her the whole day and I basically carried her in the sling either for transport or to nap. Fortunately, at the 4 PM nap after I fell asleep too, her fever broke. She was still tired but really picked up in the evening. she took another nap at 6PM for 30 minutes so she ended up sleeping late ..at 9PM! For the first time in months Chris and I had dinner at the Novena house...one good thing that came out of the entire saga.

On the 11th Sept she remained afebrile, but was cranky and still off spirit. She also developed some loose stools, and you could hear her gut grumbling away...I let her nap as she desired, as she was so upset otherwise... crying easily at the slightest thing. Her nose was running less, but was blocked instead.... She still wanted to be carried and kept accompanied the entire day.

Madison starting recovering on the 12th of Sept, but boy was she grouchy! Complaining at every little thing, unhappy about sitting around, unhappy about being in the house and she hardly smiled the entire day. Fortunately Chris was post call and around in the afternoon to keep her company and Pa returned at 5PM from the gym as well. Her nose was still blocked and she occasionally coughed and choked, and her appetite was affected as well.

Parents of sick children really do suffer more than the kid sometimes, emotionally and physically...

Our first swim!

Today Madison had her first real swim!

I took her to the Singapore Swimming Club and took her for a real dip in an adult pool.

Chris and I had bought her swimming diapers just the day prior.. they are the Swimmers from Huggies and are really expensive! They cost just over S$ 15.00 for a pack of 12. They fit rather snugly and have elastic sides that are meant to be torn away after use. I had also purchased a wetsuit like swimming costume for her a while ago.

Anyway... after my swim at about 1030h, I got Maria and Nancy to change her into her swim stuff and then into the shallow end of the adult pool she came with me!

Our dear Madison was like a little pro! Initially she was a little hesitant, but before long she was kicking away merrily in the pool. I took her across the length of the pool kicking free style, then flipped her to her back to take her back. We did a few 'laps' and in the midst of one of the free style laps I quickly submerged her head, and waited to see her reaction... our brave girl took it rather well, a little shocked but not crying !

This being her first dip I decided to keep it short and took her out after 5-10minutes. She was showered and then towel dried. Afterwards she was really exhausted and went down for her 11am nap really well!

In the afternoon, after lunch Pa and I took her to Giant at the Turf club supermarketing. I decided to check out the other swimming costumes for sale there and while searching frantically for a wet suit like costume in HER size, she had DECIDED she liked a strawberry pink skimpy swim suit! And like a little shopping queen, she 'looked' up and down the display at the other suits and stuck to her first choice.. it was sooo cute...of course she got that suit!

I must say... I had alot of fun taking her for her first swim... lets hope there's more to come!

Sitting pretty...

Suddenly Madison can sit by herself!

I suppose she must have been slowly developing the skill, but over the past week she suddenly ( as it seems to me) was able to sit without support quite well by herself. Initially she would use her hands to support herself while seated, but definitely by yesterday she was sitting and using both hands to reach for objects....

Meanwhile, we have embarked on solids and she is at present offered breakfast at about 7am, followed by lunch at about 1230 to 1300h... she has her moods, some days she takes more others very little. The one important principle I adhere to is to never force her to take more than she wants, for fear of inducing food phobias and bad habits.

After some consideration, we have settled on rice cereal with expressed milk with a combination of fruit in the morning, while for lunch she has a portion of porridge that has been previously cooked and frozen.

She was started on the classic banana for breakfast, primarily because it was the easiest to prepare. Since then she has had avocado, home cooked and pureed pear, apple for breakfast. Porridge at lunch has been rice congee with spinach and sprinkling of anchovy( ikan bilis ).

Of course she makes a merry mess of her face during her meals, but otherwise has been a good little girl in taking foods she seems to like. Apple looks like one of them!

More worries about Madison

Sigh... I think its true what they say about parenthood. The minute the child is born the parent is constantly worrying about them till they turn about 30! And I think the worrying probably never stops even then... school, health, their personal relationships, career etc...

Madison is doing quite well and was growing at a good pace but suddenly for the past 2 weeks she stopped putting on weight! This I found out when I weighed her at the clinic. At first I attributed it to the machine being inaccurate, but repeated weigh ins showed the same figures. Then I thought maybe just a temporary thing, so I waited 1 week. Still no change. Panic started to set in...

The funny thing is, the logical side of me tells me that she probably is alright, being chirpy and generally happy, not asking for more food... but the emotional me is screaming : " inadequate!!! Dropping feeds.. !! doing bad job not feeding more!!! "

The conclusion is that either she was taking in less or my supply is dropping.... argh... both of which were pretty unsavoury....

So we started her on some complementary feeds... being close to 6 calender months this took the form of SOLIDS!

Madison got her first taste of mashed banana, which she took surprisingly well...
Then I realised that she needs a source of iron so we added rice cereal diluted with breastmilk ( what else!) .. this took a little more time getting used to...

Since last week, she has tried carrot, pumpkin and just the last 2 days, home cooked apple puree.. which she seems to like mixed in cereal .. i tried it neat and she gagged something bad...! Pa tried giving her rice porridge with some egg yolk but she gagged too...

Since starting some solids, albeit a little only and twice a day, she seems to take more milk at the feeds too! I thought this was somewhat paradoxical? Or am I imagining it? My boobs seem emptier between and after feeds these days... even trying to express is like TORTURE...