Panda Eyes

Back to work and back to panda eyes…

Yesterday, I wanted to go home at about 3.30pm. But my boss caught me at 3pm and asked me to take part in supervising the juniors.

By the time I reached home, it was 6pm. Very tired.

Music To My Ears

Now, we are very familiar with our baby’s cries.

He cries when he is hungry, when he pees, when he poops and when he needs attention. So if he cries, it is definitely one of the above. (Crap!)

Anyway, he loves to listen to the Kevin Kern CD. Whenever we play the CD, the tendency of him crying will greatly be reduced. It must be because my wife listens to the CD quite often when she was pregnant.

Seems like the information in the pregnancy books that we have read really worked.

Name

Finally, we have decided on our baby’s name, 劲源.

The name means a powerful source with endless energy. We also decided to give our baby an English name, Canyon. It totally fits the Chinese name of a powerful source.

We consulted everyone and nobody liked it… My dad-in-law said that names with fire element in it will be better for baby. He liked 志明. My wife and I find it a common name.

Gosh… I have been slogging for a week to find a name for him. Now I have to start all over again…

Fatty Lazy Confinement Nanny

The confinement nanny is very lazy.

Our confinement nanny, who started coming on 22 Feb, is very fat and lazy. She is about 50 years old. Other than cooking the confinement food and mopping the kitchen, she didn’t really do much.

She would try to chat up my mum so that she can keep herself busy (her mouth rather than her hands.) My mum, as usual, is very friendly. Thus she will definitely entertain the confinement nanny.

Hey! Who’s paying? I thought the confinement nanny is supposed to be running to change baby’s diapers? Why is it my mum, my wife and I doing it while she reads newspaper?

Maybe I should ask her to pay me instead.

I Want Sleep

Finally, it is Friday!!! I can play with baby happily… no more worries about work!!!

And I can have a longer sleep…

Mild Jaundice Only... Phew!

Today, baby, my wife and I went to see the pediatrician.

At the clinic, the pediatrician said that baby has mild jaundice and he needed to be sunned. His mucus has cleared and he is well and healthy.

Great news!!!

Wake Me Up

Hahaha...

My eyes are like panda’s eyes. I didn’t sleep well yesterday night as baby woke me up. He cried and I had to wake up to find out what’s wrong with him.

As compared to my wife, I was more fortunate. I only hear him cry once at night while my wife heard 3 other times. (Altogether, she woke up 4 times.)

First Day At Home

Baby’s first day at home.

Finally, baby has stepped, or kind of stepped, into our house. We reached home at about 5pm. My wife didn’t want to stay in the hospital anymore, although the check out time was 5pm. She wanted to leave at about 3.30pm. (I thought initially she felt it was like hotel.)
This is the first day he is with out here with us. Not only can we see him, we can also feel and touch him.

Most important of all, we can hear him. And that is very frequent too. Hahaha!

Anyway, tonight will be the first night of many sleepless nights…

But I think it is going to be worth it.

Sinus

Baby has got mucus and thus he has to stay in the hospital.

He was actually scheduled to be discharged on Monday evening. But the doctor said that he has to stay for observation.

We were wondering if it was due to the poor skills of the nurse in sucking out the mucus that our baby is suffering. However, we realized that it was the dusty curtains that made our baby sneeze.

Seems like he has inherited my wife and my sinus.

Happy Birthday, Our Baby!!!

Our baby waited and waited, not really wanting to come out. Based on our gynae’s latest prediction, he would be out at about 10pm, 18 Feb 2006. Again, she was wrong in her prediction.

Our baby arrived after 12 midnight on 19 Feb 2006; lunar calendar is 22nd of the 1st month!

After much huffing and pushing, my wife was still unable to get our kid out. Finally, our gynae had to use the vacuum to suck him out from the mummy’s womb.

Finally, he was out in the world!!! All nurses hurried to suck out the liquid from his lungs so that he could catch his first breath.

Ah… there goes his first cry.

(The process of giving birth was about 10 min. But the dilation process was really long, about 1cm per hour.)

Pain As He Is Coming Out!!!

The gynae has cut open the water bag! Our baby is coming out very soon!

We went to see the gynae at 2pm and she said that my wife had already dilated 2cm. (On Thursday, it was only 1cm.) The gynae told my wife to go to the hospital at about 3pm so as to get ready for delivery.

However, my wife thought otherwise. We went to have our lunch and went shopping for groceries. In the end, we arrived at the hospital at about 4.30pm to 5pm.

The gynae came at 6pm and found out that my wife had only dilated to 3cm. That was when she cut the water bag. According to her, she said that would hasten the dilation process. In addition, she also put my wife on a drip also with the purpose of quicken the dilation process. The gynae said that my wife was very tolerant as she was able to endure the pain from the contractions. It seemed like my wife need not use epidural (a pain killer).

Again, we thought otherwise. At about 7.30pm, we asked for epidural. At about 8pm, the anesthesia doctor came. He prepared and gave my wife the epidural. He said that the effect of the pain killer would only come in at about 8.30pm, half an hour later. At about 8.15pm, my wife was suddenly in huge pain. The pain from the contractions had suddenly surged to intolerable levels. My wife was in tears, crying really badly.

Fortunately, at about 8.30pm, as the doctor promised, the epidural effect kicked in. She was able to smile again.

When Is He Arriving

After yesterday’s false alarm, my wife was starting to get anxious. She was wondering when our baby would arrive.

As our baby is getting heavier day by day and my wife is feeling more and more of the weight, she just hopes that the baby will pop out soon before her legs become super swollen with water retention. (Her legs are already exceptionally swollen, although all other parts of her body remain relatively normal.)

According to the gynae, our kid should come out today, but there is no movement or indication from our kid that he wants today’s date.

Guess we have to wait some more.

Baby Is Here!!!

My baby is arriving!!!

My wife had contractions early in the morning at 3.30am. After that, she couldn’t sleep although I told her to. Then she tried to relax as best as she could so as to conserve energy to push later.

I carried on sleeping till 8am. My wife then called to inform her boss about the situation.

At 8.30, my wife felt a hot gush. We called up our gynecologist and told her that my wife’s water bag had burst. Our gynecologist then told my wife to get warded.

We were pretty cool about it and even went for breakfast.

After that, we admitted in to Mount Alvernia at 11.12am.

I left for lunch alone at 12.30pm and went home to sleep till 5.30pm. I then went to see my wife at the hospital.

We then checked out at 7pm. False alarm. Water bag did not burst and no more contractions. Baby not willing to arrive yet. At least my wife tried the lunch and dinner at the hospital.

Crash In To Pieces

Finally, I have completed my pottery project.

Happily, I stepped in to the pottery studio ready to submit my work to my pottery teacher.

I left my work under the table, where it would never be an obstacle. Eager to submit, I bent down to take out my master piece.

To my horror, it had been shattered. The erected piece which has got an angle to it collapsed. I had no idea why was it so…

I guess the slip (glue) that I applied did not really gel the pieces together… Sigh… Redo.

And I made a new piece by sticking all the broken pieces together, titled "Appreciate Flaws".

Valentine's Day

Our last Valentine’s Day…

I came home at 9.30pm with the cooking from my mum. My wife and I ate potato soup with rice.

Actually we wanted to celebrate our last Valentine’s Day together before our baby arrives. However, since my mum had already cooked for us, we decided not to waste food. We decided to appreciate it. (Actually, we were too weak and hungry to leave home to eat.)

I guess this makes the last celebration more memorable…

Irritating Deadlines

Deadlines again!!!

I have not been sleeping well recently trying to clear deadlines.

Man… I am going to have a good sleep after completing all projects!

15th Day Of Chinese New Year

Today is the last day for celebrating the Chinese New Year.

I went to my parents’ place for lunch and my uncle-in-law’s place for dinner.

I forgot to bring tangerines to my uncle-in-law’s place. And no one really remembered too.

Rehearsal Nightmare

My friends came to my place and made a din tonight.

We rehearsed for an upcoming performance to impress but I guess it was at the expense of my neighbors.

Alwin was really in to his witch character. He was screeching at almost every line at the top of his lungs. I felt like calling the police. The rest felt he did great, which I also agreed, as he screamed… However, I felt awkward. It seemed like my neighbors would kill me.

They left my place at about 10.30pm. If they stayed till 11pm, I think the police would have visited me.

Friday Date

So happy that today is a free day for me… and my wife.

My wife took leave and both of us went out on a date to places where we usually won’t go.

We went to the gynecologist for a check up. After that, we wanted to go to Hard Rock Café, a place where we hardly go to. In fact, I had only been there twice, same as my wife.

In the end, we still didn’t manage to go because we think it is too expensive.

Leadership

Project work that involves many people is usually a pain in the neck. This is especially so if the project members are childish.

Simple decisions that can be made in seconds are usually dragged on and on. Discussions usually go nowhere.

In retrospect, as a project leader, I may not have managed my project members well. I think I need to read some leadership books.

Extra Marital Affairs

Extra marital affairs may not be physical. It can also be emotional.

I guess I discovered that today when I saw my colleague flirting with her boss.

She had admired him for quite some time and I had always wondered if they did go out on dates. Although it should be none of my concern, I was still curious.

She is married and so is him. But they seem to put their spouses aside when they are together. Although, I choose to believe, that they did nothing physically, but the mannerism between them, I feel, is already betraying their love ones.

And yet again, who am I to say that.

New Boss

Today, I met my new boss.

She seems pretty friendly. Well, at least at this instance.

Anyway, I am looking forward to work with her.

I’ll will then see her true colors.

Wish myself luck!!!

Redo...

Project redo…

The project I did was thrown back to me…

Reason: I did not submit in the right format.

Solution: Look at the instructions again and redo…

Sigh…

3 Crabs

Yesterday, my family celebrated the 7th day of Lunar New Year.

It was to celebrate the birthday for all human beings. A Chinese culture.

We had the 3 crabs for dinner. Chili crab, black pepper crab and crab bee hoon.

After that, we “Lau Yu Sheng”.

I didn’t eat the crabs at all because I dislike crabs. But I did eat the “Yu Sheng”.

3.1KG

My baby in my wife’s tummy is 3.1kg.

We found this out today at the doctor's place.

2 weeks ago, he was only 2.5kg. Within 2 weeks, he shot up 600g.

My aunt was said previously that he was very small in comparison to other babies.

Seems like my baby wasn’t happy to hear that and has decided to prove her wrong.

I just hope that he doesn't make my wife too uncomfortable.

Cover For Tissue Box

Hahaha… Finally, I have completed my porcelain cover for the tissue box.

My friends saw the cover I made during pottery class and many of them exclaimed that I should never let my child carry it with the tissue box.

It is too big and heavy to be a cover for the tissue box.

Anyway, we’ll see if it fits in the first place. It may not even be big enough to enclose the whole tissue box into it.

Cord Blood

Today, my wife and I purchased the service of Cord Life.

It is about keeping the cord blood of my baby in the blood bank for emergencies and unforeseen circumstances, such as leukemia.

Based on the sales person, in such misfortunate cases, 15 million cells are used for every 1 kg. This means that if my baby boy grows to manhood of 75kg, he will need 1125 million cells to save him. However, the cord blood that can be retrieved is between 400 to 600 million cells. Mathematically speaking, the cells can only help my baby only if he does not grow beyond 40kg, which is highly impossible.

But, no matter what, having some protection for him is better than having none. I guess it is parental love. We are not taking any chances.

Sore Throat

My mum just gave me a box of fried prawn rolls.

I finished all of it in 1 hour.

Now I have sore throat…

So angry with me for being so ill disciplined towards food.