Bad luck weekends!

Last 2 weekends mummy was busy rushin in and out the hospital. Zheng admitted earlier and now he's recovering but daddy is hospitalized at the moment, since last Friday.

Not so sure what is the cause that made daddy's ankle area swollen and at the end unable to walk. Internal fluid is the culprit from MRI and scan done in hospital, might get second opinion from other hospital since there is no cure for an unknown case.

Tomorrow will be Zheng's 3rd birthday but without daddy. How unfortunate is that... :( Well, mummy need to go back from work now to get Zheng's birthday cake. We'll celebrate in his school then. More updates later... later...

It's just 2 days before Mummy's birthday...

But mummy ended up staying in hospital with Zheng! Zheng was having some virus attack from the blood test on Friday. He suddenly vomitted non-stop after arriving to school and mummy still remember he was so active in the morning before school.

Mummy received phone call from daddy around 4pm, informing that Zheng already admitted to Adventist Hospital and was on drip! By the time mummy rushed home to pack his neccessity, it's the perfect time to change shift with daddy who was taking care of him after he's admitted.

Zheng didn't cry when he saw mummy but he was so weak and finally cried due to discomfort in his tummy and the vomit. It was recorded that he vomitted after meal or took any liquid. Basically, what's went in, went out eventually. This is quite a serious case and according to paed, there are a few same cases in the hospital already. It is contagious and we all avoid En En to visit her little brother during his stay in the hospital.

Zheng slept quite early last night due to tiring and his weakness, he can't even fight back when doctor and nurses poke him with the needle. Totally not his usual self... first time we seen Zheng so inactive and weak! Luckily he still able to take milk at night even it's just 2oz at a time. The next morning he seems better and able to eat half plate of the noodles. He drinks more and most of all, no more vomit after meal or drinking. He started to jump and run in the playroom at the paed wards unit. Glad to see he is recovering.

Paed advised not to discharge him yet and better still stay another night to monitor his condition. He still need to get his antibiotic injection for 3 days continually. What is more glaad to see is that he is not throwing tantrum or screaming wild in the hospital. He is alright if we reason with him and putting him to sleep is a bliss! He will tell you " It's dark already, switch off the light and sleep!" When he's in that mood, we quickly switch off the light and within a few minutes, he's already in his dreamland.

Maybe because he is attending school? Frankly, his attitude changed alot even he is still pig-headed and has storm-like temper. He is able to express himself more and able to listen to us now. But downside sending him to school too early will be having more frequent paed visits due to kids in school may spread health-threatening virus anytime... Conflict, right?

Anyway, wish he will be fine tomorrow morning and we all can go home.

Coxackie??!! And the end of Breastfeeding Journey

Not really a real one but suspected symptom. Both En En and Zheng have ulcers in the throat but no spots on hands or foots. It started with fever on En En since last friday while Zheng was having flu. Visited paed on Friday as well and we only brought back medicine for flu and fever.

Zheng started to have bad appetite then refused to eat since Sunday's afternoon, and then at night... After that refused to drink at the end of the day. Worst still, he rejected to breastfeed! Mummy think this is really weird as Zheng never rejects McB since he's a newborn. He started to get fever too at midnight and was screaming and crying non-stop. All of us were so tense and panic with his reaction and therefore we brought both of them to visit the paed again on Monday morning. En En got a few red/white dots ulcers at the throat while Zheng got... Oh God! Countless ulcers all over his throat!!! No wonder he refused to eat and drink. Both were given antibiotics for 5 and 6 days treatment.

The most terrible part is Zheng still woke up at 1-2am, 3-4am screaming and crying non-stop for 2 nights! Everyone in the family couldn't sleep as long as Zheng was awake no matter during daytime or night time. He even asked us to bring him "kai-kai" at 2.30am by pointing to the door!!! We can say that almost 80% of the time Zheng was screaming and crying with occasionally complaining pain. Daddy got fever as a result of lacking sleep for 2 days... luckily mummy is well enough to take care of Zheng while gratefully Ah Mah is taking care of En En. Mummy is very determined not to fall sick during this difficult period... thanks God En En is recovering fast although she's feeling been left out as we pay more attention to Zheng.

Last night, we decided to bring Zheng for an emergency visit to the paed again thinking in maybe can get some solutions to let him feel calmer and sleeps well at night or maybe something to ease his throat pain. He took less than 10oz of fluid for a day! He has extremely dry lips and smelly breath. We only can feed him plain water, ice-cream and some juices with "leong fan" , one of his favourite drinks. Besides crying, he took very small amount of watery porridge and oat. The other paed at night clinic said he's having Coxackie, most probably got it from the elder sister. She only prescribed XYLOCAINE VISCOUS solution to make the throat and mouth numb for ease of feeding. Anyway, haven't really use this solution till this morning.

Last night Zheng slept well and never woke up till 6am... so did En En. Well, better way to say it is as long as Zheng is not screaming, En is able to sleep well too. Another weird scenario is Zheng wants Ah Mah to sleep with him at night and refuse mummy!!?? Maybe because Ah Mah accompany En En and Zheng for afternoon nap everyday, so once Zheng stop breastfeed to sleep, he's turning for another comfort with Ah Mah. This is just too strange to mummy.

We visited paed again this morning according to the scheduled appointment date. Thankfully both of them is recovering well. We are so relieved to hear that and in fact Zheng started to eat and drink much more than 2 days ago only in the morning. En En too has almost clear throat. They are slowly back to their usual self.

Now, daddy need to rest more for the following days and mummy feels grateful to have back sleeping time... Just feel so miserable mummy's breastfeeding journey ended up in this way. So, Zheng is breastfeed exclusively exactly 21 months and 17 days!

Mummy is sick!

Still feel the wind pushing here and there in the stomach... no appetite to eat.. not a good news coz the weighing scales reading never goes down, ok?

It was last Tuesday mummy was feeling nausea and diarrhea for 3 days continually!!! The cause? According to doctor, it was food poisoning. Maybe it's the soon to be expired bread or the yoghurt drink that stay outside of the fridge for one night. Yes, mummy took these two stuff the day before Tuesday.

Visited 2 different doctors for THREE times... at the end swallowed Imodium and Motilium which already stand by in the house to ease the tummy wind and stop the diarrhea. So weird that the first doctor never mentioned to take Imodium to stop the diarrhea. Maybe he wanted mummy to clear all the "Poison" with bowel movement. The maximum was 20 plus times mummy headed to the toilet in a day! Yeah... even so, never drop a pound yet! Only the next day mummy weighed lighter of 1.5kg... arrrgh!

Everything was back to normal on Friday morning and we were able to go back to Alor Setar for mummy's maternal grandma 70th birthday celebration. En En and Zheng were delighted to play and stay late at night during the 2 nights stay at Po Po's house.

Today mummy went back to music center and was not feeling well again since afternoon. Wind was forming in the stomach again... Got to pop in Charcoal tablet or some Chinese traditional medicine powder to reduce the uncomfort. Praying hard that mummy will get well soon...

Oh yeah... irritable bowel syndrome was the name given by a specialist doctor about mummy's tummy's problem after the diagnosis few years back, before got marry. Guess mummy made some damage to the tummy during teenage years by taking too much cold food and vegetables.

Global Warming - end of our planet?

It's so sad and terrifying to read news about earthquake at Haiti, draught in China, flood and many others natural disasters all over the world nowadays. It's happening so frequent lately until mummy need to stop and think what is going on with our planet? In Malaysia, it is so hot as the temperature rising comapare to the time when mummy was a little girl. Global warming is the hot keyword today, we are really wondering what will happen to our next generation later. The major cause of global warming is too much consumption on natural gas and petroleum in our life. Don't you agree?

Two days ago, mummy was chatting with Ah Kong and discussed about the petroleum issues in Malaysia. There are prediction saying that there will be an end of the day whereby human will use up all the petrol. There is still no confirm renewable energy promise by the government. What will happen next? Use solar energy or water energy? Will there be a greater alternative energy exist in near future? Coal probably will work but isn't we need to use clean coal? Who is the provider? Suddenly so many questions came into mummy's mind...

At the same time we were watching Astro programme and suddenly there is short documentation film introducing the new solution to opportunity fuels. It's a technology from Japan, using waste to energy method and imagine what they use? Seaweed!!! They even build factories to grow seaweed as a new renewable energy solution. How amazing! Then mummy also came across N-Viro, an International Corporation that developes, implements and promotes the greener idea in using the organic waste as an alternative energy.  Frankly speaking, this is really a brilliant idea. At least we still have a better hope for the future in staying green on earth. Mummy is really amazed on the technology from N-Viro in doing their best to promote the new recycling method that will benefit each and everyone of us.

Why always sick before CNY?

Including mummy too... blame the weather?? We all seen doctors and having medication now. The worst must be En En, she's coughing so terrible and vomit after her non-stop coughing most of the time...

Any advise?

Flu?

Mummy is not feeling well with little bit of stuffy nose and sneezing in hot sunny days! Zheng starts to cough today... En En not so much on coughing and running nose now ever since she got the symptoms last Thursday. She was coughing at midnight till vomit continuously for 2 nights!

If Zheng get worse, will probably bring him to see doctor. Mummy must take some Chinese medication as well called Ying Qiao but need to buy from the chinese medication hall tomorrow. Hopefully able to sneak out from the house without the kids...

Fever

Zheng is having fever since yesterday. He's been given paracetamol 3 times per day but seems not working. The causes of the fever maybe due to he's teething, lack of water, eating too much nuts, biscuits and spicy crackers,... too many possibilities.

He's not sleeping well either as the whole night he's been screaming and fussing. Decided to bring him to the doctor later today. Hope he gets well before we have our trip to KL next Monday. *Praying*

Sick Babies

Yong Zheng at 11 months 1 week and 1 day old

Zheng was first discovered having cough last Sunday. Runny nose later of the days and fever the next day. Visited paed on Monday morning and was advised not to give Paracetamol syrup if the fever is not more than 38.5 or 39 degree. Everyone was worry... really scare of H1N1 influenza...

He has less appetite but screams loudly almost everyday due to discomfort of the throat, which is full of phlegm and coughing. He was on antibiotic for 3 days, visited paed on the thrid day to confirm his status. Luckily he had no fever since the second day, therefore he's just having a normal flu. Anyway, he still need to continue to take medicine to reduce the phlegm and is still taking till today.

Mummy thought breastfeed babies rarely can get sick during the first 12 months? Zheng already reached 11 months old and he's walking so steady now... very cute!

Rou En at 40 months 1 week and 5 days old

Well, it's predictable that En En caught the virus from Zheng since they are playing together days in and out. She started with cough the days before yesterday, in the evening. Then followed by runny nose. Never visit paed yet as we have medicine (for coughing and running nose) on hands at home and Zyrtec happens to be the cure for stopping running nose. Mummy took a look at the ingredient of this Zyrtec compare to Zyrtec En En took for her allergy, they are in fact different in percentage composition. Zyrtec for allergy is 10mg of Cetrizine while the other one is 1 mg.

We suspect En En's allergy reaction is due to cold as the red patches occured when she is first discovered coughing and had runny nose. It's been more than 1 month plus she's not taking her allergy medication even during our 1 month stay in Alor Star. Daddy also mentioned probably her allergy is related to her respitorary system (the lung?) or breathing tunnel. Should discuss this with her paed if we have next visit.

En En had fever too since yesterday but subsided today and hopeully she will be better tomorrow. Flu is always taking longer time to cure, moreover on infant and toddler.

Di Di is not feeling well...

The root cause is he's eating too many "things", those are called food and those are NOT food! At the end, he's having fungus around the insides (left & right) of his mouth... not forgetting the tummy wind as well...

Brought him to the paed on Sunday during this "peak" (H1N1 flu) period and was given Kaolin for the tummy wind and Tytantin for curing the fungus.

Today is the third day taking all the medication. It was like fighting to catch a fish when mummy needs to feed him the medic. So pity that he has to go through this and this is the SECOND time DiDi is taking oral medication. The FIRST time was paracetamol for the 3 months old jab.

He has no appetite to food these few days! So haertache to see our "Little Dustbin" rejecting food... but he still keeps on inspecting other stuff in the house with his MOUTH! Arrgh...

So, it's not always a good news if the little one loves to PUT EVERYTHING INTO THE MOUTH!

Pop on Zyrtec

Just to record down En En took Zyrtec today. The fingers were red in patches and was unable to subside on its own after 1 hours... infact it was getting worse. Redness started to shown on toes and legs quite fast though.

After half and hour she took Zyrtec, no more redness on her limbs. Phew...

She's improving...

The red patches started from the end of limbs such as toes, fingers

About her allergy rashes... it's getting better... slowly... She is not on Zyrtec everyday but only take it orally if the red rashed/spots/patches suddenly appear fast and can't even go away after some times.

After the course of the chinese medicine from Eu Yan Shang, she indeed had "big" bowel movement for 4 days. During this 4 days, no Zyrtec was given and no sign of allergy reaction came out. Quite amazingly but she had to take Zyrtec on the last day she's took the chinese medicine. Somehow, we are still unsure what was going wrong in her body.

So till today... the longest interval that she's not taking Zyrtec was 6 days apart. Quite a good improvement as compare to previously whereby she needs to take it every night.

She stopped Zyrtec on 13 July when she started the chinese medicine, took Zyrtec again on:
- 16 July
- In between another 2 times
- 22 July
- 28 July

We still need to monitor her from now on and hopefully she won't be needing anti-allergy medication eventually.

A little note about kids

- She is officially sleep with Ah Mah at night and she sleeps soundly instead of waking up at midnight to grab her pillows and walked to Ah MAh's room in dark... and that was when she's sleeping with mummy and daddy...

- She is not allergy to anything according to her allergy blood test result BUT the red spots/rashes/patches never go away ever since she's been discharged from hospital. She's on anti-allergy medicine, Zyrtec for 1 month plus. We tried to stop Zyrtec for a day and the next day the symptom appeared and she started to scratch. Paed advise to let her have Zyrtec for 2 months at least...

- All of us agreed that she's allergy to Arieus, another anti-allergy medicine which the paed gave her at the earliest. We brought her to see a Chinese sinseh at Eu Yan Shang. She's on chinese medicine start today. Hopefully this alternative way works on her as we don't like to see little girl on long-term medication.

- She is boring with life at home sometimes, she wishes to go outing as long aspossible and she will tell you not to go home if she is not satisfy or ready to get home. Seriously, mummy is diggin out the memory of what I was doing at her age and maybe can start with her to do some simple art and crafts...

- He is restless and always bang his head with or without our knowledge. Mummy knitted a head band for him but he's now able to take it off. Therefore, we got to keep an eyes on him every minutes!

- He's going to be 9 months old soon and he's able to walk with hands supported on table, door or anything solid and firm.

- He's hyperactive, triple more than En En during this age. He won't stop crawling, climbing, snatching newspaper or any other papers, toys, anything within his reach in order to send into his mouth!!!

- He had a taste of durian and mangosteen despite other fruits and he can finish one big slice of papaya, eat more frequent whenever he's not sleeping as he always seem want to eat but not hungry.

- He rejects to poo into the potty and only do it in the diaper. Lately he will just poo abit then continue crawling or playing. He refuses to finish his bowel movement when mummy offer him the potty. Therefore, ended up he poo poo 4-5 times per day all in diaper/napkin... arrgh...

- He was starting to do stunts/acrobatic during breasfeeding when mummy offers him side lying. He won't sleep properly instead he will suck from above, buttock high up like doing the downward facing in yoga! Very naughty boy... oh yeah, milk came out from his nostril today... *slap head*

A Sweet One

Mummy hit Didi's hand when he was trying to reach the lamp besides the bed in order to warn him this is not a toy to play with. En En was standing besides Didi and whenever mummy hit Didi's hand, she said: " Touch... touch... (means sayang back DiDi)..." After that, mummy was surprise why En En suddenly pushed mummy down (I was sitting) and sit on mummy's tummy!

Ah Mah saw this and she said En En is helping Didi to make revenge... Ha!

At least we know she loves him!

Still on antibiotic

Even En En is home now but her allergy condition is still under monitoring. She still has to take antibiotic since last week and another 3 days down the road after visited paed this morning.

Paed said her body is not yet fully recover and the bacteria might not be fully clear out from the blood stream. The effect of taking the antibiotic results that she will have bowel movement 3-5 times per day! Yesterday was 7 times of bowel movement till there's no stool came out but only the mucus/lining of the colon... Thank God it was just soft stool most of the time...

Today she started a new antibiotic and Smecta, went to poo poo 4 times already, including just now at 1am!!!

Poor En En and pity mummy and daddy who can only fall asleep after 1am since few days ago...

Back home!

Finally, En En discharged yesterday afternoon. Mummy was looking forward for her since morning but she's throwing tantrum (it was her time for napping) when reached home and refused mummy and DiDi! She also refused us to take down this one:-

For memory, is it?

This was the room she's staying. Most of the time when she's on drip, cartoon movies that played from daddy's laptop will distract her from the pain and sorrow. The moment this picture was taken, she's no longer on drip (good news!).

Otherwise, she can be found playing happily in the children's playgroup at the padiatric ward.

Hands like that still can play slide... aiyo...

Seeing her smiling face made us all relieved at last!

Welcome home, sweetheart!!!

En En's progress

18 May 09

Finally, mummy was able to drive to hospital to visit En En. Zheng was with daddy and Ah Mah at home as Po Po & Gong Gong were here to rotate taking care of her.

One blood test result showed that En En has double white blood cells in the blood stream and she is attacked by unknown bacteria (from second blood test result). The red patches are due to allergy still but maybe because she went to hospital for anti-histamine shot 2 days ago, probably got infected by other bacteria during that moment. Arrgh... Just like Ah Kong said if nothing's wrong with the body never go to hospital especially when one's body is weak.

En En looked tired and super scare of nurses when they are coming close to her. No appetite and she's on drip.

Today
Mummy is unable to visit En En today as mummy has mild fever and headache. Gosh... hope to get well the soonest! According to daddy En En no longer on drip as she has gained back appetite... Thank God... wish she can come home soon!

Hospitalized...

13 May 09

Mummy took En En and Zheng Zheng to see paed.The girl has breathing difficulty during sleep at night and phlegm clog in throat (?) and stuffed nose while the little boy has CONSTIPATION! Yeah... it's quite rare to happen on breastfeed child but this occurred since he started on solid food.

En En was diagnosed having nose and lung allergy and that's why all the symptoms slowly showing at this toddler year, according to the paed. Fine, we were seeing another paed as their original paed was on leave. So, the paed prescribed some anti-allery medicine for En En and Lactulose to Zheng for softening the stools. By the way, En En's nose allery is inherited from daddy's family side.

After we went home, Zheng had bowel movement but En En not yet started her full course of medicine as it was almost late afternoon. So, she just took the medicine once.

14 May 09

En En took the full course of medicine. Night time sleep no more breathing difficulty.

15 May 09

Today was En En's birthday! Daddy said she was scratching her whole body since 5am. At 7am, red patches started to show on her body, limbs and neck. We thought it's mozzie bites but discovered most probably was allery reaction towards the medicine.

Went to hospital again and this time seeing back her paed. Confirmed it's allery reaction and was told to stop medicine immediately while paed prescribed Pirition (anti-histamine) and Calamine Lotion. Poor girl still scratching the red areas but she looked active.

16 May 09

Red patches came and gone on and off but never really disappear completely. Worst part was it's getting swollen and even redder when it's hot. Daddy and Ah Mah brought En En to hospital again in the morning as she was unable to sleep whole night, crying and screaming of discomfort and itchiness. We were all prepared to admit her but was told not to from the hospital as she will prone to more viruses staying in children ward. En En was given a jab to control the itchiness and went home drowsy. We need to monitor her until night time but there was another jab awaiting in case there's still no improvement.

Late afternoon the redness faded but appeared again. We ahev no choice to bring to hospital for the second jab otherwise, she would scratch till the skin peel off!

This was the sleepless night for us... En En had fever in the middle of the night. Forced to use suppository on her to control her body temperature.

Today

En En was admitted to hospital as she is swollen at every part of her body! Poor little girl... Mummy is unable to go as need to take care of Zheng Zheng. Heard daddy said En En was given 6 types of injections!!! (Fever, Pirition, double-dose Piriton, Anti-swollen, Anti-itch, another one forgot...) She screamed and cried hysterically and was unable to recognised daddy as well! She just ran and hide away as much as she could... So heart broken to see such scenario. Paed even got to give her another shot to calm her down!!! She gone through 2 times of blood tests, this is really too much for a 3 year old!

Poor girl, mummy couldn't even be there to hold her... Only Ah Mah & daddy was there. The hospital is crowded since A(H1N1) influenza arrived in Penang.

Another episode in hospital since last year.

Flu went off... finally

Mummy was battling with flu for almost 2 weeks plus and now finally can declare for the victory! Yeah!!! Was worry that baby Z got flu from mumy too but luckily he's only discovered with a little coughing 2 days ago when mummy was getting well. That's the wonders of breastfeeding!

So, from the previous post, this is the so-called "Ang-Moh" mint. Pardon as the leaves are supposed to be all green but the one in the pic were taken out from the fridge after 2 days... therefore already layu lah... It's very big compare with the normal mint leaves that we used in cooking and it has some fur-like feeling when touching. Surprisingly, it's quite tasty as a drink after cooked with rock sugar but it also can be chewed raw. Immediate soothing for the throat irritation.

Just for a record of medication that mummy got from Dr.Zovi's prescription... in case in need for future while still breastfeeding (CHOY! CHOY! CHOY! touch wood...)

Cough - DURO-TUSS FORTE 0.3% SYRUP / PHOLCODINE

Antibitotic - AUGMENTIN 1g (amoxycillin + clavulanate potassium)

Baby Z's had flaming red "little bird" since last week but now it's under monitor and proper care with frequent changing of nappy, use lampin instead of modern cloth diapers. Visited paed and most probably the cause of it was too humid and didn't clean properly. In fact, it's just a mild case and paed only gave LACTACYD to be used in bath and nappy change. Well, sometimes he was soaking wet espcially using cloth nappies overnight... maybe need to add another layer of microfleece to wick the moisture away.

Oh... if you are new to modern cloth diapers, do drop by my diapering blog. Moment like this it always give mummy a mix feeling to use disposable and cloth diapers when you are so in love with the modern cloth nappies. No doubt disposable never gives any skin problem to both mummy's little ones but the impact of the environment... well, it's just feeling so waste to use and throw... Anyway, right now mummy needs to take more precaution at this moment for baby Z's little bird as mummy discovered there's some peeling of skin happening... Poor baby Z... Guess mummy will resume in full time cloth diapering soon.

Mozzies Attack!

How sad to look at En En's legs... she will keep on scratching those area even when they are healing. As a result, she has lots of scars from the "kiss of the mozzie". It started before CNY but till today those old and new scars keeps on appearing from time to time... so worry that her skin is extremely sensitive. What we need to do now is how to prevent her from the bite? Insect repellant is not working on her as she refuse to let us put on and those are chemicals-made product... good meh?

Any good solution to get rid of mozzies instead of spraying, and using other commercials method? Is there any natural approach? Daddy loves to use the electrical mozzie racquet to electro-shock them... Any more ideas?

Potty Train? Not now...

Yes, the culprit that hold back potty-training for En En is constipation. Even till today she's not willing to tell us when she wants to do big business simply because she's afraid of the painful feeling... As a result, En En keeps her bowel movement moment as long as she can and we have no choice to give her medicine for softening the stools every alternate day.

Been giving her "cheap" formula milk for almost a month now. Her stool no longer hard as rocks but we believe it's her habitual way to keep the stools in her tummy until she finally decides to let go. Such a weirdo baby... She was previously taking Gain Plus but now change to Nespray 1+ (yeah... ease on mummy's pocket too, LOL!) and there is a different of her "output" as well. Even she doesn't have bowel movement for 2 days, by the time she does her business there is no more hard stools and bleeding. That's a blessing! Hopefully, she will outgrown the fear for the red potty soon...