Bowling at Penang Bowl

Sunday afternoons are now reserved for bowling time. We took the girls there a couple of times to watch the adults and older kids playing (their aunts and uncles and cousins) and they were quite fascinated. Hubby used to be quite an avid bowler, and it seems he hasn't lost his touch! :)

Hannah, being already 6 said she wanted to try as well so we got her a pair of rental bowling shoes. Looks quite nice on her :)

She can lift the lightest bowling ball - a number 6.

This was Hannah's first time bowling but she managed quite well on her first few tries. A bit tearful at first when she kept getting gutter balls, but we encouraged her to try further. On our last trip there last Sunday, she managed to get quite a few pins and with a bit of practice, she can definitely do better!

Getting some help from Daddy:

Mom's time out

There is this show on Lifetime Asia (Astro Channel 709) which is called Mom's Time Out in which the moms in the family go off on a vacation while leaving the kids and household for the dads to be in charge.

Well, I had somewhat of a time out last weekend when my firm organised the Regional Senior Associates Training (RSATS) in Boulevard Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. It definitely wasn't a vacation, but it was certainly a time out of sorts, considering that I would be leaving Helene for the first time since she was born. I was half looking forward to going, and half not wanting to go at all, because I definitely knew I would miss my family, and Helene has never slept with anyone but me. But since it was compulsory, I packed my bags and went, and Hubby assured me that he would be able to handle everything while I was gone for 3 nights. So I made sure there was enough frozen breastmilk in the freezer, and packed my pump so I could pump when I was in KL.

It was quite a hectic 2 and a half days training, but for the first time, I had undisturbed sleep, even though it was only 6 hours on certain nights. But 6 hours undisturbed sleep is way better compared to 8 hours collective sleep (with having to wake up middle of the night). My roommate was a colleague of mine who is also a breastfeeding mummy, so both of us got our much-deserved rest.

On the last night, the firm arranged for a gala dinner for us at Sage Restaurant & Wine Bar, at The Gardens. It was a fine dining restaurant, so most people did dress up for the dinner. We had a choice of fish, chicken or lamb, and I chose fish (it was cod), besides the appetiser, soup and dessert.

The ambience at Sage:

Some pictures taken with my colleagues. We all came from different offices in Malaysia (KL, Penang, JB, KB, Kuching) as well as regional offices in Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.

On the final day, we also took a group photos in our T-shirts specially made for the training.

We were told that this is going to be held twice a year, so the next one will be in February next year. All in all, I did enjoy myself, and the fact that we were so close to Mid Valley made it even better! :) Most of the things I bought were for the girls though, and not for myself! But as much as I enjoyed spending time with my friends and colleagues, I was glad to be home with my hubby and 3 girls. He did a fantastic job with them and the house didn't collapse when I got home!

Benefits of breastfeeding

I think the realisation has dawned upon me that with a full time job, three kids under the age of 5 and a house to upkeep, that time is definitely not on my side! Hence this blog has been somewhat neglected lately :p However I told myself today that I will post something, so here goes.

Helene will be exactly 3 months old tomorrow, and for the first time in 3 kids, I am glad to say that she is a fully breastfed baby. Practice makes perfect, as they say :) With Hannah it was a total failure as she did not latch directly at all. So after two months of pumping, my supply of milk became less and less and that was it. With Heidi was a little better, she was semi-breastfed until about 5 months. I even managed to pump at work once during the day. You can read about my breastfeeding experience with Heidi here.

Now with Helene, it's definitely an easier and more enjoying experience. Of course, in the early weeks I had sore, cracked nipples and even a milk blister (something I never had before), but overcoming all those things, I'm glad I persevered. My milk supply now is more or less established, even though it is still low compared to some other mummies. I am quite envious of those who have thousands of ounces of breastmilk stocked up in the freezer, but so far my supply has been sufficient for Helene, without having to top up with formula, so I hope to make this last until she is at least 6 months old. Now I pump at least 4 times a day, twice at work, at night and another time either middle of the night or early morning. To cut a long story short, here are my top 6 benefits of breastfeeding.

1. Bonding with baby - There are no words to properly describe the warm fuzzy feeling you get with a little person nuzzled close to you, and knowing that you have what she needs to nourish and comfort her. Helene absolutely refuses the bottle of pumped milk which I try to feed her, and always prefers her milk direct from its source :) Initially I thought it was going to be a problem with her nanny, but surprisingly she drinks quite willingly from the bottle when her nanny feeds her - but only her nanny, not even her daddy or grandma. We left her with Ah Mah for a few hours the other day when we had a lunch appointment, and apparently it took her 4 times feeding to finish her bottle of milk.

2. Best food for baby - I am hardly an expert on nutrition, but I have read enough articles to know that breastmilk is the best food for baby, so I am going to try to provide her with it as much and as long as possible.

3. Weight-loss secret - I had no urut lady this time, but I could fit into my jeans by Helene's full moon and I could wear all my pre-pregnancy clothes by the time I got back to work. As of now, I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight and hope to lose another 5 kg by the end of my breastfeeding journey, fingers crossed!

4. Eating without guilt - I try to eat healthily, but since I don't need to diet (which I tried to do after my last 2 pregnancies), I can eat almost anything without having to feel guilty :) Also, I am quite lazy when it comes to drinking water, but since breastfeeding requires me to drink more liquid to produce more, I can finish a whole jug of plain water just in the office. The up-side of this also is that I can enjoy all the Milo and bubble milk tea I want, since I also find them to be my milk-boosters :)

5. Saves a lot of $$$ - Hubby is pretty pleased that he doesn't need to fork out hundreds of ringgit a month to buy formula since breastmilk is free! (he just needs to feed me well lol) We had bought a can of formula for the early days while waiting for my milk to kick in, and there is still more than half left in that same can. Hubby had also ambitiously stocked up formula, thinking that it would be the same situation as Hannah and Heidi, but now Heidi is drinking it, so as not to go to waste ;)

6. Convenient when going out - There is enough to carry with diapers, wet wipes, extra clothes and the other kids' stuff, so it's a welcome change not having to carry bottles, thermos, milk powder etc in addition to all of that. I just need my nursing cover, so Helene has fresh supply of milk, anytime, anywhere :)

Okay, now for pictures of happy Helene!

Loving those dimples!

Hannah's first dentist appointment

Every time, my dad is around, he will check Hannah's teeth. So this time he noticed that there are little holes on her front teeth, and being a dentist, he wanted to treat her before the holes got any bigger. So he arranged an appointment for her to go to the Perak Road dental clinic this morning.

Hannah had never been to a dentist before so it was expected that she was a bit apprehensive at first but we talked to her about it for a few days prior to today so she was quite prepared by the time today came. Of course we also promised her that there would be no pain, so she was quite willing to sit in the chair and start the procedure. It was also good that her first trip to the dentist was with someone familiar so that she was more comfortable and at ease in letting him do her teeth.

When we arrived at the clinic, she settled herself comfortably into the chair and opened her mouth wide. No fuss and no tears, I was definitely proud of my little girl ;)

My dad then proceeded to do some minor filling for her - no drilling or any scary stuff.

It was a very simple and quick procedure. Half an hour it was all done! I think Hannah was also glad that it was over so fast - painless and fuss-free. Now she has to look after her teeth properly so that the holes don't come back or get any bigger!

Heidi's first passport

Hannah applied for her Malaysian passport when she was 15 months old back in year 2010. However, the procedure had changed slightly since 3 years ago. I wanted to also apply early for Heidi because there is a special queue given to children below 2 years old so that we do not need to wait that long. Thanks to my friend Shu-Yin who also applied for a passport for her baby, I managed to get all the necessary information from her blog post so I was well prepared with all the required documents.

The special queue only starts giving out numbers at 8.30 am so I was there sharp with Heidi. The officer checked all my documents and gave me a number. Hubby dropped us as he had to go to court so thought that he could come and pick us up after that since he only had a quick matter. Surprisingly, about 5 minutes after dropping us, my number was already called up. I then went to the counter and the man processed my documents. We were done by 9.00 am after I waited to make payment so I had to call my mother in law to come and pick us up.

Anyway, see Heidi's passport picture next to Hannah's passport picture, both taken at 15 months. I think they look the same (except for the hair of course :p)

Colitis

About two weeks ago, little Heidi had a mild fever and she started having some diarrhea with watery stools. We took her to the pediatrician who prescribed her some Smecta for the diarrhea. It didn't really help and on the next day, there was an appearance of some blood in the stool. We were quite alarmed, so we decided to take her to the hospital even though it was quite late at night. Good thing the pediatrician on call was already there, so he told us that we could either admit her, or he would put her on antibiotics and some other medicines to see if the diarrhea would stop. We decided to try it to prevent her from being admitted and for them to prick her unnecessarily.

The diarrhea somewhat subsided for the next couple of days, even though her stool was still watery, but on the 3rd day, in the evening, there was a lot of blood in the stool. This time, it was off to the emergency room without a second thought. The pediatrician on call (another doctor this time) diagnosed her condition as colitis and said that we had two options, either to change her antibiotics (which may or may not work) or to admit her and administer the antibiotics via IV which will cure her 100%. So after three doctors and three visits, we didn't want to take any more chances, so into the ward she had to go.

As expected, she screamed the place down when they were putting the IV in her hand, but I think it was more of the restraining that she didn't like, rather than the pain. But when it was over, she looked curiously at her hand. Initially she tried to pull and even bite it off, but eventually she got used to it.

They had no single room available for the first night, so we were in a 3-bedded room. The 3rd bed was unoccupied so just us and a little boy next to us. However, we put the request in for a single room and were so glad that there was one available the very next day.

Altogether we stayed 5 days 4 nights in the hospital because the doctor wanted to make sure that there was no more blood before he let her go home. I stayed with her the entire time, with the exception of two mornings whereby Hubby's mother came by to stay with her so I could get some time to go home, bathe, wash my hair etc.

Despite her dislike of taking medicine, Heidi was a happy baby throughout and this is what I got when I asked her to make silly faces. It sure helped cheer up the gloomy days having to stay in the hospital.

She ate, slept, watched TV, played in the pediatric ward playroom and surprisingly enough, the time went by pretty fast. Hubby came in the evening after work and so we also spent the day looking forward to his visits. Our friends and colleagues also dropped by on some evenings and brought nice food and gifts for Heidi.

Once she was all better, her doctor gave the green light to go home and we were so happy to be finally sleeping on our own bed. Bye bye hospital!

Heidi in hospital

Little Heidi has been admitted to hospital for Influenza A but thankfully it's not H1N1. She has been having fever on and off since Monday, runny nose and a very chesty cough with lots of phlegm so her paed thought it best to admit her so they can monitor and keep an eye on her. They are also giving her the nebulizer every 4 hours.

Despite all that, she can still smile even though it's considerably less these few days with all the medicines and procedures.

She is also enjoying the playroom in the paediatric ward so at least it's something to do to pass the time. Hopefully we can both go home very soon!

Back home

So we have been back for a week now. We arrived on Monday night and Tuesday I was back at work and Hannah was back at Amah's house. Fun has ended and it's back to real life. Haha. Anyway, we were both glad to be back mainly because it was a bit too long away from Hubby/Daddy and little Heidi!

On the day that we left (last Monday), Hannah was busy helping to pack her things. Most important was the bag that contained all the goodies - chocs, lollies, cookies. By the way, there is another story about that bag, but will elaborate further later :)

Our flight was at 11.40 am but we had to be at the airport 2 hours earlier to check in, and I also wanted to claim my GST vide the TRS (Tourist Refund Scheme). In order to achieve all that before our flight, we had an early breakfast at the McD's near my sister's place. Coincidentally, that was also the same place where we had our first meal when we arrived, so the first and last meal that we had was McD's :).

At the airport, we were nice and early, so we could sit down and chit chat before going into immigration. There Hannah found something to entertain herself. Playgrounds seem to be the staple at most airports these days. There was a nice big one at Changi too.

One final picture before going in (or so we thought):

We didn't know that even after we had entered the waiting lounge, they could still see us from outside the glass panels. Hannah was excited to see her Nanna, Gong Gong and Ee Ee from inside and ran to meet them.

And then it was really time to board the plane. I was a bit sceptical on how Hannah would take the long haul flight as it a day flight. When we came, it was a night flight so she slept all the way. Amazingly somehow the hours seemed to pass pretty quickly and in between 2 meals, a short nap, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and some video games, we arrived in Changi. The transit was not too long, only slightly more than an hour and we reached on schedule in Penang.

In Penang, after going through immigration, we went to pick up our luggage. We had checked in two pieces of luggage, a bigger bag with all our clothes and some souvenirs, and another smaller bag with all the food in it - all the chocs, lollies and cookies. After waiting for sometime, all the bags had come out, including our bigger bag, but there was no sign of the smaller bag. The airport staff checked and told us that the bag was not on the flight, and probably had been not loaded on the plane from Singapore. It was quite disappointing after many hours of travelling to be informed that your luggage was missing, and Hannah was quite disappointed too, when she found out the missing bag contained all her goodies! So anyway, I filled up the necessary paperwork and asked the airport staff to deliver the bag to my office the next day if they managed to find it. They were quite efficient as it turned up intact the next day at my office before lunch time. So Hannah was happy again :)

Back to the night before, Hubby and Heidi were already waiting for us by the time we got out, thanks to the baggage delay. It was past 9 pm by then, and Heidi would usually be asleep in the car. However, we think that somehow that day she could sense something different, so she did not sleep until we were both in the car and then only she slept when on the way home. It was as if she was just waiting to see us before she slept.

It was a good trip and a fun holiday but it is always good to be back. Thanks to my family for having us and taking good care of us while we were there - we will see you soon in December! :)

All around Adelaide

Since we have been here, we have been half the time in the Riverland and half the time in the city. This will be quite a long post of what we did in the city with lots of pictures, so do bear with me.

Of course, for the shopping, we went to Rundle Mall, where I must say that I did break the bank account quite a fair bit :p. Hannah also found lots of things to entertain her there. 

There was a fountain, giant silver balls and some pig sculptures which she found rather amusing to sit on.

She enjoyed having Gong Gong chase her around the silver balls.

We also tried out a nice Indian restaurant called Arya in North Adelaide for lunch and she found a water feature there which she liked too. My friend Jonathen and his wife Yvonne who now live in Adelaide joined us for lunch there too.

My sister lives in a new development in Adelaide which is some sort of eco village. So just beside her house there is a lake with lots of ducks in it. Hannah likes to go for a walk there in the early morning and evening with Nanna and Gong Gong.

The bubble wand which she is holding was the best toy we have bought for her since we got here. It is just one dollar from Big W (this low-price shop) and I might get her a couple more to take home.

Over here, Hannah really enjoys what the Aussies call "Big Breakfast" and we tried a few at several different places. The one seen in the picture below was taken at Cafe Buongiorno, a little Italian cafe in Norwood. We like to go to Italian cafes because they make the best coffee. I am not a coffee drinker myself, but my mother and sister are, so they know the best places to go.

The River Torrens which flows right through the city makes for a nice walk when the weather is sunny so we did that whilst waiting for my sister was collecting her gown for her graduation ceremony (the university is just across the road from it). Hannah saw lots of birds and ducks again, and even a little yellow duckling.

For outlet shopping, we paid a visit to Harbour Town. Again, while we were looking round the shops, Hannah found something to amuse her which she really liked.

Ikea in Adelaide is just nearby to Harbour Town, so we had lunch there when we had finished. 

Hannah's whole face lighted up when she saw the huge ball pool in the Playland as soon as we entered the building. The security there is really tight though, so no parents were allowed inside the Playland. We had to make do with taking pictures through the glass wall.

On the same day, we also went to Glenelg which is a seaside suburb just outside the city. Again, Hannah was in her element there. Small and big carousels for her to ride on made her day.

Since Glenelg is by the beach, she also went down to play with sand, which she loves!

Glenelg was where the first pioneers arrived in South Australia, and there is a big monument to commemorate this.

Of course, the end to a perfect day would be a nice big ice cream.

It's good - thumb's up!

Adelaide is not such a busy city as compared to Sydney or Melbourne, but it certainly has its charm and quaint little spots, and it's not bad for shopping too! We did not manage to see everything this time around, but we will certainly be back for more :)