Active again

Today is Natalie's 8th day of the HFMD, it means a great deal to me and my family. This means that she has fully recovered and will not spread the virus to others. I am so glad that it is now over, she must be delighted too as she is able to go out to Malls and playgrounds. Seeing her getting back to her normal energetic levels puts a big smile on my face.

We are staying in a Condominium away from the rest of the family members for the time being to minimise contacts of HFMD from spreading to them.Though there are some inconvenience caused, I cannot deny the fact that I am actually happier. The only set back is I began to see the flaws of my domestic helper. I realise she is not capable of handling the housework by herself, and is incompetent in many ways. She can't cook, she can't wash, she can't mop... what I meant here is that she does all that, but food is not cooked, her washing is still dirty after wash, floor is still sticky after she mopped... She does not put in an effort to the work and produce sub-standard results.

Just today I told her to prepare a simple lunch for us, just a pot of porridge, some frozen japanese crispy chicken, fish fillet, hot dogs and fry 2 eggs. Simple right?? In the end, the crispy chicken was crispy on the outside, cold on the inside. The hot dog was worst burnt on the outside cold on the inside, you should know what happened to the fish fillet...! The egg and porridge was edible because I cooked them. In the end, I had to make a trip to the nearby coffee shop and bough lunch back. Sigh... Instead of lighten my burden, she adds on to it. I have to bring food home every meal for them... I provide catering service to my maid.

Anyway that was a minor issue, as long as my family is healthy, I am willing to make some sacrifice. After being locked up in the hospital and house for days, Natalie was finally out. We took her for a stroll by the pool and the Community club nearby.

Introducing her to the pool of the condominium, wanted to catch a good family photo of the 3 of us can be quite a challenge at her age.

It is getting tougher to take a decent photography of her as she struggles a lot.
Standing behind Jeffrey, her height was almost at Jeff's hip, everyone said that she is tall for a 30 months old baby.

She was trying to do chin up at the monkey bar with the help of MUMMY!

Quiet time by the Koi pond at the Community Club with mummy.

I missed her mischievous look when she was sick, so glad to see it on her again!

Natalie admitted to KK Hospital due to HFMD

My precious little girl was admitted to KK Hospital due to dehydration last Sunday, 30th May 2010. It was a traumatic experience that I wished I could trade places with her. Seeing her screamed and cry in pain when the houseman on duty tried to administer the plug in her little wrist made my heart stopped. When the houseman's unstable hands shivered and failed his first attempt almost made kicked him.

Fortunately I was still rationale enough and I stopped him from trying again (in a harsh tone). I demanded an experience doctor to inject the plug and he had to asked his senior MO to do it. At that moment it forced Natalie to shout out lots of words that I never thought she knew.

She screamed "Mummy I don't want!" ; "Mummy carry me!"; "Let's go home"; "Go mummy's room!"; "let's go!"; “為什麼！”；“我怕！”。Although I was devastated, I knew it was for the better so I was prepared to face it even though my heart was bleeding literately. Jeffrey was badly affected at the sight of Natalie shouting in pain, he pouched his fist at the hospital cabinet. I could understand what he was going through as we love Natalie so much and yet we were helpless and could only watched her suffer.

Finally after the 2nd attempted, the senior MO successfully inserted the plug and set the drip for Natalie. It was such a relieved for all of us, even for the nurses and MOs on duty.

She woked up few hours later, got very angry that her hand was immobilized by the drip and tried to pull it out. She kept asking me to take it off for her, I had to distract her by letting her watch her favourite DVD programs on my laptop.

I accidentally pulled out the plug on her hand when we were about to transfer her to another room. I wanted to kill myself as due to my carelessness Natalie had to go through the painful process of inserting the plug into her hand! I kept apologising to her and to Jeffrey, really felt like dying then.

Jeffrey went home to get her toys and my clothes as we had to stay with her throughout her hospitalisation period. She got angry when she could not utilise both hand to play her toys.

Daddy bought Elmo balloon for her to cheer her up. She looked so much better on Day 2 and she finally managed to drink 200ml of Apple Juice that Jeffrey bought from Mac Donalds.
That was the 1st improvement we saw.

On the 3rd day she drank her milk and accepted some porridge when I fed her. She didn't reject the meals and water and could eat regularly. The doctor gave the green light to discharge her but not clear from HFMD yet. I have to monitor her fluid intake everyday, the acceptable amount is 1 litre every 12 t0 16 hours. She will be cleared of HFMD this Sunday, really looking forward to her full recovery.

Natalie is down with Hand Foot Mouth Disease

Life is full of the unexplained, but I am able to see a pattern. When all is well whatever you do will have positive results or outcomes. When you are experiencing set backs or stumble blocks, it will come in a long chains and you will never know when the chain will break.

The month of April and May has been a rocky emotional rides for me and my family. Since April Natalie has been falling sick, seen a GP twice for her flu but her recovery was not progressive. So I took her to see a Ear Nose Throat Specialist and finally after a week she recovered. It took a total of 3 weeks. Then her left eye was swollen due to mosqitoe bite, it took her about 3 days to subside. Immediately after that, her right eye was bitten by mosqitoe and again it swell. It took another 3 days to recover.



I barred her from going to childcare when all these happened, needless did I know that there was a spread of Hand Foot Mouth Disease going on in her class. When she recovered from her swell on Sunday I decided that she should be fit enough to go to school. On Monday I received an sms from her Form Teacher that her classmate was down with HFMD and advise parents to keep children at home if they were unwell.

So I let Natalie stayed at home on Monday, and on Tuesday I took her to school and asked about the situation on HFMD in her class. This was the 3rd case of HFMD in her play group and I would expect that there were tougher measures to contain the disease from spreading further. The teacher told me that the little girl that got HFMD was sick for one week without symptoms of HFMD but she still carried on school and was only diagnosed much later.... She assured me that it was all taken care of and I was relieved that during that period Natalie didn't go to school and secretly thanked the mosqitoes for that. I thought that Natalie could escape being spread, I was wrong... I overlooked the fact that the girl who came down with HFMD went unnoticed for a week... within this week she could has spread it to other classmates too...

I called the school just now and informed about Natalie's condition. I told them I was disappointed about the way they handle the situation. The director told me that they do screening 3 times a day and sterilized all the toys on a daily basis. This was their normal routine even when there was not HFMD reported. I told them since these was their normal routine and yet it was not able to contain the spread of HFMD from continue spreading, then it is not good enough. They should act fast and come up with other productive measures to show that they are making an effort. You know what she said? She asked me for my advise of what other ways I can suggest... If I was speaking to her face to face she could have seen my eyeballs rolling from one end to the other! Unbelievable, they set up educational centres and yet they do not know what to do.

I suggested to her to break the class into smaller groups of 4 - 5 students to a teacher. That way they will be able to monitor the students closely and if one of the student came down with HFMD, the teacher can quickly inform the rest of the 3 students that was interacting closely with the affected kid. She said that my suggestion was a good one and she will discuss this with her management. Then she raised another question to me, she asked how to break into smaller groups as space is a constraint. Sigh... I told her that is her responsibility to find solution not mine. As I told her by doing the above, it will only benefit those kids that are still not affected by HFMD, not Natalie as she is already the victim. So its up to them to take a different approach and measures.

This is the first time Natalie looses appetite, it's very worrying. Usually when she was down with cold n flu that did not affect her appetite. There is no cure for HFMD currently, I can only monitor her closely and hopes the medicine will help relieve her symptomatically. It is going to be a long battle at least for a week.

Natalie's 2 Year's Old Birthday

Wanted to upload this post in December but I have been real busy with work and work. But I really want to share this post with my fellow blog friends that have never given up on me. Though I may not be as religious as before on blogging, some of you still send me encouragement to tell me not to stop blogging. I am sincerely touched by kind words from you, really! Through blogging I even got to know a few of you and our friendship continued on Facebook!

Just few weeks ago we celebrated Natalie's 2 years old birthday at home. I invited a few close friends and colleagues to share this happy moment with me. Thank you everyone for showing up, your presence meant a lot to me and my family. It's through times like this that made me realised who is sincere and who cares for me. Actually I didn't plan to have this celebration, I wanted a simple celebration just with my family. I knew that Natalie will not be enjoying herself as she disliked crowd. I went ahead with the celebration because my friend encouraged me to, I never regretted that decision. I enjoyed myself and I am sure my guests enjoyed themselves too.


My good friend Tina and her son Brayden. We wanted a photo with our both our children together for the longest time and finally it happened! Brayden is a chubby and cute little boy, he is a few months older than Natalie.

Natalie's birthday cake has a set of train toy as decorations, apparently the boys were more attracted to the cake than Natalie. As for Natalie as usual, she still disliked crowds and didn't take the celebration too well. My friend Karen's son helped blew the candles for Natalie. :)


My lovely colleagues, I really like this photo, it has all the ladies I like in it.

This is the Best Photo of that day, Natalie was definitely the centre of attraction in this photo. Seem like she was actually posing for the camera!

My precious little girl, mummy loves you so much!

I got to know Tina shortly after I gave birth to Natalie. Glad that our friendship blossomed!

This is another of my colleague, Diana. She was the last to arrive, but it's better late than never. Thank you for making and effort to come.

So that was it, another year has passed. Natalie is 2 and each and everyday I treasure my moment with my girl. Every time she makes me laugh, she calls me mummy, mama, and each time it melts my heart. I love her so much!

Seeking motivation

Started contributing back to the society at exactly this time last year, but after a year I am beginning to loose motivation to work. I have been thinking to myself lately that should I just be a full time mum and look after the best interest of Natalie? I am just playing with this idea for weeks now. Though I have the thought about it, I know I will not be fully satisfied if I don't work. But as Natalie gets bigger and more attached to me, I felt responsible to make sure she gets taken care of properly by me rather than a maid. I am just a person that contradicts everything... sigh.

Just last week, while Natalie was taking an afternoon nap, she was stung by an insect. That led to a very bad swell on her left palm and it almost looked disfigured.... My very intelligent maid applied MOPIKO instead of giving me a call to inform me of the sting. It dragged hours and hours and finally when I reached home that day I was informed about it. When I took a closer looked I was worried, Natalie's fingers and palm swell up to at least 3 times the size of her right palm. Without delay I rushed her to see my family doctor. Earlier on Jeff went to her room and searched for suspicious insect that might still be hiding in the room and found a Wasp. We brought the captured insect to the doctor and he confirmed that Natalie was stung by it.

This is how a wasp looked like and it stings and releases venom into the body and causes swelling. In serious cases the venom will travel to other parts of the body like face and neck and causes swelling too. If the swell is bad it might block the air passage way and causes difficulties in breathing. Luckily for Natalie the swelling was localised on her palm meaning the venom did not travel to other parts of the body. Natalie was given some oral medication and it took about 3 days later that the swell fully subsided.

Natalie reads Alphabets

This is a video I shot while Natalie was playing with her flash cards. It was a sense of achievement to see Natalie who is bearly 16 months, able to recognise a few alphabets from the flash cards. :) Hope you enjoy this video as much as I do.

Time to Blog

Yes it's time to blog, when I was busy typing out this post, Jeff came over and asked: "Oh are you blogging? Thought your blog has rusted, you mean your blog is still around ah?" Even my husband knew that I haven't been blogging although he is not my reader.

I am down with flu, didn't know when and how I caught the bug but true enough, it's bad and I am certified unfit for duties for 2 days. Been lazing at home the whole of today, getting drowsy due to the cough mixture and trying to stay away from Natalie. I almost forgot that I do have a blog to upkeep, been playing facebook so much that it has taken up most of my online time. It's really convenient to stay in touch with friends. I shouldn't forget about blogging, I really should not, because of this blog I got to know many kind hearted bloggers and readers. Whenever I am having doubts I know that I will get some form of support and suggestions from you. 

Especially during my last post on Natalie's problem about dream feeding, after reading all your suggestions I was much calmer and was able to see from a bigger picture. What most of you said was true, as long as she is drinking her milk. I was apologetic towards my maid for flaring up, after discovering her good intentions that led to her action, I kinda blamed myself for being so jumpy and suspicious of her all the time. I should count myself fortunate that I have a caring and trustworthy helper. Ever since that incident I am a better person now, in terms of dealing maid issue. ;) Guess its not a bad thing too, at least I know I changed to a better person. :P 

I am using my new laptop, sponsored by my hubby. He bought me a Mac Book as I was having problems with syncing data from iphone to my Acer. I like the set up of Mac and I am not totally alien with Mac as I used to own an iMac many years ago. I do have to give it two thumbs up as the latest version is very user friendly. 

Anyway I have uploaded some photos taken in the beginning of year 2009. Photos are a great way to make a post more colourful. Hope I did achieve the effect.

My colleagues and I at Raffles Hotel, Royal China restaurant. It was our Chinese New Year company dinner. Also showing off my latest Chanel collection, finally my Chanel 2.55 caviar.

My kindest Sales Manager I ever come across during my entire working career, Mr Jeffrey Chua. Same name as my hubby.

Now it's time for Osim's advertisement.  Beware as you are seeing this for the first time, Osim's youngest model endorsing their product. Natalie and Osim i-gallop, and no lar, it's not an advertisement.

Natalie was really enjoying herself when Jeff put her on the galloping machine. You should take a closer look and you will find her finger on the speed button, she was adjusting the speed herself.

And when she found the trick of making it move faster, she was super delighted. Just look at her expression, she was totally relax and at ease with i-gallop. Watching her happy is my greatest achievement. Maybe Osim should really consider getting her to endorse their products. Didn't know that it's so popular among babies too!

Took Natalie to attend my friend's wedding banquet. These 2 photos was taken before she went for a home run melt down. She hates crowded confined space and she started crying when my friend marched into the restaurant with her hubby. Had to bring her back when we were only at the 6 course of the lunch banquet. 

Oh I permed my hair, this is my latest look. Had asked for big locks rather than those tight small curls. Though it is not going to last very long, 2 months is a fairly reasonable duration. Anyway I predict I will get bored of curls by then. 

Well I have to rest, the medicine are kicking in...

Till next time... more updates.

1st post after 2 months

Goodness, I am beginning to loose myself here in blogger land. I have been so active on Facebook that I didn't feel nothing missing when I am online. Life has been great, Natalie is already walking on her own and that is quite a relieve for my arms. She is much more manageable now as she approaches into toddler stage. Though she is growing very well, I am still constantly worrying for her in many many ways. Like has she taken her nap? Has she drink her milk? Is she eating well? 

Recently I found out that my maid has been giving Natalie her milk while she is sleeping. Yes, I meant Dream Feed, for mothers who knows what that mean. I have never disagree with dream feeding Natalie when she sleeps for the night and gives her last feed to last her till morning. But little did I know that my maid took this to her own convenience and does all her milk feeding while Natalie takes her naps in the day! My maid confessed that it has been like that for about 2 months since Nat turned 1 yr old. 

The problem now is that Natalie is rejecting all her milk feeds when she is awake. I tried to change her habit back for the past 2 days but she screamed and pushed the milk bottle away all the time. She has not been drinking since then.... Luckily she is on regular 3 meals, porridge, noddles, mee suah etc But I cannot let her go without milk at such a tender age! Sigh... sometimes I really blamed myself for all these. I have not been a good mother as I chose work over looking after her full time. I really have myself to blame. 

I should not have pinned high hopes on maid to take really good care of my baby. I shouldn't have.... I got really mad when I found out what she did, I should have been more vigilant! Everyone tells me to change maid, but I really have no confidence in looking for another one. 

Hope when tomorrow comes, Natalie will be more receptive towards milk feeds, WHILE SHE IS AWAKE!

21st December, Natalie's One Year Old party

Finally, after all the preparation and the leg work, it's over. The party was a success, the buffet was great. Very nice presentation, superb quality, unqiue dishes. The birthday cake was delicious and yet not very sinful. It's not Chocolate, it was Mango Cream from COVA. Most of the guests enjoyed the food and the cake. Well the kids got their fair share of fun as well, they weren't neglected as Jeff had party packs for them to get self entertained while their parents enaged in adult conversations. lol. Also kids were attracted to the cupcakes that were surrounding the birthday cake.

I am glad that I had this party, I am pleased with myself, I chose the right cake, cupcakes, decoration, buffet orders. I am glad that I have invited my colleagues, they were very enthusiastic about this party and they stayed almost till the end. Very sporting! I like! Even though I only know them for about 8 months, they showed their kindness and appreciation to me and my family members. Thank you very much, little actions like this touched me a lot.

Did not have much photos taken, not much of a regret but it was a pity that I didn't have a few photos taken with my good friend, Geraldine and her boyfriend Desmond. SIgh... I guess I was too happy chatting with her that I forgot about camera whoring her! Anyways she will understand, right? lol I will blog about Nat's birthday and then another time, I will blog about our Batam trip hor!

It's been a year!

My oh my oh my... how time flies. Last year around this time I was preparing nervously and eagerly for labour and now, 

My precious Natalie is turning 1 year old this Sunday. It seems like a dream, it was a difficult process, going through with the labour, the confinement period, adapting to the changes in life, coping with the additional member. Now when I looked at her, I felt that it was all worth it. But then I am still not prepared to go through it again. 

I am throwing a party for her, invited friends and colleagues over this Sunday. Hopefully they will be free to attend as I treat it as a form of gathering as well. Haven't been meeting up with my friends and colleagues for a while and I would like to take this opportunity to get everyone together, networking is very important! So far the response from the invitation is not very positive, maybe it's due to the holiday season? 

I have been doing all the foot work, running up and down for the preparation for this coming Sunday. Got a cake from COVA, ordered another 25 cupcakes from cupcakesmoma, ordered buffet for 50 pax. Jeffrey is going to decorate the house with balloons and also going to give out party packs to the kids that turn up that day. All these just hoping that everyone will enjoy themselves, creating a memorable day for everyone. 

IT's getting crazy here, Natalie is turning 1, preparing for the celebration, Christmas is round the corner as well, the arrival of a new born baby from my sister in law... approaching new year, soon afterwards will be Chinese new year... oh my, super jam pack!

Guess the happiest person in the family now is her, carefree as ever, gets what she wants most of the time. Good life! I wanna be a baby again! 

Baby still cannot sleep throughout the night!

I am seeking help from all mothers through this blog. I need rescue therapy of any kind, advises from the experienced to help me get my baby to sleep throughout the night. Yes it is shocking right? Natalie is going to turn 1 year old next month and till now she still wakes up frequently to drink milk. Let me narrate Natalie's sleep pattern last night:

7:30pm Drink 180ml of milk

8:30pm Got tired and slept

11:40pm woke up and drank another 180ml of milk

3:30am woke up screaming... drank another 180ml of milk

4:00am went back to sleep

4:45am woke up cranky wants attention............. awake till 6am

6am slept

7:20am woke up again

.................................................................................. -___-'''

I almost fainted... I am beginning to worry this will carry on forever!

This happens very frequently, it has become a bad habit of Natalie. I hope she can sleep for a continuous of 6 to 7 hours in a roll and not gets up every 3 - 4 hours interval... It's draining.... it's affecting my sleep too. I pity my maid as well as she has to put up with the long sleepless nights, accompany Natalie till she gets back to sleep. How mothers? What should I do to change Natalie's time clock back to schedule?

I envy mothers when they told me that their babies are able to sleep throughout the night when they were only 3 months old... Did I start off with the wrong foot that created Natalie's bad habit?

2 Weddings

It has been a rough week, meetings, conferences, weekend duties, dead line for sales report, and 2 wedding dinner invitations on the same week. I had to be on duty at IMH on Thursday alone. My company was one of the sponsors for their APPRC congress and therefore we had to "Jargar" the booth and introduce our company's drug to overseas doctors and nurses that came for the congress. When I stated on my facebook that I was at IMH, one of my friend was shocked and asked me why I was there. Maybe he thought that I was mentally ill, maybe he thought I suffered post natal blues... hahahaha Mervin, don't worry I am perfectly fine. Anyways, luckily Paul was on duty there too and we kept each other company that day.

That Saturday I was very excited as I was going to bring Natalie to attend my friend's wedding dinner. It was Marilyn's wedding and was held at Merchant Court Hotel. I brought Natalie along to meet up with her mummy's friends, and true enough she was very popular that night. We didn't stay till the end of the dinner and left only when they were serving the 4th course. Too bad, as Natalie needed to head back home for her sleep.

The beautiful bride, Marilyn Chan and me. Welcome to monogamy and hope to hear good news soon!

Natalie and her god mother, Geraldine. Her boyfriend kept saying that Natalie was very cute. Could tell that he loves baby a lot. Hope to attend their wedding dinner soon so that they can proceed to the next stage of life. Natalie needs a friend, so don't let her wait too long ok.

My little princess and me. I brought this bustier dress from Lavender, located at Stamford Road.

Family photo.

My good friend Geraldine.

Me, Apple and Geraldine. That was the first photograph of the 3 of us together after so long.

Natalie playing with the cutlery on her baby high chair.

Esther and me.

Immediately the next day, I had to prepare to attend another wedding dinner at Conrad Hotel. I was looking forward to this wedding dinner as Jeff and I held our wedding at Conrad. Wanted to have a feel of being a guest there and re collect memories of our wedding.

Camera whoring in the car, hoping to look my best.

Beautiful ladies of my company.

The bride, Sherli and me. She is so gorgeous! Envy that she is so slim! I wasn't that slim when I was a bride myself.


My lovely and wonderful colleagues. I am happy to be able to work with all of you.

Girls night out

Met some friends from my industry for a quick drink at Balaclava on eve of Children's day, also the eve of Hari Raya. Before going over, I was already drinking at some other places with my colleagues, had a mixture of chinese wine, Red wine, White wine, Champagne and beer... I pretty much enjoyed myself, and the great company that night!

My friends, great company!

Wonderful night, we should get out more often, if time permits me to.

Brought Natalie out on her 1st Children's Day to Kallang Leisure Mall. She was a little grouchy as she didn't take her afternoon nap at first. Only managed to snap a few photos when she was in the car and her sitting on the shopping trolley. The rest of her trip, she was asleep in our arms. Jeff and I had to take turns to carry her while she sleeps. I had muscles cramp after that day...


Natalie and mummy me, with no make up. I am getting lazier these days especially when I am out with my baby girl. I try to minimise all the preparation time shorter so I can spend more time with Natalie.

Isn't she lovely on the shopping trolley? She is my best purchase! hahahaha