An unexpected way to spend the weekend

Jan acted strangely yesterday - she was lethargic, didn't eat much, had a sore throat and was unusually cranky. However, she had had days like this, though not in this combination. So we struggled with the decision of whether to bring her to a doctor. We couldn't help thinking if we were over reacting. Moreover, she behaved more normally towards dinner time. Fortunately, I trusted pt's maternal instincts-that something was not right. Jan's pediatrician who is also our good friend also adviced tt we go and see her.

So we eventually arrived at the hospital, and I was expecting the doctor to tell us that Jan's is ok and we could go home, maybe with some medication to help Jan with her sore throat. The shock came when we found out that Jan was running a temperature, and the doctor adviced that Jan be admitted. She explained Jan should be admitted just to be safe, as her symptoms could be caused by more serious conditions. As such, they need to do tests on Jan and observe to rule out those possibilities.

And that's how we ended up in the hospital! And we have to stay till Sunday for the test results to be out.

Left: Poor Jan, she had a drip put into her left heel.

It was a blow to us both emotionally and physically. Already we have been exhausted from adapting to Jan's 3-hourly feeding schedule. i took leave this weekend because i needed rest and i needed to help pt to get more rest. and it wasn't easy for all three of us to get enough rest while adjusting to this new arrangement.

Emotionally, we felt bad that Jan had to undergo such an experience at this age. it was heart wrenching to hear her cry when the doctor took blood and urine samples from her. we also felt helpless when she cried about the discomforts she was experiencing fr the sore throat and stuffy nose. There was also some fears in our heart that the root cause was some serious conditions; i started mentally backtracking things that i had done wrongly which might had caused all this.

Left: After cooping many days in the ward, we decided to get some fresh air. Thankfully the kopitiam at Kent Ridge Wing had a nice patio-like setting and there weren't many people.


All in all, I felt we were given another blow even while we had barely stablised ourselves. We prayed earnestly that God would watch over Jan, that she would be well soon and that we could all go home soon. We also asked our friends to partner us in prayer, and it was comforting when some of them commited to praying alongside us. I told pt that since this has happened, we should see the hospital stay as a getaway stay at a hotel, and make full use of it as an opportunity to rest. So rest for all of us it will be!

In the end, we found out that apart from having the common cold, Jan also had a tract infection, which was the reason she was running a temperature. We were glad that we went to the hospital early to catch it before it got nasty.


Left: One happy family no matter what!














Left: Papa doing silly imitation stuff again...

Jan turned one month!

I realised that time indeed flies when Jan passed her one month mark. Jan's been feeding and gaining weight well, and thank God that her jaundice has also subsided considerably. In terms of her care-taking, the confinement lady finished her 4 weeks with us, so we are now working out a new routine to settle into. Fortunately, the remaining caretakers (pt, myself and my mum-in-law) have grown more experienced in our job, so we are still managing quite well.

However, Jan has been recently having spells of frantic crying, and that really wears us down. Already without these tandrums, we can *at most* rest for three hours in a stretch, as that is the maximum time a feed can satisfy her for (but in reality, it is even shorter, as after each feed, we need to put her to sleep and take some time to wind down...). With these somewhat random tandrums, three hours is definitely a luxury.

At the back of my mind, I felt we need to be in more control of what's going on; we need more sleep, pt needs more rest; the schedule has to be directed by us rather than by the baby. In reality, it is not easy. In particular, it's hard to think straight when you don't have enough sleep, so instead of having a plan to decide when to feed and when to rest, we react impromptu to her demands, which makes resting time hard to come by.

As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

So my focus now is really to make sure that pt gets enough sleep. Well, that means that I need to be less lazy and do more nappy-changing/baby feeding/baby-soothing etc...and probably also the different tasks that our busy-bee will keep our busy bee awake. Wah...stressed....