Fion's Full Moon celebration

Today, my daughter, Fion turns one month old. It's already one month, and my confinement has finally over. We celebrated Fion's full moon last Saturday as my hubby wanted to throw a buffet party for her. We invited our colleagues and friends. My parents-in-law came over too. It was a great party to meet all my friends and colleagues after a month of prison at home.

Unfortunately, I was too busy until I forgot to take photos for the event. Worse was I even forgot to snap some photos of Fion. Never mind, I will take it today as it's her official one month old today.

There were quite a number of people attended the party. It's wasn't a big crowd as my hubby expected but I was satisfied as some close friends came over for the event. I even baked brownies, made jelly (agar-agar) and cooked Japanese curry chicken for the buffet. The buffet turned out to be a success but there were still a lot of leftover food. And I wanted to give the food away for charity to the old folks' home to celebrate Fion's full moon, but it was deffered by my mother-in-law. She said don't waste the food, and I was thinking how could you say it's wasting food when we want to do some charity to donate the good food to old folks' home. It's called charity and it's doing good bu sharing the happy event with other unfortunate people. My idea was turned down by my mother-in-law and she insisted that we all ate and finished the food for dinner time. I was so pissed off especially when my hubby just kept quiet like a church mouse and just follow instructions from his mother. I had already told my hubby to bring my parents-in-law and my brother-in law out for dinner as they traveled so far up to Penang and he should be responsible to bring them eat some Penang local good food. And I became invinsible to him when his parents came and forgot all the suggestions I gave him.

Angrily and quietly, I went into the room with my both kids. I have no eyes to see anymore, and my ears were too hot to listen to my mother-in-law words. My mother has told me that it's a custom for our family to bring the full moon baby and mother out for a stroll just like during my Eric's full moon celebration. My parents-in-law were very stubborn and very traditional "kampong" style people and worse was my hubby who was the father of the baby just kept in silence. I was so frustrated with him. He always made me angry when his parents were around. I became invinsible to him and my words were not heed by him. Sometimes I think the Tee family has communication problem. The son doesn't know how to communicate with his parents. And when I approach him to ask him speak to his parents on the suggestion or idea, he just kept quiet and did not respond to me.

So the day which started with happiness was followed by frustration again after the buffet ended. It has spoilt my entire mood. In the end I decided only to focus taking care of my 2 kids and kept my 2 kids happy. I left all the plan and arrangement to my hubby for his family though my hubby sucks at planning.

Anyway, I was happy that my Fion is growing well and here is the latest 1 month old snapshot of her.

3rd Week of Confinement

It's going to be the end of my 3rd week of confinement. Feeling happy as soon in a week plus time I will be free like a bird again....no need to be quarantine in the house. Nevertheless, I have started planning all the things that I need to do and want to do after my confinement. There is a list of things that I need to work on....

But above all that, I am now busy planning and arranging for my baby girl, Fion's full moon party. Fion is going to be a month old soon in a week time, and this time my hubby wanted to throw a lunch party to celebrate her full moon. In Chinese tradition, a month old is considered a full moon and it is an auspicious celebration for the baby. In Chinese custom, red-coloured eggs and "angku kuih" are a-must things to be prepared, and the baby will then need to dress in red clothings, and bath with gold jewellery.

For the lunch party, we have decided to celebrate it on 25th July 2007 (2 days earlier that the exact date) because Saturday would be the most convenient day to everyone. We are having buffet lunch party by hiring catering service at home. Invitations have been sent out and I hope the party will be a success.

And the proudest part for me is....I designed the invitation card myself...and I simply like the design...bravo to Mummy Irene here!!! Here is the invitation card:

2nd year Wedding Anniversary

It was my 2nd year wedding anniversary yesterday (07-07-09). How time flies and it's already 2 years of marriage for me. And this year I gave birth to my 2nd child. A gift for my hubby as the wedding anniversary celebration...ahahaha...

There wasn't any special celebration this year as I am currently in confinement. It was just an ordinary day with me being busy with my both kids with the help of my mum, and my hubby at work. But luckily this year my hubby has not forgotten about our wedding anniversary as he did so in our 1st anniversary....and I was so furious with him last year. If a man forgets the first year anniversary, then there is no hope for the consecutive years of marriage. This year he gave me cash to buy new clothings after my pregnancy. I have not been buying any new clothes for almost a year and I really wanted to change my wardrobe after my post-pregnancy once I get back my figure. So it is a good gift for me as I can purchase new clothes for myself...yipee!!!

Happy 2nd year wedding anniversary to me!!!

Meet my daughter, Fion Tee Jia Yi

Today finally my hubby and I went to the Chinese "sifu" to confirm the name of our princess, Fion Tee. And my hubby's choice of name for her can be used...therefore, it's decided our daughter's name is Fion Tee Jia Yi. So meet my little sweet princess, Fion Tee Jia Yi.

Baby Fion admitted to hospital

Since Thursday night, my baby kept on passing motion...and the color is yellowish, and I thought was normal. She seemed very tried and sleepy.

Until the next morning (Friday), I was still sleeping when the nurse from the Government clinic came to check on my baby. She was shocked to see my baby very yellow and warned me to bring her to the doctor immediately to check on her jaundice level. I was just awakened and after hearing that, I immediately cleaned up and brought my daugther to the hospital for jaundice checkup. The confinement lady even told me nothing is wrong with my daugther and Fion looked normal to her. My hubby and I just ignored her and brought Fion to her doctor at Adventist.

When the report came out, her jaundice level was 283!! It was above the threshold level of 250 and it's critical. Doctor confirmed that she needed to be admitted for photo-therapy to bring down the jaundice. And when doctor checked her stool, he told me her stool was abnormal for breastfeeding baby. Her stool was yellowish and has spots of grey stool. Fion should not have grey stool as a breastfed baby. I panic and asked doctor what might cause the abnormal stool. The doctor told me it might be caused from lackage of water from mother (dehydrated baby) and the dietary problem. For the jaundice to shoot so high, it is caused by the mother's dietary of too much ginger, yellow ginger and Chinese herbs.

I wasn't aware the red dates juice which the confinement lady boiled for me everyday actually contained some Chinese herbs until my hubby checked on the leftover herbs in the pot of the red dates juice on that day after he came back from the hospital. Immediately, I stopped drinking the red dates juice.

Then I discussed with my hubby and we finally decided to ask the auntie to go home as her service was no longer needed. So my hubby bought bus ticket for her and paid her the pro-rated amount of money from total RM2800 for 5 days service, and then send her to the bus station on Saturday.

Confinement Days: Day 2 - Day 5

The consecutive days of my confinement were full of unhappiness and stories... I started to see the true colors of the confinement lady and here are my observations:

1. Behaviour & Attitude

• Very stubborn auntie - when you confront her on something or you don't agree she nagged and show "the face" to us, then continue with the behaviour which we don't like.
• Complain queen - She complained this and that, and everything that we have, we do and compare with her ex-confinement houses she went. She complain my house's environment very dusty, and ask my hubby to buy ionizer. I asked my hubby to ignore her...and she everyday repeated the same request/complain. So annoying lady! And then she complained our fridge not good la...too cold till the vegetables frozen and dead. It's her who didn't know how to use the fridge. Our fridge is the modern style whereby the freezer is at the bottom and the veggie compartment is on top. My hubby already tell me so many times..and she always put those green vegetables in the freezer...of cos the vegetables frozen to dead. And she complained our fridge too small...whereby she did not need to use all the space as she only cooked for me and my hubby.
• Like to waste people money - This auntie always keep asking my hubby to buy this and that...a bunch of things which do not need. I always remind my hubby not to listen to her as I alone can't finish so much food and he didn't need to buy a lot vegetable and meat to store in the fridge. There are so many vegetables in the fridge and she still asked my hubby to buy some more. In just 5 days we have spent RM500. He also asked my hubby to buy other household items which are not necessities.
• Very rough lady - She is not gentle at all in handling baby and even do housework. She made a lot of loud noise in the early morning at 6am mopping the floor and washing clothes. It's so noisy that she can wake the baby, my hubby and me...(the whole household). The way she carry and handle my baby is not gentle and with care also...so unhappy yet can't do anything.

2. Housekeeping

• Not clean and hygiene - Even though she swept and cleaned the house everyday, the house was still full of dust and plenty of oil stains. And the oil stains in the house were caused by her cooking. When she cooked, she turn the fire to the max, and created a bunch of smoke and oil spills around the house (wall, ceiling and floor). I sure need to get some cleaning maids to help me clean the whole house spick and span. And when she cooked, she messed up and drity the whole kitchen. All my plates, utensils and kitchen top were so oily and uncleaned.

3. Baby Care

• Inexperience with baby - She did not know how to handle baby. When baby cries, she let the baby cries and scold the baby for crying and making noise. And the worst part was she bathe the baby immediately when the baby woke up. Of course the baby would cry as the room temperature is different from the body temperature right after awake. My baby ended up always crying loudly during bath time because of the ignorance of the lady. I so pity my baby girl. And she did not properly clean her, and she only bathed her once a day. I complaint and asked her to bath her twice a day for proper cleaniness but she ignore my words and only bathed her once.
• Lazy auntie - At night she did not really care about my baby. When my baby cried for hunger, she just popped the pacifier into her mouth to suck and she went back to bed. This happened on the first night. I heard my baby crying then suddenly stopped, so I went over to the room to spot check and found my baby sucking profusely on the pacifier and the lady is soundly asleep. Immediately, I kidnapped her back to my room and she slept with me at night since then. How ignorant can someone be to treat a hunger baby.
• Don't encourage breastfeeding - The lady did not understand about breastfeeding at all. And she always complaint that my milk was not enough and should top up with formula but I ignored her. She should respect my choice and I told her my milk was enough for my daughther. Once the baby was full, she would fall asleep, and that's what my baby did, and she somehow doubtful still. Thank God I did not store any formula milk in the house.

4. Cooking

• Cooking not good - The auntie cooking style and taste were horrible especially in boiling soup. Bland and not good at all. I still think my mum's soup is the best of all. And her cooking style was full of spices, ginger and chinese alcohol which I did not like too.
• Cook too much - She cooked a lot everyday even for lunch which was only for me. And she always served me a big mountain of rice which seemed like feeding a pig. She always cooked too much until waste of food. She also waste the veggie which we bought by using them all up at once in her cooking. Very bad chef in arrangement of food menu.

Looking into these observations, my hubby was also unhappy about the lady. We had intention to fire her but we thought of giving her a week more to monitor her progress....until something happened... To find out stay tune for the next story....

Confinement Days - Day 1

For my 2nd child birth, I had hired a confinement lady to take care of me and my baby girl. It's my first time having a stranger to stay with me and take care of us both. Frankly speaking, I was doubtful and nervous on how things will work out at first. The people I know would know that I am not those typical traditional Chinese who follows the old customs and I am really afraid of all those typical Chinese auntie who will tell me this cannot and that must do...bla bla bla...

So on Monday afternoon, once I reached home, the auntie from Ipoh came to my house. She is about 50++ of age and she is a bit traditional type of auntie...I think it's difficult and rare to get a modern and more "open-minded" auntie to do confinement. Oh well, the first thing she blurted out to me was "You cannot drink water at all...It's a NO NO NO thing". And I was astonished as what kind of people will survive without drinking water...even warm water is not allowed. She claimed that drinking water will cause me to have swollen legs and water retention in my body. What absurd is that...So, i just kept quiet and sneakily fill up my drinking bottle with warm water everyday and keep it in my room. I can't not drink water at all as I am breastfeeding and the auntie cooks all the heaty food for me...I'm afraid later my baby cannot past motion and my body will be too heaty. The auntie only allows me to drink red dates water and hot milo...pity me...

The other thing is that I can't touch tap water at all...She told me that I cannot touch water as later when I'm old, my hands will be shaky due to "wind". So, if I need to wash hand or clean myself, I can only use boiled water with warm temperature. Even water heater water is also banned as it's related to unboiled water. Phew...so many "pantang".

So first day, not much of talking between her and me...I was not used to her and her style. I kept quiet and observe her treating my baby. And i found that she is not a very patient lady with baby. Not much caring and understanding the baby. The worse is that she did not really understand about breastfeeding and when my baby starts sucking, she will imply that my baby wants pacifier. I was like "No way, i do not want my baby to suck pacifier...she is breastfeeding so when there is sign of her sucking, meaning she wants milk from the mummy, not pacifier."

And at first she supposed to sleep with my baby and carry her to me whenever she needs milk. But when I heard my baby crying in the next room, she did not bring her in. She just gave her pacifier and let her suck, and she went back to sleep....Luckily I went over to the room to spot check (I couldn't sleep the first night as I worried about my baby). As soon as I saw my baby left sucking the pacifier while semi-sleeping, I kidnapped her back to my room and let her sleep with me. After I breastfed her, she was soundly asleep and there is no need of pacifier at all... So from that night onwards, I told my confinement lady that my baby will sleep with me at night and I will take care of her on my own. This way I can make sure my baby gets enough milk and able to sleep soundly...and not getting her in hunger with just sucking pacifier...

Gifts for my newborn baby girl

Today when my hubby reached home after work, he brought back a bouquet of fresh potted flowers along with a soft toy and a present. I was surprised as these gifts are given by his department for his newborn baby girl. Thank you for the beautiful gifts and the lovely well wishes...

Birth of my little princess...

Mark the day of the arrival of my little princess to my family! She is delivered 9 days earlier before her due date. She weighed 3.46kg at birth with 52cm in height. All the pain gone through is worth while after seeing and holding her warmly in my arms. I had a very painful yet unforgettable labour experience for this 2nd child birth. And the gynea was not as gentle and careful as my previous gynea. The gynea somehow hurt my baby's left top eye which left reddish mark on her left eye now...I am really worried and praying hard day by day that the mark will disappear soon...

Here's a snapshot of my newborn baby girl and her name is Fion Tee.