...is the cause of Jethro's prolonged and chesty cough, his rapid breathing, his reduction in milk intake, his temperature, his vomiting, and even his diarrhoea. Yes, THE answer to everything. For older children, the errant virus would manifest as a cold, but for children younger than 24 months, it affects the air passages in the lungs, causing the above.
I took Jethro to the A&E of the Sick Children's Hospital (where Ethan went before for his cut) and the paediatrician explained things rather clearly to me. She said nothing need to be done for Jethro - breathing's not too bad, oxygen level is good, reduction in milk intake not too severe, looks alert - and I just have to ensure he takes his milk, the lower amount is okay for a few days. The doctor explained that the diarrhoea could be caused by the anitbiotics he took earlier on, and also the accumulation of mucus in his stomach which is then passed out as stools. She then told me signs to look out for in his breathing to warrant admission to the hospital and left me with the assurance that he should be alright.
We also found out what the two red patches on his face are - fungal infection. The GP (I went to the GP first before she recommended me to the hospital where they could check his oxygen level) asked me if the red rings were growing larger, and it did, though by then it has stabilised. She gave me some cream to apply for a week and I was to go back for a syrupy medicine if the cream did not clear the infection up.
On another take, Jethro is a 'gorgeous' baby. Well, he has to be considering how the midwives, the nurses in the neonatal unit, the paediatricians and nurses in the sick children's hospital tended to call him that - from birth, to admission to the neonatal unit for his weight loss, to helping me with his attachment during breastfeeding, to the regular weighing at the baby clinic, to the A&E department yesterday. I suppose all babies born in Scotland are gorgeous. It is something that comes readily out of the lips of the medical professionals working with children here. And I don't know its effect on the babies, but it certainly makes one anxious mother feel more comforted ('nothing terribly wrong with your baby, don't fret, and he's 'gorgeous'', they seemed to say). And one nurse was commenting on how well Jethro sang yesterday, when he was coo-ing away while she took his temperature etc. How wonderful it feels to have a baby here.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Sunday, 4 January 2009
4 months on and what have been happening
Before Jethro was born, I was always a little proud when I had to say that this was my second pregnancy, especially to those first-time mothers-to-be. Yes, I already have a child and been through all that. This is just a repeat of first performance. I could be prepared for what would lie ahead as no first-time mothers could.
How wrong.
The experience with Jethro was nothing like I had with Ethan. Well, almost.
Of course there was the usual short sleep hours, but in fact, that was what I found most difficult to adjust to. It doesn't help to have a very wakeful three-year old around either.
The crying and the cuddling, yes, the usual.
But Jethro was a sleepy baby for quite some time, unlike Ethan who never seemed to have that sleepy phase at all. He also tended to suck weakly at breasts, and so all those problems with breastfeeding that I had with Ethan, that I told myself I was going to avoid this time round with Jethro, did not prepare me for what would happen the second time. I had to deal with new problems with breastfeeding and the realisation of truth about my milk supply. Anyway, all these were too much to talk about.
Then, Jethro had bleeding at his navel - whatever was that! We surfed the internet and decided that it was probably something not serious and indeed, after a few days of worrying bleeding, it stopped.
Of course, there were the weight loss and dehydration at the early weeks. After that, although he started to gain weight again, I had to accept that he is not to reach the percentile his birth weight promised.
Then there was the spewing out of milk - Ethan never had such problem with swallowing milk.
Then Jethro had his flu and fever and diarrhoea all in the fourth month and had little appetite for milk for some days. Exasperating to say the least, when all he could drink was milk and he refused it. So all we could do was to wait out the worst.
Is it because we are alone here in UK that every single problem seems amplified and harder to deal with? Everything calls for patience and flexibility in managing the situations and I just can't help but break down at times: when full breastfeeding was declared a lost battle; when he had to have his tiny hands pierced to draw blood to check for dehydration and other infections; when he wouldn't even finish 60ml of milk, when all he would do was make short cries like he was in a great deal of discomfort (and I didn't know how to make him feel better); when he vomited out all the milk that I syringe-fed him with; when Ethan, for the umpteenth times, ignored my telling him to stop doing this or that, and I had to scold him, bear him down, be a tyrant over him.
No, never kid yourself that although babies are unique, you can afford to take things easier for the second baby onwards. No, it is just not so.
How wrong.
The experience with Jethro was nothing like I had with Ethan. Well, almost.
Of course there was the usual short sleep hours, but in fact, that was what I found most difficult to adjust to. It doesn't help to have a very wakeful three-year old around either.
The crying and the cuddling, yes, the usual.
But Jethro was a sleepy baby for quite some time, unlike Ethan who never seemed to have that sleepy phase at all. He also tended to suck weakly at breasts, and so all those problems with breastfeeding that I had with Ethan, that I told myself I was going to avoid this time round with Jethro, did not prepare me for what would happen the second time. I had to deal with new problems with breastfeeding and the realisation of truth about my milk supply. Anyway, all these were too much to talk about.
Then, Jethro had bleeding at his navel - whatever was that! We surfed the internet and decided that it was probably something not serious and indeed, after a few days of worrying bleeding, it stopped.
Of course, there were the weight loss and dehydration at the early weeks. After that, although he started to gain weight again, I had to accept that he is not to reach the percentile his birth weight promised.
Then there was the spewing out of milk - Ethan never had such problem with swallowing milk.
Then Jethro had his flu and fever and diarrhoea all in the fourth month and had little appetite for milk for some days. Exasperating to say the least, when all he could drink was milk and he refused it. So all we could do was to wait out the worst.
Is it because we are alone here in UK that every single problem seems amplified and harder to deal with? Everything calls for patience and flexibility in managing the situations and I just can't help but break down at times: when full breastfeeding was declared a lost battle; when he had to have his tiny hands pierced to draw blood to check for dehydration and other infections; when he wouldn't even finish 60ml of milk, when all he would do was make short cries like he was in a great deal of discomfort (and I didn't know how to make him feel better); when he vomited out all the milk that I syringe-fed him with; when Ethan, for the umpteenth times, ignored my telling him to stop doing this or that, and I had to scold him, bear him down, be a tyrant over him.
No, never kid yourself that although babies are unique, you can afford to take things easier for the second baby onwards. No, it is just not so.
Thursday, 1 January 2009
A Bug Flu of Christmas
Caught the flu bug in early December and towards the end, we are still battling it out as a family. Ethan was much better and then had a new bout, Jianming and I are recovering, and Jethro - seems like we have just about seen the worst of it.
The first among us to catch it I shall not say, and anyway, it wasn't obvious. But Ethan got the fever first. 2 to 3 days of highs and lows, and he still went out in the middle of it - Jianming took him to listen to Christmas Carols on 14 Dec and he came back with another bout of fever.
Then I think I had the fever, a much milder one but I was feeling devastated - Jethro had been given to sleeping almost throughout the day and being wakeful at night. I am not one who can get used to such overturn of hours and I worried over how I was going to cope with a fever. Luckily the fever subsided soon enough. Jianming probably had one too, but it was mild as well.
Next came Jethro's turn to have the high fever. He had continuous fever for at least 3 days. On Sunday morning, it went up to 39.4 deg C. Jianming called up the National Health Service and they arranged an appointment for Jethro at the outpatient clinic in the Royal Infirmary. So, off we went to the hospital again. The doctor was not too concerned about the fever. He's more worried about chest infection and the difficulty of breathing for babies with chest infection. He said Jethro seemed alright, sleeping peacefully (after a taxi ride, no doubt). He examined his chest, his toes, his fingers, and his ears. He said Jethro had a mild chest infection, and in case there was bacterial infection, he prescribed antibiotics for him. It was to take another 2 days or so for Jethro's fever to subside. Meanwhile, he started to have very frequent bowel movements. And we suspected stomach flu this time. Oh sigh sigh sigh.
Early part of December, Jethro had his 5-in-1 DPT and Meningitis C vaccination (poor thing, and he is going to have 3 jabs next week - an additional Pneumococcal. Wonder how he would take 3 jabs! Is there really a need for so many vaccinations anyway?) and the doctor did an eye examination as well. He couldn't see the red reflection when using the ophthalmoscope so he referred Jethro to a specialist. There followed some rather anxious one week wait for the appointment at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion (fancy name, that). Well, the Eye Pavilion turned up to be a rather old building. The doctor first gave Jethro some eye drops to dilate his pupils. After about 40 minutes, he proceeded to examine his eye. However, Jethro refused to open his eyes for the critical examination. He went to get a more senior doctor, who faced the same problem. He tried to pry Jethro's eyelids open, which only elicited more resistance. He also changed the lens. In the end, he told us he did not see any problem with his eyes. I asked him twice if he did view the internal structure of the eyes, and he said yes. Well, one could only take him at his word. We left the hospital, I resolved to treat it as if the incident never happened at all. Because that's what it feels like, the whole thing, a little pointless.
Meanwhile, the two big guys went out to enjoy the Christmas cheer when weather and health permit.
There was a bell-ringing performance followed by some traditional dances at the National Museum of Scotland. Ethan enjoyed the bell ringers. I saw the website of the bell ringers afterwards and found it a rather unique and beautiful musical performance. You can see some sample videos from this website: http://www.dunkeld-handbells.co.uk/
Then Jianming took Ethan to the St Patrick Square's Lights-up, just one street away, and had free food at the Southside Community Centre nearby. There was also a Santa Claus handling out candy bags to little children. Of course, Ethan got one and also his fill of pizzas, sandwiches and mince pies.
The activity-filled weekend of 13 and 14 Dec passed without us doing much because Ethan had his fever then. On 20 Dec, they went to the Grassmarket to look at the angels there, and then to Princes Street Gardens. There, Jianming told me Ethan enjoyed the reindeer and the story telling in a tent. But the train ride (which he did last year too) seemed too crowded for him. However, to be able to indulge in Christmas cheer at busy Princes Street was uplifting enough.
We had glutinous rice dumpling for winter solstice. Jianming mashed some boiled split mung beans for the filling. But we could not really taste the filling as it was not sweet enough. For the red colouring, Jianming had some red rice ground into powder and added them to the flour.
Oh, as for Christmas dinner, we had a simple one this year of roast duck, mashed potatoes, boiled cabbage with apples and nutmeg powder, and some left over naan bread. The duck took a long time to roast as we need to roast out the fats to get a crispy skin. It turned out okay. Most importantly, we had ready-made duck meat for the next few days.
Christmas Day's treat:
And church:
We did not go for the torchlight procession this year which was held on 29 Dec. But we took some photos of the fireworks seen from our window.
Live music at the Ceilidh dancing at the museum on New Year's eve:
Since Ethan was at the museum, a trip to the Connect gallery is quite unavoidable:
New Year's eve, Edinburgh was alive with the Hogmanay celebration. At midnight, I was up because of Jethro and so had a glimpse of the spectacular fireworks (not so spectacular from our window).
Jethro's sleeping pattern has sort of reversed a little and I am having slightly more restful nights. But I am keeping my fingers crossed, who knows when he would reverse again? And he's not sleeping throughout the night yet, so I am still grappling with the sleepy hours (for me).
He's also getting more aware of his surroundings now and as a result, cries more often - whenever he finds himself alone. He is rather interested in his elder brother's exploits around the room and follows him around - with his eyes of course. That is rather a good thing that comes out of Ethan's overly active behaviour as he can keep his baby brother entertained at times. This could be part of the reason for Jethro being more awake during the day recently.
He's also been sucking his thumb/fingers/hand more and more and I haven't the time and energy to stop him all the time. Here are some photos. What's worse is that Ethan seems to have caught the habit from him!
As for Ethan, he's into masquerading as a lamb for a few days. Here is he insisting on wearing something white:
But he prefers this outfit better (I refused to let him wear it all the time as it means more washing):
Ethan 'posing' after wearing the jumper that he had not worn for sometime:
Telling a story with the pirate figurines that Jianming bought for him after church on Sunday:
Everybody seems to be in a mood for some summing up of the year that was. However, I am still catching up on precious sleep time and don't hang around the computer much. Suffice to say that I am glad I went out when I could and made friends with some of the mothers here because I am missing that freedom sorely since the beginning of the last quarter of last year. As for the mothers, I hope to be able to 'resume' my friendships with them again sometime this year. Another thing I discovered was that everytime there were some new challenges that I felt I couldn't surmount, on looking back, I had survived and they did not seem so daunting afterall, always compared to what challenges the future would bring. So, what does this say about me? A constant worrier. I should try to take things easy.
Happy 2009 to all!
The first among us to catch it I shall not say, and anyway, it wasn't obvious. But Ethan got the fever first. 2 to 3 days of highs and lows, and he still went out in the middle of it - Jianming took him to listen to Christmas Carols on 14 Dec and he came back with another bout of fever.
Then I think I had the fever, a much milder one but I was feeling devastated - Jethro had been given to sleeping almost throughout the day and being wakeful at night. I am not one who can get used to such overturn of hours and I worried over how I was going to cope with a fever. Luckily the fever subsided soon enough. Jianming probably had one too, but it was mild as well.
Next came Jethro's turn to have the high fever. He had continuous fever for at least 3 days. On Sunday morning, it went up to 39.4 deg C. Jianming called up the National Health Service and they arranged an appointment for Jethro at the outpatient clinic in the Royal Infirmary. So, off we went to the hospital again. The doctor was not too concerned about the fever. He's more worried about chest infection and the difficulty of breathing for babies with chest infection. He said Jethro seemed alright, sleeping peacefully (after a taxi ride, no doubt). He examined his chest, his toes, his fingers, and his ears. He said Jethro had a mild chest infection, and in case there was bacterial infection, he prescribed antibiotics for him. It was to take another 2 days or so for Jethro's fever to subside. Meanwhile, he started to have very frequent bowel movements. And we suspected stomach flu this time. Oh sigh sigh sigh.
Early part of December, Jethro had his 5-in-1 DPT and Meningitis C vaccination (poor thing, and he is going to have 3 jabs next week - an additional Pneumococcal. Wonder how he would take 3 jabs! Is there really a need for so many vaccinations anyway?) and the doctor did an eye examination as well. He couldn't see the red reflection when using the ophthalmoscope so he referred Jethro to a specialist. There followed some rather anxious one week wait for the appointment at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion (fancy name, that). Well, the Eye Pavilion turned up to be a rather old building. The doctor first gave Jethro some eye drops to dilate his pupils. After about 40 minutes, he proceeded to examine his eye. However, Jethro refused to open his eyes for the critical examination. He went to get a more senior doctor, who faced the same problem. He tried to pry Jethro's eyelids open, which only elicited more resistance. He also changed the lens. In the end, he told us he did not see any problem with his eyes. I asked him twice if he did view the internal structure of the eyes, and he said yes. Well, one could only take him at his word. We left the hospital, I resolved to treat it as if the incident never happened at all. Because that's what it feels like, the whole thing, a little pointless.
Meanwhile, the two big guys went out to enjoy the Christmas cheer when weather and health permit.
There was a bell-ringing performance followed by some traditional dances at the National Museum of Scotland. Ethan enjoyed the bell ringers. I saw the website of the bell ringers afterwards and found it a rather unique and beautiful musical performance. You can see some sample videos from this website: http://www.dunkeld-handbells.co.uk/
Then Jianming took Ethan to the St Patrick Square's Lights-up, just one street away, and had free food at the Southside Community Centre nearby. There was also a Santa Claus handling out candy bags to little children. Of course, Ethan got one and also his fill of pizzas, sandwiches and mince pies.
The activity-filled weekend of 13 and 14 Dec passed without us doing much because Ethan had his fever then. On 20 Dec, they went to the Grassmarket to look at the angels there, and then to Princes Street Gardens. There, Jianming told me Ethan enjoyed the reindeer and the story telling in a tent. But the train ride (which he did last year too) seemed too crowded for him. However, to be able to indulge in Christmas cheer at busy Princes Street was uplifting enough.
We had glutinous rice dumpling for winter solstice. Jianming mashed some boiled split mung beans for the filling. But we could not really taste the filling as it was not sweet enough. For the red colouring, Jianming had some red rice ground into powder and added them to the flour.
Oh, as for Christmas dinner, we had a simple one this year of roast duck, mashed potatoes, boiled cabbage with apples and nutmeg powder, and some left over naan bread. The duck took a long time to roast as we need to roast out the fats to get a crispy skin. It turned out okay. Most importantly, we had ready-made duck meat for the next few days.
Christmas Day's treat:
And church:
We did not go for the torchlight procession this year which was held on 29 Dec. But we took some photos of the fireworks seen from our window.
Live music at the Ceilidh dancing at the museum on New Year's eve:
Since Ethan was at the museum, a trip to the Connect gallery is quite unavoidable:
New Year's eve, Edinburgh was alive with the Hogmanay celebration. At midnight, I was up because of Jethro and so had a glimpse of the spectacular fireworks (not so spectacular from our window).
Jethro's sleeping pattern has sort of reversed a little and I am having slightly more restful nights. But I am keeping my fingers crossed, who knows when he would reverse again? And he's not sleeping throughout the night yet, so I am still grappling with the sleepy hours (for me).
He's also getting more aware of his surroundings now and as a result, cries more often - whenever he finds himself alone. He is rather interested in his elder brother's exploits around the room and follows him around - with his eyes of course. That is rather a good thing that comes out of Ethan's overly active behaviour as he can keep his baby brother entertained at times. This could be part of the reason for Jethro being more awake during the day recently.
He's also been sucking his thumb/fingers/hand more and more and I haven't the time and energy to stop him all the time. Here are some photos. What's worse is that Ethan seems to have caught the habit from him!
As for Ethan, he's into masquerading as a lamb for a few days. Here is he insisting on wearing something white:
But he prefers this outfit better (I refused to let him wear it all the time as it means more washing):
Ethan 'posing' after wearing the jumper that he had not worn for sometime:
Telling a story with the pirate figurines that Jianming bought for him after church on Sunday:
Everybody seems to be in a mood for some summing up of the year that was. However, I am still catching up on precious sleep time and don't hang around the computer much. Suffice to say that I am glad I went out when I could and made friends with some of the mothers here because I am missing that freedom sorely since the beginning of the last quarter of last year. As for the mothers, I hope to be able to 'resume' my friendships with them again sometime this year. Another thing I discovered was that everytime there were some new challenges that I felt I couldn't surmount, on looking back, I had survived and they did not seem so daunting afterall, always compared to what challenges the future would bring. So, what does this say about me? A constant worrier. I should try to take things easy.
Happy 2009 to all!
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