HFMD ....

HFMD is so called a "must" for Singaporean kids hahha.. finally Richie's infected with HFMD eventhough not sure where he got it from.
It started last Friday morning, suddenly he got high fever and the temperature shoot up to 40 deg on midday.
We brought him to PD and she said it's just viral infection cos it's first day so not much development.
After we came back from PD, he started to complain of headache and sorethroat. I thought he just played a prank 'cos the PD said everything was okay

The next day, he still complaining sore throat therefore we brought him to GP downstairs and his throat was really reddish and there's one small ulcer in his front tongue.
We asked the GP whether it's HFMD, he said it's too early to confirm and it might be early sign of HFMD, we were asked to monitor and observe if there's rashes coming out.

Once we went back home around 11.30pm plus, the rashes started coming out from his palm and leg.
Mommy was very sure it's HFMD so to confirm, we came back again to GP the next day.
And it was confirmed HFMD and Richie needed to be separated with his lil brother to avoid the spread.

So Richie was moved temporarily to Oma's house and in the meantime, mommy and daddy disinfect his room and toys.
Luckily daddy was off yesterday.

Get well soon Richie !

Back to Singapore

After we went back to Singapore on friday night, we saw PD the next day.
This PD was a new PD 'cos the former PD who handled Richie when he was born resigned from SBCC.
And this PD turned out to be an Indonesian Chinese young lady so it made us comfortable to talk in bahasa Indonesia.

She said that a lot of phlegm and wheezing in Richie's airway, she then asked mommy to use nebulizer and we could borrow to use it at home. It's more hygienic and not time consuming compare with what we had in Jakarta.

The good news is Richie was so full of energy, he's much more cheerful here than in Jakarta even though he's a bit cranky.
The diarrhea has stopped on Monday and left with coughing only.
On Wednesday, we were back to see PD again and she said that no more wheezing only a bit of phlegm while he's coughing, she asked to continue with the cough medicine prescribed.

Thanks God, the nightmare was over...we really thank God for this painful experience and His guidance throughout this journey.

From fun to nightmare

After 3 days staying in Jakarta, the fun holiday turned out to be a nightmare.

Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Late morning after having fruit juice, Richie threw up the juices while taking morning nap. Mommy thought he's full of the juice. Then in the afternoon, when we went to buy some fruits in the supermart, he threw up again after eating mantou and a slice of cheese. Mommy started wondering if there's something wrong.
In the evening, Richie had loose stools, it's not watery yet.
Mommy decided to bring Richie to the PD 1 whom he saw last time. The PD 1 gave him mixture of cough medicine and orange Zinc for diarrhea.

At night around 9 pm, suddenly Richie developed high fever about 40 deg, mommy started to worry, luckily mommy brought panadol and brufen from Singapore. But after 1 hour, the fever didn't subside, it's around 38.5 - 39 deg until the next morning.


Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Mommy started panicking 'cos the panadol and brufen didn't really bring the fever down and wanted to see the PD 1 again in the morning. Unfortunately, the PD 1 was available in the hospital that's far away from oma's house therefore we decided to go to nearby hospital where there's a PD 2
What mommy expected was the PD gave mommy assurance that it's normal for fever to be up and down and gave some advises how to encourage Richie drank medicine and water. Richie didn't want to drink or eat, that's made a headache.

But turns out that the PD 2 just gave new medicine again with some antibiotics without checking further with mommy whether he has been in antibiotic before etc. When mommy asked the PD 2 further whether it's necessary to give antibiotics directly or waiting for few days to see the reactions of previous medicine. The PD 2 challenged mommy, by saying " Why are you so afraid with antibiotics? ". " I have studied overseas before too "," If you don't want the antibiotics, it's fine but there's a risk your baby will have seizure if the fever couldn't come down" ...OMG mommy didn't like him at that point of time.

At first, Mommy didn't want to buy the medicine prescribed by him, and prefer waiting for the PD 1 available in the evening. But mommy had no choice when people surrounding  persuaded to give the prescribed medicine. In the afternoon, mommy gave first dose of antibiotic, the fever still didn't come down and became diarrhea. The diarrhea was very bad until in the evening. Richie didn't want to drink and eat and he's very very weak, motionless I would say.
Mommy's heart broken into pieces looking at him.

Then, Oma Tine suggested to give him Holy water from Lourdes. Mommy remembered clearly. at 630pm, he had very bad diarrhea and high fever, then mommy gave him brufen to bring the fever down while oma tine gave him holy water
And we decided to go to emergency room in the hospital since Richie was motionless. Just before we went to hospital, Richie suddenly had energy, his fever was down. He felt very hungry and ate a lot.
It's the first miracle mommy experienced.

We still went to hospital to make sure everything alright. The doctor in hospital told mommy to stop the antibiotics and gave medicine for diarrhea instead including new antibiotics for the diarrhea.
After we went back home, mommy gave him antibiotics and medicine for diarrhea, and the fever subsided around 37.5.
At night, mommy was very tired 'cos lack of sleeping and rest, mommy prayed to Mother Mary to keep an eye on Richie and asked the fever either stabil or come down 'cos mommy was too tired to monitor the fever every hour while gave him holy water.

Around midnight, the fever started climbing up again slowly, mommy wanted to give him the paracetamol but Richie kept rejecting until around 1.30am, he finally took the medicine and the fever subsided until  now.
It's second miracle.

Thursday, 3 March 2011

Richie was very cheerful, he woke up with some energy, even though he's still having diarrhea, but no fever and he wanted to eat and drink except milk.
He's full of energy, that's why mommy decided to go back to Singapore as soon as possible
Oma and Opa helped mommy to book the flight the next day.

At dawn, Richie suddenly woke up crying for 1 hour, we confused what's wrong with him. We suspected that he had tummyache.

Friday, 4 March 2011

Richie's still having diarrhea but no fever, we packed up and flight back to Singapore with oma

Coughing coughing

After one month survived from cold virus, mommy's and richie's immunities gave up haha...
finally we catched the cough bug from daddy. It has been 2 weeks and we haven't recovered yet...
still coughing and coughing with phlegm.

Both of us usually cough badly early morning after wake up perhaps the throat is so dry...

Hopefully we recovered soon so we can enjoy holiday

Thanks God it's retractile

Following my previous entry about undecensed testicles, we brought him to do check up yesterday at GP as was told. During the check up, the GP didn't find the testicles yet therefore he referred to PD for another advises.
And we went to new PD this morning at TMC since his baby's PD has resigned from TMC.
New PD was a lady and very nice and not so crowded like his baby's PD and she mentioned that it's probably retractile testicles and to make sure her diagnosis was right, she referred to PD surgeon at Gleanegles.

After that, we went straight to Gleanegles hospital and met the doc for 5 mins. He checked Richie up and confirmed that it was retractile testicles and all were normal. His scrotum muscles were very active therefore they didn't hold tight the testicles. Therefore, when the weather was cold, the testicles were went up and sometimes will be back to its position again.

We were relieved to hear that, meaning that no operation for Richie and we just need to observe and do regular check up in one year time.
Thanks God

15 months old development assessment

We went to our family doc today for development assessment and injections.
Richie had MMR + Chicken pox injections. He's so calm and just cried a while when mommy hold his leg tightly.
It's not because of injection, well done boy !

The weight is 10kg, the height is 76.5cm, and head circumference is 46cm
All of them fall into 25 - 50% percentile meaning it's average

The rest is normal except the testicles.
His testicles slide back up again, not in the scrotum and the doc said we must go back one month later for checking up again. Hopefully, it's going down to the scrotum by itself. Otherwise, Richie must go surgery to bring it down.

First, mommy's not so worry but after reading some information in the internet the impact of undescended testis, mommy's getting worry. Hopefully, it's going down naturally without surgery help.

Fall a sick on christmas eve

Christmas this year was very meaningful but not in good way.
Richie was sick on christmas eve, he had fever about 37.8 deg C then mommy brought him to see the GP.
First, the GP suspected that he's teething. 'Cos his gum had white thingy and the stool was loose and mild coughing.
He just gave leftose and brufen to reduce the gum swelling and told mommy that the fever will go away tomorrow.

But, it didn't seem to be the way we expected.
His fever was up and down, ranging from 38.1 to 37.6 and it happened almost every 3 hour.
Mommy suspected it couldn't be teething alone, cos mommy browsed some info in the internet.
Teething fever was last for 1 night only and it's mild fever.

Since, Christmas day was fall on Saturday, and the GP 's closed on Public Holiday and Sunday, mommy had no choice except monitored the fever.
Fortunately, the fever was gone on 26th December which is on Sunday.
But still, he didn't have much appetite either meals or milk and he's so cranky on the day and night.

Today, mommy brought him again to GP, and the GP said, it could be viral infection not only teething.
And he gave antihistamine medicine to reduce the cough and clear the airway in the nose.
The medicine has slight codein which made him sleepy. But it's good, at least he could sleep well undisturbed by his coughing.

Get well soon boy ! so mommy can look forward for New Year with joy and peace of mind

Mommy's sick, Daddy took over

After Richie recovered from fever, few days later, on Friday to be exact, mommy's down with cold.
No fever, only runny and blocked nose. But it's pretty severe 'cos mommy can't smell or taste any food.
That's why during the weekend, Friday and Saturday night, Richie slept with daddy and also played with daddy.
At least mommy had 2 good nights sleep and had enough rest beside taking medicine.

On Sunday afternoon, mommy felt better and did some housework, and also Sunday night mommy slept with Richie 'cos daddy needed to go to work the next morning.

Now, mommy was feeling better even though some times there's a little bit runny and blocked nose.
Richie was a good boy, during 2 nights, he almost never woke up at night and looking for mommy frequently.
Only once around 1am and another day was around 5am.
Then on Sunday, Richie only woke up around 6.30am and he slept through the night...

Very well done boy!
and another complement for daddy, who's been almost full time daddy taking over mommy's duty except feeding and bathing Richie...
Thank you daddy muach muach....

Recover yeay...

Yeay...Richie has recovered from fever...only 2 days and he's as active as before and the fever also came down...
Thanks God
Here some videos while he's sick, he's still cheerful and curious

Falling Sick

Yesterday at 2 pm, Richie suddenly had a fever, when mommy measure the temperature it was 38.8 deg C
Immediately, mommy gave him panadol at 2.15pm and followed with pear juice. He finished 3/4 pear juice
Then he played as usual....
At 3.30 - 5.pm, he had afternoon nap since his morning nap was very short.
After he woke up, mommy measure the temperature again, and it was 37.8 deg C. So mommy gave another panadol at 6.15.

In the evening we went to see doctor, surprisingly it was many people even though the clinic was small
So while waiting for the queue, Richie was playing the kiddy machine ride.
When the doctor checked him up, everything was good except there's minor inflamation on his throat but it's very minor, only slightly red

The doctor then gave him 2 types of panadol, one was normal paracetamol another one was bufen for very high fever above 38.5 deg C and also syrup to reduce inflamation.
After we went back home, mommy straight away gave him the syrup to reduce inflammation before having his dinner just in case he wanted to throw up.
Fortunately, he didn't and he ate much as usual.

Around 9.30pm, mommy measured the temperature again and it was 37.8 deg C so mommy gave him another shot of bufen to keep the fever down through the night.
He slept through from 10.30pm till morning..
At 6 am, mommy measured again and it was 37.6 deg C so mommy gave him another shot of panadol

He could drink milk or eat as normal and as active as when he's healthy. The difference was sometimes he's a bit cranky and clinged to mommy often.
Hopefully the fever never come back and he can play and cheerful as usual
Get well soon my son !

Falling down

Since Richie has been very active especially crawling expert. He has fallen down or "kiss" the floor few times.
The first time he was bleeding was when he crawled and "kissed " the floor. His inside upper lip hit the floor and bleeding. That's also the first time daddy was very panic hehe...mommy knew that it's just minor incident so mommy just put an ice cube inside richie's mouth and the bleeding stopped.

But daddy insisted to see the doctor to make sure everything is alright. Luckily the doctor was a stone way, just below our house. And when the doctor checked him up, he said that everything was fine...next time don't be panic if it happens again because it's quite normal and just put some ice to stop the bleeding...

Then the next day, Richie fell down from mommy's bed hehe...he crawled very fast and mommy couldn't catch his leg in time so bump he "kissed" the floor again.
Luckily, the impact was not so major. He's quite slow down when reached the edge and his forehead touched the floor first so there's a little bit bump but he's alright.
He just cried for a while and when mommy brought him to the playground, he smiled again hehe...

Mommy teaches him how to go down from the bed, but because mommy's bed quite high from the floor about 50cm, his leg can't reach the floor when he slides to go down....

Mommy's sick and Richie's running nose

This was the longest flu that mommy had...
Mommy had flu for 3 weeks, since early june until now
Firstly, mommy had plan to go for flu jab end of may/early june before went back to Indo but the flu came first and attacked mommy.
Luckily, mommy asked daddy to go for flu jab first before went back to Indo otherwise mommy will need to take care both of us.

The first symptomp was sore throat then running nose and finally coughing...the longest one was coughing and it's really uncomfortable.
Mommy has taken the mild medicine but it seemed never work, then the doctor gave mommy stronger medicine and antibiotics. Until all the medicine finished, mommy's coughing never stopped and became worst while we were in Jakarta.
Then mommy took actified and herbal cold and now mommy's feeling better and recovering soon.

While mommy was having flu in Singapore, Richie was lucky that he never had any symptomps.
But when we went back to Jakarta, within 2 days Richie started to have runny nose...phew...
Luckily it's just runny nose not fever or other symptomps. Perharps it's also contributed by the weather and heavy pollution.
Richie's nose still couldn't take the bad pollution in Jakarta. Fortunately, we only stayed for 5 days in Jakarta otherwise the matter would be worse.

Now, mommy's feeling better and recovering as well as Richie eventhough sometimes he's still having running nose.

One Week of Nightmare - Family Sick

After we arrived to Singapore, the following night daddy was sick, he thrown up everything
and the next day Richie had fever while mommy was still not recovering yet from Flu.
Mommy was very tired and stressful. We went to see the paediatrician and he gave panadol suspension and other medicines for coughing and phlegm.

Richie's body temperature was up and down in the range between 37.5 to 39 degree in the first day. Mommy and daddy were very worried because we didn't know what to do and almost decided to go to hospital since nobody can take care us.

Then daddy initiated to give Richie Lourdes' water and pray together as a family.
This is what I call There's a miracle in prayer...
After we finished praying, mommy was a little bit calm down and went to see the doctor to get some medicines for mommy and consulted with the doctor as well about going to hospital.

This what I called the instant answer from God, the family doctor was very kind, he explained everything that it's unnecessary to go to hospital and agreed to give overall examination to Richie again. After that, he said that Richie was okay, the fever would be up and down but will be decreasing. Mommy was relieved....

The next day, the fever was came down....after that still left with coughing for few days.
Richie couldn't sleep well during night time.
Oh ya Richie was so smart, he refused to take medicine. He will closed his mouth before the medicine came in...Hope this is the last time you ate medicine Richie, mommy also doesn't want you to fall a sick again...

Besides, Daddy is also now having Flu...
Eventhough now mommy and Richie are getting better, Daddy is still in the recovery process...

Lesson learnt : we will get Flu injection before leaving Singapore next time !

4 months old milestones

Richie is now 4 months old and today we have regular check up and 5 in 1 vaccination
He is now no longer little baby, but big fat baby hehe
His weight : 8 kg
His length : 63 cm
His head circumference : 41.5 cm

During the injection, he's not crying and smile after that...
For rolling over, it' s still in progress. But mommy has faith that Richie will be able to do it before 5 months
The other development is he recognizes his finger and hand and can grasp the rattle with both hands

Mommy and daddy loves you Rich !

3 months milestone - where the fun starts

Richie is turning 3 months old and he's been progressing very well.
Now he is easily smiling and laughing when teased and like to observe something for sometime
The other progress is he enjoys being put in the stroller when we are going to mall or church or park. This is really good news for mommy and daddy so mommy and daddy don't need to carry richie all day

When we went to see doctor for regular development assessment and vaccination, richie has 6th senses and feels uneasy..
His weight has almost triple his birth weight..Good job Rich !
Other development is he now starts to turning by lifting up his leg high when he's put in the back position and lifting up his arm when he's put in the stomach position

Another good news is he now sleeps tightly at night and wake up around 4 hours each for breastfeeding so mommy has more sleep at night and more energy in the morning

40 Days

Today, Richie is 40 days old and mom, daddy brings Richie to the doctor for regular check up and vaccination

Physical Development :

Weight : 4.8 kg
Length : 53.5 cm
Head circumstances : 36.8 cm
Hearing test for the right ear : pass

Mom and Daddy are really happy and relieved that today's check up result is satisfying.

Oh ya, one more exciting good news, Richie is now able to recognize the face and his eyes are following the objects

Well done my dear son, Keep the good job !

Second Visit to Paeditrician

On Tuesday, 29 September 2009 Mommy, Daddy and Oma brought Richie to see Dr Ong again.
Because he wanted to check the billirubin level and physical development.
The weight increased to 2.63 kg
and we did blood test for jaundice and IEM
The billirubin level was 13.8 which was below 15 so it was okay.
The IEM result would be out 2 weeks later and they will mail it to us.

So far everything is so good and Richie passes motion more than passes urine but the doctor said it's normal.
And the doctor also checked the umbilical cord that left dangling in Richie's tummy. He said that just couple days, it will drop off by itself.